 Hi everybody we're going to wait for maybe two minutes till 11.02 to get started. So stand by. Okay it's 11.02. So we're going to get started. Welcome to our webinar Public Speaking Hacks for Research Poster Presentations with Ms. Angie Alley. We are putting on this webinar in support of the New Mexico Research Symposium on November 5th in Albuquerque at the UNM Student Union Building. The symposium will include the Rio Grande Research Slam competition and a keynote talk by David Bustost titled Life Before the Ice Melted. Racing to preserve fossil footprints and traces of people from 23,000 years ago. It's going to be awesome. Anyway tomorrow at 10 a.m. Well tomorrow is the last day you can register for this in person event. We are closing registration at 10 a.m. So if you are planning to attend, please attend or please register before 10 a.m. And again this is an in person event. Okay so the plug who am I? I'm Brittany Vandewerf. I am the Communication and Outreach Specialist for New Mexico EPSCORE which is the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. EPSCORE is a nationwide program funded by the National Science Foundation and I'll be your host for today along with my partner in webinar crime, Ms. Isis Cerna who will be working behind the scenes to make it all run smoothly. Oh I meant to show you that earlier. This is the symposium logo and event and all of our partners. Okay so a few housekeeping things before we begin. If you have questions at any point please type them into the Q&A box and our wonderful presenter will answer them at the end of her talk. And then with that, sorry it's been a while, with that I'd like to introduce our presenter for today, Ms. Angie Alley. So Angie completed her master's degree in speech communication from Colorado State University where she then started teaching communication. In 2012 Angie joined the CNN family as a full-time communication instructor and since 2021 she's been serving as interim associate dean in the School of Liberal Arts. So outside the classroom, Angie can be found on stage. She performs musicals and is a speaker coach for TEDxADQ. She also has an outstanding poodle named Archie who has been known to help people with their public speaking as well. Anyway, thank you so much for being here Angie. Please begin whenever you're ready. Awesome. Thank you Brittany. I do appreciate it. So this is one of those do as I say not as I do sort of thing. I believe in standing up and presenting. However I am sitting right now. My dog Archie is right here. He had an EKG and so he's not feeling very well. So he is asking that I please have him in my lap. So for those of you who are pet parents you'll understand. So yes I have been teaching communication classes particularly public speaking for about 18 years and 10 years here at CNN and Archie is a registered service dog for the classroom because he helps with anxiety. He helps students. He also does musical theater with me so we just sort of come as a little pair. So thank you for that. I want to go ahead and share my screen with you because I have a really cool little presentation that I want to talk about and I want to go over. There's several things that I would like to review today. I want to talk about oh excuse me hold on let me I shared the wrong screen hold on one second. Beautiful. Okay there we go. So I really want to go through and talking about how to know your audience, how to prepare for your speech, and then basic public speaking skills. Now I understand this is not rocket science but public speaking is challenging and speaking anybody can speak but speaking well is an art form and there's several different elements to that again knowing your audience how to prepare and the public speaking delivery. So those are the things that I'm going to go over. I have such a passion for public speaking it's what gets me out of bed. So I hope that you can pick up on a couple or walk away with a few tools to put in your belt for when you public speak because I always tell people that unless you work in a lighthouse you're going to have to public speak and it's a really essential key skill to have. So the first thing I want to talk about is how to know your audience well whoops excuse me there's a couple right and wrong ways of public speaking now I hate to use the word right and wrong there's a lot there but there's a couple things that I don't want you to think we are not authentic that's not true the greatest public speakers out there are the ones that are authentic and vulnerable I've been a coach for TED ABQ since 2013 and I can tell you the greatest speeches that I have seen are the ones where they are authentic where they are themselves and where they are vulnerable they show emotions now I understand doing poster sessions writing grants asking for money you can't exactly be super vulnerable but there's a difference between vulnerability where you're crying and being vulnerable in showing who you are and your true authenticity because if you show your great personality people are going to connect with you so I want you to stop thinking oh this is not authentic this is not vulnerable because that's not true using big words ah you've just got it you've got to get rid of that because words oftentimes audiences can't relate to it now you might be saying yes but I'm speaking exactly to my audience my people and that's great but oftentimes we find that our audiences are really diverse group of people I run workshops out of sandia national labs and a lot of the workshops that I do are helping people understand how to connect to their audience so I ask them I want you to tell me what you do in five words or less and that doesn't that people don't like that they're like well I've been studying this for 20 years and this and I go that's great tell me what you do in five words or less and if they say a word that that I don't know or that I think is too big I go nope bind another word I'm not dumbing it down I'm making it accessible for everybody my husband got his PhD in inorganic chemistry and people will ask him well that's great what did you study and he says why plastics don't melt that was it and so people can go oh that's cool I get that and then