Quote: (03-19-2013 05:27 PM)WestCoast Wrote:
The best solution is to force yourself into presentations where you must perform.
....
Toastmasters is like practice. A presentation where your credibility is on the line is the real deal.
The majority of my job is doing presentations, and I can vouch for this. TM is fun, but when you go it's beta-hour with a bunch of old people who have been doing speeches in a supportive environment. It's not the trenches.
That being said, if you are starting from scratch it's a good idea just until you get the basics, which in a few months already puts you ahead of 90% of people.
Get a job where you HAVE to do public speaking and you'll get a stupid amount of experience, not to mention great momentum. I do outreach, and in the past year and a half I've done about 500 presentations, totaling about 1200 hours.
After 2 hours of presentations you can bet you're in a talkative mood.
Like everyone has said so far, not giving a wet fuck about your audience is the most important thing. They aren't sitting in a huge group because they like the uncomfortable folding chairs. They are there to listen to shut the fuck up and listen to whatever you have to say.
You are the shit, they are not.
I started a second job about two months ago, and be leaving my current one doing outreach at the end of August. I then understood that this shit doesn't matter, and started just not caring a single iota what the audience thought of me, even more so than before. I'll ignore outbursts and stupid questions, I speak more dynamically, crack better jokes, the same shit that you should be doing in a chat with a girl.
I'm not saying don't prepare, you should prepare like your life depends on it.
But once your prep work is done and it's time to actually do the speech, the best frame of mind you can have is: fuck it.