Amanda - Speech Coach

Fear of Speaking in Public?

Many people suffer from real, biological fear and anxiety when speaking in public.  In fact, over three-quarters of Americans say that public speaking is their greatest fear–greater than accidents, diseases, or even snakes!   As with most phobias, it is based on a fear of the unknown; but once they learn what works for them and what doesn’t, that fear and anxiety can be greatly alleviated.

It follows, then, that many individuals in high levels of their organizations–who are frequently called upon to deliver extremely important information to various stakeholders in a public setting–also find themselves with debilitating anxiety about giving such presentations.  Additionally, such individuals may or may not have any specific training in public speaking–understandable, given the amount of time and energy they have to dedicate to rising through the ranks within their organizations.

Presidential Teleprompter

Presidential Teleprompters – Fear of Speaking in Public

For your convenience, our coaches have Presidential Teleprompters available; these are invaluable tools to instill confidence and relieve the panic of forgetting the copy. We can help choose the one most appropriate for your objective and venue and provide an experienced, professional operator.

Rates

FULL DAY COACHING (4 to 8 hours):        $1200.00

HALF DAY COACHING: (up to 4 hours):    $750.00

PRESIDENTIAL PROMPTER (per day):      $895.00

Watch the YouTube introductory video below to see for yourself how the CICERO system can work for you and your organization:

The Basics:  Make A Good Speech…. Great

By Christen “Raven” Madrazo

It’s key to be aware that almost all good presentations—political speeches, commercials, informative research lectures etc—can be broken down into the following bare-bones basics of persuasion.

Recognizing these parts of the formula will help you to craft better messages and also, to better understand how others’ messages work on you:

• Appeal to Logic (Logos): Your appeal to logic should always be the most important (and most prevalent) element of your presentation. This is the actual content —the reason that it’s worth listening to you. Audiences want to hear the facts and they want to learn something (or at least learn to be clearer about whatever it is that you’re sharing). People rarely give their attention to something they already know, nor do they support something that can’t be proven with reason and logic. So, be sure to craft a strong foundation by using the classics: include facts, figures, statistics, specific anecdotes, charts, graphs, cited research etc. Be careful to organize this material in a clear, structured, and interesting way, but first, you simply have to do your homework. Know the facts and the reasons behind your product or material; then figure out the best ways to share them. Nothing convinces people better than the facts—not even pretty power-point fonts!

• Appeal to Emotion (Pathos): Your appeal to emotion is your attempt to use the above to make the audience feel something. An audience that’s feeling something is much more likely to pay attention. Even more importantly though, is the fact that an audience that’s feeling what you want them to feel, is much more likely to believe what you want them to believe. Do you want your audience to feel sympathy in order to support your charity organization? Do you want them to be angered in order to move them to a call-to-action? Do you want them to feel excited or hopeful that this product will work? Do you want them to feel shocked by your new research?  Consider what feelings you want your audience to experience and why; then revisit the above and find reasons and logic that would organically elicit such feelings. It’s important that presenters are careful with their appeals to emotion.  If taken even the slightest bit too far, an appeal to emotion can feel forced; audiences can tell when your sole attempt is to manipulate how they feel and, as we all know, no one likes to be the subject of manipulation. Instead, you want to share carefully selected information that naturally makes your audience feel a certain way. The key here is that you only embed your appeals to emotion within appeals to reason. Let your carefully selected facts and research bring on the tears or joy—and only sparingly.

• Appeal to Ethics (Ethos): Contrary to many beginners’ first assumptions, implementing the appeal to ethics is not about appealing to the moral grounds of your audience. Rather, it’s about YOU—the speaker, the presenter, the face, the company etc.  Appeals to ethics sell the credentials of the speaker in order to back-up the content at hand. Presenters are careful to convey this via meticulous, careful, and interesting presentations that communicate something about the presenter. They also embed references to themselves as they deliver their appeal to reason.  To do so, a presenter might reference his or her title or how many years he or she has been researching the given subject matter. A company might mention ratings or past track records.  While the appeal to ethics is not always explicitly linked to the product or message at hand, it adds to reasons why we should believe and accept the message being put forth as linked to the face behind that message. Note: Many presenters are asked to write and submit a bio that will be read to the audience. Because this usually occurs right before the presentation, what you write for this will most likely be the audience’s immediate and/or first impression of you. So, be sure to take this bio seriously; it will serve as your first appeal to ethics—before you even take the stage.

