The beginning of the presentation is your prime real estate. It’s when your audience decides if you are worth paying attention to or not. In my workshops, I call this the HOOK. You can do this by either asking a question, making a bold statement or telling a story that relates to your topic.
I recently had the wonderful opportunity to speak at TEDxEmory . The overall theme
was What Makes Your Heart Beat? My topic was Owning Your Confidence: How to
Overcome Nervousness and Exude Confidence in High-Stakes Situations. I discussed
several practical techniques to help you excel in even the most stressful of
situations. They are practices I’ve developed over many years of being on television
and speaking professionally around the world,
“Mother Nadia Bilchik and daughter Julia Kesler, are as colorful, outspoken and accomplished, and as different as they are alike.”
Read the full article at the Atlanta Jewish Times.
I recently had the wonderful opportunity to speak at TEDxEmory. The overall theme was: What makes your heart beat? And my topic was Owning Your Confidence: How to Overcome Nervousness and Exude Confidence in High-Stakes Situations. I discussed several practical techniques to help you excel in even the most stressful of situations. They are practices I’ve developed over many years of being on television and speaking professionally around the world.
Call Me Ted, the legendary media mogul’s biography, is fascinating reading, and I had Ted Turner’s life story very much in mind when I recently had the privilege of covering his 80th birthday party for CNN.
The guests included Al Gore, Jane Fonda, Wolf Blitzer, Christiane Amanpour, Sanjay Gupta, Judy Woodruff, Chris Tucker and other industry leaders and celebrities.
But while it was certainly an experience to be in the company of such accomplished individuals all paying tribute to CNN’s legendary founder,
Given the choice of having a root canal or giving a speech, many opt for the former. Indeed, few tasks are more intimidating for many than giving a public speech or presentation.
One of the more popular suggestions for combatting nerves and feeling less intimidated is to visualize your audience naked. The idea is that if you could visualize your audience without their clothes they would appear more human, and therefore you would feel less vulnerable.
You may have heard the saying that “90% of life is just showing up” It’s something I say to myself whenever I cross the threshold of the gym or attend a neighborhood committee meeting.
The question is, do we really show up?
There is a big difference between physically being somewhere and really participating actively.
This applies to everything from being at work to social interaction.
I am so tired of going to social and professional events where people are showing up physically but not mentally.
In an age of information overload where we are constantly having to compete for attention, the ability to tell stories that have an emotional and intellectual impact is a critical skill.
Think about the last meeting or presentation you attended or Ted talk you watched, what did you remember, what did you repeat?
The story! Especially if the story related to you or triggered you to reflect on your own similar experience.
