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  • Do you have to make a speech or do a presentation? Are you nervous? Do you need some help?

  • I can help you. Hello. My name is Ronnie.

  • I'm going to teach you a couple of tips and a couple of ways to help you when you have to do a scary presentation or speech.

  • When I was younger -- when I was really young, I had to do speeches every year in elementary school

  • and high school, maybe, I don't remember. I don't remember high school, okay? I do remember, specifically,

  • in elementary school, every year, we had to do speeches. Guess what, ladies and gentlemen.

  • You are looking at the grade 3 speech champion of Memorial school.

  • Thank you. Thank you. Look what I am today.

  • So when I was in grade 3, I made the best speech in my class. I went on to

  • do the speech in the auditorium or the gymnasium. I won first place. Oh, yeah. I won a book.

  • I don't like books. I was like, "I got a book. Thanks." I was eight years old. I wrote a speech.

  • I delivered the speech, and I won. I'm going to teach you what I know. This isn't a fool proof way,

  • but this is how I to it. And maybe, this will work for you.

  • How to make a speech or presentation. And, speeches and presentation are, of course, different.

  • Speeches are more what you want to tell people about an interesting topic.

  • And presentations are usually more work-based. But sometimes, they overlap. Sometimes, in schools, you have

  • to do a speech, and also you will probably have to make a presentation about maybe a boring topic that the teacher gives you

  • like World War II. How mundane.

  • So the very first thing that I'm going to tell you about is how to actually form or make a

  • decent speech. Sometimes, this is unavoidable. But maybe, if you can, choose a good or interesting topic.

  • When I say interesting or good, the only person that needs to think this is interesting is you -- me -- you.

  • If you have a wide-open topic, for example, your history teacher goes, "World War II."

  • You go, "oh, god. Okay. Well, I know the history of World War II and the

  • terrible Hitler, and all this stuff went down." So what you're going to do is you're going

  • to try to choose a different angle, a different topic or a different way to present the information

  • that no one's heard about before.

  • So if you have the opportunity to choose your own topic and the teacher doesn't give it to you, wide-open spaces.

  • Choose what you like. What's your hobby? What's your passion?

  • What do you like to talk about? Choose that -- bam. Make a really interesting presentation or speech.

  • If you're excited about topic, then the other people will also feel your enthusiasm or feel your excitement,

  • and it will be a good speech or presentation. So one, choose a good or interesting topic, if you can.

  • No. 2, this is really important. If you are given a topic, I know it might be boring.

  • Know your topic, or know your content. Nowadays, you can just go on the web, the good old website -- the Internet --

  • and you can blob the information off of Wikipedia or off of any kind of web page that you want,

  • throw together the speech, stand up in front of everyone staring at you,

  • yabber, yabber, yabber, jabber, jabber jabber. Then, at the end of it -- thank god it's over

  • -- someone's going to ask you a question. "Oh, god. I don't know the answer" -- because

  • you didn't research it. You just copied and pasted off the Internet.

  • You can do that, whisk through it, ask a question, "I don't know." Speech is done.

  • But if you have to do this for work, if your boss gives you a presentation or a speech to do for work,

  • this is really important. Know your stuff. Know, maybe, what the people are going to ask you.

  • Think of questions you would ask someone giving the same speech. As long as you know the information,

  • your confidence is going to go like this. Your nervousness or your anxiety is going to go like this.

  • If you're confident, you know the topic, you know in and out everything about it, you're going to be the expert on it,

  • and it's going to rock. Okay?

  • Next one. Know your audience. Who are you talking to? Are you going to be speaking to people from other countries?

  • Does everyone know and understand your language? Or are

  • some people from different countries and have a hard time knowing your language or don't really know.

  • Or you have to make a presentation in English, and English is not your first language.

  • Cool. Don't worry about it. Relax. Take your time. But know who you're talking to.

  • If you have to do a speech to people who are children, you have to use vocabulary and language that the children know.

  • You also have to talk to them in a way where they understand and respect you.

  • If you're doing a business presentation and it has to be really, really formal, so do you.

  • You have to know what you want the people to get out of it, and you have to know who the people are.

  • Really important.

  • Next one. Just to make it more interesting, just so nobody falls asleep, starts drooling,

  • use, if you can, props. So "props" are things like -- oh, I don't know -- some paper towel.

  • Or a lot of the times when you're doing presentations, you have a beautiful computer. Use some slides.

  • Use some pictures. Anything to hold the person's interest during the speech or during the presentation.

  • If there is one person just talking, guess what? I'm going to turn off. I'm going to

  • be so bored, and I'm not going to listen anymore. Try and make the content with pictures or slides or props or something.

  • Something to make it different from other people.

  • Next one. Do you like making presentations? No? What about speeches? Do you like speeches?

  • No? Okay. One way to maybe start a speech or start a presentation, grab the audience's attention --

  • don't grab the audience; grab their attention -- is to start your speech or start your presentation with a question.

  • It's kind of an old technique, but it works every time.

  • Instead of going up to the front and going, "Today, I'm going to talk about elephants."

  • You're going to go, "Hey! Do you like elephants? Have you ever ridden on an elephants?

  • No? Go ride an elephant." If you grab the audience's attention at first, the

  • more people are going to like it, they're going to listen to it, and it's just going to be more fun.

  • Problem.

  • You've written this amazing speech. Okay? You've got a great topic. You know all the information.

  • Someone's going to ask you a question; you've got the answer. You know the people.

  • You've got some slides. You've got some props. You've got it. Awesome. But

  • oh, my god, you are so nervous. Okay? You're anxious. You can't sleep the night before.

