Get a Free Download pdf Confident Speaking: www.alexanderlyon.com/free-resources See Brenden's Free Workshops (the guy who does the "Random Word" exercise): www.rockstarcommunicator.com/
Speaking in front of many people as a student has been a common skill for me way back before quarantine. However, due to years of being in lockdown, this skill has somehow been reconfigured and now I became more anxious to speak, especially when I'm completely unprepared and put on the spot. This video made me aware that this exact skill is what I need to relearn and practice to get back to my old self. Thank you so much for this great video. I'm looking forward to the time where I'm confident again in speaking in front of a crowd, prepared or unprepared. 😊
Thanks Alex. I can see where practicing impromptu would be really helpful in creating my videos. Just getting more comfortable in general. I'll have to search some exercises up.
I just wanted to say that I always look forward to watching one of your videos! Being a graduate in communication studies with a focus on theory, it impresses me how you integrate concepts, theories, and models from the field into your content. Usually, videos about public speaking, interpersonal communication, and branding come off as superficial or artificial. But, that's not the case with this channel!! 😁 The inner comm geek in me requests a video on the five axioms of communication, but that's just me LOL
Hi Stephen. I've been considering doing a video on the five axioms. I just have to find the right angle to make it practical and engaging. Great suggestion.
I accidentally found your channel through Lisa’s channel which I also accidentally discovered! Amazing! Thank you! P. S. Can you sometime make a video about gestures and public speaking for RU-vidrs? I noticed there some (a few) popular gestures and hand motions that all RU-vidrs use, like pointing a finger and so on… and how most RU-vidrs start Hi Guys with a creasy smile all over the face. Is it really effective?
Thanks for your comments, Marsha. I saw some on the other videos as well. I’m glad you found the channel and I’m very grateful to be friends with Lisa! She’s fantastic.
Thank you for uploading this video! I’m working on speaking better in my videos because I often sound robotic and monotone. I’m sure it’s because I try to “stick to the script” so I won’t be all over the place. I’ll give the extemporaneous method a chance. 🙏🏾
Thank you for this advice! I agree, reading from a script in the worst way to deliver a speech! Extemporaneous is best! I am writing speeches for a congressional candidate. I do my best to write what seems to be natural language for them, then I have them edit, then we bullet point. I insist that they practice speaking the speech verbatim, recording their own voice so they can speak it "with themselves". The idea is that they not have to look down at their notes at all, but have them handy just in case. I think an important part of extemporaneous speech is that is sounds natural and passionate.
As usual, thank you for uploading another video. I usually feel comfortable speaking impromptu as long as I have context on the topic. Otherwise, I usually just end up pushing back politely that I might not be the best person to talk about it. I am not sure if that's the best way to respond, especially if you are on a big stage. Alex, do you have any tips to offer? Curious to hear your thoughts and learn more.
The tips I'd offer are the same ones that I mentioned in the video. That is, get some practice speaking impromptu so that when it happens and you can't avoid it, you'll have the skills developed a bit already and it'll be easier.
Iam new student and I want to know more information that concerns public speaking now I got this channel and Iam saying to you thanks a lot. My name is HANAD IPRAHIM Ali
Hello sir ,i am elakkiya from india.i can understand English language but i can't speak because little hesitation .i saw many via RU-vid nothing satisfied me lot .when i saw your videos that increase my confidence. Can you teach me online sessions. Thanks you.
Hi, Elakkiya. I'm glad the video was helpful. I don't offer any live coaching right now but I do have online classes. The links to those are in the expandable description below the video.
I have a informative speech presentation soon. I'm very stressed and on top of that, the teacher has me at an F in her class which is more on my list, I feel like a failure lol 😆
@@alexanderlyon which is why politicians try to mimic preachers. Or at least I've noticed some of that. I really can't stand when Mitch and Schumer simply read from a prepared statement. Although Mitch does a better job at it, it's really annoying and lacking in sincerity. IMO
I need so much help in this area, as a yoga teacher I speak in front of people in person & on zoom, everyday I keep a script of my classes nearby….w/o it I feel more insecure, impromptu is NOT me!!😳🙄😳
It's an interesting question. These tips are for public speaking in front of people. When speaking directly to a camera for the purposes of being recorded, a common approach is a teleprompter. That might include just bullet points or it might include a word-for-word script. I use both approaches depending upon the video. They are overlapping skills for sure but making videos involves so many technical aspects to it, that using a script is a go-to-approach for many people. There are some days, for example, when I record 8 or more unrelated videos over the course of 4 hours (same day). When I'm changing gears like that really quickly, it's best to know exactly what I'm about to say. I'm guessing that about 50% of my videos are just from notes and 50% are from a script. However, when I speak to live people (whether in person or on Zoom), I always use basic notes and I speak extemporaneously.
It might be about your tone. I have two videos on that, What is Tone of Voice and How to Change Your Tone. Those may help you. Also, I have a video on How to Increase Your Self-Awareness that might be helpful.
Hey Alex. What are your thoughts on gesturing with one hand versus gesturing with both? I believe we should always use both hands. I often see speakers gesture with only one hand. It feels incomplete to me. It also looks somewhat awkward and distracting, for both presenters who have a home base and those who let their arms down. With the home base, there's one hand left hanging there with nothing to hold on to. With speakers who let their arms down, there's a big, distracting discrepancy between the arm that's doing all the gesturing above and the one that's not moving at all below. I feel when speakers use both hands, their body language is quite literally 50% stronger, which makes their overall message all the more impactful. It also looks the most natural and confident. When both hands are active, there's no room for "what-to-do-with-my-hands-when-I'm-not-gesturing" awkwardness. I understand sometimes we want to make a small point, and gesturing with both hands might be too much. This is I think the reason so many speakers use one hand so often. In this case, I would either not gesture at all or gesture with both hands in a smaller, softer way than I would with one. Other times, we're obligated to gesture with one hand, like when we want to illustrate a number lower than six with our fingers. In these situations, it's understandable to keep one hand down at home base.
Everybody knows somebody who seems to know a little bit about a very large number of subjects, but in addition, there are those who seem to have the gift of being able to “BS their way through“ just about anything… In other words, they can convince their audience that they know what they’re talking about, even if they really don’t. In my experience with high school UIL debate, A Socio political topic was chosen, and it was a mere toss of a coin as to which position you were expected to defend, with only seconds to prepare. I remember one exercise in which the topic was gun control, in which both my sparring partner and I Harvard strong pro second amendment right, and with both of us being country boys, these were lifelong positions. I unfortunately drew the task of having to defend a position advocating additional and stricter gun control, a position I was vehemently opposed to, but my task was my task, and having been exposed to this debate over time, at least was cognizant of the typical arguments presented by both sides, and was able to mount a formidable defense of the position, and having a significantly better command of the language, and a significantly larger working vocabulary, my “opponent” actually became upset, thinking I had changed my position, (or had been lying all along) and some time later he actually confronted me over my apparently wrongheaded liberal, yankee, city-boy attitude which he found quite unmanly and distasteful. It was all I could do to at least convince him that I did not deserve getting beat up, because I was literally told what position I was REQUIRED to defend, no matter how disingenuous I felt defending it. Apparently and my trauma notwithstanding - my words were sufficiently convincing that he had a really hard time believing that I wasn’t speaking my true mind. It didn’t help matters that I was voted by a panel of faculty to be the “winner“ of that particular debate round, a judgement that I was quite conflicted about. If the coin toss had gone the other way, I don’t know WHAT would’ve happened. That kid regarded me with suspicion from that time forward. That was in about 1976.
