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Do you immediately start freaking out when you are asked to give a presentation at work or required to make a class presentation in school? Do you feel like such a situation is one of your worst nightmares because of the fact that you stutter? Would you avoid such situations at all cost? If so, what can you do to manage such situations in the best way you can? Here are some helpful tips for you which you can use during an oral presentation.

Actually before we get into that, let me tell you about a study.

In a study which was done for the general public, public speaking was rated as people’s #1 fear. It was rated higher than death! It is so obvious that this is a huge stress driving situation even for the so called “fluent” speakers, let alone people who suffer from stuttering.

I remember I used to have sleepless nights before a simple oral presentation in class or a work meeting. My mind used to solely focus on two things:

* what to do to avoid the situation… and in case there was no chance to avoid;

* how to totally hide my stutter or at least hide it as much as I can so I don’t make a fool of myself in front of others

…which both were extremely wrong by the way!

So anyways, back to the heart of today’s subject.

What can you do to be able to manage such situations in the best way you can? Here is a list of tips for you which you can start using immediately when it comes to giving a presentation as a person who stutters.

1) Make a humorous start and address your stutter with dignity and strength right in the beginning of the presentation.

2) Use a powerful voice tone. Avoid using a weak tone which will make you hold back.

3) Use a voice tone which is not monotone.

4) Role-play in a section if it is convenient for the specific presentation.

5) Make strong eye contact with your listeners.

6) Act as if you are confident and comfortable in your own skin, a bit on the “cool” side. Your physical state will definitely change your mental state… and both will reflect to your speech.

7) If you are working on a physical speech technique, make sure you use it all through the presentation.

Do not avoid any word. The more you avoid the worse it gets. The best way to defeat it is to face the feared word over and over again and prove yourself that you can say it.

9) If convenient, use humorous visual material in your presentation. That will ease the audience and you’ll feel more relaxed.

10) Focus on the outcome you want to get out of that specific situation, not what others will think about you if you stutter!

Try all or some of these the next time you face with a speaking situation where you are expected to give a presentation and see what kind of results you’ll get… and of course let me know because as I always say, the reason I am here writing this article is you and your success!

Are you someone who has plenty of ideas but you struggle to actually implement them? In this article I am going to describe how you go from having an idea to actually putting that idea into practice and creating a product.

I am sure that there are many people out there who have so many ideas but the one thing that stops them from actually doing anything with that idea is because they don’t know what to do. Having ideas can sometime be the hardest thing for people who do know what to do – so you are blessed if you can come up with ideas easily!

If you have an idea then the very first thing you need to do is to make sure that your idea,if you turned it into a product, will actually be profitable for you. You may believe that your idea is great but that isn’t actually what is important. You need to make sure that other people will think your idea is great and will actually want to buy your product.

Market research is critical if you are going to have a profitable business and therefore you need to determine exactly if your idea will work and the form that your idea will take in terms of a product.

In this article I am talking about information products – that is products that share and explain how to do things or the importance of why you need to do something in order for someone to see a specific result and achieve something.

Therefore once you have an idea and you know that people will want that information all you need to do is to put that down on a piece of paper as an outline of exactly what you will include when you package it together as a product.

Your outline is based on the steps that someone might need to take in order to achieve something or it might be what people need to know in order to achieve something.

It is far easier to create a product if you have an outline than just trying to create it from an idea in your head.

Once you have your outline on paper then you can begin to fill in and pad that outline out so that you actually create an information product.
The way that you sell that product and in what format you sell it is entirely up to you. Bear in mind that certain formats will command a higher price than others.

While fear pervades many aspects of business, presentations consistently drive it to exquisitely high levels. We use the term “presentation” to include any important one-on-one meeting, small group discussions around a table, or speaking before an audience of thousands.

We are talking about a particular kind of fear. Some fear helps motivate you to divert time from the pounding surf of your daily schedule and prepare for your presentation. There comes a point for most of us, however, when the fear is no longer useful. It has crossed the line from excitement to dread. Instead of driving preparation, it now impairs concentration and kills energy.

Fear has a thousand faces, but we have only three basic responses:

1. Ignore it
2. Evade it
3. Transcend it

Ignoring Fear

Merely suffering through your fear is the simplest and most common response. It requires no learning, effort or practice. Negative consequences flow from this path. In addition to being very stressful, fear tends to break concentration during preparation and disturbs other obligations.

Perhaps even more importantly, these enervating fears can also have an extremely negative impact on your performance in delivering your presentation. Fear robs your ability to casually walk to the stage and be yourself. It tends to kill excitement and block the ability to connect deeply with your audience. Fear can make your body stiff, your breathing labored and your physical movement unnatural.

Evading Fear

Usually the first step in dealing with your fear of the big presentation is figuring out how to avoid the fear. Even if you are looking for a longer term solution, at least temporarily avoiding the problem is a key step in creating the space to fashion more encompassing approaches.

Transcending Fear

Creative visualization is the first step in removing yourself from the scary thoughts and consciously guiding your mind to a new space: actively imagining the desired end result.

Professional and Olympic athletes spend time imagining the desired end result and track the measurable increased performance that follows the creative visualization sessions. Fear stems from the unconscious repetitive thoughts and feelings about failing.

VISUALIZATION

The key to successful visualizations is simultaneously feeling the emotions that would naturally attach to images that you see. To drive emotion, the most powerful vehicle is music – - music that stirs you. Often it is high energy music, something like the Rocky theme, hard driving rock, or passionate jazz or classical. The key is that it drives your energy higher, actively imagining the desired end result.

In visualization, there are two distinct ways to envision yourself: either looking at yourself from the position of an outside observer, or seeing the whole event through your own eyes. While everyone is different, it is usually easier to start by seeing an image of yourself from the perspective of an outside observer. As time goes by, many find it more effective to do the visualization through your eyes as a presenter.

Imagine the room in which you will present. If you know the room location, try and visit it before hand so you can create the exact setting of your presentation. If you can’t see a remote location, just imagine the kind of room it is likely to be.

VISUALIZATION EXERCISE

Imagine what you will experience prior to the presentation. See yourself walking toward the spot from which you will present.

As you see yourself approaching “the moment of truth,” can you feel where in your body the tension resides?

As you continue walking to the front of the room, see if you can exchange the feelings of fear with a closely related feeling – excitement. Fear is often a part of excitement and their affect on the body is the same: pounding pulse, heavy breathing, a slight shake in the extremities.

Feel the empowering sense that this could be your break-through moment. This could be when you reach to a higher level than you ever thought possible.

Imagine yourself now in front of the audience facing them, looking calmly and intently into their faces. Take a big breath and feel relaxation welling-up within you.

See their faces. Are they interested? Do they need something to enliven them? Take a moment for some “in-flow” of information before you begin the “out-flow” of information.