As I mentioned in a previous post I'm in Houston this week for a speaking engagement at the PSRA conference. After having spoken at several events in the past I realized tonight as I was preparing my slides that I've got this down pat, no problem. I remember getting all fluttery and nervous in the past the night before speaking; scurrying to pull together my comments and slap together a presentation that made sense. It took a couple of times before I realized that my talks are much more successful when I partially 'wing it' rather than work directly from a PowerPoint outline. I actually know this stuff and I don't need to write it down. I still haven't overcome my 'over-speaking' problem, which always rears it's ugly head when I'm slightly nervous. I will go into deep detail on topics rather than giving a brief, effective overview and moving on. I have always overcompensated in uncomfortable situations with excessive talk, some call it a gift, I call it a social band-aid. Sometimes I get ahead of myself, forget to breathe and then my voice box gets jittery, which doesn't look good in front of 2500 people. I asked a media coach about it and he gave me some tips on breathing techniques to use during my talk that seem to combat that problem...he also suggested a shot of whiskey before I go on, so I took his comments with a grain of salt.
I'm actually going to get to bed at a decent hour tonight. I returned to my room from dinner to find another goodnight note accompanied with a Wonder Woman PEZ candy dispenser (Walk on sister!) on my pillow from the Hotel. Ill probably take that along tomorrow for good luck. I will use her deflecting wristbands to thwart any overly complicated questions that might arise from the audience? Oh and , the sugar rush will certainly calm any nerves I might have.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Good Luck! I would say "Break a leg", but then you probably would and I would never forgive myself.
Post a Comment