Visualize to Realize doing a great job at your next talk.

THURSDAY Public Speaking Tip by The “UnSpeaker”, Ter Scott!

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Visualizing doing a great job at the lectern is a necessary part of preparation; and to do so effectively to see the results, you must expect it to be so. That is why I say we should “visualize to realize”. What we visualize does become reality when we believe it becomes reality. (Actually many things can become reality with little expectation on our part, but I will leave that for another article).  Later I will talk about how we should expect great things and when minor unexpected, errors or problems such as nervousness or lack of proper gestures or forgetting something happens in our elocution, we don’t “play this up” or apologize. (Remember the audience does not hold a script in their hands knowing what you should be saying or doing; they may never notice it!).

When you have your speech organized on paper or in a word document, you’ve practiced it in your head, you’ve recorded it, listened to it, modified it, and physically practiced it at the lectern many times and finally “know” it, now you need to visualize yourself at the lectern presenting it. You can do this anytime that you have a few free moments or the actual amount of time for the length of your speech to run through the entire presentation.

To visualize, you will not be at the lectern physically, but you sit or lie down in a comfortable position with your eyes closed. Get comfortable without distractions and closing your eyes, take a few relaxing breaths and when ready, you will “see”, in your mind’s eye of your imagination, you in the room. You will soon be doing “all” of the steps; all of your physical “steps” from walking to the lectern after hearing your introduction by the MC and hearing the applause by the audience. You will be “there” in time and in tune with the moment simply by seeing yourself there, in the moment.

First see yourself where you will be just before delivering your presentation. Will you be sitting with the audience, or standing “off stage” waiting to hear your name called. See yourself at that physical place standing or sitting. If standing, see the curtain, the stage, and the person introducing you. See the audience eagerly waiting for your words of wisdom, wanting to experience your entertaining personality, willing to take your information into their lives and make it better.

But visualizing is more than just sight. You must experience it with all of your five senses. Hear your introduction, hear the audience clapping. Smell the musty fragrance of the curtain or the aromas wafting from the kitchen from the dinner which follows your speech. Smell the fragrance of your cologne. Feel your feet within your shoes standing on the hard tiled floor, tap your foot and hear its sharp, crisp sound. Feel your ring on your finger and hear your voice audibly quietly assuring yourself that you will do a great job and that you love your audience and they love you. Finally taste the cold drink of water you always carry with you to refresh your throat which washes away the taste of the slight flavor of mint left which still lingers on your tongue.

Elsewhere I speak about knowing the room and the environment where you’ll speak. Please note that there may not be a musty curtain, you may not be speaking at a dinner engagement and the floor that you stand upon is carpeted; not tiled. That’s OK; you are visualizing what it could be.  However, the more factual you are about the surroundings and environment, the better you can visualize.

TER’S TIP: You may want to have a “ritual” (I strongly suggest it) that you always do so prior to your speaking, so something is always real, that you can depend. For instance, your ritual could be that you always do three things prior to each speech: enjoy a breath mint, a cool drink from a water bottle, and turn the ring on your finger while telling yourself that you’ll do a great job, that you love your audience and that they love you. Then when you visualize this, then when you actually start your presentation by actually doing these three things, your subconscious is well on its way to moving forward in bringing you the exact results desired!

Now that you are “there”, with all of your senses, you visualize (with all five senses) yourself walking to the lectern, and then delivering your presentation. You go through each detail of your speech; as many as you can, from your greeting and introduction while hearing the laughter you evoked by the quip in your intro to get attention, through each of your three points; while you “play off” the feedback of the looks and body language by your listeners. You see the tears by some in the audience as you state your summary and conclusion and a few remaining chuckles from some before finally hearing the applause start, quietly at first and then getting louder. You see people start to stand, one by one and then others as the entire room of people stand cheering and clapping wildly.

Now, how was that? You exhale triumphantly. You open your eyes, and verbally congratulate yourself for a stupendous job. You know now that you’ll do the same and experience the same in reality.

Do your visualization rehearsal several times prior to physically presenting your speech; it doesn’t matter how many times you do it, just be sure that you visualize all “good” when you do so. If you have “trouble spots” when you physically practice your presentation see them corrected and without flaws in your visualization. Many professional speakers present the same material again and again to different audiences. Visualization improves here too. Doing the same presentation can often cause complacency in delivery. Do a checkup and add excitement to any oral communication by visualizing it first; our audiences deserve the best.

Remember, practice does not make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect. Perfect practice can be achieved by visualizing your presentations. Yes, I’ve played it up a bit in the example above but you can too, and you should. Be in the moment, and “make” the moment the way you want by visualizing. Visualize to realize!

 

Ter Scott! is a professional speaker and trainer of marketing and motivation. He also offers private speaking training to individuals and corporations. Contact him at his website: www.terscott.com/contact.

At your request, I will present my award winning presentation: Personal PR to your business group within a 100 mile radius of Duluth MN at no fee. In just 7 minutes your group will learn about communicating better using these simple communication altering principles from “A Short Course in Human (or Public) Relations”. You can hear the presentation at www.terscott.com/personalpr and place your request via my contact page: www.terscott.com/contact. Don’t live or have a business within 100 mile radius of Duluth MN? Contact my office anyway; I’m often speaking around the country and may be in an area near you.

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