During my training sessions, people keep telling me they don't have any good stories to tell about themselves or their work. Honestly, I'm not surprised because nowadays storytelling has become an extra fear for public speakers. It's a must, a trick, a technical tool to attract attention. It's become a professional monster with a life of its own....
Often, I ask this question to people when they ask me to help. The answers are very varied: because it is an important event and I need to speak about our projects; because I'm an expert in the topic of that conference; because I need to present our plan for the upcoming years; because I need to justify our budget;...
A young couple is looking for shelter in an overcrowded town. The woman is pregnant and liable to give birth at any moment. All the rooms are sold out in the town; the only place available is a stable, where finally she gives birth. The couple's newborn son, delivered among domestic animals, is actually the son of God, who will...
Actually, it is natural to fear speaking in public, but we can transform this fear into excitement rather than panic.
When preparing for a public speech, one of the most important challenges is to know who will be listening to you. What is their background? What are their interests? Why are they there? And, what do they know about your topic? One of the biggest mistakes is that we presume our audience think like us and have the same experience...
Most presenters think that through logic, pure facts and detailed information they can win the audience over. They invest a lot of time and energy in their presentation, they are extremely accurate with their information, but the expected success doesn't come.
'You'll enter a room where a person is sitting on a chair. You don't know who they are and they'll speak first...' This is the beginning of a typical improvisation game where your identity depends on the first words of an unknown person. You can't prepare your text or your feelings because you're in their hands.
When you start to speak in front of an audience, your listeners will decide in a few seconds if it's worth it to listen to you or if it's better to get out their mobile phone and check their emails.
Joan of Arc broke the English Siege of Orleans in 1429? Beethoven's 'Ninth Symphony' premiered in Vienna in 1847? Or Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies in 1945? Did you know that this day in history Johannes Brahms, Rabindranath Tagore and Gary Cooper were born?