they can follow up with questions because if you allow the space for the questions to happen then you can engage in a great dialogue so he studied in you know when you're cooking and you take your your good grip your spatula and you place it right into the into the skillet or boil and water why it doesn't melt that's exactly what he studied and now it's accessible for all and we talk about concepts that audience don't care about that's not true people are such they are they're thirsty for knowledge they want to know what you're doing because you are important you are studying new things and bringing to life new ideas and new concepts and that's what it is that we're looking for so again the wrong you're not authentic you're not vulnerable use big words people don't care none of that is true you are authentic you bring the vulnerability and you make it accessible for all so what are some of the correct ways to think well I took this from Ted because again I I do coach Ted but I want to give credit where credit is due they Ted talks about the ABCs audience before content always audience before content this captures the essence of what you are communicating about now it's not about you it's about the audience it's about the people you are talking about if you let the audience know I appreciate you I'm glad that you're here they're going to listen to you it's true that's just human nature when we're talking to people and if we let them know thank you for coming let me get to know you first then they're willing to listen to anything you have to say it's honoring people it's respecting people so you need to get to know your audience first now that can be challenging because sometimes your audience is just a couple people sometimes it might be thousands of people but you can still find connection even with thousands of people and I will talk about that in one second making your talk relatable engaging and memorable we are also going to go through how to do that as well so put a pin in those two we will return to them continuing on I want you to know that what you are talking about is an absolute gift what you have to say what you're studying what you're presenting that's a gift and we want to hear it because it's important and the best speeches are the ones where people are vulnerable and authentic authentic and they can make the material relatable and I will also have a story about that one as well and again putting people first when people feel engaged they care what you have to say if the audience knows that they you care about their experience they'll care about you so in the classroom it is essential for me that I know all the names of my students because when people know I know their name they know I care about them now is that am I saying that you have to know the name of all your audience members absolutely not but if you have just a couple people you need to know their name and maybe they'll we wearing a name tag which would be great but you just have to let them know I care about you okay again I mentioned a couple things we will be returning to them but I want to talk about a couple things first you anytime you need to go into a presentation you need to ask yourself these questions why are these people choosing to listen to me speak well the answer could be a whole variety of things absolutely they want to know they want to know what you have to say what do they hope to gain from this presentation I asked myself that when I was putting together this presentation for you so I said well what I hope they gain all I hope they gain why it's important to public speak and I hope that they gain a couple tools on how to deliver an effective and dynamic speech so yeah I asked myself that question I hope that's what you gain from it what are your expectations well I'm assuming your expectations are that I am organized that I am credible and that I walk the walk and talk the talk with that I can't stand up here and go public speaking is really important you need to be dynamic and you need to be engaging and maybe even funny because you're going to tune out you are going to mute me and you are going to go someplace else when you are expecting something you want them to deliver so this is a this is a presentation about public speaking then you expect that the speaker is passionate about public speaking and has knowledge with public speaking that is why Brittany was so kind to read my bio beforehand so that you knew what my credibility was okay I've been teaching 18 years I coach Ted talks and I do public I do musical theater now why would musical theater matter because teaching is nothing more than an extension of the stage I teach public speaking I better be able to do that on the stage so again that's where my credibility lies and what can what can I say in order to meet and exceed those expectations well I hope that this presentation does that so please ask yourself those questions anytime you are about to enter into a realm of public speaking no matter it be the poster presentation or any other presentation that you will be giving along the lines of asking questions asking yourself questions you need to turn that around to the people that you are speaking to you need to see if you can ask people questions now again this is dependent on the sides of the audience if you have a thousand people you can't say does anybody have any questions because you might have 800 questions but you can ask them does this make sense is what I'm saying does it make any sense or do I need to change what I'm saying one of the best tools a speaker can have in their tool belt is the ability to change up what they're saying in a different way explain it in a different way because sometimes it may make sense to me but it doesn't make sense to you so okay well let me let me think of it this way let me present it this way let's use this metaphor again my husband is an inorganic chemist but he also is a great mathematician and I'm trying to understand a little bit more math I'm trying to learn calculus a little bit more and by learning meaning I'm doing it at home but I say I don't understand this can you put it in a different way and he'll say yeah okay so I'm also a tennis player so he'll