Master Public Speaking Via Camera Rolling

Often at work or in social settings, we do come across situations where we want to drive our point home but don't seem to have the confidence for it. Some of us would tremble in fear at the thought of delivering a presentation at work, or even giving a thanksgiving at a function graced by our near and dear ones.

Even much worse is when some of us suffer from episodes of anxiety a night before going for a job interview. That we decide never to turn up and put ourselves through a job interview. We'd like to assume that we're not quite prepared for it and fear that we'll make a fool of ourselves. Even though deep in our heart we know quite well that we have what it takes. Be it the required eligibility, requisite skills, and sizable experience to bag that breakthrough job opportunity.

Strikingly, some of us could think clearly in our head, put down our thoughts crisply on the paper, and operate almost like a pro back at the office. But would absolutely be tensed up and out of our wits when it comes to imparting skill or pointing out an observation to a group of colleagues. Tellingly, it is the primary reason that a leader is likely a people person chosen over a pro or expert in the team.

IMPORTANCE AND RELATIONSHIP

Despite how scary facing a crowd and giving a public talk is, we can't deny how important it is for us to make it through. As Canadian Clinical Psychologist JB Peterson puts it: Of all people, who can think, write, and speak, is the most powerful & deadly. It is especially true when we live in times when the art of oratory in politics, strong articulation in businesses, and good communication skills at work & offices are evidently critical. Tellingly, sound command over language comes first and foremost to master the art of public speaking.

Moreover, in our personal lives .."If you can name it, you can tame it..'' this establishes the effective power of journaling when we sit down to pour out our thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Interestingly, in the noble profession of counseling, apart from other distinguished qualities, clear communication is almost central to becoming a good therapist. With an informed choice of words, a counselor carefully prompts & subtly nudges his/her clients with the right set of questions. Through verbal maneuvering, s(he) helps them explore their issues in perspective. Further, enhances their self-awareness & thus facilitating them to untangle themselves psychologically.

SYMPTOMS, FACTORS, AND OBSERVATIONS

The flight, fight, freeze, and fawn response immediately kicks at the moment you imagine or step onto the podium. In your head, you begin to experience awkward & judging attention as all eyes move on you in the room! It takes over your head and almost numbs down your senses to think clearly and properly. You would stand, act, and talk like a nervous nellie with your mouth drying, heart pounding, legs shaking, and feet trembling in your shoes. That you struggle and gasp for air while stuttering, stammering, and lisping. Right! Are you familiar with this fumbling feeling?

Interestingly, there can be a host of contributing factors behind this paralyzing fear of giving public talks/presentations or facing panel interviews. Sometimes, your fear could be kicking from an undiagnosed social anxiety disorder or unidentified social awkwardness, or even due to a natural uneasiness because of an introverted nature. Leaving all aside, it is mostly the lack of confidence due to almost no experience or enough practice. Believably, it comes out as the dominating factor behind those restless butterflies in your stomach before the public talk.

In my whatsoever practice, personal experience, and research on the internet, I have observed the strong relationship between language proficiency and the art of articulation. For the most part, people who seem to have comfort with the language naturally come off as confident speakers. They still might not make themselves good public speakers yet would manage to pull them through the talk without taking long pauses, looking for words and losing the interest of the audience.

Contrarily, people who suffer from language challenges are more prone to fear a stage before giving a talk. Often their worst fear is: What if I forget my lines and everyone judges me? What if I run out of words and become speechless? What if I quite don’t know how to say it using fancy and big words? What if I make a grammatical blunder or pronunciation faux pas? And their list of what if is long enough to keep up with but most of it comes out from weak command over language.

Noteworthily, for most of us, the mere desire to deliver a perfect flawless public talk/presentation is in itself a ruling factor behind the fear of public speaking. On one level, this feeling is akin to being too eager to want to run without doing the real work. That we nearly forget the role of time and effort to learn how to walk in the first place. On a neurological level, in our futile desperation for fluency, some of us try to get ahead of our speech and freeze. We, therefore, find ourselves going blank, further unable to think, process, or come up with even something simple and sweet.

MY STORY

Despite being an active participant & stage-friendly throughout my schooling years, I was petrified by the thought of conducting my first group yoga & mindfulness session. Understandingly enough, I was going to address a gathering, after a long break from public speaking. For a long time, I wasn't working up my motor cortex in the frontal lobe & had left it to rust out. (PUN INTENDED, BUT TRUE!)

Also, for me, it was going to be a whole new game where I was expected to demonstrate asanas with poise & grace, and give clear & precise instructions with a soft & soothing voice. As well as include, engage & encourage my audience (potential students) effortlessly without pushing them.

Amusingly enough, imagine someone who’s a Yoga Instructor & Mindfulness Coach who's out there to teach people to find peace and calm is herself faltering on the stage! The thought of it was both funny as well as scary for me before conducting the very first session of my career. For the better part, I had the tools to overcome the nightmare of forgetting my instruction, losing my balance, or falling flat on my face in the middle of my session.

BUILDING THE FRAMEWORK | INTERNALIZING THE VOCABULARY

It goes without realizing that language is the most potent tool on the planet. When people learn how to use language effectively, people win hearts, move minds, and create lasting impacts. At any point, our choice of words gives a peek at our state of mind, speaks of our unsaid or unexpressed intentions, and reflects our depth or understanding of the matter or topic.

