Why We Are Different From Our Competitors?

Competitors who claim to help people overcome their fear of public speaking rely upon  ineffective and simplistic methods like tips, advise, pep talks, video, theory, therapy, and  rehearsals; focusing upon minor issues like body language, eye contact, knowing your audience, and positive thinking where significant behaviors like rapid speech, hyperventilation, confusion, rapid heartbeat, anxiety, negative thinking, and “ah and um” are not seriously dealt with or corrected.  Even visualization techniques, a mainstay of traditional public speaking programs, will not work for the anxious speaker when he is facing an audience.

In contrast, TalkPower is based upon the practical yet scientifically sound principals of MIND/BODY,  skills-learning,  neuroscience, acting techniques and original concentration exercises. Step-by-step, through a series of concentration exercises, participants in a TalkPower workshop develop permanent public speaking and organizing skills. These techniques of control give them the ability face and audience with confidence, comfortable in their own skin.

Can I Read My Speech?

Many of my students come the to the TalkPower Workshops with the idea that reading a speech is unprofessional; they fear that reading will make them lose their spontaneity. This is the silliest thing I’ve ever heard and completely impractical. An all-or-nothing approach will only serve to discourage you from ever taking the risk of ever speaking in public.

Isn’t it better to feel confident, using a script? Why avoid an opportunity to speak because you will forget what you wanted to say? If you do accept and opportunity to speak, isn’t it foolish to run the risk of rambling on and on, feeling insecure and embarrassed? Is it any wonder why there are so many terrible speakers out there when people are taught that using a script is a big no no? Of course you can read. Common sense will tell you that confidence comes from feeling secure, and this will happen only if your speech is accessible.

The fact is that people use their spontaneity when they read from a paper because they prepare a talk as if it where a term paper. “Fill up as many pages as possible and you’ll get a better grade.” If the professor had to skim over repetitions and irrelevancies, that was his problem. A listening audience cannot skim. Go of the beaten track for half a millisecond and you lose your crowd. The audience tunes out planning dinner, lunch, the weekend, counting the tiles on the ceiling…

Learning how to write for a listening audience, not a reading audience in a TalkPower workshop makes all the difference. After you have been using a written script for some time, and have internalized what a real beginning, middle, and end are all about, you will be able to speak without a script.

An old wives tale maintains that if you read from a script you will sound stilted. Actually, you sound stilted when you constantly read with your nose in the text. The secret of appearing spontaneous lies in rehearsing the script so that you look up at the audience and then back at your script, from time to time. Practice your talk looking at the text, then looking out at your imaginary audience, then finding your place and looking at your text again. Not only will you feel secure, you will appear charming, knowledgeable, and in control.

Each year I subscribe to a series of play readings in New York City, produced by a very talented theater company called TACT (The Actors Company Theater). The actors are all seated in a semi circle and every actor reads from his script. These readings rank among the best theater I have ever experienced. Much work and rehearsal goes into each production, yet not one actor memorized or improvises his part. Every word is read from a script, and the results are always delightful.

Politicians read their speeches from a teleprompter and they usually go off without a hitch.

Perhaps last month you saw a professional speaker a long, magnificent, hilarious presentation without reading fro ma single note. And perhaps you felt envious and inadequate. Let me assure you that this professional speaker has probably given the same talk 100 times in the last five years.

“I was scheduled at two colleges on two successive days. On the first day my talk on Ecology went over so well I decided to get more mileage by giving it the second day. My teenage son was with me and during dinner, prior to the second talk, I suddenly became aware that my son was regailing the head table with an exact account I had given the night before- and was about to give again!”

                                                            -Issac Asimov

The TalkPower Word Budget

Students tell me that their inability to edit material is a major problem. Often they accumulate enough research material to talk for hours even though they only have 10 minutes to do their presentation. Cutting this down for your allotted task is a herculean task, leaving you feeling totally overwhelmed.

