Anyone like public speaking?

[zinfamous]

sometimes. I hate it when the audience is flat, though. I need to be able to riff and tell off-color jokes to get comfortable. ....if they aren't with me, then it all goes to shit.

 

[zinfamous]

no. I meant meth. it makes everything better.

dude, have you ever spoke at a bat mitzvah while on PCP? The magistrate told me he had never seen a case like that.

 

[Spacehead]

sometimes. I hate it when the audience is flat, though. I need to be able to riff and tell off-color jokes to get comfortable. ....if they aren't with me, then it all goes to shit.

So you need a warm up act?

I've never had to speak to a large crowd but i doubt i'd like it. I've heard if you picture everyone naked it makes it easier. Since it's remote maybe have some pr0n going on in a smaller window. 😛

 

[zinfamous]

So you need a warm up act?

Not really, because the corpse is already cold.

--seriously, my best bits have been at funerals, lol. which, of course, sucks when you then hit that kind of funeral crowd.

 

[Stopsignhank]

I am an extreme introvert. Yet I have no problem talking in front of a crowd. I used to give weekly safety meetings to 3 different groups. The difference is I am presenting material to the groups so it is not big deal. But then eye contact is pretty much of a no-no while I am talking in front of a crowd.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

I have to present to a public company board of directors 4-6x a year - I've learned no one likes it but you become good at it. My team and I draft my material ~ 15 drafts until final. Every word is scrutinized. I then go in cold for the presentation - I should know this, its my material, my job - no practice and it works. My style.

I've had presntations to my department with 150+ people to which I thought I bombed to only get amazing feedback. Winging it and not coming off as a robot is my only tip!

 

[Exterous]

Winging it and not coming off as a robot is my only tip!

Yeah I have to practice or I'll forget to cover material. I assume the people I am talking to can read so my slides are key points while my script it much more involved. That makes remembering all the points I want to cover more difficult for me

 

[snoopy7548]

I used to hate it, and I still sort of do, but it's not as bad anymore.

Growing up, I would dread the days when we had to present in front of the class or read some number of pages aloud from a book in English class. I think all of this fear came from having a speech impediment, feeling dumb/ashamed about it, and not being about to get out of my own head. I'd always get that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, and my body would just turn cold. Still happens.

I've gotten a bit better over the years. Some of it comes from simply not caring anymore - we're all adults now, and there's nothing to be ashamed about.

I've found that when I know what I'm talking about and can speak directly from my mind rather than needing to plan ahead (when I'm showing off work that I've done to a small group, for instance), everything flows pretty well and I enjoy it. I like when people ask me questions and there's some engagement, as it tends to lighten the mood and not really put me on the spot as the only person speaking - it turns into more of a discussion rather than a presentation where everybody is focused on me. Everybody remaining quiet scares me into thinking that I'm either not making sense or they're simply not interested.

I recently gave a talk at work to our team about new development work I've been doing, which was/is a huge task but will become an incredibly useful tool. I felt comfortable the entire time since I was talking to like-minded people. One of the team members tried to trip me up with "tough" questions, but I had a different team member come to me after the meeting to tell me how well I handled it because, well, I know exactly what I'm doing.

 

[IronWing]

I have to present to a public company board of directors 4-6x a year - I've learned no one likes it but you become good at it. My team and I draft my material ~ 15 drafts until final. Every word is scrutinized. I then go in cold for the presentation - I should know this, its my material, my job - no practice and it works. My style.

I've had presntations to my department with 150+ people to which I thought I bombed to only get amazing feedback. Winging it and not coming off as a robot is my only tip!

This is my preferred style. When I know my stuff, I walk in with a few memory joggers scribbled on a half sheet of paper and wing it. It works for me. I switched speech classes in college after the first class because the first professor said he expected us to write out and read out all our speeches word for word.

One thing I’ve learned is to not take the bait when someone asks me to speculate on topics I don’t know enough about. “I don’t know” is always a better response than whatever bullshit I think might be right.

This summer I had to be the facilitator for over two hundred project meetings (no, I am not exaggerating, three meetings per day, every day, seven days a week). Fortunately, I got the project team pretty well trained to do their parts and stay on task early on so I didn’t have to steer much.

 

[Zeze]

I love public speaking and presenting, although I'm an introvert. I kick ass at it. I love taking control of the crowd, letting the silence ring, ask for Qs, and closing, etc.

As a matter of fact, that's what carried my career.

 

[Jeeebus]

I enjoy it - it's a pretty good rush.

I'm in court at least 3 times per week and most of these are generally with 20 - 30 people in the room. Frankly, most lawyers are terrible at public speaking and judges/juries can lose interest/get bored rather quickly, so it's a skill that is extremely important for what I do. I've done a lot of public speaking engagements too - anywhere from 100 people to over 1,000. Scary as all hell to look up and there's a sea of people out there, but also one hell of a motivator not to screw up.

 

[Zeze]

I enjoy it - it's a pretty good rush.

I'm in court at least 3 times per week and most of these are generally with 20 - 30 people in the room. Frankly, most lawyers are terrible at public speaking and judges/juries can lose interest/get bored rather quickly, so it's a skill that is extremely important for what I do. I've done a lot of public speaking engagements too - anywhere from 100 people to over 1,000. Scary as all hell to look up and there's a sea of people out there, but also one hell of a motivator not to screw up.

I give lots of credit to church. I grew up doing testimonies, talking in front of congregation, praise band lead, bible study lead, etc...

That translated into professors shaking my hand in college because I delivered a kickass presentation where I didn't even look at my slides.

At my career, I lead typical 10-50 people meetings. The largest I spoke in front of the room is probably only 250 though. But crowd size doesn't really matter once it's past a certain count.

 

[Mai72]

You should make an appearance like Tony Robbins. Run out on stage. Pump your fist in the air stating "we got this guys! Who wants to make millions!!"

Then upsell the crowd $30k for a real estate course your promoting. 🙂

 

[deadlyapp]

I generally enjoy public speaking but definitely still get standard anxiety before going up. I've done a few very large presentations up to 1-2k people and regularly do trainings and sales presentations for smaller groups

 

[Raizinman]

Check out toastmasters. I sued a newspaper and did it pro'se (that was the year of my Mercedes). It is directly due to Toastmasters. Check them out, they are fantastic for overcoming the number 1 fear - public speaking.

 

[IronWing]

Check out toastmasters. I sued a newspaper and did it pro'se (that was the year of my Mercedes). It is directly due to Toastmasters. Check them out, they are fantastic for overcoming the number 1 fear - public speaking.

Thank you Toastmasters!