However, first, read extensively to ready the framework and internalize the vocabulary of your topic or field that you might address in your presentation or would need to discuss at length at a job interview. Else, with all the enthusiasm and flex but striking without the impact of the language you would be as good as a woodcutter who’s out in the woods but forget to bring his axe. Therefore:

•Do your research properly and prepare a logically structured question bank where you should be able to answer WHAT, WHY, HOW, and things in and around.

•Educate & equip yourself with the related keywords, synonymous words, and terms & terminologies to put your point across or express yourself in more than one way.

•Once you’ve mastered the conceptual framework and cracked the linguistic structure of the related discipline or concerned topic, you’re then ready to graduate to the next step. In other words, it is when you’re conceptually and linguistically ready, you can move on from the skill of articulation to the art of expression.

For instance - take a full, deep, and exaggerated breath v/s inhale & fill your chest cavity with the air - are two different ways to say the same thing in a lingual and technical manner.

You must know which one of them would work better in given circumstances depending on the kind of audience you have.

PRACTICE MINDFUL SPEAKING AKA CAMERA ROLLING

Once you've done your homework, now is the time to face the camera and articulate your thoughts, opinions, and views aloud. Wait, don't just rush through it. Take a moment to prepare yourself first.

Set An Intention

Drop everything that is there from your mind.

Take some full deep breaths and feel your body.

Breath in calm, peace, and tranquility.

Breathe out tension, worry, judgment, and anxiety.

Collect YOURSELF

Do some vocal warm-up. Make some “haa, hoo, hee” sounds to shake off the clutter.

Close your eyes & imagine imagery of your mind, becoming calm & settling down.

Breathe in, and bring to the top of your mind the guiding words & phrases.

Breathe out, clear the clutter & visualize your mind arranging itself in stratified layers. WHAT, WHY, HOW, IN AND AROUND.

Turn The CAMERA On & Start Speaking

Now turn the camera on to record yourself giving self-speech / self-talk.

1). Just be yourself to make yourself feel comfortable.

It is natural to immediately become camera conscious as you turn it on. Hang on & face it, nobody is watching you but YOU.

Become aware of the heightened feeling of SELF (extreme self-consciousness) in your body.

Feel the churning sensation in your belly, the heaviness in your chest, the tightness in your jaw. Closely. Intimately.

Witness it dissolving, vanishing, and disappearing away as you continue to bring your laser focus on it.

Develop a sense of interconnectedness with the space around you to melt the mental & physical barriers and feel free.

2). Access your surface memory & mentally structure your speech around your topic logically. WHAT, HOW, WHY..

Now let your thoughts flow out on their own as you discuss each segment one by one.

Do not try to regurgitate whatever you have mugged up.

Speak, speak and speak & let everything emerge/ come up on its own.

3). Give yourself the liberty to fully explore the topic and gain new insights while talking out.

Speak with openness in your mind without worrying about what you're going to speak next. Be curious to bring out what you have in there that you still do not have access to!

Allow yourself to take long pauses, make mistakes, and even funny faces. No judgments, please! Nobody is watching you right now. You have all the time to work it up.

Play it  & Assess Yourself

Good job! Give a gentle pat on your back. You've come this far only to go far. Now, sit down & play it over.

Look for the areas of improvement you feel you need to work on. It could be fillers (umm, ahh, like..), expressions or gestures (eye-rolling, arms folding, unnecessary posturing..), your tone and pronunciation.

Remember, don't be harsh on yourself. Just calmly acknowledge your flaws and joyfully make an effort in a direction to work on them.

THERE'S A HOPE: Over time, with enough effort and practice, you'll reach a level where you amaze yourself by speaking crisply, compellingly, and candidly.

PRO TIP: CAMERA ROLLING

On a normal day, if you feel too lazy to do research on an important report or presentation, just turn the damn camera on and practice CAMERA ROLLING.

-You could talk out loud about any damn thing that is on your mind for a while but couldn't think it through.

-You might even reflect on how well you spent your day and what all things you intend to do tomorrow.

-You can even introspect why your previous relationship didn't work out and what you learned from it.

Talk it out aloud on the camera regardless of how insignificant you think that thing is otherwise. CAMERA ROLLING is new journaling, where you'd eventually end up working on your speaking skills. Also, you'd gain an increased clarity of mind and a sense of heightened self-awareness.

CONCLUDING REMARK

Believe me, it's not at all justified holding back that valuable suggestion, that constructive feedback, or that important recommendation just because you don't have the courage to express it aloud or don't know how to even put it in a nutshell.

Sometimes, you might think in your head that it's way too simple and silly to call for everyone's attention in the meeting room. Nah! It turns out that often it's the simplest things that we ignore/miss out on in our grand scheme of things.

Evidently, in the meeting of the board of directors, when customer needs are put in focus results in the launch of a better product. Similarly, in policy research think tanks, when aspirations of citizens are kept at the heart, it leads to drafting & launching a successful scheme/policy.

Correspondingly, in job interviews, when the vision and mission of the company are well-understood and expressed by the applicant, he takes home the offer letter. Parallelly, in public speaking, when the speaker speaks the language that his audience deeply resonates with, he receives a standing ovation.

So, your perspective matters enough to be seen, and your point of view deserves enough to be heard. It is only a matter of improving your communication skills and gaining the confidence to speak your point aloud with an intention & purpose. So keep calm and practice mindful speaking, who knows that you're the next thought leader in the making!

P.S: Keep rolling, keep practicing. Do it at least for 2 mins every single day. REMEMBER, you're just a few practice sessions away to speak with an impact with the gift of gab.