No equipment required. No designer latex body suit. Not even a Vic Tanny exercise tape or an expensive “pamper you until you go bankrupt” spa.
Review the components of an aerobic workout:
1. Full body sweat
2. Pulse rate of over 170.
3. Perspiring palms
4. Heavy breathing
5. The mouth opens but no intelligent verbal sound
6. Skin tone varies from brilliant crimson to ghostly white
You can gain all of these wonderful effects by running a marathon, peddling a one speed bicycle up a steep hill or being asked to speak to a group in public.
There are those who would rather be the victim of the car crash rather than the one giving the press conference explaining it .
Watch a new speaker with trembling knees walk up to the podium. Thank goodness they are not wearing spike high heels; imagine walking on stilts through a hurricane. Safety at last, they make it to the podium where they hold on with the death grip of a 4 year old the day the training wheels come off the bicycle. With a white knuckle clutch to the podium, they take a deep breath, deliver the six minute speech, collapse in the chair and let the breath out. Once we revive them after they hyperventilate, they start to relax.
Public speaking generates all of the aerobic benefits for many first time speakers. It is actually not that bad. The first time many people are asked to speak in public is quite a traumatic event. Relax; it does not have to be a miserable experience.
Some people tell you to picture the audience in their Hanes’s or their tidy whites, but at that point your lungs do not have enough air to laugh so it would be a wasted exercise.
Finding a friendly face in the audience and riveting your gaze strictly on that one person seems to produce more successful results.
Other techniques before you go on stage are:
1. Thinking about a wonderful calming scene in nature
2. Listening to soothing music
3. Hiding under the table in the room down the hall until it is too late for you to speak
If public speaking truly strikes terror in your heart to the point that you would rather go 3 rounds in the boxing ring with Bubba the Bruiser, then you are a victim of self inflicted stage fright. There are cures for stage fright. You could take a sedative and sleep through the event, run away to a remote jungle island or join Toastmasters.
Toastmasters is a safe, friendly, supportive group of comrades who share your trembling hands and racing heart but chose to learn to overcome the sweaty shakes. You will learn in a calm, encouraging and sober atmosphere. The manuals walk you through the steps in a logical, clear and informative system. You can even start with Table Topics which is an impromptu one to two minutes.
To the best of my knowledge, no one ever died of stage fright. You can do almost anything for one minute. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose.
Whether your boss corners you in the elevator and asks for your progress on a current program or you receive the tap on the shoulder to speak at your local homeowner’s association meeting, being able to express yourself clearly is a tremendous asset.
You can enroll in night classes at your local college or university, join a networking group or practice at your local church or social organization. Every time you speak in public, you become a little more comfortable with the process.
For practical tips and techniques to ease your fear and improve your communication, come join me at www.Elaine4Success.com.
Showing posts with label Toastmasters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Toastmasters. Show all posts
Friday, February 26, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Show Up For Your Future
Show up! The first requirement in order to make progress in life, is to show up. In order to go up the corporate ladder, the earnings ladder or the personal development ladder, you have to show up. You may not be the best athlete on the field or the best trumpet player in the band, but unless you show up and perform to the very best of your ability, you will never move up in the lineup.
Be “in the right place at the right time” only works when you show up. Everyone talks about the “lucky breaks.” Lana Turner was discovered sitting on a counter stool in a soda fountain. Celine Dion was discovered singing in a tent in the rain. A famous field goal kicker was discovered playing sand lot football with his buddies.
First they had to “get up,” and take action by “showing up.” Life will not come searching for you. Take the responsibility for your own future. Show up! Take an active part in your life. Either you show up and take responsibility for your life or by default you are giving control of your life to someone else.
You do not have to do anything. You do not have to get out of bed in the morning, pay taxes or prepare a sandwich for yourself. Some people never do. News Flash! If you do not take any action, you have no right to complain about your lack of results.
