Let’s face it… fear is the #1 reason why people shudder at the thought of public speaking. The thing is, fear comes in so many disguises! It could be the fear of being judged, the fear of staring at a sea of faces, or the fear of saying the wrong thing. It could be the fear of someone asking a question you might not know the answer to.
I could go on listing them, but I’m going to focus on a specific fear I witnessed yesterday at a Rotary conference. At one point, I listened to five high school students deliver their 3rd and final round speech. Knowing that I’m a public speaking consultant, several people talked to me about what happened during a couple of the speeches and asked me how to handle it.
Which fear? What to do when you’re in the midst of delivering your talk and you lose track of what comes next. Yikes… because when this happens it can literally feel like your head is empty! You can’t remember what comes next and now that you know you can’t remember, your fear is escalating and you feel like a deer caught in the headlights. The very good news is that you can dramatically reduce your odds of this happening in four pro-active ways:
#1: Don’t try to memorize your talk. I realize this might sound counterintuitive, but when you memorize your talk, your delivery tends to come across stiffer and unnatural. If memorizing is your style, memorize your introduction and conclusion. With the content between them, think about all the times you’ve confidently shared your main points and their content with people when you weren’t on a stage. Bottom line, you know what you’re talking about!
When someone loses track on stage, it’s often when they’re transitioning between points. The easy solution is to have a condensed outline of those transitions handy. Then, with one quick look, you’re back on track.
#2: Make sure you have water on stage with you. No one will think twice if you take a sip of water. You, on the other hand, can use the moment to regroup and think about what you just said, which should trigger the memory of what comes next. Better still, put the outline you created to keep you on track next to your water!
#3: Talk to your audience. Stopping and talking to your audience is a great solution for a few different tricky speaker situations. With the scenario of losing track of where you are during your talk, invite your audience to give you feedback on what they’ve learned so far. By doing this, you can assess what they’ve heard and continue on from there. This is also a great way of making sure your audience is understanding your topic.
#4: If all else fails, be honest. Admit what’s just happened. I know a speaker who this happens to regularly. When it does, she admits it. “Oops, I’m sorry, I just enjoy sharing this content with you so much that sometimes I forget what’s next. That’s why I have this card with me. It’s so I don’t accidentally skip over something important.” Then she checks her notes and finishes with something like: “Okay. Got it!”
A little self-deprecating humor can go a long way when it comes to sharing your authentic and vulnerable self… which is something people genuinely appreciate.
I was impressed with how two out of the five young speakers dealt with losing track of what was next while they were speaking. Both of them used a tip from the above list to get back on track. Both finished strong and received their fair share of applause too.
That’s the thing about fear, as it relates to public speaking… when you have a plan, it’s just not as scary… until eventually, it’s not scary at all.
‘Til we speak again….
~Beth
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