Huckleberry Authentic Communication Solutions

You may be dreaming of doing that TED talk or taking part in Pecha Kucha. Perhaps you regularly present to clients or prospective clients and feel you could be much more impactful. Or maybe you’ve joined a networking group and want to brush up on your elevator pitch or present your business in a more professional way.
Whatever your reasons for wanting to improve your public speaking skills, there are a few simple tips you can use to improve them immediately, without hours of training. Here they are.

1. Write to speak
   This may seem obvious, but many people – when writing a speech, presentation or elevator pitch – write to read. In other words, they write, and then read what they’ve written, thinking it all sounds great, but they neglect to speak the words out loud to themselves. Only when you do this can you hear whether the rhythm is pleasing to the ear. By writing to speak, you can tell where pauses are needed, when sentences are too longwinded, or when things just don’t quite sound right.

2. Know your topic inside out
   This goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway. The better you understand the topic, the easier you will be able to speak off-the-cuff. I have attended many a Toastmaster meeting where the speaker “went blank” and then had to quickly (awkwardly) find the exact spot in their notes, because they were talking about a topic they didn’t know much about. They were relying on memory and notes rather than inherent knowledge. When you are speaking about something you know about, you also immediately come across as more authentic.

3. Boost your own confidence
   A staggering percentage of people have a fear of public speaking. They get nervous, sweaty, even panic-stricken. If this is you, spend a few minutes before your talk (and even when you are practicing) boosting your own confidence. In other words, talk yourself up.
   Start by straightening your back, lifting your chin, squaring your shoulders… and then remind yourself of all the reasons you are awesome! It may sound - and even feel – silly, but positive self-talk can instantly boost your confidence in any situation, even when you are about to speak publicly. Maybe you come up with a few mantras you can say to yourself. Say it. Mean it. Feel it. So often before doing something daunting, we are unconsciously saying things to ourselves like: “oh jeez, this is so scary. What if I go blank? I’m so nervous I could die.” This will only perpetuate the nerves. Do the opposite and the opposite will happen. Oh, and smile! (Not a toothy, nervous, get-me-the-hell-out-of-here smile, but a genuine smile…)

4. Breathe
   It is an indisputable fact that slow, deep breathing calms the nerves. Before you practice, and of course before you speak, get into a habit of taking nine slow, calming breathes. You can also couple the breathing with the mantras from the previous tip – double whammy. And the genuine smile – triple whammy!

5. Slow down
   The more nervous we feel, the faster we tend to talk. You can trick your mind into thinking it’s super calm by slowing your speech down and talking in a calm manner. Talking slowly also conveys confidence and makes your audience feel calmer. Practice speaking slowly!

6. Lose the fillers
   Related to the previous point - you’ve probably listened to a podcast or talk where the speaker uses filler words all the time. If so, you know that it can be really distracting. Of course I am talking about um, er, ah, like, so, and similar. You may not even know you do it, because it’s become an unconscious nervous habit. And how do you lose the filler words? Pause instead. Instead of: “So um, what I want to, um, tell you about today, is um, the benefit of using this, um, product”, SLOW DOWN, and you will find it easier to simply pause instead of saying “um”. Practise!

7. Use anchors
   Whether you are presenting to a few clients in a boardroom, speaking to a large audience or presenting in an online meeting, find two or three “anchors” in the audience. It could be someone you know sitting in the font row, or a few friendly faces in the crows. Find their eyes every now, at regular intervals and during your talk. It helps you to feel more grounded when you speak and has the added benefit of making these people feel like you are really engaging with them. The more you practice, the easier you will be able to identify more anchors, so that you are engaging with more people. Don’t make it weird by locking eyes with one person and never blinking or looking away again. It should be natural, connecting, relaxed, and uncreepy.

8. Cut the sway away
   Another common habit when nervous in front of an audience is to sway the body, or move the weight of the body from one foot to the other. The speaker might not even know they are doing it, but the audience will find it extremely distracting. Stand with your feet slightly apart, shoulders back. If it’s appropriate and you can do it in a natural way, you can step forward, step back, step to the side, even take a few steps towards the audience or walk to one side of the room and back rather than standing on the spot swaying. Use your movement to reinforce the message. If you are sharing something personal, step forward and lean in. If you are talking about two opposite things, step to the one side while talking about thing A, and then to the other when talking about thing B.

9. Use your hands naturally
   Many people also don’t know what to do with their hands. In this case, the hands may end up in the pockets or dandling at your side lifelessly. But you don’t do that when you are talking to friends, so all you need to do to fix this issue is try to be more natural. Don’t think about your hands or arms, just use them the way you would in a normal, everyday conversation. Some people exaggerate the hand movements to emphasise a point. This is great to be more engaging and emphatic, but make sure it comes across natural, otherwise it can just seem rehearsed and inauthentic.
   

10. Record yourself
    Finally, to pick up on unconscious habits and know for sure where you can improve, record yourself giving your speech or presentation. Watch yourself back and don’t be put off by any discomfort this may cause you. You have to start somewhere, so unless you want to attend a two-day course and practice in front of 10 strangers, become comfortable with recording and watching yourself. This way, you can become your own trainer. As you watch the video/s, pay special attention to points 5 – 9 above.