            It’s like a dream I sometimes have. In this dream I go into my office and all of the files are turned upside-down and emptied out on the floor. I need certain documents quickly, to prepare a summation for a jury, and I don’t know where anything is. I feel rushed and helpless. I don’t know where to begin. That’s what it’s like when I have to prepare a summation or a speech, or any kind of presentation.

                                   

                                                                        -Jason, Attourney

Almost every presentation has a time limit. Since there are approximately 150 words to 1 minute of speaking time, once you know how much time you have for your talk you can keep track of the amount of material you need by using a word count to limit yourself. This is how you do it.

If you are given 10 minutes to give a presentation, you will have to prepare fewer than 1500 words, including time for pauses. The combination of a time limit and word count gives you and approximate word budget to work with (there area bout 250 words per double space type written page, given 1-inch margin and a 12 point font).

If this idea seems radically different from your normal procedure don’t panic. Writing a talk will become as familiar as driving to work, when you understand the rules. Once students learn how to edit themselves in terms of minutes and word counts, they are amazed at the beauty and clarity of their talks. In addition, the time saving factor of using this formula is considerable.

Where to Look

Should you make direct eye contact with the audience before you begin speaking? The answer, you might be surprised to learn, is no.

Making eye contact (which means having a nonverbal eye to eye conversation) distracts you at a time when you need your concentration to focus on your first words, your adjustment to this high visibility, the strangeness of the distance between yourself and the audience, your rapid heartbeat, and the general shock of the performance situation. You need time, about 30 seconds or even more, to get used to all of this.

ADJUSTING TO THE AUDIENCE:

The next phase involves your awareness of the audience, so that you can slip into an easy and comfortable relationship with them. This will happen automatically if you stand still when you first face your audience. You don’t have to do a thing except squeeze your toes three times slowly before you speak your first words. This phase is enormously important. If you do it correctly you will feel very much in control.

WHERE TO LOOK:

Look straight ahead at the faces in your audience, perhaps at their foreheads or even their hair. Look neither too high above their heads, nor so low that you appear to be looking at the floor. Making eye contact is not necessary because if the audience looks into your eyes and you are looking at their faces, you will feel as if you are making eye contact. The necessity for direct eye contact is a myth. For example, when you go to the movies and become involved with the story you laugh, you cry, you may become terrified, yet none of the actors in the screen make eye contact with you. In the same sense, when you are speaking, in is not necessary for you to look into the eyes of your audience for them to feel involved with you. Just don’t look above or below their faces. After two or three minutes have passed, and you feel you have established yourself in front of your audience and your presentation is flowing, you may choose to make direct eye contact with one or several of the members in your audience, as long as it does not disturb your concentration. Do what feels comfortable to you.

While keeping your gaze at the face level of your audience, do not fix anyone with a prolonged stare. Actively staring into the eyes of your audience implies that you are perusing them “Do you like me? Is this good?” Don’t look for approval. The audience looks to you for leadership. Lead!

SCANNING THE ROOM:

When you fist stand in front of your audience, please—do not mechanically scan the room, moving your head from right to left as if your eyes where great flood lights emanating from a controlled tower. This is extremely awkward and looks unnatural. Instead, as I have just said, when you first stand in front of an audience, before you begin to speak, be as still as possible and look straight ahead in the general direction of their faces. A smile is nice, but it isn’t essential. If you can smile a small smile, smile. If you want the complete attention of the audience, your physical stillness, rather than your physical activity, will make this happen.

As your speech progresses and you become more comfortable, from time to time, you can move your head slowly, looking at your audience to the left or right. Once again, naturalness and comfort should decide when and if you look at various people in the room. If at first this pose seems stiff and robotic, do not change back to your old nervous behavior. Eventually, you will relax into physical stillness so that you feel comfortable and empowered.

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Denial

Not only is there an individual silence about speaking in public, there is also a national silence. The problem receives so little attention you would think it doesn’t exist. For example, there are no public speaking phobia specialists attached to speech departments in colleges and universities. There is no National Public Speaking-Phobia Society; even the Encyclopedia Britanica, under the category of “speech” has no reference to this condition. In the speech category, although various esoteric conditions and maladies are cited, there is no listing of public speaking phobia itself, although it has a name: glossophobia.

