Why public speaking scares you?

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In Susan Adams article, Why Public Speaking Scares You and How to Overcome Your Fear, she highlights the work of Jane Praeger, a NYC media and presentation coach.

Praeger stands by the standard advice: know your material and the audience, practice your speech, check out the room in advance, do relaxation exercises like deep breathing, don’t apologize for being nervous.

Great advice.  PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE is a Career-ology mantra!

Adams continues to report. .  . Read more

“Does that make sense?”

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In his Harvard Business Review Blog Network post, Jerry Weissman makes the point that for many people asking “does that make sense?” during a presentation has become a filler.  Other well know examples of fillers include: “like,” “you know,” “to be honest,” and the all too frequent and dreaded “um.”  Jerry is an expert at coaching business people to be successful presenters.  He has published several books on the subject including the  most recent book Presentations in Action: 80 Memorable Presentation Lessons from the Masters (FT Press: 2011).

I agree with Jerry’s point which is essentially that asking your audience “does that make sense?” can convey. . .  Read more