Visualization is an extremely important confidence boosting tool. There are some things that you should and shouldn’t visualize before you give a public speech. These are the five things you should visualize before you give a public speech that will help you to establish public relations.
Use these techniques and your speech will have a much greater chance of success.
Visualization is the technique of using your mind to actually experience the event in your own way before you go out and give your speech. You may do this in a quiet place, where you close your eyes and you think about what it would be like to be up on stage giving that speech.
Now when you do this there are the five things that you should visualize.
1. The Introduction
You should start and visualize your introduction. The introduction is one of the hardest parts of your public speech and getting it right is extremely important.
You need to be able to pull in the audience and to engage them and get them on board for the rest of the speech. If you fail in the introduction it can be hard to pick up your speech back up.
Visualize your introduction. Don’t just visualize yourself giving the introduction, visualize yourself giving it really well and having that audience engagement that you desire. If you have a joke in your opening then imagine the audience laughing, imagine yourself giving that opening and then them laughing.
2. The Audience’s Reaction
The audience’s reaction is probably the most important thing you can visualize.
Your speech speech is all about the audience…not about you. It’s all about how they react to you and how they react to what you said.
So imagine in your mind you’re standing up on stage and looking out at the audience. How are they reacting to you? Are they leaning in? What are they doing with their hands? are they clapping or cheering? what are they doing to egg you on? to be engaged with you and to show you that they’re on board?
Imagine your audience doing exactly what you want them to do when you’re delivering your speech.
3. Your Body Language
This is one of the areas where a lot of people trip up during a speech. They may be giving a really good presentation but they are fidgeting and twitching, or they’re walking in a strange way.
Bad body language throws people off completely. If you’re watching someone on stage and they’re parading around like a complete goose your not going to have any idea what they’re saying. You’re just thinking about how weird that looks!
So imagine your body language when you giving this speech. Imagine how you’ll stand, imagine how you walk across the stage, imagine how you hold the pulpit etc.
4. Your Pauses
We want to avoid Ums and Ahs at all costs because again it throws people off. It is also very unprofessional.
What we want to do is replace those with pauses. In order to do that we need to be conscious about our pauses. So let’s imagine ourselves giving a speech and let’s imagine the points where we’ll pause. We will hold that pause for one second or maybe two seconds and we’ll see the audience’s reaction.
Feel that pause and let the awkwardness go by the wayside.
5. The Standing Ovation
Imagine that you finish the speech you delivered, had that audience engagement your body language is being great. Your pauses have been great and then you finish and everyone gets up and gives you a big clap and a big standing ovation.
That is something that is really exciting. That is something that’s going to get you pumped up, it’s going to get you confident and really excited to give your speech
BONUS #6. What The Audience Does After Your Speech
Now a bonus: Imagine what your audience does after your speech. Remember I said your speech is all about the audience, not about you.
How is the audience going to go away and take your content and implemented it in their own lives. If it’s in a business meeting, how they going to go back to their desk and use your information to work in a different way? If it’s in a conference, how are people going to talk about your speech when they mingle with other people at the conference?
These are 5 things you should visualize before you give a public speech. This will boost your confidence and help to make you calm and relaxed when it comes to go time.