The first manual to be completed in Toastmasters is the Competent Communications manual. There are 10 speeches emphasizing 10 different elements to be accomplished in order to earn your cc designation. Unless you show up at the regular meetings, you will not be scheduled to speak up. It is only fair that the members who show up and participate receive the coveted speaking roles. Yes, a rotation exists; however, with 34 members in the club and 3 speaking slots per meeting, preference goes to those who show up on a consistent basis. Show up in order to speak up.
Voting is a privilege extended to Americans. The economy in America is turbulent and unpleasant for most Americans right now. Unfortunately, the forecast does not hold any jubilant indications. Whether you like the President or not, we live in the greatest nation on the earth. We have the right to cast our vote each four years to help select our Presidential leadership. If you don’t show up and vote, you have no right to complain. We have more freedom of choice in the United States than any other country. Either show up and speak up, or shut up.
At the beginning of the economic decline in 2008, DuPont responded aggressively to the economic meltdown. Chief executive Chad Holliday met with the company’s top leaders and economists to form a crisis plan. Within ten days they had sixty thousand employees meeting with their managers. Everyone was asked to identify three action steps they could immediately implement to conserve cash and reduce costs. Who said major companies could not move quickly? DuPont acted quickly and produced positive results. They initiated an extremely important move; they included their employees is solution-oriented thinking. They asked their employees to show up and take part in saving their own jobs.
Amazon employed a similar technique by calling all of their managers together with the statement, “There is a big recession coming. Let’s miss it.” Amazon took positive steps to increase market share and improve the bottom line. While most other companies were whining about a terrible Christmas revenue in 2008, Amazon wore a smile a mile wide. Amazon showed up and took positive action.
Where are you in your life right now? Are you sitting on the sidelines? Are you showing up and taking an active part in creating the life you desire and deserve? For specific action steps to improve your life, contact me at www.Elaine4Success.com.
Be “in the right place at the right time” only works when you show up. Everyone talks about the “lucky breaks.” Lana Turner was discovered sitting on a counter stool in a soda fountain. Celine Dion was discovered singing in a tent in the rain. A famous field goal kicker was discovered playing sand lot football with his buddies.
First they had to “get up,” and take action by “showing up.” Life will not come searching for you. Take the responsibility for your own future. Show up! Take an active part in your life. Either you show up and take responsibility for your life or by default you are giving control of your life to someone else.
You do not have to do anything. You do not have to get out of bed in the morning, pay taxes or prepare a sandwich for yourself. Some people never do. News Flash! If you do not take any action, you have no right to complain about your lack of results.
The first manual to be completed in Toastmasters is the Competent Communications manual. There are 10 speeches emphasizing 10 different elements to be accomplished in order to earn your cc designation. Unless you show up at the regular meetings, you will not be scheduled to speak up. It is only fair that the members who show up and participate receive the coveted speaking roles. Yes, a rotation exists; however, with 34 members in the club and 3 speaking slots per meeting, preference goes to those who show up on a consistent basis. Show up in order to speak up.
Voting is a privilege extended to Americans. The economy in America is turbulent and unpleasant for most Americans right now. Unfortunately, the forecast does not hold any jubilant indications. Whether you like the President or not, we live in the greatest nation on the earth. We have the right to cast our vote each four years to help select our Presidential leadership. If you don’t show up and vote, you have no right to complain. We have more freedom of choice in the United States than any other country. Either show up and speak up, or shut up.
At the beginning of the economic decline in 2008, DuPont responded aggressively to the economic meltdown. Chief executive Chad Holliday met with the company’s top leaders and economists to form a crisis plan. Within ten days they had sixty thousand employees meeting with their managers. Everyone was asked to identify three action steps they could immediately implement to conserve cash and reduce costs. Who said major companies could not move quickly? DuPont acted quickly and produced positive results. They initiated an extremely important move; they included their employees is solution-oriented thinking. They asked their employees to show up and take part in saving their own jobs.
Amazon employed a similar technique by calling all of their managers together with the statement, “There is a big recession coming. Let’s miss it.” Amazon took positive steps to increase market share and improve the bottom line. While most other companies were whining about a terrible Christmas revenue in 2008, Amazon wore a smile a mile wide. Amazon showed up and took positive action.