say okay let's picture you're on the court and you're doing this and all of a sudden I'm okay I get that so it's helping to understand what it is that your audience can connect to and do you have any questions obviously that's a great way to ask questions and to engage with your audience however I want to talk about the golden improv rule the yes and and the no but improv is really important and if you if you've ever heard of an actor named Alan Alda he has a wonderful connection with teaching STEM courses through improv it's it's it's wonderful and it's brilliant and I he has a book and it's it's just great so improv really is important when it comes to teaching STEM and public speaking because you want to engage with your audience you want to have a connection you want to build communication so by saying yes and no but you build connection you fuel curiosity and that's where communication happens so let me give you an example of what I mean by yes and or no but so let's say you're at a poster presentation and an audience member or it comes up to you and asks you a question and the answer is yes and you simply say yes the conversation is dead it's not going to go anywhere in order to fuel curiosity through your audience and fuel connection you need to say yes and which means you follow up with information yes and x y and z a very very very simple example is man it's hot outside yes and my ac is broken oh well I'm sorry to hear that one about this now all of a sudden the conversation has been engaged because you want to engage in conversation with an audience member you can do the same for no if the if an audience member asks you a question and you go no again the conversation is dead and it's not going to build or go anywhere so you have to say no but so a very simple a simple example is man it's cold outside no but I'm from Alaska okay great great that leads us to our next bullet point which is listen for free information free information is what the audience member is going to give you and you have to listen to that and then you build your questions and your communication and your conversation off of that so going back to it we say no but I'm from Alaska well the free information is Alaska so you say oh well where in Alaska are you from how do you like Albuquerque how's the desert treating you again that curiosity fuels conversation fuels communication and that's where you make connections with your audience you listen for free information for what it is they're saying and you follow up with questions and then they'll talk and then they'll come back to you with questions yes and and no but is one of the greatest tools you can have in your tool belt when it comes to engaging with your audience all right so here's some snappy tips that we're going to talk about that will follow up again with the things that I said we would follow up with facts tell and stories sell I can't tell you how much of a mantra how much I love this mantra because you've got to make your presentations engaging funny memorable facts you can tell facts all day long it's boring I mean we care but how much can we really connect with facts stories is what sells stories is what engages us it's where we find commonality so whatever it is that you are presenting on think about a story it could be a personal story or it could be a story that you researched and you found now these stories cannot go on and on and on they got to be short you got to get in there you have to sell it we'll talk about where you can incorporate stories in a in a few minutes but so the best places to incorporate a story is right at the beginning of your speech right as the attention getter because that's what grabs us they often say do not ever start with data start with stories and by they I mean researchers you know the great researchers by day so let me give you let me tell you a quick story a couple years ago I had the wonderful opportunity to coach a young man from NASA for his TED Talks and he had the incredible unbelievable job of building a robot to send to Mars because we want to make sure that we want to put humans on Mars so how okay so this robot's going well well she's going to send them off to Mars and they're going to do all this they're going to set this up and that's great and when he was done with his speech I told him kindly that was really boring and he said well it's my it's my whole research my career and I said yeah I know I get that but I had nothing to connect to so I said you've been working with a robot let's give this robot a name and he said okay that's fine so we ended up naming the robot Suki and I said can you bring the robot to the TED Talk and he said yeah that's fine so as he said he said I want to tell you about Suki and then he brought Suki onto the stage all of a sudden now now I have something to connect to because Suki was adorable this tiny little robot all of a sudden I cared about it and we redesigned his speech to tell me what Suki does to prepare to go to Mars what Suki does on the nine months to Mars and what does Suki do when we get there and the reason why we built it that way is because each of you have taken a trip and each of you do something to prepare what you do during your journey and what you do when you're there it's relatable so he told us all the things that Suki has to do to prepare to go to Mars then he told us all the things that she has to do on her way to Mars and then he told us when she got to Mars here's what she did and I was invested I cared about Suki's success and that was it that was the story he told so we wove the story throughout his data and the information that he wanted to let us know more about stories to come here in a few minutes the curse of knowledge oof that's a big one all of you are are so intelligent so ambitious and bring so much to the table and you just want to tell us everything don't don't do that it overwhelms the audience you do not want to fire hose your audience your intelligence is not questioned you just want to give us bite size knowledge going back to the example with my husband I told you that he studied why plastics don't melt well he could use all those big the big words and tell us all sorts of stuff and and I