This week Aleen Bayard and Steven give some tips about speaking in front of your peers.

“Would you rather go to the dentist or stand up at your next meeting and speak to your peers?”  I know that a lot of people would probably prefer to go to the dentist.

Aleen and Steven do a lot of speaking to groups, so they thought they’d share a couple of tips with you this week that might be useful.

Aleen thinks that one of the most important things is to get as much information about the audience as you can.  She often talks to a conference organiser and does a survey or a pre email to participants.  By getting some information ahead of time she can start her remarks referring back to something they are very interested in.

The second thing she does, even in a large group, is to try and make eye contact with one person at a time.  This tends to shrink the room from several hundred people, down to one or two people at a time.  That really helps her to feel confident and creates much better rapport with the audience.

One of things Steven often does is to meet a few people in the front row before he actually does a presentation.  Then he can pick them out and make eye contact with them.  Whatever you do don’t stare at the back wall over everybody’s head, because they can tell.  And don’t picture everybody naked, as a presenter who’s killing himself laughing, usually isn’t very effective.

Steven also thinks it’s not just good to get to know the audience, but get to know their terminology.  Use the phrases and words that they use.  You’re an expert on your subject, maybe it’s better to find out how they talk about things.  You can do this by reading some things on the internet, industry journals or magazines, just pick up some of their language.

The most important thing Steven always impresses upon people is to breathe.  Good deep breaths using your diaphragm.  Almost like breathing from your stomach.  This not only overcomes the symptoms of nerves, but it also means that your speech comes out polished and professional, even if you are actually a little big nervous underneath the surface.

So don’t forget to BREATHE.

If you forget where you are, you lose your place for a moment, nobody knows that but you, so don’t say “oh my gosh I forgot”.  Just keep going, because the only person that knows that you missed a page is yourself.  The audience never knows any difference.

And a pause or silence from you, actually shows confidence and gives people time to collect what you have been saying.  So nobody’s going to lose anything if you take your time and pause.

We hope those tips help you this week.

If you haven’t taken the opportunity to sign up to the Every Tuesday Club with MBE (Management & Business Education), then do so today by going to www.buseducation.com.