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About this lesson
The best way to be confident when you speak is to practice - on video - until you love it.
- 00:04 Okay, here's the part of the course where big decisions have to be made.
- 00:08 You can sort of sit back and be theater critic, and
- 00:10 treat this like you're watching Netflix.
- 00:12 Although, believe me, there are better things on Netflix, and say, well,
- 00:17 I didn't like the TJ, didn't have more slides, and images, and music, or
- 00:22 you can actually learn how to be a great presenter.
- 00:26 It's not going to happen unless you do the next thing.
- 00:28 I need you to take your one page of notes and
- 00:32 practice speaking on video and record it.
- 00:35 I know you don't like doing this, I know you don't enjoy it.
- 00:40 I know you don't feel comfortable with that.
- 00:42 Guess what, nobody in your audience cares.
- 00:45 I don't mean to sound mean or cruel, but
- 00:48 it's just a fact, your audience wants your best.
- 00:52 If you're not willing to practice,
- 00:54 then you don't really know if you're any good or not.
- 00:58 That's what causes people to get nervous or uncomfortable or fearful or have sweat.
- 01:03 The number one way to be confident when you speak is not to visualize your
- 01:08 audience giving you a standing ovation or visualize the audience in their underwear.
- 01:15 Bad idea for a lot of reasons.
- 01:17 The number one way to get over fear, to be confident, to
- 01:22 actually be a great speaker is to practice speaking on video until you love it.
- 01:31 So the answer is not just to practice on video, if you practice your speech
- 01:35 on video and don't look at it, not going to help at all.
- 01:38 If you practice your speech once on video and make detailed notes of all the things
- 01:43 you didn't like, guess what, that's not going to help.
- 01:46 That's actually going to make you worse because you're going to be fixated on,
- 01:51 my gosh, I said I'm twice, that's the end of the world.
- 01:55 Don't say I'm, don't say I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm.
- 01:57 You're going to trip yourself up.
- 01:58 That's not going to help.
- 02:01 The solution to being fully confident, to be fully prepared for a presentation,
- 02:07 is to practice on video as many times as it takes until you can look at that video.
- 02:14 Whether it's on your cell phone, your iPad, your laptop,
- 02:18 and you like it and you think you're coming across the best you
- 02:23 can possibly come across in terms of style and substance.
- 02:28 My recommendation, don't wait anymore.
- 02:33 Don't fast forward to the next video.
- 02:35 You're going to be tempted to.
- 02:37 Do this right now, look at it.
- 02:40 And then focus on what you like, not just your weaknesses, but
- 02:44 also look at what you don't like when you re-record it.
- 02:49 Try to improve just one area at a time.
- 02:53 So if you notice, for example, that your head is frozen and stiff the whole time,
- 02:58 give your presentation again, this time specifically moving your head.
- 03:04 Now, you can do this with another colleague holding the camera.
- 03:06 And don't worry about what type of camera,
- 03:09 it doesn't matter what type of camera, any cell phone, any $10 webcam.
- 03:15 You're not making a movie here.
- 03:17 This is just a training tool to help you figure out,
- 03:20 what are you putting out to the world?
- 03:22 Because if you think your presentation, your speech is really boring,
- 03:27 guess what, it is.
- 03:29 If you think you're coming across boring, monotone, guess what, you are.
- 03:36 The answer is not to, not look at it or not to wing it,
- 03:40 the answer is, keep practicing until you love it.
- 03:45 The greatest speakers in the world are often the ones
- 03:49 who spent the most time practicing on video.
- 03:54 The people you see on TED Talks quite often, they've given their speech hundreds
- 03:58 if not thousands of times before you actually get to see it.
- 04:02 And they practiced on video.
- 04:05 Someone like a former president Ronald Reagan of the United States would
- 04:09 practice his speeches, major speeches like the State of the Union for
- 04:14 an hour reading it out loud every night for a week, and
- 04:18 then spend an entire day doing video taped rehearsal.
- 04:23 Why did he do all that?
- 04:25 He did it so that when he was reading his teleprompter,
- 04:27 it didn't sound like he was reading the teleprompter.
- 04:31 Of all the tips I'm going to give you in this course, this is far and
- 04:34 away the most important.
- 04:36 It's also the one people are least likely to follow.
- 04:40 So I'm begging you, practice your speech repeatedly on video until,
- 04:46 not until it's perfect, but until you think it's
- 04:51 the best you can do with your current skill level.
- 04:55 It's going to make all the difference in the world.
- 04:57 Some of you are going to want to say, well, TJ, you didn't give us enough
- 05:00 practice, practical tips in this course or it's not long enough.
- 05:04 You can spend 12 hours just on this if you wanted to.
- 05:07 You don't need more tips on the angle for holding your hand, or
- 05:12 whether your hand should go in your pockets or not, if you haven't
- 05:17 done this basic element of practicing your presentation on video.
- 05:22 So before you advance, before you rate the course or do anything else, please,
- 05:28 practice your presentation on video repeatedly until you think you're great.
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