Executive Speech Coach Mission Statement

Christen Madrazo: Executive Speech Coaching System Writer

Our unique executive speech coaching approach expedites speakers’ improvement via individualized sessions with experienced coaches. Our multi-faceted system, which focuses on content, delivery, and image — both separately and combined — ensures that even the most advanced speaker is relaxed and confident in order to deliver the best possible message to his or her audience.  Textual analysis strategies, performance techniques, image consultation, and teleprompter training are all components of this innovative system and are implemented based on specific client need upon individual assessment.  Our clients should expect to effectively deliver razor sharp messages to an audience that they will quickly bring to their side.

Speaking in public

So many times one will get up in front of a crowd and freeze or sound like they have no idea what they are talking about, by using these five secrets to delivering a more effective pubic speech the presenter will have more of a rapport with their audience and be able to keep their attention longer.

First and foremost, know your topic. Research all of the information you may need to know about the topic and make sure the information that is being reported to the crowd is correct.

If the information you are giving is on point, even if you being to get nervous, if you know the topic, the words will come much easier and the presentation will flow better. By knowing the topic and being confident in your abilities to regurgitate the information the speech will flow more easily.

Know what the audience wants to hear and make sure you are fully aware of what you are talking about. No one wants to sit through a presentation of someone stumbling through their words and obviously questioning themselves.

It is also very important to anticipate what type of questions the audience may be asking themselves while you are speaking. If you do this, the questions that are lingering will be put to rest prior to ending the speech.

Also know who your audience is and what it is that they would want to hear. Feel out the crowd out if they are children make the speech sound less formal, if they are a group of educated business people, speak as a knowledgeable adult. It is also important to wear attire that is pleasing to the crowd. No loud colors or unique attire is needed.

Be prepared to deliver a thesis with at least three objectives. When researching the topic make sure that there are at least three points that the audience will be able to take home with them. Jot down the points that you want to make in a very short sentence and then keep them with you on a note card that way if you get confused or anxious, you can simply look down at the cards and regain your composure.

You should also have an idea of what kind of opening and closing you want to use. Jot this down as well then look at it when you get on stage right before speaking.

Speaking in Public

Doing this should give you a boost of confidence in knowing you have your layout and know your topic.

Practice makes perfect, in order to produce a quality speech, you must first practice what it is you want to say. The audience does not want to be spoken too; they want to be involved in a conversation like atmosphere.

Talk to the crown as though you have known them forever and make it more like conversing with old friends. Read the key topics and then talk to yourself in the mirror to ensure you don’t look to stiff or impersonal. When the audience can relate to a speaker, they are more likely to enjoy themselves and leave feeling as though they have learned something. When presenters are stiff and feel as though they are in charge of the room, they can come off as arrogant.

Last but not least, although this may be hard to do, do not write the speech word for word. If at first you feel this is what you need to do in order to feel comfortable presenting the information that is fine.

But when it comes times to actually give the speech, take your outline with you and say what you have been practicing. If you have done this enough, the words will come to you without effort. It could also help if you prepare a slide show or power point presentation. Make the slide show after you have prepared the words. This will make it easier to add the information to the slides you want to make sure the audience takes with them.

Although giving a speech in front of a large crowd can be very intimidating following the above simple steps can help tremendously. Taking deep breaths or using other calming techniques can also be beneficial to those who are nervous speakers.

Talk to others you know who give good speeches and write down their ideas and techniques they use prior to giving a speech and then try them for yourself. All of the above items will be beneficial to anyone in need of producing a quality speech with effortless presentation.