The dreadful elementary school class speeches were always a big deal since most kids at that age had little to no idea about life in general. I wonder what it would have been like to travel back in time and watch myself talking about trivial subjects such as "my favourite animal" or "things I like to do in my spare time". How mind dulling!
Well it wasn't all that bad. I remember in grade 8 I had decided to be a little different than previous years and chose my topic to be "Monsters under my bed." The content was very simple and did not contain many sophisticated words. Looking back I guess it allowed me to communicate my speech comfortably and confidently. I remember when I mentioned that "monsters often made me wet my pants," my class laughed loudly and I remember distinctly that my teacher had actually cried shortly after. The best part is that I received an A+ for my efforts! Who would have known class speeches could be so fun! (Well it was easier to conclude that in hindsight.)
By the time University had hit. We had to do presentations in most of our Business classes. It was expected that every student wear a suit too. During that phase we were pitching new innovative products for Harry Potter fans, sharing the performance of our stock portfolios, and analyzing foreign companies. Even during that time, doing power point presentations still made me nervous.
In the last three years, it took more than a dozen meetings with CEOs and CFOs of various companies before I would overcome my discomfort public speaking. My first meeting in a corporate setting was obviously the most difficult. I remember that I would run on about so much redundant company information that I lost my train of thought. Also because I looked so young, I wondered if all those corporate decision-makers were even taking me seriously.
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Here are some ideas that might help when presenting:
- Learning to overcome your own insecurities. Because if you walk into a meeting with no confidence in yourself, it will show in your actions.
- Stick to simplicity. Let's face it, we're not all rocket scientists, so we don't have to try and sound sophisticated to get our points across.
- Most people are not there to judge you. Most of the time your audience wants to truly listen to what you have to say.
Public Speaking or Presenting is not something you can really teach people to do and like everything else it takes practice to generate a level of comfort before you feel fully confident.
Stay positive and just be yourself.
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