Franziska: Hi there and welcome back. Today, I wanted to quickly share with you 5 tips when it comes to public speaking. Now, the other day, I was speaking at an event and then just before I got there, I spoke to one of my friends and she said, “how do you stay cool when you have a public speaking engagement, when you have a keynote to do in front of a large audience?”

I shared with her 5 tips that I thought I would share them with you also.

Now the first one is, before you get there always make sure you understand the audience. So I always ask the person who engages me to do an event for them to speak, I always ask them about who is going to be there? What sort of an audience? Because there I can tailor my content to make sure it’s applicable for them because of course, if my audience is super happy, I will already feel happier also while I’m doing my presentation. So it just gives you a little bit more security and it makes your presentation more engaging. Because I find it a little bit lazy to never adapt the content. I think it’s really important to adapt it to the audience.

The second tip is very use of common sense. It’s really just but it’s safe my brought it very many times is to bring.. I always have a little pack with an adaptor. I bring my laptop which is a mac computer with different adaptors to fit into the plugs that they have there. I bring my own clicker. So I just bring my own sort of cable salad, I call it my cable salad, a little parcel that one of my team members pack for me and I bring that because often they don’t have the right adaptors if you bring a different computer. So I’m just not going to be running around trying to find things to plug into my laptop, it always works and always a USB. Because worst case scenario, I can put my keynote, if you have slides onto the USB and then they can put it into their computer.

Number 3 is get there a little bit earlier. So I usually tend to get to my speaking engagements depending on what I’m doing and where I am, in which city or which country. I usually get there an hour before if I can. That is really just to get to know a few of the people that are running the event. Also, so I can thank them when I do the presentation and just to see the venue and the setup and not to rush around last minute. But usually, I setup straight away if I can. Sometimes there’s someone else before you get on. But if I can, I set up and then I have little bit of time to talk to people or even just go and have a drink or have a coffee or just chill out for a minute.

Number four is also stay a little bit after the event if possible. So I usually, also again, I try to not have a booking straight after so I don’t have to run out because sometimes even though you might allow people to ask you questions in your presentation, some people don’t want to speak up publicly. So if they don’t want to speak up publicly ,then at least you give them an opportunity to come and talk to you after the event if they choose to do so. So I always hang around, I always tell people too, I always say when I finish up, I say, hey if anyone has more questions or would love to come and talk to me, I will be around.

Number 5 is the big one which is the one that my girl friend asked me about which is the nerves. How do you stay calm? How do you get there and how do you not have butterflies? Well, first of all, I do still get butterflies. If it’s quite a big audience or if it’s something new that I’m talking about, especially if it’s a large audience, I still get butterflies. But usually, I now figured out how to manage my state. And so for me personally, when you find out your own ways to manage your nerves, but for me, it’s just really being able to do some big breathing, like meditation, sort of like meditation, big breathing. And also I’ve anchored a body position that brings me back into my calm. That is really just having both of my legs flat on the floor when I stand and my arms next to my legs. It’s called the mountain position when you do yoga. But that is my sort of my pulp position that I come back to if I start to get nervous or if I forget content or if something is a bit off and I’m doing my presentation. Maybe walking a little bit, I just go back into my mountain pose, and that’s what I have anchored to bring back the calm and to really tap back into my brain waves that are bringing me the ideas.

So those are the 5 tips. You’re going to work what’s working for you in terms of nerves, but definitely, breathing, meditations, finding a power position that works for you always works.

I hope this is useful for you and if you know someone who speaks a lot, does a lot of speaking engagements, then you’re welcome to share this with them also.

Now, let’s come out and create some ripple effects because why not?