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Writer's pictureDavy

Public Speaking with (fake?) confidence!

For this post, we will need again a bit of audience participation. There will be gain without any pain, so you are highly recommended to join the experiment!

First of all, look for a pencil that hasn’t been shortened too much yet. Now put the pencil in your mouth, in the way a dog would fetch a stick. If you suddenly notice the tip or the eraser has an interesting taste, you’re doing something wrong! You can even push the pencil a bit, so both corners of your mouth get a little bit of pressure. Keep things there and start reading the article until further instructions come up…

In the last posts, we have been focusing on some heavier topics: stress and panic attacks were all over the place (and not only when writing the posts…). Therefore, we tackle this next Public Speaking post from a very positive angle: one of the best ways to bring a message across convincingly is by just being your authentic, passionate self!


When you have to speak about something you are truly passionate about and you deliver it in an unforced, authentic way, your enthusiasm will be contagious, and you will easily create an emotional connection with your audience. When speaking about the right topic, words will almost fall into place by themselves and you could keep going on and on... As an example, ask us any question about Tilt - Improv Based Learning and be prepared to see some stamina that would make a certain pink battery bunny blush. Yes, we have a soft spot for bunnies (and alliterations)...

An important effect of true passion is that your conversation partner unconsciously picks up on a few small but important visual cues, like e.g. dilated pupils. You will automatically exude confidence, a property that is extremely attractive both in and outside of the professional world.


But what if you are not that passionate about the topic you need to speak about, or you in general feel you lack confidence to speak to a certain audience?


This is where the pencil experiment comes into play! If you have followed the instructions closely, the effect should be starting to show by now. We are not talking about the potential small but continuous stream of saliva that might have trickled down the pencil (apologies for that!), but your mood should have slightly improved since you started reading this article. We would love to take full credit for this and assume it is linked to extreme witticism displayed in the article, but unfortunately only brass musicians get away with blowing their own horn. By pushing the pencil onto the corners of your mouth, you trick your body to believe you are smiling, which automatically improves your mood. Feel free to use this trick as much as you like to give yourself a small boost. Worst case it doesn’t work for you, but I’m sure it will create a smile on the face of the colleagues who are in the meeting with you…


The pencil experiment has of course been around for quite a while already and is not supposed to be a shocking discovery in this post. But as easy as it is to trick yourself to believe you are in a good mood, similarly you can easily trick others into thinking you are fully confident about your topic.


The key here is to focus on “how” you deliver your message. Sure, the content is very important, but your delivery method is where you make the difference. Think about playing with speed of speaking, the pitch of your voice, your posture and gestures and the ultimate “confidence bazooka”: playing around with complete silence. The first times playing around with leaving a silence of several seconds in front of an audience is also the closest mankind has come to time travel: you (but only you) will suddenly perceive seconds as minutes!


Playing around with your delivery method can give the impression that you are in total control of the situation, even if internally you are still struggling a bit to ride the adrenaline wave.


And like with any skill, it is of course important that you get plenty of practice₍₁₎ before you hit the stage. Especially the most relaxed looking public speeches (think “Apple product launch in the times of Steve Jobs”) are rehearsed extensively, with video recordings to finetune the delivery method. Bonus: by practicing in advance, you will also increase your confidence levels, which reduces the need to “fake” confidence!


Not sure how you can actually practice or finetune your delivery method? This is where Tilt - Improv Based Learning comes into play again! We have a whole arsenal of exciting activities prepared that will allow you to explore what are possible ways to deliver a message, and which ones are complementary to your personal, authentic style.


So in conclusion, it is always best to be as authentic and passionate as possible when speaking in public. When you are not fully confident to deliver a message, make sure you practice in advance and focus on the “how” of your delivery to fake some extra confidence by making use of a whole batch of auditory and visual tricks. Drooling with a pencil in your mouth is unfortunately not one of them…


Interested to know more about Public Speaking or other crucial business topics training? Get in contact with us at info@tiltlearning.com or snoop around on the website at www.tiltlearning.com!

 

₍₁₎ It might sound a bit contradictory that an improvisation based training program recommends you to practice a lot, but Tilt - Improv Based Learning uses improvisation as a tool to learn new skills, not as a skill itself that makes preparation obsolete. Whoever promises you that you don’t need to prepare anymore for an important speech once you are familiar with improvisation will probably also be convinced that the world is a flat disc and that vaccines are used by the government to implant tracking microchips….

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