Why is it that in the United States—one of the few countries in the world where freedom of speech is guaranteed by a constitution—fear of speaking in public is the number one phobia? This is a question I asked every time I appeared on radio or television during my first book tour. Nobody seemed to have an answer.

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Letter from a Corporate Client

Dear Natalie

I just want to thank you for the excellent  Public Speaking Without Stress you put on for us this year.

Your course is so helpful to people. It really changes them in a fundamental way after they attend. We are always able to fill your program when we offer it. This is because the word- of-mouth around the company is so positive about the program. People really enjoy it and they feel it works. Iwould have to say that your seminar consistently get’s among the best ratings of any of the on-site-classes we offer our employees.

Natalie, you are a pleasure to work with and I look forward to jointly putting on more programs with you again next year.  

Sincerely,

Vice President 

Name and company omitted   

ABOUT NATALIE H. ROGERS

                                   FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF TALKPOWER

Over the  past  twenty years  I have heard every horrific public speaking story imaginable . Hair raising tales of public humiliation, excruciating stage fright,  panic attacks, loss of memory, speechlessness, and botched presentations  have been recounted by my students .

My job has been to train my students to overcome their debilitating fear of speaking in public with my original and transformative Talk power program .

                                                                                           

                                                            MY OWN STORY

When I returned to college after many years as a professional actress, director and acting teacher to prepare for my second career as a psychotherapist I took a course in Public speaking .As I was waiting for the instructor to arrive, I heard bits of conversation .

“I sound like a moron”

“My voice is so monotonous” 

“I hate this”

“They don’t like me .I know it :I can feel it “

“Oh my God ,last week she was reading a menu during my entire speech”

The presentations began. I listened to the endless speeches.  The visibly shaking, pacing, breathless students obviously stressed ,tried to deliver .The instructor kept saying “relax, relax”. Was I the only one aware of the of the discomfort and lack of concentration .This was not anything like the systematic  training I had received as an actress  where we were given intensive coaching for concentration, relaxation, attention, and body awareness.

       Offering gimmicks, bit’s and pieces of information, old wives tales ,and a hodge- podge of theory the class was ineffective in  helping the students to calm down    

and take control of themselves. I realized that there was no established procedure for training the mind and the body for public speaking. I had my “Aha” moment. It occurred to me that the  same kind of systematic technique used to train actors called The Stanislavski Method could be adjusted so that non actors could develop concentration and performance skills for speaking comfortably  in front of an audience .Yes! a step by step method was the logical answer for eliminating serious public speaking distress.  This included speaking at meetings, interviewing for  job, making a toast, asking a question in class reading in church and even walking down the aisle .

Above all, my program would  answer the question that all people who are  phoebic or uncomfortable about speaking in public ask “How can I keep my concentration focused on what I am saying when everyone is looking at me .I called my program Talkpower . One year later I started teaching the Talkpower Method in a class called “Panic Clinic For Public Speaking” at Baruch college Of Continuing Education . I introduced these first students to a new and original mind body training designed to restore their shattered confidence . Step by step on a muscle memory level  they learned  how to become calm, how to concentrate and finally how to speak in front of an audience .Beginning with one sentence ,then a paragraph, by the end of the class every student was able to deliver an eight minute presentation .

Today Talkpower is successful seminar business ,  internationally recognized as a unique  state of the art method for training speakers.

Clients include American Express, United Parcel Service , United Nations, National WestministerBank, Texaco,  J.C. Penny Co, AT&Talbert Einstein College of Medicine , IBM, The Women’s Bar Association of The State of New York, MCI Telecommunications Co. Karpas Health Information Center, Chase Manhattan Bank, Organization of Black Airline Pilots, Hoechst Cleanese  Corperation ,Howard J. Rubenstein Associates Ford Moter Company , and so many more .  