wouldn't be that impressed but he just gave us a nugget why plastics don't melt and then all of a sudden people started asking questions and he gave a little bit more and he gave a little bit more teachers instructors I suffer from this all the time when students tell ask me a question I want to give them all the answers and give them the the background and everything they need to know they don't want to know that they just want to know the question the answer to their question now again that's hard it's hard to distill it down to a bite-sized nugget but that's what that's the challenge for you all right I want to address the elephant in the room public speaking anxiety I get it speaking is a very anxious thing and it's real more people when it comes to funerals more people would rather be in the casket than give the eulogy now I didn't Jerry Seinfeld came up with that that's a quote from Jerry Seinfeld but I think it really encapsulates the anxiety that people feel anxiety around public speaking is real so I spend a whole week on this in my class and I say why are you anxious and these tend to be the real leading reasons fear of rejection well I can tell you in my classroom or anytime I go and listen to someone speak there's no rejection I really want to hear what they have to say I wouldn't be there if I didn't want to hear them so you know that you will not be rejected you will be embraced people want to hear what you have to say fear of failure fear of failure there's no failure in public speaking if you show up and you talk you are already successful there is no failure center of attention that's a big one a lot of people don't like that all the eyes are on them but that's where the trick of the questions that we just talked about that's where that comes in if I can turn the tables and ask questions back to you now the attention is on you and and then you the speaker you can listen for the free information and not all the eyes are on you they're on there somebody else asking questions takes the pressure off of you oftentimes we're nervous about our physical reactions there is nothing you can do about the physical reaction some people are like well my cheeks get really red and I get red on my neck and on the top of my chest there's nothing you can do about that no one in the audience is going to go mm-hmm their face is red I don't I don't trust what they have to say no judge you for the physical reaction that you are having so just embrace it your cheeks are going to get red they're going to get red that's okay well my palms get sweaty well unless you touch your hands to people's faces they don't know that your palms are sweaty well my heart is beating well we hope your heart is beating that's a good thing so just embrace that your body is going to have physical reactions and in fact you want them to have physical reactions I have performed in 43 musicals I just wrapped on Sunday my 43rd musical I still get nervous my stomach has the butterflies I breathe shallowy shallowy that's not a word I have shallow breathing I want that because if I don't have that then the adrenaline doesn't drive me forward so don't think of the physical reactions as a bad thing think of it as a positive thing my body is preparing me to do this awesome thing forget what you're talking about well maybe you will and that's okay most of the time when you're public speaking you're going to have your notes and you can say oh excuse me oh there I am okay you can always look at your notes I have forgotten what I've said many times I've forgotten it on stage a couple weeks ago when I was performing I forgot where I was I forgot my line so I just started making some things up until I figured out where we were and then off I went but no one in the audience knew you never tip your hand to your audience you have all the power so just remember that and never ever ever ever say I'm sorry because more times than not the audience if you say I'm sorry the audience has no idea why you're saying I'm sorry and they're going to stop listening to what you're saying because they're going to go well what what are they sorry about what happened what did I miss so if you trip up on your words or you forget what you're saying all you need to say is excuse me that's all and catastrophic thinking you got to escape that we think everything under the sun is going to go wrong well guess what it might but it probably won't anything that you're thinking that's going to go terribly wrong probably will not happen now I've been teaching many years and I've been doing state-owned performances and I've seen a lot of things and things have happened to me but the worst things I can think of still have yet to happen so please put that aside and finally you never look as nervous as you feel I always think of people like ducks when they're swimming so beautifully up on top of the water but they're paddling like heck underneath their little legs are going they're going they're going but we don't see that they seem calm up on the top so trust yourself trust how you present yourself because you are never look as nervous as you feel water by the way take water with you you if you are feeling nervous you are feeling anxious you can stop and take a drink of water nobody in the audience is going to go mm-hmm they're drinking water no no I don't I don't I don't trust what they have to say anymore no one is going to think twice of it so water can be your best friend all right more about public speaking anxiety how do you prepare to public speak when your anxiety is going well you can do mental preparations focus on the message rather than yourself remember people want to hear what you have to say and be realistic about the experience and what's at stake again you have the catastrophic thinking oh my gosh everything everything is going to go wrong this is all going to be terrible that's probably not realistic the same time you're not going to go I'm going to get a Nobel Peace Prize for this exact top and the president's going to want to talk to me and they're going to wreck the statue of me probably not realistic either you've just got to be realistic about what the experience is or what the setting is that you are stepping