Practice Public Speaking: The Cheat Code

Practice Public Speaking: The Cheat Code

For the past 5 years, I have been involved in the Toastmasters club.

If you are not aware of what Toastmasters is, let me introduce it.

Toastmaster is #1 public speaking club in the globe. There are multiple clubs all around the world that has member dedicated to helping each other develop & sharpen their public speaking, thinking on feet & evaluation skills.

 

While being involved in the club for 5+ years, I have had the privilege of mentoring new club members. This gave me an opportunity to see the pressing problems that students had in regard to public speaking.

Want to know what was the #1 issue most of them had?

It wasn’t about failing their speech.

Their #1 fear for public speaking was looking ugly in front of the audience.

The #1 fear of Public Speaking Explained

speech anxiety

Surprising, no?

Is the fear of looking ‘ugly’ that big of an issue that it cripples so many from public speaking success?

The answer is, yes.

 

If you have not been involved in public speaking, then think about your social interactions.

How often have you been talking to someone, to only be interrupted with a strong feeling of self-consciousness?

You wonder if you are looking weird while you are speaking. This thought process leads you to feel even more self-conscious, which ultimately derails your focus from the conversation.

 

Well, the same concept happens in public speaking.

The fear of looking ugly during human interactions is know as the ‘Illusion of Transparency.’

This illusion of transparency is when you believe that your internal nerves are leaking out to the external world, making you look disjointed in the process.

The best way to overcome this fear is by first acknowledging that it exists!

Now that you know that there is a psychological principle that causes you to feel this way, you are able to bring awareness to it.

 

Bringing awareness will help you resolve a great deal of the issue.

But will it eliminate the whole issue? Not quite.

 

In order to dissolve this fear, you need to perform my specialized cheat code.

 

The Cheat Code to Practice Public Speaking

 

Ready?

The cheat code to public speaking progress is to record yourself speaking.

That is how you practice public speaking.

The camera is your best friend.

‘Huh??’

Yup, the camera will allow you to further seal your awareness into your appearance.

 

Currently, you are thinking that you look ugly while speaking because you don’t know how you look while you are speaking.

Solution?

Watch yourself from a 3rd perspective!

 

Watching yourself in a 3rd perspective is huge in terms of building your confidence.

When you think you know how you look from 1st perspective, you do yourself a disservice.

Your brain naturally places more importance on the negatives due to the ‘negativity bias.’

Therefore, when you rely on your 1st perspective, you will think you are looking worse than you really are.

Seeing yourself in a 3rd perspective eliminates the guessing & allows you to see reality for what it is.

You see that you do not look half as bad as your nerves initially made you feel.

Heck, you look pretty good!

 

But this exercise is even more beneficial because now you are able to see your strengths & weaknesses from the perspective of the audience.

You are able to see what works & what doesn’t work.

 

Are there certain hand gestures that you do that come off as distracting?

Could your tonality be a little more dynamic?

How is your posture?

 

These are all questions that you can answer when you film yourself speaking.

You can analyze the film, see where to improve, recalibrate & execute.

 

When to Record Yourself Speaking

You should record yourself speaking while you are practicing for your speech & during the day of your speech.

 

When you practice public speaking, your speech will be sloppy at first.

You are going to have to iron out the kinks, edit out a lot of the crap & polish it up.

 

But as you are gathering data, you are able to acclimate your subconscious mind to feel comfortable watching you speak.

Your subconscious mind is a visual entity, therefore it is important to feed it visuals.

 

The more you get your subconscious mind to feel comfortable watching you speak, the better off you will feel in the long run.

Have at least 5 tapes of your practice speeches. Each one should be smoother & more polished than the one before.

‍‍

Next, you want to record yourself on the day of the speech.

 

You will be tempted to skip this because you are too focused on the speech, bud don’t!

With the rise of smartphones, there is no excuse not to hand your phone to someone to click record.

 

This is crucial because you will notice that you may respond a little differently with your mannerisms in front of a live audience.

Use this as an opportunity to find out any quirks, so you can reduce them in the future.

 

Also, there are many times you be extra hard on yourself after presenting in front of a live audience.

In this case, you can watch the film back & see if you really did as bad as you think you did.

We are our harshest critic at times. But remember, the tapes do not lie.

 

How to Hold Yourself Accountable

youtube channel

 

I recommend you start a YouTube channel and upload all of your speeches there.

You can make it a private or a public channel.

 

But I recommend you do this step so you can sit back & watch yourself on the television or phone screen whenever you feel like it.

This is a solid way to practice public speaking & feel more committed to the process.

 

There will be times where you feel like quitting.

But seeing that you have a YouTube channel waiting for a video will help you feel more accountable.

 

You will feel more invested in your YouTube channel as you add a portfolio of videos.

The major key if you want to stick with this grind for the long term.

Set up your account asap & begin uploading away.

 

Melt Away the Nerves for Good

Once you understand that you look fine while speaking, you will build your confidence.

You will feel more confident in social AND public speaking settings.

 

You will avoid darting your eyes, showing uncomfortable body language & softening your voice.

Rather, you will stand taller & be assured of the words that you are saying.

 

The camera is your best friend when you practice public speaking.

It is a modern-day cheat code.

Learn to leverage it asap.

 

As you build experience in developing speeches, executing them & learning what you could have done better, you’ll notice how fun public speaking was all along.

The number 1 fear in the world? That’s cute.

Speaking on stage is light when you put in the work.

 

For more practical tips into the world of public speaking, be sure to sign up for my free daily newsletter.

Till next time.

 

– ArmaniTalks 🎙️🔥

 

 

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