How to be successful at speaking (on purpose)

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How to be successful at speaking (on purpose)

When you do something for the first time you will rarely be confident. Usually, even after speaking many times confidence is still not there. This is because you get thrown into the deep end or deliver to a tricky crowd which creates negative experiences. But this does not have to be the way – you can choose to be intentional about building positive speaking experiences.

Confidence is success remembered, so increasing the number of positive experiences is critical to overcoming your fear of public speaking and gaining confidence to speak in any setting. You can be intentional by creating what is comfortable to you.

How do you intentionally create successful speaking reps to create confidence?

Find ‘your comfortable’

Finding your comfortable situation to speak is the key to creating successful speaking reps. Finding ‘your comfortable’ comes at the intersection of:

• What you know a lot about

• The environment you are most comfortable in

• The forum you prefer

Crafting out speaking experiences that sit in the intersection of these three areas is important to intentionally increase your success time when speaking in public. This might mean:

• Telling a friend about your favorite book, at home, via a video call.

• Speaking about your job to family and friends at a coffee shop.

There are many forms this could take but crafting out specific scenarios where you are comfortable will remove some of the barriers you have to speaking in public.

Scale your reps

Repeat your comfortable scenario with different groups, change the topic, maybe even change the forum, from virtual to in-person. Make it easy to build successful memories of speaking in public – this will be what you come to remember when you have a presentation to give at work, or a conference to speak at.

You are scaling up reps in each category to become a more well rounded speaker. You may become comfortable in virtual presentations but you also want to be able to deliver them confidently in person too. Scale across your environments, topics and forums - create your success remembered in each category.

Essentially, keep getting the reps in until speaking in public becomes your autopilot. Something that you can do with the right preparation, in front of any audience. This will take time, and constant practice is required. Getting reps in your comfort zone can turn you into a confident public speaker.

The work environment

The chances are, speaking at work is the most common forum you will come up against. This could be simply speaking in a meeting or to deliver briefings to senior leaders. Once you have success remembered in your comfortable environment, start translating that confidence into the work environment. How?

• Ensure you speak at least once in every meeting you attend. This could be asking a question.

• Have a conversation with somebody you work with every day.

• Tell somebody a story during a coffee break.

Speaking reps in the work environment can be the difference between getting a promotion or new exciting opportunities. It shows you are credible, engaged and are someone that can be confident in presenting ideas. Use the nano speech to get your early reps in - a quick open, body, and close. This is something you can then scale up to create your success remembered that helps you deliver in a work environment that often feels like a pressure cooker.

Actionable takeaways

• Find your comfortable scenario using the intersection of what you know a lot about, the environment you are most comfortable in, and the forum you prefer. Use ‘your comfortable’ to get reps in.

• Scale your reps across all three areas. Create your success remembered to be able to share more engaging stories, in different environments, and to any audience.

• Use the nano speech to stay structured in pressure cooker environments such as work. The nano speech will keep you on track and increase your chances of successful speaking experiences.

That's all for today!

As always feel free to reply to this email or reach out @liamsandford as I would love to hear your feedback.

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