We've All Felt Fear

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From the course by University of Colorado Boulder

Successful Presentation

140 ratings

University of Colorado Boulder

Successful Presentation

140 ratings

Course 3 of 4 in the Specialization Effective Communication: Writing, Design, and Presentation

Few kinds of communication can have the effect of a powerful presentation. Even a short speech can motivate people to change long-held beliefs or to take action, and a wonderfully delivered speech can transform a normal person into a leader. In this course, Prof. William Kuskin provides a series of pragmatic videos and exercises for successful public speaking and presentations. The course develops through four themes—mastering fear, developing a creative formula, using verbal and body language, and anticipating the room—so that you can discover your personal power as a speaker and give excellent presentations. Successful presentations do not rely on perfect teeth, a deep voice, or an army of scriptwriters. They depend largely on the same skills as successful Business Writing and Graphic Design: clarity, structure, and revision. The goal of the course, therefore, is to enable you to discover your own internal power as a speaker and express it to the world. After this course, with some practice, you will be able to go into any situation and command the room for as long as you like.

From the lesson

Getting Started with Public Speaking

In this module William tackles the one element that makes public speaking difficult: fear. Unlike writing a memo or designing a slide deck, presenting a speech puts you directly in front of an audience. Public speaking is wrapped up in the fear of immediate judgment and of lasting rejection. Yet the skills of writing and design are exactly the same as those of public speaking: clarity, structure, revision, and above all, storytelling. By applying these skills you can control your fear and take center stage in public. The results will astound you.

Welcome to Effective Communication (For New Learners)3:05

The Capstone (For New Learners)3:58

Welcome to Successful Presentation3:39

Understanding Fear4:15

The Code Rule: Survival Reactions4:27

The Paradox of Public Speaking3:30

We've All Felt Fear4:06

Meet the Instructors

Professor William Kuskin
Professor
Department of English, University of Colorado Boulder

I was thinking that in this video we'd tell some stories about fear.

>> What do you think?

>> I've got plenty of anecdotes about it.

And so what I really like to talk about with fear is music.

>> Yeah.

>> And if you've really, really rehearsed and if you really know that song

it's the closest thing you'll come to an antidote for fear.

>> And that's absolutely true for karate too.

Isn't it true for everything?

Presentation, anything you're doing?

Dissertation defense.

The more you've prepared, the more you can manage your fear whereas if you go in and

you haven't had that time to prepare, your fear begins to take over.

>> And there's a difference between preparation and overthinking.

>> [LAUGH].

>> What is that difference?

Yeah, what is that difference?

>> Overthinking is thinking about all of the things that can go wrong.

Preparation is learning the song.

>> Yeah, well, and I also think you have to get to the point of the presentation or

the event, the competition,

and at that moment when you walk out onto the stage, you have to let go and

not overthink, and just trust yourself that the preparation has gotten you there.

That is, to me, the leap of faith off the cliff,that's so scary.

Because if you don't let it go, you won't perform well.

And you just have to get out there and do it.

>> And the other thing that's

a natural offshoot from that conversation is failure.

>> Yeah.

>> It's, the best designed presentation I ever went to was

one of the nation's best designers showing his 100 worst designs.

And they were horrible.

And that an important lesson to learn,

that along the way to doing good work you can do some really horrible work.

>> And you have to give yourself permission to to, let's say, I

went back and looked at a video of myself giving a presentation five years ago.

I'd be horrified by that.

Right?

But if I, my ten-year-ago self would look ahead at that and

go wow I've really improved.

And there's this constant process of improvement.

And allowing yourself, just know that you're on a journey.

And then it's okay to always have something that you're trying to

make better.

>> Yeah, time and distance.

>> Yeah. [LAUGH]

>> Those are good things to

have when we have that luxury in looking at our work.

>> Yeah, one of the things in my first best practice is fear inhibits execution.

We need to replace fear with a rule-governed formula

that allows us to execute on multiple levels.

But you're right, that if you overthink,

you cannot execute on multiple levels and if you critique yourself

based on imagining yourself outside of the situation looking in, you cannot.

You have to be in that moment to overcome fear.

You have to be in that moment, you have to memorize your song, but

you also have to be willing to improvise.

>> Yeah, that's true.

>> You have to be willing to roll with the moment.

You can't just play it in a wooden recitation

>> That's very, very true.

That's very true.

>> Right, I agree with that, but I also think this idea of managing fear,

you have to accept your fear and acknowledge it.

I mean every time I walk into a classroom on the first day, I've been teaching for

years and years, you have that adrenalized fear that it's going to go wrong somehow.

Or every time I walk out on a karate mat or every time I give a presentation, you

feel that adrenaline and that fear, but you can use it to fuel your performance.

To make it better.

>> It's a full time resident of trick situations.

>> [LAUGH] That's a really good- >> But you can walk into a room and

go there's fear, I know it, and then continue.

>> Hello old friend.

>> Well in a way, I think that the fear is related to adrenaline.

But in a way, it's a misrecognition.

When your body lights up with that adrenaline,

you can recognize it as fear and debilitating, or

you can recognize it as the powering engine for you to execute a formula.

Whether it's a song, whether it's a sequence of techniques,

or whether it's your presentation itself.

To execute, If you walk in and

recognize that feeling as fear, you're fighting an uphill fight.

>> Mm-hm.

>> If you walk in it and

recognize it as fuel, >> Yes.

>> Then you're forward.

>> Yeah, I love it.

>> That's very good.

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