As with all skills, practise is key. And the great thing about practising your public speaking skills is that you can start doing it in front of your dog, your mirror, your partner or your cat, without fear of judgment. (Except maybe from your cat. They can be quite judgey).

There is really no reason to fear public speaking. It’s not even remotely dangerous, so the fear is just your mind playing tricks on you. I invite you to print this out and practise these 10 tips and then get out there and promote your business or your ideas confidently!

Being a lover of language, I couldn’t help but notice how the pandemic has influenced our language use over the last year. Certain old or rarely-used words have become commonplace; some words or phrases have changed meaning; and of course, neologisms - new words and expressions – have been added to our spoken language.
A year ago, “do you have your mask?” was something you only asked a friend if you were going to Afrikaburn or robbing a convenience store. (In my experience, anyway.) “Can you hear me now?” was uttered only when you were talking on your phone from a restaurant or farm, or doing the odd Skype call with a faraway client or ageing family member. Now it’s all. the. time. “Can you hear me? Can you hear me NOW?”

The word quarantine rolls off the tongue with ease these days. Before COVID, it was something imposed on one of the Hemsworth brothers in a highly unbelievable sci fi movie. Lockdown was something that happened when the inmates at Pollsmoor caused kak. And flattening the curve meant cutting out carbs and getting back to hot yoga.

Social distancing wasn’t even a thing a year ago. I remember the first time I saw the phrase. It was on my Toastmasters Whatsapp group early in March last year. One of the members said she wasn’t going to attend the meeting, as her family had decided to do social distancing. I wondered if one of them had Tourettes or if they were perhaps trying some sort of weird hermit therapy to connect as a family. But no, I looked it up and it was a thing and now, less than a year later, it’s a phrase we hear and see every single day.

A year ago, the only jobs that were WFH (work-from-home) were the kind that paid 50c for every filled and licked envelope. These days, a huge number of positions are advertised as WFH or remote. Nobody knew what PPE stood for a year ago, and the only people who spoke about the front lines were Fox News reporters talking about some unfathomable war involving American troops.

And who was talking about the New World Order or 5G back in the early days of 2020? Only people with tinfoil hats and a year’s supply of koolaid in their bunker, that’s who. Now, it’s your cousin, your cute neighbour and that lovely lady you connected with at the silent retreat.

Before the pandemic, only margarine was a super spreader. Now, the phrase refers to the irresponsible and ignorant people who interact with large groups while infected with the virus. Coincidentally, the most famous of these is not unlike margarine, in both his colouring and nutritional value.

There are also a huge number of made-up words that have become a normal part of our language in just 10 months. Covidiot is one of my favourites – a word to describe someone who denies the virus exists or doesn’t practise safety precautions.

Coronacoaster describes the emotional rollercoaster brought on by the sudden lockdown; the ups and downs that come from spending more time than is natural with your immediate family; and the stress and anxiety caused by not only the possible lack of income, but also the weird, anti-social vibe of it all. Being an introvert, I haven’t been as affected by lockdown and social distancing as many others, but even I sometimes go from feeling manic joy one minute to sprouting surprise tears the next, for no apparent reason. (And sometimes because I only have 2 beers left and no idea when Uncle Cyril will let me buy more).

Other new made-up words include maskne, a pimple outbreak caused by facial coverings, and zoombombing, which is when you bomb or intrude on someone’s video conference. This actually happens - bored trolls find meeting links on Twitter and other platforms and then join the meeting and share their filthy, filthy screens. Of course, zoombombing can also occur – more innocently and minus the porn - when a waiter or toddler (or your aggressively needy cat) inadvertently enters your camera’s view while you’re having a pow wow with your super awesome quaranteam.

A quarantini is a cocktail enjoyed in isolation in the comfort of one’s own home, and Blursday describes the feeling when you wake up and have no idea what day it is because you’ve been in your tracksuit for 3 weeks and each day just bleeds into the next.

Some of us have a real problem with doomscrolling, which is when you skim-read anxiety-inducing, pandemic-related articles, updates or comments on social media via your phone. And yet others suffer from hamsterkauf (hamster purchase), a German word that beautifully depicts ‘panic buying’, something we’ve all done recently at the local Tops and half of America and Australia did with toilet paper, for some as-yet-unknown reason.

As a testament to how we crave “our own” language, we have even come up with our own words for the virus. Some call it COVID-19. Many others call it coronavirus or simply corona. Teenagers and hipsters call it ‘rona or the rona, hippy surfers in Australia call it ronies, and in London’s East End, it’s known as Miley Cyrus – cockney rhyming slang for the virus.

Who knows what new words 2021 one will bring? I’m hoping for positive ones like frelief – the amazing feeling you get when you’re able to see and hug your friends for as long as you like without any fear; coronatude, the effects of the virus on how much gratitude we now feel for what we have; and meterism, the now-and-forever natural giving of space to the person in front of you in a queue.

I’m looking forward to seeing what happens and how our language continues to evolve. Until then, I’m going to hamsterkauf some Lindt, whip up a pineapple quarantini and do some doomscrolling.

I’ll worry about flattening my curve on Blursday.