Do you have to make a speech or do a presentation? Are you nervous? Do you need some help? I
can help you. Hello. My name is Ronnie. I'm going to teach you a couple of tips and a
couple of ways to help you when you have to do a scary presentation or speech.
When I was younger -- when I was really young, I had to do speeches every year in elementary
school and high school -- I don't remember. I don't remember high school, okay? I do remember,
specifically, in elementary school, every year, we had to do speeches. Guess what, ladies
and gentlemen. You are looking at the grade 3 speech champion of Memorial school. Thank
you. Thank you. Look what I am today.
So when I was in grade 3, I made the best speech in my class. I went on to do the speech
in the auditorium or the gymnasium. I won first place. Oh, yeah. I won a book. I don't
like books. I was like, "I got a book. Thanks." I was eight years old. I wrote a speech. I
delivered the speech, and I won. I'm going to teach you what I know. This isn't a foolproof
way, but this is how I to it. And maybe, this will work for you.
How to make a speech or presentation. Speeches and presentation are, of course, different.
Speeches are more what you want to tell people about an interesting topic. And presentations
are usually more work-based. But sometimes, they overlap. Sometimes, in schools, you have
to do a speech, and also you will probably have to make a presentation about maybe a
boring topic that the teacher gives you like World War II. How mundane.
So the very first thing that I'm going to tell you is how to actually form or make a
decent speech. Sometimes, this is unavoidable. But maybe, if you can, choose a good or interesting
topic. When I say interesting or good, the only person that needs to think this is interesting
is you -- me -- you. If you have a wide-open topic, for example, your history teacher goes,
"World War II." You go, "oh, god. Okay. Well, I know the history of World War II and the
terrible Hitler, and all this stuff went down." So what you're going to do is you're going
to try to choose a different angle, a different topic or a different way to present the information
that no one's heard about before.
So if you have the opportunity to choose your own topic and the teacher doesn't give it
to you, wide-open spaces. Choose what you like. What's your hobby? What's your passion?
What do you like to talk about? Choose that -- bam. Make a really interesting presentation
or speech. If you're excited about topic, then the other people will also feel you enthusiasm
or feel your excitement, and it will be a good speech or presentation. So one, choose
a good or interesting topic if you can.
No. 2, this is really important. If you are given a topic, I know it might be boring.
Know your topic, or know your content. Nowadays, you can just go on the web, the good old website
-- the Internet -- and you can blob the information off of Wikipedia or off of any kind of web
page that you want, throw together the speech, stand up in front of everyone staring at you,
yabber, yabber, yabber, jabber, jabber jabber. Then, at the end of it -- thank god it's over
-- someone's going to ask you a question. "Oh, god. I don't know the answer" -- because
you didn't research it. You just copied and pasted off the Internet. You can do that,
whisk through it, ask a question, "I don't know." Speech is done. But if you have to
do this for work, if your boss gives you a presentation or a speech to do for work, this
is really important. Know your stuff. Know, maybe, what the people are going to ask you.
Think of questions you would ask someone giving the same speech. As long as you know the information,
your confidence is going to go like I this. Your nervousness or your anxiety is going
to go like this. If you're confident, you know the topic, you know in and out everything
about it, you're going to be the expert on it, and it's going to rock. Okay?
Next one. Know your audience. Who are you talking to? Are you going to be speaking to
people from other countries? Does everyone know and understand your language? Or are
some people from different countries and have a hard time knowing your language or don't
really know. Or you have to make a presentation in English, and English is not your first
language. Cool. Don't worry about it. Relax. Take your time. But know who you're talking
to. If you have to do a speech to people who are children, you have to use vocabulary and
language that the children know. You also have to talk to them in a way where they understand
and respect you. If you're doing a business presentation and it has to be really, really
formal, so do you. You have to know what you want the people to get out of it, and you
have to know who the people are. Really important.
Next one. Just to make it more interesting, just so nobody falls asleep, starts drooling,
use, if you can, props. So "props" are things like -- oh, I don't know -- some paper towel.
Or a lot of the times when you're doing presentations, you have a beautiful computer. Use some slides.
Use some pictures. Anything to hold the person's interest during the speech or during the presentation.
If there is one person just talking, guess what? I'm going to turn off. I'm going to
be so bored, and I'm not going to listen anymore. Try and make the content with pictures or
slides or props or something. Something to make it different from other people.
Next one. Do you like making presentations? No? What about speeches? Do you like speeches?
No? Okay. One way to maybe start a speech or start a presentation, grab the audience's
attention -- don't grab the audience; grab their attention -- is to start your speech
or start your presentation with a question. It's kind of an old technique, but it works
every time. Instead of going up to the front and going, "Today, I'm going to talk about
elephants." You're going to go, "Hey! Do you like elephants? Have you ever ridden on an
elephants? No? Go ride an elephant." If you grab the audience's attention at first, the
more people are going to like it, they're going to listen to it, and it's just going
to be more fun. Problem.
You've written this amazing speech. Okay? You've got a great topic. You know all
the information. Someone's going to ask you a question; you've got the answer. You know
the people. You've got some slides. You've got some props. You've got it. Awesome. But
oh, my god, you are so nervous. Okay? You're anxious. You can't sleep the night before.
