There are many strategies to consider in opening your pitch. Think about it twice, because those first minutes can make or break you.
Grounding for presence and confidence in speeches and presentations
Grounding for presence and confidence in speeches and presentations
Confident stand during speeches and presentations
Grounding in speeches and presentations
Use grounding for presence and feeling confident in speeches and presentations. It is more than just an effective remedy against stage fright.
Overview
Grounding
Grounding is the term used to describe the secure standing of speakers. In an upright position, with their weight evenly balanced, speakers have the best stance. This also makes them feel more confident, instead of adding to stage fright.
Are you standing well?
Standing, so what? Anyone can do that, right? It sounds easier than it is for many people in front of an audience. An individually optimal stance usually requires some corrections and practice to be maintained automatically in front of larger groups. It is worth paying attention to this topic. It is easier to present in a confident posture.
Grounding for increased self-confidence during performances
One of the most important techniques you can use to improve your confidence in public speaking is grounding. It can help improve your posture. In addition, grounding does something even more effective. The inner attitude and outer posture will enhance your commanding physical presence.
Part of your energy in grounding comes from the earth, or in modern theater, from the stage floor. In the earliest forms of Western theater in Ancient Greece, actors performed outside on the natural ground. Imagine the leap of a ballet dancer upward, and you will understand where the power for all forms of personal performance comes from: from the earth beneath your feet.
When you ground yourself as a speaker or orator, you gain the same power and connection to the earth like the ancient actors. The stability and determination that you then display are immediately noticeable to your audience. Through mental training, the effect is significantly increased.
Step by step
Here are the steps to achieve an unshakable physical presence in front of an audience through grounding:
1. Stand
Place your feet firmly on the floor, slightly wider than hip-width apart.
2. Rooting
Imagine you are a 300-year-old oak tree with roots that reach deep and far into the earth. Like that tree, you are firm, secure, and unshakable.
Notes:
Compare this strong stance with the weak posture some speakers adopt by crossing their legs, leaning on one hip, or even bumping their feet together. Challenges or harsh questions from the audience might just knock these speakers out!
Try out the different postures. Compare your stable, grounded oak stance with your feet rooted at armpit width, and then compare the stance with your legs crossed at the ankles. Which posture gives you more sense of strength and purpose? Stand with your feet close together as if you were a tin soldier. You can hardly stand like that without feeling like you’re in a weak position, can you? And yet, speakers do this all the time out of nervousness and uncertainty about what to do with their bodies.
3. Mental training (optional)
In trance, the intensity can be significantly increased and anchored. This way, intense mental resources are available when they are needed. Mental training has proven to be very effective here.
Preparation of important speeches and presentations
Those who do not speak are not heard, and even those who speak up are not always successful. There are a few more steps that need to be mastered.
Do you want to convince with your message and also as a personality? Then I will help you to prepare your speeches and presentations. You determine the scope. At least, I recommend a test run with professional feedback for you and your message. Then you will know how you and your content are perceived, what you should do, and what you should leave out, where there is potential. Why do you want to get such helpful feedback so late after your real performance? Then it is too late for adjustments. Benefit from the advantage. My definition of luck: Preparation meets opportunity.
You can best estimate for yourself where the effort is worthwhile concerning the expected benefit. Here you will find the fees for my support (communication, psychology, language, structure, voice, body language, storytelling, rhetorical means, media such as PowerPoint and Co., etc.)
You are not in Berlin right now? Then choose meetings with me via telephone or video support. Whereby, there are quite good reasons for a trip to Berlin.
By the way, many people suffer from such intense stage fright in front of an audience, and therefore their performance lags behind their possibilities. Too bad, because with my help performance in a good condition is possible. Just in case...
A good start: Professional feedback with suggestions for improvement
How persuasive are you and your messages in speeches and presentations? How good are you at the 111+ most important presentation skills? I have been analyzing speeches since 1998. After evaluating 14,375 speeches and presentations, and numerous mistakes of my own, most of which I only discovered after a delay, I can tell you exactly what works with which audience. Let me give you the feedback that will help you get ahead. You will receive essential feedback and recommendations, as well as the impulses you need to persuade your audience in concrete situations.
Are you interested? If so, here is how to get helpful feedback with recommendations for improving your speeches and presentations.
Just ask me personally
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If you are interested in coaching, training or consulting, if you have organizational questions, or if you want to make an appointment, you can reach me best via this contact form (you can choose whether you want to enter your personal data) or via e-mail (mail@karstennoack.com). The privacy policy can be found here.
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Remarks:
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Present the benefits in the beginning of your pitch
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Use grounding for presence and a feeling confident in speeches and presentations. More than just a remedy for stage fright.
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This article is a short excerpt from the more comprehensive course materials my clients receive in a group or individual training or coaching.
Published: May 11, 2007
Author: Karsten Noack
Revision: August 20th, 2023
Translation: ./.
German version: https://www.karstennoack.de/was-darf-die-vorbereitung-einer-praesentation-kosten/
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