On Sept. 10, The Leaders Institute held a Fearless Presentations public speaking class in Arlington. The class consisted of five participants and was led by Doug Staneart. I was taking the class for the first time.
- What to Expect From a Fearless Presentations Class
- Day One: Turning Fear Into Confidence
- Day Two: Putting the Lessons Into Action
- The Final Presentation: Watching It All Come Together
- Ready to Overcome Your Own Public Speaking Fear?
What to Expect From a Fearless Presentations Class
Fearless Presentations is a two-day public speaking course that teaches participants valuable presentation skills. These skills include how to overcome fear of public speaking, how to create an effective presentation in 30 minutes, and, most importantly, how to make your presentation memorable.
As a person who doesn’t have a fear of public speaking, I was looking forward to learning how to make my presentations more effective and smooth. I was surprised to see how incredibly technical the course was. It focused on things like demeanor, breathing exercises, and memory tactics to make your presentation more effective.
Day One: Turning Fear Into Confidence
On day one, we started by discussing public speaking fears in general. Each person got to share their individual fears, and we started discussing them. Doug was then able to take the fears and refocus them into ways to reduce nervousness and, more importantly, increase our confidence. I personally always talk fast, and while presenting, my speed increases tenfold. I always saw this as a weakness. Doug, on the other hand, flipped the script in my mind entirely. He stated that speed can often convey your excitement, and that was something he would never recommend altering.
Day one gave me such a different perspective on the do’s and don’ts of presenting. It had been so long since I had heard someone approach presenting from a cerebral perspective as opposed to a content perspective. For many people, me included, the first and last time we “learn” how to do a presentation is right before we are expected to execute our first one. In my case, that was in middle school.
Since then, I was taught how to research, make a good slideshow, choose proper examples, memorize my presentation so I don’t read off my slides, and plant friends in the audience so someone would ask questions. But no one had thought to focus on the main aspect that mattered: the confidence with which I presented the information.
Day Two: Putting the Lessons Into Action
Day two was when we took our curriculum from theory to practice. This was the beginning of putting everything we had learned so far into practice. One of the most interesting exercises we did was acting out a story from our lives. Doug asked us to dramatize the emotion in the story overly. He wanted us to really put on our acting hats here and act out the story as big as we possibly could. Think Crazy Steve from Drake and Josh level intense.
Honestly, I was pumped. As a former theater kid, this spoke to my soul. I was itching for my turn to present. Initially, I didn’t understand how this exercise would help us present better in a professional setting. I mean, you can’t go all Crazy Steve during a board meeting. But when we finished our stories and got back to working on our main presentations for the class, it all started making sense. After going all out for a personal story, we were more relaxed. Our bodies no longer stood rigid with tension. We were more at ease when we spoke, and strangely, more confident as well.
The Final Presentation: Watching It All Come Together
We ended day two with our final presentation. Throughout all the exercises, we were slowly practicing for our final presentation. The topic was up to us— Doug encouraged us to choose something relevant to our current work, perhaps an upcoming project idea. I chose to do mine on a blog post topic I had been tinkering with.
As I was preparing for my last presentation with our group, I began to see all the exercises fall into place like puzzle pieces. All the little shifts— posture, breathing, and memory techniques were made subconsciously. I wasn’t purposefully doing anything different, but my presentation was smoother. It flowed better, the content was well structured, and most of all, I was more confident in the words I was speaking. It wasn’t only in myself that I could see these changes, though. Every person in the group had a newfound wave of confidence. At the end of the class, each participant received a certificate, officially making us the latest batch of Fearless Presentations graduates.
Ready to Overcome Your Own Public Speaking Fear?
If you’ve ever dealt with public speaking anxiety or simply want to work on your process as I did. Consider taking part in the next Fearless Presentations class. Contact us for more information.