Whoa, Nellie! What’s the big rush?

By Mary Schrack

Many speechmakers struggle with pacing. Whether the cause is nervousness, memory or habit, it’s easy to rush through your words. However, if you’ve ever been an audience member during a particularly fast-paced speech, you know how frustrating it can be to try to keep up—or even understand the message. Follow this advice to slow down your speech and make it more listener-friendly:

• Record yourself. You won’t really know how you sound until you listen to yourself. Record your speech and play it back, making special note of your enunciation and pace. If your words slur together or if you can’t discern where one sentence ends and another begins, you need to slow down until they become clear.
   
• Read aloud. It’s a good idea to practice reading your speech aloud even if you don’t have a problem with speaking too quickly. To focus on your pacing, imagine you are reading a book to a kindergarten class. When reading to children, you pause between sentences, enunciate words and speak slowly so they can keep up. Do the same for your audience. Note: Take care to avoid a patronizing tone of voice. You don’t want to be perceived as condescending!
   
• Focus on “how,” not “what.” Speakers often rush through their presentations because they are afraid of forgetting something. They spend so much energy worrying about what they’re saying that they lose sight of how they present their message. Review your content until you’re completely confident in it, and then spend your practice time focusing on delivery. Without the anxiety of the message, you will be more aware of your style and more in control of your speed.
   
• Put yourself in the audience’s shoes. While you make your presentation, imagine that your audience is taking notes. Time your delivery to a speed that would be easy to match with paper and a pen. Your audience may actually be taking notes; speak at a manageable pace so they don’t miss a moment.

What tips do you have for improving pacing?

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Control your sweat glands

By Mary Schrack

Presenting in front of a crowd is nerve-wracking enough as it is. Throw excessive sweating into the mix and you’ve got a nightmare. Take sweating off the list of things that stress you out about presentations. Follow this advice:

• Wear the right clothes. Avoid synthetic fabrics like polyester and rayon. Natural fabrics like cotton and linen let your body breathe and keep you cooler and less sweaty.
   
• Eat the right foods. Eat foods that contain water, like fruits and vegetables. Chlorophyll helps with body odor and sweating, so eat foods such as spinach that contain that chemical. Bottled chlorophyll is available at most drug stores and can be added to foods as well. Avoid spicy foods, onions and garlic.
   
• Use the right antiperspirant. Deodorants and antiperspirants with a high concentration of aluminum chloride work the best for people with overactive sweat glands.
   
• Drink plenty of water. Staying hydrated is important to avoiding embarrassing sweat and body odor. When your body starts sweating, it’s a sign that it is overheated. Drinking cold water will cool it down and help you stop sweating.
   
• Powder up. Applying body powder on your feet, under your arms and anywhere else you notice gets particularly sweaty can help to absorb extra moisture. It can also take the shine off your face, neck and chest that is sometimes visible under stage lights.

Follow these suggestions for your next presentation and while you may be nervous, you won’t look like it.

What are some things you do to stop sweating or reduce the appearance of sweat?

Recover from mistakes and get back on track

By Mary Schrack

Glossophobia. The fear of public speaking. We’ve all had the symptoms before: sweaty palms, shaky hands and a racing heart. For most of us, it’s not public speaking that has us filled with anxiety. What we’re really afraid of is looking unprofessional, unprepared or stupid in front of people, especially our peers.

Everyone makes mistakes, but the best public speakers know how to quickly recover and move on. Read on to learn how to overcome these mistakes:

• Slurring or mispronouncing a word. Everybody stumbles over a word occasionally. If you do, simply repeat the word and finish your sentence. Don’t call attention to the mistake by making a joke or by saying “Excuse me.” Be sure to speak slowly and enunciate your words.
   
• Saying something inappropriate. Allowing an obscenity to slip out is unacceptable. However, it can happen to the best of us. Offer a quick “Pardon my language” or “I apologize for saying that” and move on. 
   
