How to Succeed in Public Speaking
This week, we’re improving our public speaking skills with the help of expert Carmine Gallo, author of Speak Like TED: 9 Secrets to Public Speaking of the World’s Best Minds , which teaches us the importance of story and emotion when it comes to performance. Then listen to Lifehacker’s cooking editor Claire Lower as she tells her own story of how she went from stage frightened home schooler to performance team champion.
Listen to The Upgrade above, or find us in all the usual podcast locations including Apple Podcasts , Google Play , Spotify , iHeartRadio , Stitcher, and NPR One.
Highlights from this week’s series
Interview with Carmine Gallo
On the importance of emotion and storytelling in presentations:
Aristotle said without emotion that people cannot make a decision and they will not be led to your arguments. You cannot persuade unless you reach an emotional connection with people. Interestingly, he wrote this two thousand years ago. Today, in the laboratory and in scientific experiments with MRI machines, we learn that … no one can make a decision without being influenced by emotion. So if you cannot communicate emotionally with people, you will lose most of your conviction and you will be much less powerful and effective.
On how to overcome anxiety about public speaking:
You must exercise under stress. This is what psychologists, especially sports psychologists, people who work with shots and soccer, or golfers looking over a putt on two feet to win the championship. The reason they can remain fairly calm in such situations is because they have practiced it a thousand times and they practice under mild stress. When it comes to public speaking, you have to get up, record yourself, and get the group together in front of you. How about one or two people in front of you, maybe friends or peers. Thus, you train again under mild stress conditions.
For more advice from Carmine on public speaking and to hear Claire’s story of overcoming stage fright, we recommend listening to the podcast. It’s fun!
If you would like to participate in the show, call us at 347-687-8109 or send a voicemail to upgrade@lifehacker.com. Next week we’ll be talking about how to live longer, so if you have any feelings on this topic, please share them!