Tony Burns and Olivia Mitchell help their clients gain confidence and credibility when they’re presenting to a group. Tony and Olivia run a presentation training business known as Effective Speaking, based in Wellington, New Zealand. They also have a very insightful blog site Speaking About Presenting which gives people tips and new ideas on the different aspects of effective presentation and public speaking.
We had the opportunity to interview Tony and Olivia on certain topics about public speaking and they were very warm to accommodate us. Here it is:
“You have an interesting concept: “Be your own coach”. Can you elaborate on that?”
“Our “Be your own Coach” page on our website is about giving people guidance on assessing how they come across. There’s a distinction between an effective business presentation and a winning Toastmaster speech. So our guidance is not focused on body language and vocal variety - but on your credibility and the connection you’re making with the audience.”
“What are the main challenges in public speaking that the majority of your clients have in common?”
“There are two. The first is that most inexperienced people focus on their delivery of the presentation - how they’re going to come across to the audience. Some of our course participants expect our courses to be entirely about delivery. But the most important aspect of a business presentation is the content. Preparing relevant, structured content supported by engaging examples is the key to an effective presentation.
The second is dealing with nervousness. Nerves affect many people from young ones starting out on their careers to CEO’s. In dealing with nerves, I believe that we should learn from what works with extreme fears such as phobias. Cognitive behavioral therapy is now recognized as being one of the most effective treatments. For more information on this, see the articles on our website about using cognitive therapy to overcome the fear of public speaking.”
”You talk a lot about rehearsing the speech before delivering it in front of a live audience. Don’t you feel that some people rehearse so much that when they deliver they are just acting and that the communication style is not congruent with their own personality?”
“It has to be the right sort of rehearsal. I don’t believe in memorizing a speech or presentation. And I think that the practice of choreographing and rehearsing gestures is a recipe for artificiality.
“A presentation is about communicating ideas - not a specific set of words in a particular order. Here is an advice that a professional speaker once gave me regarding keeping a presentation fresh - “say it a different way every time”. And so it should be in rehearsal.
The advantage of rehearsal is that the content of your presentation becomes second nature. That means that during the presentation you’re not thinking “what’s coming next”. Instead you can focus entirely on your audience and connecting with them.”
Visit Tony and Olivia’s website, www.effectivespeaking.co.nz and their blog www.speakingaboutpresenting.com. You can contact them at info@effectivespeaking.co.nz.
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:11 am
Insightful way of seeing things. Speaking in public is such a problematic subject for most people thus any help to support people today the best way to get over their fear is certainly tremendously appreciated. Might want to use this specific post on the new public speaking web site that I am developing. Can you please let me know if this is feasible. Thank you, Jane.