Where are you in your life right now? Are you sitting on the sidelines? Are you showing up and taking an active part in creating the life you desire and deserve? For specific action steps to improve your life, contact me at www.Elaine4Success.com.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Leadership is Empowering Others
Empower others with your thoughts and actions. Regardless of your economic status, educational status or career, everyone responds favorably to kind words. Empowering others benefits both the giver and the receiver.
Toastmasters is a speaker’s organization. Picture a new speaker hesitantly rising and making the eternally long walk from their chair to the podium for their ice breaker speech. Walking those eight to ten feet feels like a marathon distance. Facing the group for the first time as the spotlight centers on them causes every internal butterfly to fly in a different direction. Butterflies rarely settle into formation for the ice breaker speech. Gripping the podium with a death grip and hiding behind it with notes shaking has been known to happen to more than one newbie. Four to six minutes may feel like a lifetime. The custom is to give a standing ovation after an ice breaker.
Watching this new speaker emerge and stand confidently and relaxed in front of the group during future speeches thrills both the speaker and the audience. Empowering someone to learn a new skill and progress rewards the entire membership. Feedback after each speech, evaluation, emphasizes all of the strong points and encourages slight areas on improvement. Empowering someone to build on their strengths and develop new skills rewards the evaluator as well as the speaker.
Butterflies gradually learn to fly in formation. Leadership is empowering others. As a leader you have the opportunity to guide and empower others to develop current talents to new heights. The greatest joy for a leader is seeing others grow and blossom.
True leadership can be related to the size of the empowerment desired. A brief word feels like a helicopter, just a touch and go. It comes and goes in a flash. Investing a little more time and effort feel like a STOL port, a short take off and landing runway. Major ventures require a runway similar to the size required for a 747. Mentoring and empowering someone from infancy to maturity in a sport or career requires a 747 runway.
Empowerment can be a 20 yard sprint, a 5K run or a marathon. Whether you choose to invest your time and effort for a brief start and stop, 3.1 miles or 26 miles all depends upon the impact you desire to provide.
Empowerment, like inspiration, motivation or education, must find a willing receiver. Our job as leaders is to provide the empowerment. The employee’s role is to be open minded enough to receive the encouragement and take action.
A college professor one told a young student, “You can have ten years experience or one year’s experience ten times.” The professor, like the mentor or evaluators in a Toastmasters club, provides the encouragement and empowerment along with suggestions for growth and improvement. The student must also be willing to receive and take action. Without receiving and taking action, the words are leaves blowing in the wind.
Effective leadership is empowerment. Few things warm the heart of a leader more than seeing someone respond in a positive way to growth potential.
Examine your leadership skills and practices. Are you a helicopter, a small private plane or a 747? What is the scope of your mentorship? How long a runway do you require to launch your program? Leadership is empowering.
Select your candidates carefully. Select those who will be receptive to growing to their potential. Empower those who are ready, willing and eager to accept the challenge.
Leadership is empowerment; join me at www.Elaine4Success.com and allow me to assist you in reaching your potential.
Toastmasters is a speaker’s organization. Picture a new speaker hesitantly rising and making the eternally long walk from their chair to the podium for their ice breaker speech. Walking those eight to ten feet feels like a marathon distance. Facing the group for the first time as the spotlight centers on them causes every internal butterfly to fly in a different direction. Butterflies rarely settle into formation for the ice breaker speech. Gripping the podium with a death grip and hiding behind it with notes shaking has been known to happen to more than one newbie. Four to six minutes may feel like a lifetime. The custom is to give a standing ovation after an ice breaker.
Watching this new speaker emerge and stand confidently and relaxed in front of the group during future speeches thrills both the speaker and the audience. Empowering someone to learn a new skill and progress rewards the entire membership. Feedback after each speech, evaluation, emphasizes all of the strong points and encourages slight areas on improvement. Empowering someone to build on their strengths and develop new skills rewards the evaluator as well as the speaker.