into mentally you also got to think of it as like a sport I said I played tennis right before my tennis matches I don't go well I am going to fail I'm going to hit every ball out I'm going to run into the net I'm going to forget all the rules and it's just going to be terrible no I think I'm practically one of the William sisters I'm like yeah this is great I'm an amazing tennis player I you you pump yourself up it's no different for pumping yourself up for a speech physical preparation is also important before you about 24 hours before you speak eat eat a lot of protein have some pasta those things are important sugar will just they'll just make you jittery and you'll be like yeah let's go let's go let's go not cool you got a protein and some carbohydrates that's what it is that you need sleep well now again that's easier said than done because you might just lie awake and think about your speech the whole night but do your best to get your sleep wear comfortable clothes I this is a big one because people think they need to look a certain way no you need to be yourself wear an outfit that brings you confidence wear shoes that are comfortable because if you are uncomfortable it will show wear something that brings confidence and try stretching you if I excuse me again I am sitting and normally I would be standing so forgive me the poodle dictates the rules but stretching is a big one you've got to lift that diaphragm anytime I'm about to go on stage or give a speech I always stretch always stretch because it just lifts everything up and it helps with your diaphragm so moving will always help for more for public speaking you've for more preparation knowing the venue is really important knowing the circumstances and your audience if you can who am I speaking with I did the same here I asked Brittany well who who who am I speaking to where what are they doing what do they want to know it's important that I know who's in my audience and you have got to arrive early early and early is not just five minutes try 15 30 minutes sometimes I arrive an hour early because I just need to walk around I need to snow the venue I need to know where water is where the bathrooms are where the exits are whatever you need to know that will make you comfortable because if you're if you are arriving late your anxiety is high and therefore you are not prepared so knowing contextual preparation is really important I we CNM just had their donor dinner on Tuesday and I coached the three student speakers I made them get there two hours early because I wanted them to practice walking up the stairs onto the stage I wanted them to practice with the podium with the mic and how loudly to speak so that the whole ballroom could hear them that was important there's lights on them there's people eating table noises there's lots going on so know your space and there's speech preparations please do not procrastinate that is really the kiss of death for the speaker my students will tell me well I'll know what to I'll know what to say when I get up there and I'll go no you have to write out your speech you have to do it well I'll practice it when I get there no and we'll talk about that here in a second so practicing before beforehand in the setting is really important in recording yourself is important I will again I will talk about practicing here in a second there is a fantastic TED talk that Amy Cuddy gives and it's about nonverbal communication and she often says fake it until you become it and that's a really important one she talks about what your body language says about you as you speak it's a excuse me it's a longer video that's why I didn't share it but I wanted you to look at it it's just a TED talk and she is fantastic in it all right more preparation timing is everything comply with the time limits it is astounding to me how people will say I need you to speak for x amount of minutes and they just either go way under or way over being not within the time limits shows to me you didn't practice you didn't put any thought into it so if you know your time limit honor that time limit public speaking requires memory that's why you practice which we'll talk about here in a second practicing your lines practicing sections you will start memorizing your speech the more you practice the more you will memorize and that helps when you are giving a speech if you are not glued to your notes like this all of a sudden you can connect with the audience but if you don't practice you're going to have to look at your notes and you're going to spend the whole time looking at your paper there's no connection there so like all communication public speaking has content and relationship and I hope you've picked up on that I talk a lot about how to connect with the audience you've got to connect with your audience now it's hard being on zoom right now but I have thrown out some free information about myself I'm a poodle mom I do theater I play tennis I'm married I'm an educator and I hope one of those you have connected with and you go oh yeah okay I play tennis or I'm a pet mom a pet parent I get that relationships are important within public speaking you absolutely want to build on your strengths and avoid your weaknesses I don't like the word weakness I tend to say glows and grows you know the glows are the things that you're really strong at the grows areas that we can learn more but there are things that I avoid with speaking because I don't have the knowledge on it I'm not very good at it so I want to make sure to highlight my glows and remember the power of story we're going to talk a little bit more about that all right the next I want to talk about is just how to prepare for your speech you never ever want to wing your speech now you are content experts you know this information but just because you know it doesn't mean you can wing it I've been teaching public speaking 18 years but I still put together presentations so that I have a roadmap as to where I'm going now if you notice at the beginning of my presentation I told you my roadmap I said we are going to talk about we're going to talk about how to prepare we're going to talk about your public speaking anxiety we're going to talk about delivery