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How to speak in front of an audience

Rob

　　How to speak in front of an audience. It may be one of the most difficult things to overcome but if you follow a few simple rules, you can go from horribly terrified and terrible to good or even better. It doesn’t take much to give a decent presentation and most people employed by a company who are called upon to speak in front of a group often do a horrible job.
　　
　　Whether it is 20 or 200 people, most people stumble when it comes to speaking in front of a group. But as long as you know your subject and can talk about it, you’ll be fine. That is the first suggestion, know your subject The better you know your subject and the better you can articulate it, the better off you are. That way, you won’t get sidetracked if someone throws out a question to you. Which will help with the second suggestion.
　　
　　Have a conversation. If you know your subject well enough and can come across and discuss that subject in a conversational style, your presentation will be more relaxed and smoother. This will also put you much more at ease.
　　
　　Don’t read your presentation. Don’t use a Power Point presentation if possible but don’t ever read it. If you plan on simply reading each slide of your Power Point presentation to us, then just send us the presentation and let us read it. This will save us time and not put us to sleep. Reading your slides is the number one way to put your audience to sleep. Instead of reading, have your slides accentuate the points that you are making.
　　
　　Stand up, Speak up, Shut up! In other words, get up and say what you have to say, make your point and nothing more (don’t drone on and on), then shut up and sit down. Too many people who are nervous will drag out their presentation, looking for an escape hatch that they can’t find.
　　
　　Tell a story. That is one of the best things that you can do. If you have a story (or several) that you can tell which makes your point, then tell them. A story gets your point across so much better and will be remembered a lot longer than anything else you say. A story will resonate with your audience and draw them in. You will capture their attention.
　　
　　Practice, practice, practice! The only way you will get comfortable is to practice your presentation over and over. By practicing, you will work the bugs out, improve your timing and get to know your topic well enough to deliver it almost flawlessly.
　　
　　Speaking is not difficult. No, it is not something most people like to do however, as long as you don’t follow the habits of others, you can turn out a good presentation and present it in such a way that your audience will enjoy your subject.

　　

What are your suggestions for speaking in front of an audience?

Questions of Vision

Rob

　　Several years back it was all the rage to have a Mission Statement and a Vision Statement. Everyone was creating one and companies held meetings to develop these. The belief almost was that you couldn’t run a business if you didn’t have a Mission or Vision Statement. The idea even flowed over into home life and people began to create them for their families, expecting to run them like a business.
　　
　　Now, don’t misunderstand me, I am not saying that it is a bad thing to create a mission or a vision statement. I am saying that at times, people and businesses spend so much time working through the process of creating these that they stop working towards them.
　　
　　Finding your vision doesn’t have to be that hard. It is simply asking yourself some basic questions and then working towards the answer to those questions. The key is to do the work. The questions are the old fall backs of, Who; What; When; Where; Why and How. If you can answer these and take action on the answers, not only will you create your vision but, you will be working towards it. It is OK if some of the answers are fuzzy, this is a dynamic work in progress. It will always be changing and improving as you grow and so does your vision.
　　
　　Where do you want to be? The answer to this is your goal. It gives you an idea of the direction you want to travel, it sets your sights. The goal may be a simple one but if you always have this in your sights and you are constantly improving upon it, you will always be growing.
　　
　　Where do you want to go (in the future)? Think long term goal here. What is the big picture for your business? What is the big thing you want to strive for. This gives you hope and causes you to stretch for something bigger than yourself. It also gives a framework for the smaller goals.
　　
　　How are you going to get there? As you begin to develop goals and plans, you need to know how you would like to achieve them. You don’t need to know everything about it but at least having a rough idea can help. How you get there will change as you go down the road but, if you are flexible, you will find your way.
　　
　　How are you going to balance everything? You have a lot of things to do. Everything falls on your shoulders. You may become overwhelmed and have no one to turn to for help. Include with this that you still have family and friends to maintain a relationship with. How are you going to balance it all? How are you going to manage it without letting anything fall through the cracks? This is a very important question to consider.
　　
　　What vehicle are you going to use? In other words, you have your goals set, you know where you want to go, how are you going to get there? Are you flexible enough with these plans that you can adapt them? The more flexible you are, the greater your chance of success. Because you never know what will try to derail your plans and how you will have to get there.
　　
　　What is next, once you reach that goal? Always be looking towards the future. If you are only looking at the immediate goal and only that, then once you have accomplished it, you have used up all of your energy and momentum. Since you have momentum, take advantage of it and put it to work.
　　
　　When are you going to start? You can plan, talk and dream about your success all day long but, until you commit and begin working towards it, nothing will happen. You have to start. You have to begin immediately, do not wait until everything is perfect or you have all of the questions answered. That is only procrastination. Begin now and figure everything else out along the way.
　　
　　When do you want to complete this? Another good question that goes hand in hand with when you are going to start. Because you can prolong your work indefinitely which is only another way of procrastinating. Having a time goal forces you to get things done, it gives you a deadline. You can even bring out your competitive nature by setting a time goal and then working to see if you can beat it.
　　
　　Why? This is hands down, the biggest question you need to answer. It is purposely left so wide open to get you to think. Why? Can lend itself to, Why am I doing this? Why do I want this? Why are we going this route? Why can be the best question because asking this question on a regular basis can allow you to open your mind, fine tune your goals, discover new questions and simply create.
　　
　　Why are you striving for this goal? There are times we get sucked into things and later we have no idea why we are following these steps. For example, creating Mission or Vision Statements because everyone says it is the ‘In’ thing to do. We need to stop and ask why we are working towards the goal. This allows us to refocus on what we should be working on.
　　
　　Who are you going to ask for help or guidance? As many times as we all think we are super human, we can’t do it all alone. We need the help and guidance of others. Even if it is as simple as someone to be a sounding board, we need people to help us. We may not always know where we will need help at until the time arises, so it can be hard to plan for in advance. But we need to know where we can turn for help.
　　
　　Who are you going to follow? Who are you going to seek out to mentor? Who are you going to look for direction? Just as people, we are judged by the company we keep, as businesses, we are also judged and developed by the company we keep. Who influences your decisions has a big part to play in your success.
　　
　　How ever you answer these questions will go along way to developing your business and gives you an idea of the vision for your company. Continuing to answer these questions on a regular basis will keep you focused and on task to create and grow.
　　
　　

What questions do you ask to develop your vision?