Butterflies gradually learn to fly in formation. Leadership is empowering others. As a leader you have the opportunity to guide and empower others to develop current talents to new heights. The greatest joy for a leader is seeing others grow and blossom.
True leadership can be related to the size of the empowerment desired. A brief word feels like a helicopter, just a touch and go. It comes and goes in a flash. Investing a little more time and effort feel like a STOL port, a short take off and landing runway. Major ventures require a runway similar to the size required for a 747. Mentoring and empowering someone from infancy to maturity in a sport or career requires a 747 runway.
Empowerment can be a 20 yard sprint, a 5K run or a marathon. Whether you choose to invest your time and effort for a brief start and stop, 3.1 miles or 26 miles all depends upon the impact you desire to provide.
Empowerment, like inspiration, motivation or education, must find a willing receiver. Our job as leaders is to provide the empowerment. The employee’s role is to be open minded enough to receive the encouragement and take action.
A college professor one told a young student, “You can have ten years experience or one year’s experience ten times.” The professor, like the mentor or evaluators in a Toastmasters club, provides the encouragement and empowerment along with suggestions for growth and improvement. The student must also be willing to receive and take action. Without receiving and taking action, the words are leaves blowing in the wind.
Effective leadership is empowerment. Few things warm the heart of a leader more than seeing someone respond in a positive way to growth potential.
Examine your leadership skills and practices. Are you a helicopter, a small private plane or a 747? What is the scope of your mentorship? How long a runway do you require to launch your program? Leadership is empowering.
Select your candidates carefully. Select those who will be receptive to growing to their potential. Empower those who are ready, willing and eager to accept the challenge.
Leadership is empowerment; join me at www.Elaine4Success.com and allow me to assist you in reaching your potential.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
No Panic, Video is Easy
Speakers delight in presenting information to live audiences. Audience interaction encourages speakers to perform comfortably before various size groups. Small stage, large stage or living room setting is insignificant as long as the speaker can gauge the audience reaction and adjust accordingly.
Video attracts attention and personalizes your message. To the outsider, producing a video may seem even easier than speaking to a live audience. Not so to a professional speaker. We are people oriented.
Performing in front of a camera rather than a person presents an entirely new challenge. The connection with the audience must be perceived and imagined rather than experienced. One of the techniques I have found most valuable is placing myself mentally in the audience setting and speaking as if they were in front of me in a casual living room environment. Others place the picture of a loved one next to the camera and pretend they are speaking to them. Still others have the camera lens peer through the mouth or eye of the picture. If you are fortunate enough to have a live person managing the camera, great; I am happy for you. I do not have that luxury.
Remember the first time you stood in front of a live audience? If you resemble the typical person, the knees shook, the voice wavered and palms perspired. In Toastmasters, that first speech is called the “icebreaker.” Even though it is only three to five minutes, it may seem M U C H longer. Relax, video is easier. With a video you have retakes and edits. Now that is a huge plus for video over live performance.
Ok, now you are starting to relax. Yes, relaxing is highly advisable. Relax your shoulders, put a smile on your face, and relax your hands. Remember, you are speaking to a small group of people who really want to know what you have to say.
Personally, I prefer to stand and move within a small area when I record a video. Since the camera is stationary, I have a limited stage area to remain on camera. Others prefer to sit as if they were in an office, living room or seated at the kitchen table.
There are various backgrounds preferred. I have been told to select a plain white background to avoid distracting from the message. It is generally accepted that a solid color shirt or blouse is preferable to a wild print. White on white and you disappear into the background – never desirable for a speaker to be the “invisible man or woman.”
Cameras are so diverse that we could write several chapters on cameras. As your first venture into video, perhaps a simple Flip HD Ultra will be sufficient. It takes excellent quality video, is easy to use and inexpensive. You are not competing for the cinematography award at the academy awards; you are presenting a short message.