skills it is important that your audience has a roadmap as to what you're going to do because if they know what you're going to talk about then they're more willing to listen so the best way to compose the introduction for your speech is having a strong sense of the body of your speech so before we get to the body we have to have the introduction well how do you do that well there's five different ways that you can have the introduction you want to grab the audience's attention well what's the best way to do that tell the story ask questions you want to establish your credibility again Britney did that for me at the beginning of this speech I wasn't just some random person off the streets to be asked public speak I have credibility around the public speaking and the audience wants to know that that is essential that is important you want to establish the rapport let people know I want to be here this is important to me review your topic and preview your main points that is very important to the introduction of your speeches if you do those five things you will set yourself up for success it doesn't matter what kind of presentation you are doing all right well more we I said stories that is the anecdotes that is the narratives those are so important but it has to be short I told you the story about Suki that was a short story I always start speeches with a quick story because it's fun and I often put in humor because I find that if the audience is laughing they're going to lower their defenses and they're more willing to listen to you again it can be personal but sometimes people don't want to do that and that's just fine so you can pick historical or current or literary sources that is just fine but something that we all can connect with now it's got to be relevant can't just be some random story it's got to connect to what it is you're saying now oftentimes very smart public speakers will tell a story and the audience will go I I have no idea what this has to do with it but then they bring it all back together brilliant be sure you are in control of your emotions now what does that mean emotions are important I do not want you to be robots but we've got to have a sense of energy and humor but not have it be out of control so then more when it comes to the introduction of your speech you can ask the rhetorical questions the questions that don't necessarily have an answer you're just throwing it out you can have startling facts or statistics that always grabs people's attention a hundred percent of us are going to die okay well that's yeah that makes sense that's a that's a fact but it's funny and it'll get people thinking immediate reference to objects or purpose you can talk about that as well if for your poster session if you have props you can bring reference to them it takes the attention off you it takes it right onto them reference the audience we talked about that you can reference historical events you can use humor you can use quotations now humor is a tricky one because sometimes you sometimes a speaker will try to be funny and it doesn't go over well so you have to know yourself well am I a humorous person can I pull off humor yes or no that's up to you to decide all right now you have the bottom so we went from the introduction right to the conclusion but that's because the body of your speech is what it is you're talking about remember you always have that roadmap were you the roadmap the preview your main points I like to build my speech around three main points that's a that's a big TED TED talk concept because the brain can remember three things three is a very important number when it comes to public speaking because our brain can absolutely absorb that so preview your three main points and it's always best if you put it around three main points so then we're going to jump to the conclusion you have to signal the end of your speech you can say in conclusion finally to wrap up to summarize and then you want to restate those three main points or however many points you have you always want to summarize in public speaking the golden rule is tell us what you're going to tell us tell us and then tell us what you told us pretty formulaic but it works every time and then you want to provide a clincher something that's memorable or a call to action something that they can leave with and say yes that's what I'm going to do yes that's what I learned so when it comes to the introduction the body and the conclusion there's some important don'ts in your introduction do not ramble and that can actually be said for the entire speech how many of you have ever heard a speech and they just start going off they go off in the woods somewhere and you think where are we going you always have to have purpose and direction so never excuse me never start your talk as you're approaching the lectern the platform the stage whatever you know people are walking and they say hi everybody no no no no you have to have yourself planted look at the audience and then you talk don't talk too fast but don't talk too slow either now the one of the best things you can do when it comes to public speaking is you can is you can talk a little fast and then you can bring it back the dynamic is what engages the audience it's a flow it's a movement it's like a dance you want to keep them on their toes but talking too fast is really disrespectful to you because what you have to say is important and we want to hear what you have to say and if you are speaking too quickly then the audience doesn't hear it and they lose out on what you have to say so think about the pace in which you are talking reading your introduction you do not want to get up there and go hi my name is Angie and here's what we're going to talk about today you already lost your audience eye contact is vital at the beginning of your speech and try not to sound too pedantic too luxury I am a huge fan of the podcast Star Talk with Neil deGrasse Tyson and he always his little tagline is your personal astrophysicist I love space I don't know anything about it and I want to learn as much as I can and I like his podcast because I don't think it's pedantic he talks in a way that I can understand he takes really hard concepts