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SPEECHES Here's my Training Grounds for speeches - y'know, statistically the most feared event in anyones life! So if you manage to get this part of life sorted, you can face death with a smirk on your face! (...Well, maybe not quite, but it sure sounds good!) Here i'll dispense some of my speechy wisdom on some of the things i've picked up doing speeches, and maybe a few examples of my own speeches and other's which i find particularly good. Speech techniques Ok, so you think that speaking in front of your mates is going to be “shame”. I don’t really like that word, because it’s a word that stops you from becoming the best that you could be. I’ve got a few techniques that you might want to use to help you get the best out of your presentation. 1. Pretend you’re someone else. Now it’s not always a good thing in life to pretend to be someone else, but in this case it can be very helpful. If you know someone who is really good at speaking, maybe a friend, someone in the community like a business leader or sports coach, an entertainer or even someone off TV (the best example I know of is The Rock! For those of you who don’t know about Wrestling, maybe someone like Mike King, Stacey Daniels etc), pretend you are them! By doing this you can use their skills to help your own presentation! 2. Exaggerate. Sometimes, putting on a voice or saying your speech in a different voice, slightly louder or deeper, can help you get over the fear of sounding quiet. When you’re speaking too quiet, you can hear every little noise, and if someone’s making noises while you’re talking it can put you off. 3. Make it interesting! Make it fun! This is one of the best (and most obvious?) ways to help your presentation. Put some jokes in, or interesting things. Use different techniques to say your speech, different voices, tell a story, anything to make it interesting and fun! You know your audience – in this case, some of the people are your mates – so you know what they find interesting, funny etc. Because if you like presenting it, and people like hearing it, everyone is having a good time! And that’s what we’re after! 4. Pretend you are the person you are speaking about. Here’s a classic idea that can make your presentation fun, especially if you have someone like Muhammad Ali. You could stand up and shout just like Ali, “My name is Muhammad Ali, and I am the greatest boxer the world has ever seen! I was the world champion 3 times, and that is why I am a hero to the world, to people just like Ben!” It can be fun to ‘get inside the skin’ of who you are talking about. 5. Don’t look at the crowd! If your mates put you off, then a simple solution is…don’t look at them! If crowds of people looking at you makes you nervous, try to block them out by looking at the clock on the wall, or straight ahead at a point on the wall in front of you, just above their head. Then you have no distractions! 6. Practice! Hey, why not? It’s the best way to make sure you get everything right on the day. Even if you just run through it once to see if there are any words you have trouble saying, or if there are things that just don’t sound right. You know what they say, practice makes perfect. Just one note, you don’t have to memorise the speech so you are allowed to have your speech with you. There are other things you can do to help with your speech, so use your imagination! One last word on the ‘shame’ thing – don’t let that word prevent your life from becoming what it could be. It’s one of those limiting things in life that just drag you down. Remember what Sir Edmund Hillary said about those things that scare you – use that fear to make you act, rather than allowing it to paralyse you! GOOD LUCK!!!