Gary Genard
Great speakers don’t just speak—they
perform.
As an actor and speech coach,
I understand that intuitively and
always communicate it to clients.
And here’s the interesting thing: you
should understand it the same way
yourself.
Whatever type of speaking you do—in
business, socially, or for personal
pleasure—
you’re performing.
The sociologist
Erving Goffman wrote a book entitled
The
Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
that makes that very point: we all
perform roles
day in and day out, every day of our lives.
Public speaking is no different.
To be effective in your speeches and
presentations, then, accept this strong
relationship between performance and
success.
In fact, the more you can connect
with audiences rather than remaining in
the comfort zone of your content, the
more successful you’ll be.
Here are my Six Rules of Effective
Public Speaking that embody my
philosophy that
great speaking means great performing:
Rule #1: Make the Audience the Center
of Your Universe.
You’re not the focus
of the speaking engagement!
No matter how many
times you may tell yourself this
obvious truth, you’ll have a hard time until
you get it into your presentation DNA.
Ultimately,
every good speaker cares more about the
audience than themselves.
This can be a
tough prescription to fill if you have
speech anxiety, which tends to wrap you
in a cocoon of anxiety and
self-consciousness.
But the good news is this: focusing fully
on the audience lifts a tremendous
burden from your shoulders in terms of
worrying about your performance.
To disappear
into getting your message across to
listeners is
the most wonderful thing that can
happen to you as a speaker.
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