and put it in a way that I can understand it so think about always how can what you're saying connects with the audience and it goes back to what I was saying tell me what you do in five words or less some other important don'ts is with the conclusion signaling the end more than once you don't want to you know tease your audience you're going to say it's coming to an end it's going to come to an end you never want to bring up new material at the end that's annoying we want to always review what it is that we talked about and again with that rambling that is the hardest thing people know that the speech is coming to an end the speakers do and they they don't exactly know how to um well they don't know how to end it so they just they just keep talking and um you know eventually they'll they'll they'll they'll bring it to an end oh you've got to just wrap it up you have said what you've said and get get move on and never talk as you leave the platform either and make faces you've got to end your speech and then when you are done walk away again not rocket science but it's very funny how how a lot of people keep talking as they are leaving the stage all right I now want to move on to how to practice because my friends you're gonna have to practice you can't practice in your head you have half to practice practice makes it permanent as I mentioned a couple minutes ago it's the muscle memory you want to feel comfortable okay I've said this before I've said this before okay this feels comfortable okay I understand this practice only makes perfect if you practice perfectly I love that what that means is you practice your speech as though you're going to give it oftentimes I'll put the clothes on that I know I'm gonna wear so I know how that feels I will stand up I will do it in front of people so that I can see their responses I will record myself practice only makes perfect if you practice perfectly practice your speech beforehand at home anywhere especially in front audiences ask people to listen to your speech and time your speech because again we talked about timely is important so understand how that feels in front of live people more on how to practice practice out loud in your full volume don't just sit there in your room and kind of you know no no no you want to do it loud and you have to stand up you cannot practice your speech as you are sitting down again don't do what I'm doing with just sitting you have to stand up you have to feel that energy in your body practice with the lectern or something that's close by and we're going to talk about the lectern we're going to talk about how important that is and practice with an audience please any audience family friends anybody practice your speech for time and practice recording yourself now I get it nobody likes to watch a recording in themselves I get it but you have to because there's things that you are doing that you aren't aware you are doing and we're going to talk about that in a few minutes all right going back to recording yourself we all have ticks and we need to be aware of those ticks I tend to play with my necklace or play with my ring so if I know I have a big presentation I actually I don't play with my wedding ring but I play with this ring I will remove my ring and I remove my necklace because I know I have a tick and I will practice I will play with them now I'm not nervous but if people see me playing with jewelry they will think she's nervous and I'm not so I'm removing the temptation that's why recording yourself is important so that you can see what ticks you have that you may not have been aware of all right on to the last part of this presentation is the delivery how you deliver your speech is key effective delivery is important you have to have enthusiasm if you talk about paint drying with enthusiasm your audience is going to say man paint drying is fantastic I had no idea you have to have passion if you do not have passion do not talk about it I love public speaking the passion you see is genuine because I want people to understand how important public speaking is your facial expressions so much of what you say is in your face it's in your eyes it's in your cheeks it's in your mouth what you are saying if you say if you go along the lines of saying well that was just the best day of my life I'm going to say was it because I don't believe it if you're going to say that was the best day of my life you need to have facial expressions you need to smile now that's uncomfortable for a lot of people I told you I run workshops at Sandia one of the things that I do is I have them read children's books engineers scientists I haven't read children's books now why because you when you read a children's book you need to have dynamics the engagement book of variety facial expressions enthusiasm because if you read a children's book to a child in your monotone they'll tell you so you gotta have big bulk of variety you have to have gestures we're gonna talk about that you gotta move now keep in mind your movement has to have purpose don't just stand up there on stage and walk back and forth you can't do that you gotta move with purpose and if you're gonna move you move and you stop and then you talk and then you move again and then you have to have eye contact which we'll talk about so let's dive into a couple of these hands your gestures are important now make sure that they're natural don't be like welcome that's not natural if you feel it do it your hands are important but you're also not a penguin when you gesture don't just do this open yourself up gestures should be large for the audience if you're not gesturing place them on the side of the lector don't put them in your pockets put them in next the lector and be mindful of the excessive energy coming through your hands because you know you want to do this that's very distracting make sure that your gestures are natural your feet your posture that's important do not lock your knees you will pass out I have seen it before keep it nice and loose keep your feet about shoulder width apart and have that firm foundation don't be twisting don't be moving your feet around I mean unless you walk but when behind the lector and it's too easy to