• Presenting inaccurate information. You didn’t double-check a fact you found on the Web or you responded to a question you didn’t know the answer to, and an audience member corrects you. Thank the person for the correction, restate it so the audience can hear it and move to your next point.
   
• Using too many fillers. It’s easy to slip into lazy speech filled with “uhs” and “likes,” especially when you’re nervous. If you feel yourself using fillers, take a breath, slow down, and think about what you’re saying.
   
• Reading from your notes or slides. The temptation to look is strong, especially if you’re not feeling confident. Think of the presentation more as a conversation; the words will flow easier and you won’t feel the need to read from your notes.

What was your most embarrassing mistake? How did you recover? What did you learn?

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4 reasons to never use index cards during a speech

By Mary Schrack

I’ve always been told that index cards are the best way to display my notes when I’m giving a presentation. They’re small, easy to create and each card can correspond to a particular point or slide in my presentation. They’re perfect for that purpose, right? Wrong. Actually, a single 8×11 in. sheet of typed notes does the trick much better.

Here are four reasons why you should ditch the index cards during your next presentation. You will:

1. Present information like a map on a sheet of paper. That is easier to follow than several cards, which can get out of order, causing you to lose your place.
    
2. Improve readability. A typed font is much easier to read than handwriting, especially if your handwriting is poor. Plus, you can make the print larger than you can on a small index card. You won’t have to squint or raise the paper to your face to see what you wrote.
    
3. Streamline your presentation. Using index cards, you risk going into too much detail. With limited space on one 8×11 in. sheet of paper, you will focus on the key points of your speech, making it more concise, directed—and powerful.
    
4. Free your hands. You can position your notes in front of you and glance down occasionally to reference your notes. On the other hand, if you use index cards, the constant shuffling can be distracting to the audience.

Still believe in using index cards during your presentations? Tell us why! 

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Don’t fumble when delivering bad news

By Mary Schrack

Ohio State Athletic Director demonstrates public speaking dos and don’ts

Projecting a confident and positive demeanor is critical when you must announce bad news or your organization is under scrutiny. Ohio State University’s athletic director did just that recently when he announced the resignation of football coach Jim Tressel. You can see Gene Smith’s grace and poise in this video:

 
When you have to deliver bad news, follow this advice:

• Make eye contact with your audience. Smith never takes his eyes off the lens. Instead of looking over your listeners’ heads, at the back wall or your notes, look into their eyes to indicate that you aren’t hiding anything and that you have faith in what you are saying.
   
• Recover quickly from your mistakes. Notice that when Smith stumbles on a word, he corrects himself and moves on. Don’t dwell on a mistake. Quickly correct it and continue your speech. If you don’t, you could appear nervous or distraught, and your audience may assume that they should feel the same way.
   
• Avoid unnecessary movement. Smith sits calmly while he delivers his speech. You don’t have to sit, but don’t wildly gesticulate or pace—you’ll distract your audience from your message.
   
• Don’t slander or badmouth anyone. Despite Tressel’s involvement in the scandal, Smith thanks him for his service to the school. Don’t be overly negative or you may come across as bitter or angry. Stay upbeat and neutral.
   
• Look ahead to the future. Smith does not call the scandal the demise of the Ohio State football program. Instead, he mentions the promise the upcoming season holds. If you must deliver bad news in a speech, you should always end on a positive note, looking to the future with hope.

Avoid the common mistakes to which Gene Smith falls victim:

• Injecting fillers into your speech. It’s not hard to count the times Smith says “Uh” in his speech. Fillers like “You know,” “Um,” “Right,” and the dreaded “Like,” make you sound ill-prepared or nervous. Rehearse your speech often to avoid fillers.
   
• Using an overly casual tone. At times Smith becomes overly casual and sounds unprofessional. During a serious speech, don’t become buddy-buddy with your audience. Maintain a professional demeanor to keep your listeners’ respect and your credibility.

What recent mistakes have you noticed a speaker make during a presentation? How did it change your opinion of the speaker?