Hi there, and welcome back to EngVid. With me, Benjamin. In today's lesson, I
will be showing you how to prepare for the actual moment where you make a
speech in front of 200 people: what to do on stage, and how to get ready for it
in the moments building up to it. If you're someone that suffers from stage
fright, if you find that your voice suddenly goes, that you start shaking
uncontrollably, this is a video for you. I hope it helps.
So some basic sort of guidelines, suggestions, sort of before the event
are to make sure that you feel comfortable in your clothes, that you're
not worrying about them when you're actually giving the presentation. Maybe
the same could be said for your hair. Sometimes my hair annoys me, it always
goes in the wrong place. So make sure you feel good. Yep. You're not too sort
of bloated or anything like that. Looking good. Feeling good. It's not
about being sort of over-manicured, or... you want to feel natural, like
you're not sort of on display.
You shouldn't be relying too much on microphones. Yep. So microphones amplify
what your voice is already doing. So if you mumble and don't really kind of
project out, then that's what the microphone will amplify. So yeah, just
think of it there as something hidden. You've got to reach those people. If
your energy is too sort of inward like this, they're not going to get the
message. So you're going to need to look out to them. And you're going to need to
send your voice back to the last person in the last row or the auditorium.
They've come to see you, they've come to hear what you have to say. So don't hide
behind a PowerPoint. Don't just go "Oh, yeah, I've got this amazing PowerPoint."
So just going to show them that, like, no, you know, let the technology help
you make your point. Okay, you're not a tool to the technology -- that is to
help you, you're in control of that, you're going to use it to communicate
with these people. Okay.
So, let's suggest that you go to the venue a little bit beforehand. You work
out where you're doing your speech, you see where the audience are, okay, we're
out the space, what do we do? We stand and breathe. Right? I'm doing a speech
here. Okay, how does that feel? I'm reassuring myself that I'm going to take
my time here when I'm doing my speech. I often think of students that I've
taught, who have maybe got a little bit nervous when they've had to do a speech
in public. And just, you know, if you're one of those people that really worries
about speaking in public, then you've got to prepare in advance for it by
doing things like this.
Okay, so we're going to practice walking on. So maybe we're introduced, that's
what's going to happen. You're gonna have to walk on, that's where I'm doing
my speech. So it's not a surprise when this happens for real. Yeah, you can do
it, you're not... your nerves aren't going to suddenly freeze up. So how am I
gonna walk up? Am I gonna be sort of all like this? How do I kind of walk on and
be present? Like, I've only got this tiny, little space, it's quite difficult
for me to demonstrate this. But be present, be aware of people, don't be
kind of intimidated by it. Yeah. They've just come to hear what you have to say.
And you've got something worthwhile to say to them. I get here. I breathe it
in. What's my body language? Okay, relax, relax your shoulders. Try to drop
them down? Okay, what are you gonna do with your legs? Don't sort of go like
that. Don't don't have your legs all rigid, you know, have you know... be
free to move. Don't like start doing sort of disco moves here. But you know,
it's good to be sort of in your body.
Okay. Now this -- some kind of lectern, we call it, -- is great, because it's
something to do with your hands. What do I do with my hands? Why you can you can
just put them here? Yep, you can hold the speech that you're going to be
communicating.
Again, I'm breathing. Right? Often speeches go wrong because the technology
doesn't work. So if you're going to be using some sort of visual aid, make sure
it works. If you have a dress rehearsal, how do you get it to work? What do you
press? Where, where, what, what direction? Does the remote control need
to point in? How do you get to the next page? Okay, everything's working. I'm
happy in the venue. I know where I stand beforehand, I've got my speech. I know
I'm going to put it here. The technology works. I've got a little bit of time,
I've come early.
So you're going to warm up your voice. Now luckily for you, I've already
actually made a video on how to do a total body and vocal warmup. Okay, so
I'm going to point in the direction of that now. And I suggest that you do
something very similar. And ideally, if you can do that in the actual space that
you're going to be delivering your speech, and that will give you some
energy and some confidence. Okay? So do check out how to give yourself a body
and vocal warm up after watching the rest of this video.
Okay, so, voice warmup done. We're now going to pretend that it's, you're just
a few moments away from doing your speech. And maybe you're kind of just
out the side of the building of the venue. What do we do? Okay, so the big
moment has arrived. Yeah, people are starting to fill the auditorium up. And
you're starting to feel a little bit nervous. So you need to return to your
breathing. Yeah, breathing right down here in your tummy. Yep, feel your
stomach moving. When you breathe out, it should push in. expanding out. And in,
okay, we're just practicing our breathing because that will help us to
to stay present. The times where I've seen people sort of seizing up when
they're doing like a public speech, it's because they stop being present. And
they just get worried all up in their head and they can't cope. Okay, so it's
really important that we stay right here. We see things: I see the picture
over there. You can't see the picture. I can see a picture. I see things over
there. There's an aeroplane. Yeah, just remind yourself. Look, what can we see?
Okay, panic. Push a wall. What is Benjamin talking about now? Well, here
we've got our wall. It's actually an imaginary wall. Okay, but I'm going to
pretend it's a wall. Now, if this action of pushing helps you to stay in your
body. Yeah. So you're not going to fall over. I'm going to die. I'm going to do
speech. No. You're going to push a wall. That's what you're gonna do. You push
the wall. So, you know, just push it. Yeah, because I'm using my core muscles
here and using my arms. My legs are nice and wide. So they're kind of grounded.
Pushing. Okay, and it gives you something to do. What are you doing? I'm
pushing a wall. Right? Moment's come? Yeah, I'm ready. I've pushed a wall.
Okay, so what do we do? Well, we need to walk on. Now, I haven't got a huge
amount of space to demonstrate this. But here's the moment the audience here.
They've come to listen to you. You're with them. See them, see individual
people. You're going to you know you're sharing your note what you've written
with these people. Remember, you can hold on to this. Hold on to it. Okay,
don't rush, don't think because you're here, I've just got to suddenly start.
Actually, time for... If you have a few moments here, to you, it will seem like
an eternity but to the people out there, it will be actually quite nice because
it means that people are settling down, and they're getting ready to listen to
you. And you're getting ready to speak to them.
You've got your notes here. You start talking. Yeah, you start sharing your
speech. The speech has got to go out there. The words can't be sort of lost
here. They have to go out. People have to hear you. Yeah. If you start noticing
your voice going funny, then imagining, just imagine yawning. Make sure your
vocal muscles feel nice and open. You've done your warm up, you're going to watch
my video in a moment of how to do your warm up. Okay, we need to stay present.
See them. Yep, read a little bit, look up, read the next bit, look up, okay,
find find the rhythm of this, okay? You don't want to be too slow, but don't be
too fast either. It's probably better at the beginning to be slow, so that you
kind of warm up into your speech.
Okay, I hope you've gained something from this video, I really hope that you
go out there and do some public speaking. Now you don't have to do
public speaking at work, to be able to do it. There are some public speaking
kind of competitions and clubs. So if you want to challenge yourself and do
something new, then why not join one? Now, hope you're a subscriber to my
channel. Sometimes it's about vocal stuff. Sometimes it's business English,
sometimes it's vocab, idioms, phrases, everything English related. So do
subscribe. And if you want any extra help from me, then I have a website.
honeyourEnglish or "Honey, our English!" Yeah, that's me. I can help if you need
it. See you in the next video.