lean funny or do weird things with your knees and your feet roll your shoulders back look confident you feel like this no one's going to take you seriously always have your shoulders back your lector is not a part of the skeletal system it's just there to support you objects only bring to the lector and what you absolutely need oftentimes people will bring pens and they click it now you can't you can't have that only bring water and your your speech that's about all I encourage you to bring but be mindful of that jewelry I told you my story about my ring we fidget with jewelry we fidget with hair we visit with our clothes your clothes aren't going anywhere you don't need to play with them keep them leave them be and again are we talking about comfortable shoes that do not overthink that that is very very important if you are comfortable then then you will present yourself as comfortable all right again the lector just use it for the notes it is not for leaning for tipping for hugging for gripping you got to just be cool I don't even like electrons because as far as I'm concerned that is an object that is uh it's preventing me from connecting with the audience so if I'm giving a speech and I have a lector I stand to the side of it I never stand behind it because a lectern is hiding and I don't ever want to hide myself from the audience I want to be authentic and vulnerable and so therefore I just have the lectern there for my notes and my water eye contact it's really important now depending on the size of your audience changes how you have eye contact it's just a couple people you need to look at them but only spend about five seconds per person you don't want to stare them down but if I'm in a big auditorium I make eye contact with the exit sign the exit sign's not going anywhere and it's not judging me but I'm looking and so the audience thinks I'm looking at them so I'll look at various different exit signs not pulling the attention to various groups and they think I'm looking at them I'm not I'm just looking at the exit sign but you have to balance between right and left back in front so that everybody thinks they're looking at them but just don't stare down one person makes them very nervous but it does take eye practice eye contact us vocal variety that is just key we talked about it before you have to speak up what you have to say is important the pitch is the high and the low I talked about variety when it comes to the rate you speak fast you speak slow you do the same with your pitch you go high you go low it's and everybody can do it so don't think that you don't have the ability to do that because you have pitch in your voice and that brings the dynamics to your speech pauses are important pauses allows the audience to absorb what it is you're saying because you're going to be given a lot of information so they need to have the right and the chance huh okay I'm absorbing the information okay because they might want to ask questions now what I encourage you to stay away from is those vocalized pauses otherwise known as the ums us likes and the worst you know oftentimes speakers will say well you know I got up this morning and you know I um well I went to Starbucks and you know I had my coffee and then you know I got to work I don't know because I wasn't there you know is a dangerous phrase that we fall back on listen to anybody speak anywhere around you and listen for how many ums and us and likes they say and it will start bugging you oftentimes when you leave a speech you go I like that speech I don't really know why but I like that speech because they didn't have any vocalized fillers the vocal fillers please remove the likes the ums the you knows and that's why recording yourself is important and never ever start your speech by going um you gotta just jump right in remember practice is important there is no substitute for practicing and your energy is important the energy in your voice the energy in your physical presence and your energy to have the desire and the passion to communicate ultimately my friends I want you to go forth and be fabulous public speaking is a gift what you have to say is a gift what you have to say is important and I hope you gathered a couple key elements key tools in this presentation whether that be how to practice how to organize your introduction or your conclusion or any sort of delivery key delivery public speaking is great and I'm excited for what it is you are doing and I want to thank you for allowing me to come and share my passion about public speaking with you and I wish you luck and go forth and be fabulous that was wonderful um actually I says I'm just going to go for it it looks like we have one question that's a really good question and I'll read it out loud and if you could address it in this last minute we might go maybe two minutes over um but here's the question do you have any tips for how to mentally prepare ourselves for the microphone I hate hearing my own voice no one likes to hear their own voice do not speak really closely to the mic because it's very loud so I would I always like to have I usually do two one you know this and then two and if I have two lengths of this that's about the right distance so just speak clearly the the mic is I'm using this as a mic okay the mic is there only to support you it is your job to speak loudly the mic's just there to to amp it you can't rely on that totally and again no one likes to sound in our voice but you have a lovely voice awesome um that is that was wonderful I I speak for all of the people who are muted that was wonderful thank you so much Angie um so just I I wanted to close this out really quick let's all give a round of applause like I guess silent round of applause to Angie thank you so much for your time and your expertise um and behalf on every on behalf of everyone um who is putting together new the new mexico research symposium and the team at new mexico epscore I wanted to say thank you thank you thank you and I also want to thank um my partner in webinar crime miss Isis or not anyway like Angie said go forth and be fabulous and thank you thank you thank you Angie yay my pleasure my pleasure thank you so much have a great day everyone