This video was shot on a beautiful spring day at a small village outside St. John’s Newfoundland. Unfortunately I didn’t have the microphone turned on. However the scenery was fantastic and there was an iceberg in the background. So I decided to create a voice over rather than delete the video.
I hope you enjoy it!
The tip I shared was related to impromptu speaking. I do an impromptu session at the beginning of each Business Communication course. I do an overview of my Speaker’s Tool Box concept and then I conduct the impromptu session. Impromptu is an excellent way to get comfortable thinking on your feet. I begin the impromptu by coaching them that if they run out of content or draw a blank to not say anything to the audience. Just experience the moment. It may take a few seconds and those seconds will seem like an eternity. It is the worse thing you can experience when speaking. So take advantage of the opportunity to experience what that is like and realize that is the worse it gets.
I provided the same advise to several classes over several years and no one did as I suggested. Then I had one class where the first or second student got about halfway through his impromptu and stopped. He had run out of content and didn’t know what to say next. Instead of saying something like ‘I don’t know what else to say’ or ‘that’s all I can say about that’ he just paused and quietly looked around at the audience. He took about 7 seconds and it seemed like an eternity. The audience was starting to squirm in their seats. Then he started back in and finished his small speech.
What was really interesting as that two more students did something similar, just not as long. After several years with no one doing it I had three students act on my advice and they did a fabulous job. I now share this with every new class I work with. I have had several others do something similar.
They just needed to know that they could.
Now go out and Make Your Voice Heard!
Want to learn the 5 Tools (you already have) to become a confident, engaging and effective speaker? Click the link for FREE video training. The Speaker’s Tool Box
I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Leave me a comment or suggest a topic for a future blog.
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