{"id":1975,"date":"2015-05-21T16:21:33","date_gmt":"2015-05-21T16:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/middletown\/?p=1975"},"modified":"2015-05-21T16:21:33","modified_gmt":"2015-05-21T16:21:33","slug":"a-ted-speaker-coach-shares-11-tips-for-right-before-you-go-on-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/middletown\/blog\/uncategorized\/a-ted-speaker-coach-shares-11-tips-for-right-before-you-go-on-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"A TED speaker coach shares 11 tips for right before you go on stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"gina-barnett-coaches-at-ted\"<\/p>\n

Gina Barnett advises a speaker during TED2014. Below, her best last-minute public speaking tips. Photo: Ryan Lash\/TED<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The weekend before a TED conference, each speaker rehearses their talk in the TED theater. It\u2019s a chance for the speakers to get to know the space, for our curators to give last-minute suggestions on talk content, and for our speaker coaches to give advice to help each speaker feel their absolute best the day of their talk. During this time, we overheard speaker coaches Gina Barnett, Michael Weitz and Abigail Tenenbaum give a few extraordinarily helpful tips that we\u2019d never heard before.<\/p>\n

We asked Gina Barnett, longtime TED speaker coach and author of the upcoming book\u00a0Play the Part: Master Body Signals to Connect and Communicate for Business Success<\/i><\/a>\u00a0(to be released in June), to share some specifics:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Start drinking water 15 minutes before you start talking.<\/b>\u00a0If you tend to get dry mouth \u2014 that scratchy feeling where it\u2019s hard to swallow \u2014 start drinking water 15 minutes before you go onstage. Why? Because the microphone will pick up that sticky, clicky sound. \u201cWhen you close your mouth, don\u2019t let your tongue hit the roof of your mouth,\u201d Barnett offers as a pro tip to avoid popping audio. \u201cImagine a half a plum on your tongue, which will keep a vacuum from forming.\u201d
    \n.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Psych yourself up, not out.<\/b>\u00a0Barnett warns that negative self-talk can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. So don\u2019t stand backstage thinking, \u201cWhat if I mess up?\u201d Think more like an athlete before a big game, she says. Psych yourself up with phrases like, \u201cI\u2019m so excited!\u201d \u201cIt\u2019ll be great!\u201d \u201cI can\u2019t wait to share this idea!\u201d Basically, whatever key phrase makes you feel happy. \u201cEven just thinking the word \u2018YES!\u2019 over and over \u2014 feel how the thought enters your body and boosts your confidence,\u201d she says.
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  3. Use your body\u2019s nervous energy for good.\u00a0<\/b><\/b>Don\u2019t try to contain all your nervous energy. Let it move through you and energize you for your talk. Do isometrics while you waiting backstage if it helps. Shake your hands out. Barnett remembers one TED speaker who found a private corner backstage to put on headphones and dance \u2014 and that speaker walked onstage feeling like a rockstar. And, if nothing else, always remember TED\u00a0star\u00a0Amy Cuddy and\u00a0how to power pose<\/a>.
    \n.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Focus on your breath when you feel the adrenaline.\u00a0<\/b>What should you do if you feel the panic of nerves? \u201cBreeeeeathe,\u201d says Barnett, extending the sound. \u201cWe\u02bcre often not aware of how shallow our breath becomes when we\u02bcre nervous or stressed.\u201d The exercise Barnett recommends: \u201cTake three or four conscious, evenly-paced, smooth inhalations and exhalations. Let the belly go and let the breath go all the way down into your abdomen. This can center your energy and focus your thoughts.\u201d
    \n.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Beware of repetitive motion<\/b>. On stage, people often deal with adrenaline by unconsciously swaying or shifting their weight from foot to foot. This is not good. \u201cRepetitive movements are distracting and set up a lullaby pattern in the audience\u2019s brain,\u201d says Barnett. The best way to make sure you aren\u2019t doing this? Rehearse in front of people, who can point it out to you. And also rehearse out loud in front of a mirror to self-diagnose.
    \n.<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Think about how to use movement<\/b>\u00a0wisely<\/b>. \u201cYou can walk,\u201d says Barnett, \u201cbut not pace. You can step forward and or back, but not rock.\u201d These are just as bad as swaying \u2014 they create that lull. Barnett has a great tip for how to make sure that you move in a way that adds to your talk rather than detracts from it. \u201cPractice moving to make a new point,\u201d she says. \u201cTry coming closer to the audience when the content of your talk calls for it.\u201d One technique she likes for this \u2014 rehearse while standing on newspapers spread out on the floor. You\u2019ll be able to hear your movement as the paper crunches so you can really move \u201cwith intention and purpose.\u201d
    \n.<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. Use your tone to strengthen your words.\u00a0<\/b>Merge your tone with the topic of your speech, says Barnett. Don\u2019t deliver great news in a monotone voice or serious news too excitedly, as disjunctions like that will distract the audience. Barnett recommends going through your script and tagging what each piece of news means. By doing that, you can focus on how your tone can strengthen the message, rather than undermine what you are trying to get across.
    \n.<\/span><\/li>\n
  8. Give people a chance to adjust to your accent.<\/b>\u00a0Everyone has an accent \u2014 at least, when someone else is listening. Luckily, TED has a global audience and is very comfortable with hearing different varieties of speech. That said, speakers can make their accents more accessible to listeners all over the world. Barnett\u2019s advice: keep your opening sentences slow and over-enunciated, so the audience can adapt to the way you speak. \u201cOur ears are trained to adjust to accents,\u201d says Barnett.
    \n.<\/span><\/li>\n
  9. Focus on something outside of yourself<\/b>. Barnett has a favorite exercise for someone who is just about to go onstage: she calls it \u201cfocusing out.\u201d She explains: \u201cPick anything \u2014 like the color green \u2014 and look all around you to see where you spot it in the room. Or pick an object to observe. Notice what shoes people are wearing, or who\u02bcs wearing a watch. Or try paying attention to how light reflects off surfaces.\u201d Doing something like this will shift the focus from what\u2019s going on in your body and mind to something outside. It can definitely help you relax.
    \n.<\/span><\/li>\n
  10. Remember that the audience likes you<\/b>. As Barnett says, \u201cThe TED audience \u2014 as big, scary and remote as they may seem \u2014 is totally on your side. They want you to have a good time up there, they want to hear your ideas, even if they don\u2019t agree with them, and they want you to succeed.\u201d Enough said.<\/li>\n
  11. And finally, no matter how well you prepare \u2014 be okay\u00a0with\u00a0the unexpected.\u00a0<\/strong>You may forget a word; someone may drop something backstage; there might be a technical difficulty. Take a moment, breathe deeply and just roll with it. As one TED speaker laughed today as her slides spiraled out of order in rehearsal: \u201cIt\u2019s just about having fun, right?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Posted by:\u00a0<\/span>Kate Torgovnick May<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Emily Ludolph<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Gina Barnett advises a speaker during TED2014. Below, her best last-minute public speaking tips. Photo: Ryan Lash\/TED The weekend before a TED conference, each speaker rehearses their talk in the TED theater. It\u2019s a chance for the speakers to get to know the space, for our curators to give last-minute suggestions on talk content, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/middletown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/middletown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/middletown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/middletown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/middletown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/middletown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1975\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/middletown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/middletown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/middletown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}