A tripod makes it much easier. Gorilla pod makes a short, flexible, very inexpensive tripod. Wrap it around a pole, stand it up on three legs, or fold it over a ledge, it bends. In addition it costs less than lunch for one at a nice restaurant.
Two to five minutes seems to be the generally accepted time frame. Turn the camera on, walk to your desired location, speak and walk back and turn the camera off. Easy. Right? Take a few takes if you feel more comfortable with choices.
With a Flip camera, you simply plug the camera into the usb port on your computer and download. Next download from the Flip software to your computer with one click of the mouse.
Open the location on your computer – mine is the month in which I recorded it. Click on the image, trim off the beginning and ending so all that shows is your message. You are trimming off the section where you were walking back and forth to the camera. Choose a title, usually the same title as the article you were recording. Save.
Click on the edited image, export to your video file and upload to YouTube. Use the keywords from your article and a brief description. You are done. Recording a video really was not traumatic after all.
If you would like a step by step sequence on the uploading, editing and publishing of the video, contact me. Leave your contact information and comments in the “contact Elaine” section of Elaine4Success.com.
Video attracts attention and personalizes your message. To the outsider, producing a video may seem even easier than speaking to a live audience. Not so to a professional speaker. We are people oriented.
Performing in front of a camera rather than a person presents an entirely new challenge. The connection with the audience must be perceived and imagined rather than experienced. One of the techniques I have found most valuable is placing myself mentally in the audience setting and speaking as if they were in front of me in a casual living room environment. Others place the picture of a loved one next to the camera and pretend they are speaking to them. Still others have the camera lens peer through the mouth or eye of the picture. If you are fortunate enough to have a live person managing the camera, great; I am happy for you. I do not have that luxury.
Remember the first time you stood in front of a live audience? If you resemble the typical person, the knees shook, the voice wavered and palms perspired. In Toastmasters, that first speech is called the “icebreaker.” Even though it is only three to five minutes, it may seem M U C H longer. Relax, video is easier. With a video you have retakes and edits. Now that is a huge plus for video over live performance.
Ok, now you are starting to relax. Yes, relaxing is highly advisable. Relax your shoulders, put a smile on your face, and relax your hands. Remember, you are speaking to a small group of people who really want to know what you have to say.
Personally, I prefer to stand and move within a small area when I record a video. Since the camera is stationary, I have a limited stage area to remain on camera. Others prefer to sit as if they were in an office, living room or seated at the kitchen table.
There are various backgrounds preferred. I have been told to select a plain white background to avoid distracting from the message. It is generally accepted that a solid color shirt or blouse is preferable to a wild print. White on white and you disappear into the background – never desirable for a speaker to be the “invisible man or woman.”
Cameras are so diverse that we could write several chapters on cameras. As your first venture into video, perhaps a simple Flip HD Ultra will be sufficient. It takes excellent quality video, is easy to use and inexpensive. You are not competing for the cinematography award at the academy awards; you are presenting a short message.
A tripod makes it much easier. Gorilla pod makes a short, flexible, very inexpensive tripod. Wrap it around a pole, stand it up on three legs, or fold it over a ledge, it bends. In addition it costs less than lunch for one at a nice restaurant.
Two to five minutes seems to be the generally accepted time frame. Turn the camera on, walk to your desired location, speak and walk back and turn the camera off. Easy. Right? Take a few takes if you feel more comfortable with choices.
With a Flip camera, you simply plug the camera into the usb port on your computer and download. Next download from the Flip software to your computer with one click of the mouse.
Open the location on your computer – mine is the month in which I recorded it. Click on the image, trim off the beginning and ending so all that shows is your message. You are trimming off the section where you were walking back and forth to the camera. Choose a title, usually the same title as the article you were recording. Save.
Click on the edited image, export to your video file and upload to YouTube. Use the keywords from your article and a brief description. You are done. Recording a video really was not traumatic after all.
If you would like a step by step sequence on the uploading, editing and publishing of the video, contact me. Leave your contact information and comments in the “contact Elaine” section of Elaine4Success.com.
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