GRAND FINALE-Get on stage

Having learned the needs of your speech its finally the time to face the the much awaited moment of your life and start concieveing an idea about the speech.After hypnotising,Yoga and other vocal excercises you must,by now feel confident enough to get on stage and give your best.But still good voice and confidence is not just what the audience has gathered to see and hear.Ninty percent of their focus is going to be on content and presentation.Content is what you got to say to them or put it this way what you want them to hear and presentation is how you want them to hear.Since both these acts are to be done on your part,if anything goes wrong our subconcious mind makes us feel "my world is over,there's nothing left for me","i would be profusely stigmatized" and all the meanest of thoughts creep in within few fraction of seconds.

Just imagine it this way,after having used the best of all the imported ingradients when your fauvorite,mesmerizing and mouth watering italian sausage becomes more salty or more spicy is there any appreciation for the richness of the ingradients used?Similarly inspite of having everthing done,if your presentation or content fails to reach up the mark,there's nothing you get or at the most what you get is a sarcastic applaud.

I have been a public speaker for the last 3 years and my exposure to the public makes me believe that of the ninty percent crowd which is focused on your speech,eighty percent of them have their ears and eyeballs glued to your presentation rather content.Everyone may or may not understand your content but everybody do inspect each single move and every act you perform before them.Consequently it becomes inevitible to put up a flawless presentataion.Afterall so many people have invested their valuable time,invested their money in coming there,so its never justified to dishearten them and put down their expectations.

A bit of research and some experiance has taught me a few ways to cheer up my audience.These tips and techniques are expected to impress any kind of audience may it be a classroom or a business conference.Quite honestly speaking once you grasp them up and master over it,you'll never afford to speak without them even during informal conversations.These are simple guidelines cum stratergies which have a true visible impact,which gives you tremendous motivation and energy to continue.

1)Always start your speech with a greeting.Never make a mistake to directly get over your point.While greeting,the public actually starts warming up for a speech from you.There is no use of speaking if the audience is not ready to hear you.Its always recommended to start with "good morning,afternoon............" thats because in one way this shows your presence of mind.If there are different sections and categories of people then greet them seperately.Everybody likes being called in the microphone.If some guest or important personality is present at the speech greet them first individually.

2)Secondly introduce yourself.Untill you are a famous person out there nobody knows you,so its better to introduce yourself if your name hasent been called out prior to your speech.After introducing yourself,introduce your content.If not content then start of with things that would make the crowd happy.What i prefer is starting with a witty anecdote quoting it this way "Just before coming here................,when i was on my way to come here.....................".Making the people smile gives ultimate confidence and relaxes you.

3)Know the needs of your audience and match your contents to their needs. Know your material thoroughly. Put what you have to say in a customized sequence. Practice and rehearse your speech at home or where you can be at ease and comfortable, in front of a mirror, your family, friends or colleagues. Use a tape-recorder and listen to yourself. Videotape your presentation and analyze it. Know what your strong and weak points are. Emphasize your strong points during your presentation.

4)Speak using logic of everyday life.Use small parodies to enhance crowd anticipation.Idioms,epigrams and sayings add colours to your speech.All this constitutes a very representive speech.

5)How you are being perceived is very important. Dress appropriately for the occasion. Be solemn if your topic is serious. presenting the desired image to your audience. Look pleasant, enthusiastic, confident, proud, but not arrogant and remain calm. Appear relaxed, even if you feel nervous. Speak slowly, enunciate clearly, and show appropriate emotion and feeling relating to your topic. Speak to the person farthest away from you to ensure your voice is loud enough to project to the back of the room. Vary the tone of your voice and dramatize if necessary. If a microphone is available, adjust and adapt your voice accordingly.

6)Body language is important. Standing, walking or moving about with appropriate hand gesture or facial expression should not depict the inner fear.Keep your hands in motion and never adopt a defensive posture i.e. folding the arms or sliding the body weight on one leg. Wear coloured glasses if the eyes keep blinking or tear in fear.

7)Master the use of presentation software such as PowerPoint well before your presentation. These days digital presentation has become rampant. Do something new like a playback song or some flash effects. Yes but dont torture your audience by putting a lengthy document in tiny print on and reading it out to them.

8)Speak with conviction as if you really believe in what you are saying but dont order or command. Try speaking as a first person using the pronoun 'I' or 'ME'. The material you present orally should have the same ingredients as that which are required for a written research paper, i.e. a logical progression from INTRODUCTION (Thesis statement) to BODY (strong supporting arguments, accurate and up-to-date information) to CONCLUSION (re-state thesis, summary, and logical conclusion).

9)Do not read from notes for any length of time although it is quite acceptable to glance at your notes infrequently.This reduces the audience anticipation which in turn reduces the energy of the presentation.Even in case you havent prepared your speech you can use a small trick.Be situational and find an excuse.For eg. once i had a very important notice to announce but dint memorize it.My image there was as a good speaker.So obviously i couldnt walk up there and read.Consequently i built an hypothetical story.I said "Its an announcement which no one would believe even if i declared it a 100 times so better i read the whole notice in your presence".This way escaped using simple common sense.

10)If you happen to make a small mistake,never correct it or plead for a sorry.Usually the crowd seldom notices for small mistakes.By correcting it you are actually highlighting your mistake and bringing it in notice of those people who failed to hear it the first time.If you make a big blunder with your content or mispronounce a big word you must duly apologize for it.

11)Maintain sincere eye contact with your audience. Use the 3-second method, e.g. look straight into the eyes of a person in the audience for 3 seconds at a time. Have direct eye contact with a number of people in the audience, and every now and then glance at the whole audience while speaking. Use your eye contact to make everyone in your audience feel involved.

12)Speak to your audience, listen to their questions, respond to their reactions, adjust and adapt. If what you have prepared is obviously not getting across to your audience, change your strategy mid-stream if you are well prepared to do so. Remember that communication is the key to a successful presentation. If you are short of time, dont rush. Again switch to your common sense.Say this, "I guess i spoke a lot by now.Its time for others to have a chance or its time to give you some rest".

13)Pause. Allow yourself and your audience a little time to reflect and think. Don't race through your presentation and leave your audience, as well as yourself, feeling out of breath.When and where to pause is again situation dependent.Tragic things need to be said at a slow pace.Audience must be given time to express condolences.

14)Add humour whenever appropriate and possible. Keep audience interested throughout your entire presentation. Remember that an interesting speech makes time fly, but a boring speech is always too long to endure even if the presentation time is the same.Humour must come embedded in the speech.Irrelvant jokes diverts the attention therby miscommunicating the actual point.

15)Have handouts ready and give them out at the appropriate time. Tell audience ahead of time that you will be giving out an outline of your presentation so that they will not waste time taking unnecessary notes during your presentation.

16)To end your presentation, summarize your main points in the same way as you normally do in the CONCLUSION of a written paper. Remember, however, that there is a difference between spoken words appropriate for the ear and formally written words intended for reading. Terminate your presentation with an interesting remark or an appropriate punch line.Punch lines can be any quotes from great leaders. Leave your listeners with a positive impression and a sense of completion. Do not belabor your closing remarks. Thanks the audience and sit down.Or try something innovative "Thank you very much to listen me patiently" ,"Good Luck and Good Bye".

Although i am quite sure all these tips would hardly make it to the stage performance but keep trying.As i said in my previous section, subconcious mind learns through repetitions.Keep repeating and keep incorporating your own creative inputs.Have the desire to suceed and you will.Thanks for reading!!!!!!!!