During the presentation, before the presentation, you're really nervous. You're shaking. That's
normal. Don't worry. The more presentations you make, the more speeches you do, this nervousness
and this anxiety will hopefully lessen, go away, dissipate. I remember the very first
time that I got to be a teacher. When I was teaching before, I was in a tiny classroom,
four people. And I'll never forget the time I walked into a classroom and everyone was
staring at me. Was I nervous? Oh, yeah. Was I anxious? Not really -- because I knew my
stuff. I know what these people want. I know what they need. I know what I have to give them.
So you are nervous? That's cool. Tips to combat nervousness. Don't drink a lot of coffee.
If you drink a lot of coffee before the presentation, you're going to be moving. The coffee's going
to make you seem nervous. Maybe you're calm, but the coffee gets you moving more. People
have always said, when you're making a speech or a presentation, do not move around too
much. I disagree. I remember I was making a presentation in high school, and I stood
-- strange. I stood in a strange position, and I stood on my foot, and I fell over. It
was hilarious. I fell. I almost hit my head on the board. The whole class was like, "Are
you okay?" I thought it was funny. Who got extra marks? Me. Because I was able to laugh
at it and continue going. Bad things might happen. You might fall over. But if you deliver
a speech like this and are a statue and don't move, it's boring. Body movement is essential
when you're making a speech. You want the person to look at you. You want to make sure
that they're not sleeping. You want to move around. Okay?
Also, it hides your nervousness. The reason why I was doing this when I was in class was
because I was nervous and I was playing with my feet, and I fell. I do a little dance if
I'm nervous. I listen to music before I do my presentation so that I'm not as nervous.
I think about a song, and I play it.
The only concrete way that I can tell you to really, really, really stop your nervousness
is to practice. You've got this beautiful speech, but you don't know it; you have not
remembered it. It's impossible to memorize everything. But the more you practice your
speech, the more comfortable you're going to be presenting it to other people. If you
go up to the front and you read off a piece of paper, your voice is going to be like a
robot. It's going to be terrible. So you need to practice it so you can remember quite a
lot of it. The more you practice, the more you know, the more comfortable you become
with yourself saying it. And because you know your topic, because you know your audience,
because you've practiced your speech, nothing can go wrong. Maybe you forget a word. That's
cool. You keep on going because you've practiced it.
When it comes the time to make the speech, please speak loud enough so that everyone
can hear you. And please speak clearly. When you're speaking to people, you have to slow
down. One problem I have when I'm nervous is I talk really quickly and I mumble, which
means I don't say the words clearly. That's the nervous factor. Usually, when I start,
I talk really, really fast. But by the end of it, you pace yourself, and your speech
becomes clearer. That's natural; that's cool. But try and concentrate on having a loud voice
and saying the words clearly.
This is really important. If someone was giving you a presentation or a speech and they stared
directly at one person -- let's say the one person was you -- how would you feel? I'd
feel nervous. So when you're making a speech or presentation, it's really important to
maintain eye contact -- not with one person, not with the floor, not with your paper, with
everyone. Really, really important to look at every single person that you're talking
to. Do a little room sweep. Go, "Hey, Bob. Yeah. What's up?" Pretend that you're individually
looking at all the people. Don't stare at one person. That's weird. Don't stare at two
people. It's like you're playing ping-pong. Are you guys playing ping-pong? Don't do that.
That's strange. Don't stare straight ahead. Don't stare at the ceiling. Look at the people.
Look at their eyes. Okay? Look at the people's eyes. Make sure they're looking at you. If
someone's sleeping or someone's not paying attention to you, if you look at them, they're
like, "Oh, hey. Yeah." Very important, eye contact.
Sometimes, like I said, you've got your speech. You're nervous. You've practiced. You've practiced.
But of course, you think, "Oh, my god. What if I forget or blank out or -- I just can't
do it. What am I going to do?" Well, solution -- cue cards. Cue cards are little pieces
of paper or cardboard that you write down your main points of your presentation or your
speech. So you do not want to read or write down all of the speech because you're like
this, "Yesterday, I saw a really cool elephant. It was -- it was -- gray. It was gray." If
you write down all the speech, your eyes have to read it really quickly and it stops the
flow of your speech. So write down the main points of the cue cards. Maybe on one cue
card, you could have the main point and three points to help you. So maybe you're reading
something or you're speaking, and you forget something. That's cool. "Oh, yeah. That part."
Okay? And say to the people -- just say, "Hold on. Good." There's no problem forgetting something,
but if there's a long silence or you're awkward about it, there's a problem. Apologize. Look
it up. Everyone's cool. Don't worry about it.
So during your presentation, make eye contact; speak loudly; speak clearly; try and remember
your speech. Practice, practice, practice. It's going to reduce your nervousness and
your anxiety. Before you make the speech, make sure it's pretty interesting. To help
you more with this, there's a really, really cool website called www.PresentationPrep.com.
If you're finding that you have to do a lot of presentations for work or for school or
for anything, check out this website. It will help you just like this did.
Good luck in your speeches. Adios.