  • During the presentation, before the presentation, you're really nervous. You're shaking. That's normal.

  • Don't worry. The more presentations you make, the more speeches you do, this nervousness

  • and this anxiety will hopefully lessen, go away, dissipate. I remember the very first

  • time that I got to be a teacher. When I was teaching before, I was in a tiny classroom, four people.

  • And I'll never forget the time I walked into a classroom and everyone was staring at me.

  • Was I nervous? Oh, yeah. Was I anxious? Not really -- because I knew my stuff.

  • I know what these people want. I know what they need. I know what I have to give them.

  • So you are nervous? That's cool. Tips to combat nervousness. Don't drink a lot of coffee.

  • If you drink a lot of coffee before the presentation, you're going to be moving. The coffee's going to make you seem nervous.

  • Maybe you're calm, but the coffee gets your body moving more.

  • People have always said, when you're making a speech or a presentation, do not move around too much.

  • I disagree. I remember I was making a presentation in high school, and I stood -- strange.

  • I stood in a strange position, and I stood on my foot, and I fell over.

  • It was hilarious. I fell. I almost hit my head on the board. The whole class was like,

  • "Are you okay?" I thought it was funny. Who got extra marks? Me. Because I was able to laugh at it and continue going.

  • Bad things might happen. You might fall over. But if you deliver a speech like this and are a statue and don't move,

  • it's boring. Body movement is essential when you're making a speech.

  • You want the person to look at you. You want to make sure that they're not sleeping.

  • You want to move around. Okay?

  • Also, it hides your nervousness. The reason why I was doing this when I was in class was because I was nervous

  • and I was playing with my feet, and I fell.

  • I do a little dance if I'm nervous. I listen to music before I do my presentation so that I'm not as nervous.

  • I think about a song, and I play it.

  • The only concrete way that I can tell you to really, really, really stop your nervousness is to practice.

  • You've got this beautiful speech, but you don't know it; you have not remembered it.

  • It's impossible to memorize everything. But the more you practice your speech,

  • the more comfortable you're going to be presenting it to other people.

  • If you go up to the front and you read off a piece of paper, your voice is going to be like a robot.

  • It's going to be terrible. So you need to practice it so you can remember quite a lot of it.

  • The more you practice, the more you know, the more comfortable you become with yourself saying it.

  • And because you know your topic, because you know your audience,

  • because you've practiced your speech, nothing can go wrong. Maybe you forget a word.

  • That's cool. You keep on going because you've practiced it.

  • When it comes the time to make the speech, please speak loud enough so that everyone can hear you.

  • And please speak clearly. When you're speaking to people, you have to slow down.

  • One problem I have when I'm nervous is I talk really quickly and I mumble, which means I don't say the words clearly.

  • That's the nervous factor. Usually, when I start,

  • I talk really, really fast. But by the end of it, you pace yourself, and your speech becomes clearer.

  • That's natural; that's cool. But try and concentrate on having a loud voice and saying the words clearly.

  • This is really important (make eye contact). If someone was giving you a presentation or a speech and they stared

  • directly at one person -- let's say the one person was you -- how would you feel?

  • I'd feel nervous. So when you're making a speech or presentation, it's really important to maintain eye contact --

  • not with one person, not with the floor, not with your paper, with everyone.

  • Really, really important to look at every single person that you're talking to.

  • Do a little room sweep. Go, "Hey, Bob. Yeah. What's up?" Pretend that you're individually looking at all the people.

  • Don't stare at one person. That's weird. Don't stare at two people.

  • It's like you're playing ping-pong. Are you guys playing ping-pong? Don't do that.

  • That's strange. Don't stare straight ahead. Don't stare at the ceiling. Look at the people.

  • Look at their eyes. Okay? Look at the people's eyes. Make sure they're looking at you.

  • If someone's sleeping or someone's not paying attention to you, if you look at them, they're like,

  • "Oh, hey. Yeah." Very important, eye contact.

  • Sometimes, like I said, you've got your speech. You're nervous. You've practiced. You've practiced.

  • But of course, you think, "Oh, my god. What if I forget or blank out or -- I just can't do it. What am I going to do?"

  • Well, solution -- cue cards. Cue cards are little pieces of paper

  • or cardboard that you write down your main points of your presentation or your speech.

  • So you do not want to read or write down all of the speech because you're like

  • this, "Yesterday, I saw a really cool elephant. It was -- it was -- gray. It was gray."

  • If you write down all the speech, your eyes have to read it really quickly and it stops the flow of your speech.

  • So write down the main points of the cue cards.

  • Maybe on one cue card, you could have the main point and three points to help you.

  • So maybe you're reading something or you're speaking, and you forget something. That's cool.

  • "Oh, yeah. That part." Okay? And say to the people -- just say, "Hold on. Good."

  • There's no problem forgetting something, but if there's a long silence or you're awkward about it, there's a problem.

  • Apologize. Look it up. Everyone's cool. Don't worry about it.

  • So during your presentation, make eye contact; speak loudly; speak clearly; try and remember

  • your speech. Practice, practice, practice. It's going to reduce your nervousness and your anxiety.

  • Before you make the speech, make sure it's pretty interesting.

  • To help you more with this, there's a really, really cool website called www.PresentationPrep.com.

  • If you're finding that you have to do a lot of presentations for work or for school or for anything,

  • check out this website. It will help you just like this did.

  • Good luck in your speeches. Adios.

Do you have to make a speech or do a presentation? Are you nervous? Do you need some help?

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