TWO of the hardest things about giving a short talk, impromptu or planned, are standing up and breathing. Perfectly good, depend able legs suddenly get wobbly and unreliable. Our fine air-intake system, without warning, turns into a gasping, rasping sort of thing that needs help. If you ask regular speakers about this they may pooh-pooh the idea that they ever get scared, and insist that if you try hard enough you will get over it in time.
This could be. But chances are you won't! Did you know that most honest people who are public speakers admit that they do get butterflies? It is simply a useful phenomenon your body getting ready to go into action. It even sharpens and speeds up your mental action. Actually, a person who doesn't get some preplatform excitement can leave his audience unexcited, too.
We have discovered a couple of things that help where there is no table to lean against or podium to hang onto.
1. Gestures. Believe it or not, when we got so involved in our talk that we could use gestures we forgot that we were scared. Try it, it does work.
2. Moving around a bit. When legs simply begin to give out try moving a little. It helped us so much we could hardly believe it.
Expect a certain amount of butterflies. Just get them organized and flying in the same direction, and your speech will sparkle.
One of the easiest things about giving a talk is talking. Since we are feminine, we just naturally do, and have to do, a lot of talking. Every day we give talks that:
get action---from children
inform---husbands
convince---lots of people.
We can get excited or emotional about our subjects, and we know how to get and hold our audience and their attention.
In the fall of 1969, when we were taking a very concentrated course in public speaking and personal improvement, our instructor told us that these natural feminine qualities are exactly the talents we need for giving public talks and speeches.
He also told us to do the following:
Know thoroughly what you are talking about.
Be really interested in what you are talking about.
(He encouraged us to use personal experiences. If they were interesting to us they would be of interest to others.)
Be eager to talk about the subject. Have a good time giving the talk.
Use illustrations and/or examples and re member to make them clear.
We were taught to use the "magic formula" when in a meeting and asked to give an impromptu "few words." The formula is so simple it is easy to remember.
1. Example
2. Point
3. Reason.
It can work this way. After getting right into an example finish it by stating the point. Then comes a very brief reason for the point. This is useful for committee meetings, home and school meetings, and even after-dinner talks; especially when there is no time to plan ahead for them. For example, when someone gives us the dubious honor of being the next on the program to say a few words we can simply address the chairman and guests and then speak a few warm, sincere words of appreciation for something or someone (the janitor who is seldom recognized but who works so faithfully). Then make a point, which could be how much he is needed to keep things running smoothly. Then the reason, which is for the comfort of each member of the church. This is so easy, and people always respond warmly when someone thinks of saying Thank you to a deserving person.
In our class we thought the speech of introduction was the most fun of all and really the simplest. The formula for this is:
T---Topic. Five seconds to give the topic or title.
I---Importance. Five seconds to tell the importance of the subject.
S---Speaker. Fifty seconds to give the speaker's qualifications. No personal opinions just the facts.
All of this builds up to when you give the speaker's name, clearly and distinctly. Your sincerity has made the speaker glad that he is there and the audience eager to hear him.
The big secret to the whole speaking situation is enthusiasm. It works like a boomerang. When the speaker is eager and enthusiastic, so is the audience. Contrariwise, a bored speaker equals a sort of "blah" audience.
Now that we know a few of these concrete facts about public speaking, we should feel more sure of ourselves; that, we are told, is half the battle. All we have to do now is keep trying and hoping for patient audiences! That "Who, me speak in public?" attitude can be changed to a willing response when we are called on to speak.
