Episode 49: “Conquer Your Fear of Public Speaking”

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Synopsis

Even though BNI wasn’t founded to train people to speak in public, participating in a BNI group builds self-confidence in front of groups. Many people fear public speaking more than death.

One early BNI member threatened to quit rather than give a 10-minute presentation. Dr. Misner suggested that she make up questions to ask the group and have members guess whether the answer was “True” or “False.” Because she didn’t think of herself as “speaking,” she was able to be humorous and informative and give a great presentation.

Five suggestions:

1. Prepare, prepare, prepare. Don’t wing it, and don’t read a script. Practice in front of a mirror.
2. Be specific and talk about the things you know best. Focus on 2 or 3 areas.
3. Use handouts, visuals, or PowerPoint slides to support your presentation.
4. Remember: you’re the expert.
5. Be creative. Think of some way to communicate this information in a way that you feel comfortable.

If you want additional information on this subject, check out the article on page 103 of Dr. Misner’s book Masters of Networking.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 049 -

Priscilla Rice:
Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast brought to you by networkingnow.com, the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice coming from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan. How are you?

Ivan Misner:
I am doing great, Priscilla. I have an interesting topic today.

Priscilla:
Oh, what are you going to talk to us about?

Ivan:
I am going to talk about conquering your fear of public speaking. You know, BNI wasn’t really created to be a training organization for speaking, but one of the things that I hear over and over again from BNI members is how much they have gained in terms of feeling confident in standing up in front of groups. We are not a Toastmasters. That is a great organization to teach people how to speak. But that said, we do really help train people on how to speak by having them do it week in and week out.

I don’t know if you know this, but you probably do. It has been published in many places. In many of the surveys that I have read over the years, people have ranked their fear of public speaking higher than the fear of dying, which amazes me. So standing there talking to an audience can be really frightening, especially if it is more than just a minute, more than just 60 seconds.

I first really got a handle on this years ago in BNI. I met a CPA who was deathly afraid of public speaking. We knew she was afraid. She was always nervous just to do her 60-second presentation. One week we told her – this was in the early, early days of BNI. We told her that she was scheduled to speak six weeks out. She looked at me and the Secretary who was there and said, “If I have to speak, I quit.”

I said, “No, no seriously. You are scheduled to speak six weeks out.”

She said, “No joke. If I have to do a ten minute talk, I quit.”

I said, “You are kidding!”

She said, “Come on, you guys. Don’t you see it takes all my willpower just to stand up and give the 60-second presentation? I am just deathly afraid of doing a presentation.”

We said, “Don’t quit but you don’t want to lose this opportunity. This is a great opportunity to train and teach people about what you do.”

She said, “Okay, I understand. I quit.”

I said, “No, don’t quit, but you have to come up with something.” She, in no uncertain terms, informed me that if she was required to speak for ten minutes, she would have to quit because it was just so stressful for her.

We told her not to quit and we wouldn’t make her speak if she didn’t want to. That seemed to alleviate some of her anxiety. We continued talking. I told her that she didn’t have to do the presentation but it is unfortunate to eliminate an opportunity to educate members. She acknowledged that but still said that she wasn’t going to speak.

I said, “Well, what if, instead of speaking, you just read a test, read questions?”

She said, “What do you mean?”

I said, “Give the members a test. Don’t do a speech. Just give them a test. You read the question and let them answer it. Then you tell them whether it is true or false.” I asked her whether she could come up with ten true or false questions about tax law and asked her if she could just read the questions. How many of you say true? How many of you say false? Do that kind of thing.

She thought for a moment and she said, “I don’t have to speak. I just read the questions and say true or false.”

I said, “That’s it.”

She said, “Alright, I can probably do that.”

When the day came, the test was absolutely hysterical. It was just so funny because she was a little nervous but was okay. She didn’t have to speak. She stood up and started reading it. She really worded the questions well. She asked us some tough questions. Half the audience was saying true and half the audience was saying false. Some of the people we saying they were going to go to San Quinton because they missed all three of these questions so far.

At about the third question through, she kind of got off script and she stared speaking extemporaneously. The further she got into it, the more she was comfortable. She was very professional, but she was humorous and informative. And at about 12 minutes, the President had to have her sit down. She was absolutely shocked that she went over time. It was great because she just did a “test”.

I think the bottom line with this is that you should do a presentation that you feel comfortable with but think creatively about what you know and find a way to do it in a way that expresses your knowledge and allows you to be comfortable. You will discover that you don’t have to pass up an opportunity to talk longer to the networking groups that you belong to if you just get creative on how you do it.

Priscilla:
Do you have any specifics on getting creative?

Ivan:
I can give you five points, five suggestions that I have for people who are nervous about doing presentations at their networking groups. First is prepare, prepare, prepare. Don’t wing it. Prepare an outline of what you want to say and practice it. Don’t read it. The idea is to have at least bullet points that you can touch upon. Don’t read it. Be prepared.

There are is nothing wrong with standing in front of a mirror and testing out your presentation. Here is a little secret. I have been speaking for decades. I still do that. I stand in front of a mirror and work out my material on the toughest audience — myself. It helps. It gives you a sense of timing. Then I will practice it with my wife. My wife, God bless her, she hears the first version of every speech I do. You know, practice it a little. Be prepared and you don’t have to wing it. That is number one.

Two, be specific and talk about the things you know best. To teach people they do. Focus on one to three areas because 10 minutes isn’t a lifetime. Cover the topics you feel you understand the best. That will reduce some of your stress because if it’s an area of your business that you know forwards and backwards, you know what? You are the expert. Nobody in the audience is as expert on that topic as you are. Show them your expertise. Prepare, be specific.

Three, use handouts, visuals or PowerPoint slides to support your presentation. For people who are worried about stage fright, these products can help carry them through. When making keynotes, I don’t usually use those things. But if I am trying to teach somebody something, then I use those things. I like visuals or PowerPoint’s. I don’t often use handouts. You can use handouts. The only problem with handouts is that people do get ahead of themselves. That is one reason to use PowerPoint because it keeps them on track. Use anything that helps you reduce some of your stress.

Four, remember you are the expert. And think about ways to help show them that that is not threatening to you. You are the expert as I have talked about before.

Five, be creative. Think of some way to communicate this information that you feel comfortable with. For the CPA, it was doing a test. See if you can find something like that. Feel free to try that. If you are afraid to speak, just write up a test. If 10 questions is too much, knock it down to five. You can get through five questions and open it up and it will easily take a 10 minute.

Those are the five things. Prepare, that is number one. Two, be specific. Three, use handouts, visuals or PowerPoint slides. Four, remember you are the expert. Number five, be creative. Those are the five suggestions that I would recommend, Priscilla.

Priscilla:
That is great. I think that might be all the time we have.

Ivan:
Let me leave the listeners with just one other thing. If people want additional information on the subject, I really recommend taking a look at the many books and tapes that specifically talk about public speaking. In one of my books, Masters of Networking, there is a contribution on the subject of public speaking in a networking context written by Joe McBride. I think that starts on page 103. For the listeners, Masters of Networking, one of the books I wrote, on page 103 is a great article by Joe McBride. I recommend you read that article. It helps support this material a lot.

Priscilla:
That sounds good. All right. Well thank you so much, Dr. Misner. That was really good information.

Ivan:
Thank you, Priscilla.

Priscilla:
This podcast has been brought to you by networkingnow.com, the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. Thanks for listening. This is Priscilla Rice and we look forward to having you join us again next week for another episode of the Official BNI Podcast.