6 tips to curb your nerves in public speaking, from Alex Lyon [Video]

Because fear of public speaking’s such a huge issue, any useful advice on it’s a great help – to speakers everywhere.

So I was delighted to find a really helpful video on that topic from speaking coach Alex Lyon.

In fact, Alex posted a pair of related videos in recent weeks.

In this post, I’ll focus on the 1^st of those, which looks at ways your mindset can help to reduce your fear of public speaking. The 2^nd video (which you’ll find at the end of this post) looks at ways your behaviour can help to lessen your nerves, too.

In the 1^st video, I love how Alex starts:

“These tips will help you
cut your anxiety in half”
Alex Lyon, at 0:08

What a winning way to open! He doesn’t claim you can crush your nerves completely. And that distinction’s key to managing your fear – yet it’s all too easy to forget.

Here’s Alex’s 6-minute mindset video. (This clip skips his 40-second intro.)

For your easy reference, these are his 6 points:

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How to nail your talk in the first 30 secs, by @KindraMHall [Video]

What is it about public speaking that you’d be most likely to search for on the internet? You might be surprised which of my posts gets the most search traffic…

The most popular post on this blog – by far – is the one on awesome opening lines. And almost 60 people have commented on it, too. So it’s definitely a hot topic for public speakers.

But if you go looking for an opening line for your talk, I think you’re taking the wrong approach.

Why do I say that? Well, the combination of your audience and your topic are unique. So, if you search the internet for an opening line, you’re very unlikely to find a good fit for your specific talk.

What should you do, then? You’ll find one great answer in this 3-minute video by Kindra Hall.

Kindra reveals:

Should you tell a deeply personal story? 3 ways to help you decide, from @KindraMHall [Video]

How do you decide whether to tell a deeply personal story in public, such as at work?

In this 4-minute video, Kindra Hall gives you 3 ways to help you choose whether (and how) to share a tricky story like that:

Recently, I came across Kindra’s work online, and I love it! She shares some great advice, and the topic she’s passionate about is storytelling.

In this video, her 3 main points are:

Critique of Allan Pease’s TEDx talk on body language [Video]

Short of time? Skip to the critique itself

Have you seen Allan Pease’s great TEDx talk? It’s called:

“Body language – the power is in the palm of your hands.”

I found it enthralling for 2 reasons:

• The topic’s fascinating: How you routinely use your hands has strong yet subconscious effects on your dealings with other people, and even on your own feelings.
• Allan delivered the talk in a highly engaging way, with passion, humour, and audience involvement too.

You’ll find specific tips on how you can avoid some of its weaker aspects

In this post, you’ll find some of the talk’s best points picked out, plus specific tips on how you can avoid some of its weaker aspects in your own talks. In particular, parts of the talk’s opening and closing could have been stronger, so that’s where I’ll focus.

You might like to watch the 15-minute talk here. Or, later in the post, you can click the links to watch key parts of it.