                                                                           

Letter from a Corporate Client

Dear Natalie

I just want to thank you for the excellent  Public Speaking Without Stress you put on for us this year.

Your course is so helpful to people. It really changes them in a fundamental way after they attend. We are always able to fill your program when we offer it. This is because the word- of-mouth around the company is so positive about the program. People really enjoy it and they feel it works. Iwould have to say that your seminar consistently get’s among the best ratings of any of the on-site-classes we offer our employees.

Natalie, you are a pleasure to work with and I look forward to jointly putting on more programs with you again next year.  

Sincerely,

Vice President 

Name and company omitted   

            

How can I get over my anxiety before I get up to speak ?

There are two reasons why you are so anxious as you sit and wait for your name to be called.

The first reason is that you are probably Hyper Ventilating . This means that your stomach is probably locked and  as you breath , you are using your chest to do the pumping.  This triggers the fight or flight response . The Flight or Fight response is  an ancient survival mechanism that prepares you to run away or fight in the face of a threat of danger .As a result  your body  manufactures  adrenalin and sugar which    pours into your blood steam . making your heart beat very quickly . If you were doing a  cardio vascular exercise like running or swimming you would neutralize this adrenaline .But when you  are  stationary ,sitting  in your seat wiring for your turn to speak  either at a meeting or for a stand up presentation  the  inner acceleration you are  feeling builds up causing you to   feel anxious ,trapped and out of control .Of course there are varying degrees of this feeling from mild to extreme and even to the point of dread .

.Deep breathing will not work here because  if you are taking deep breaths using your chest to do the pumping Deep Breathing   will only exacerbate your rapid heartbeat and increase your  feelings of anxiety.

What to do . What you need to do is to practice  taking  slow  shallow breaths ,keeping your chest as still as possible and using your abdominal muscles to do the pumping this is also called " Diaphragmatic breathing When you pull your stomach in you should be blowing your breath out of your nose . When you relax your abdominal muscles you should be inhaling a very small amount of air. If this is not the way you normally breath then you are  breathing incorrectly.  (See chapter four "Breath Is Life" in" The New Talkpower  "Amazon .com .If you learn  how to breathe in this way ,  when  you sit in your seat waiting for your name to be called you will experience  a reduction in your anxiety
A good time to practice this technique is at night when you are in bed  before you go to sleep . Try to do 50 or more of these "belly breaths " . You will have a much less stress infused  sleeping experience.
                                       PERFORMANCE  SKILLS 

The other reason that you have feelings of anxiety  before a presentation is because you do not have performance skills  for focusing and concentration , and are using your conversational skills to get you through your presentation.

I other words if   you are not trained  to properly  handle the experience of people looking  at you (an audience )  your attention will be focused on the audience and not  on your presentation .At this time  your thoughts usually  are extremely negative . .My clients report thinking....., "I am so boring .........,I did not do enough research ........., They don't like me ........,I am taking up too much of their time ......,I have to get this over with in a hurry , And many other negative and truly frightening thoughts ..These thoughts act as a huge distraction , interfering   with your concentration,  ruining  your confidence and  creating a  tendency to speak too  quickly in addition to  other problems .  Even though you may be breathing correctly if you do not have the proper focusing  and concentration skills you will find ourself feeling  unsure and anxious no matter how many times you have rehearsed your presentation .As far as visualization  ,positive thinking  video - rehearsals and therapy  are concerned as you may  have discovered ,  these techniques are of very little value ..
.In my 25 years of experience with thousands of Talkpower clients 95 % of them report that   for the anxious speaker  these modalities  are totally useless in that  moment of truth when you are about to face a real audience .
Suggestions :The Talkpower Training  Workshop through exersises  and repetition drills will give you the proper performance skills  necessary  for transforming  your anxious out of control public speaking performance into a fluent presentation  that is confident ,  well organized and above all in control..The Workshop is guaranteed .If you are not happy after the first half day you will receive a complete refund. See TalkPower Inc.