Your slides are gorgeous, speaking notes honed, your outfit projects confidence, intelligence, and creativity.
You step up to the front of the IRL room or the Zoom, and your brain shifts into full analysis mode:
Do I sound smart?
Am I talking too fast? or slow?
Am I making sense?
What’s my point again?
Is the audience following me or judging me?
UGH. Sound familiar? As a professional, I’ve been lost in that fear spiral leading presentations and meetings, and as a performer on stage.
Good news, the fix is the same for both settings.
The most transformative principle I learned in my more than 15 years studying and performing improv was to take care of myself first. The instructors at Annoyance Theater’s Brooklyn school taught us to make a strong choice quickly about how to enter a scene. Annoyance’s performance philosophy is:
Do something, anything, right away and then fiercely own it.
This simple but not easy principle changed the way I performed on stage, and how I showed up as a business facilitator and leader.
Last weekend, I facilitated a workshop for improvisers at Duke Comedy Theatre (where I perform and sit on the board) called Find Your How inspired by this philosophy.
We practiced:
Trusting yourself to be more present and discover the scene.
Choosing your how: Learn how to quickly step on stage and instantly establish a character using an emotional filter, a physical trait, or a specific point of view.
Managing your how: Understand when to dial it up and down.
Holding on to your how: Staying committed to your choice even when your partner throws a curveball.
As as I was designing it and watching the participants move through the exercises, I realized that these practices can help anyone (me, you, your boss, your colleagues!) in a public speaking or high-stakes communication moment.
In improv, how you do something and how you say something is far more interesting for you and the audience.
By doing this you support yourself because you now you have a roadmap for the scene, and supports your scene partner because they understand your character right away. You trust yourself and earn trust from your partner.
As the wise Maya Angelou once said, “People will forget what you said, but will never forget how you made them feel.”
Choosing HOW you deliver your message to the public, your colleagues, or stakeholders supports yourself because you now you have a roadmap for your words, and supports your audience because they understand how they should feel as listeners. You trust yourself and earn trust from your audience.
Choose an emotion, physicality, or unique point of view for for your next public speaking situation.
I want to support more individuals with the benefits of improv. All I ask for in exchange is a testimonial for my website and socials.
Bring a real work or life speaking opportunity, like a presentation, meeting, talk, etc, and I’ll guide you through some exercises to help you prepare.*
*You’ll need your video on and a private space to move around.
Ends July 31st! Appointments are 30-45min. Feel free to share with anyone who may need this support.
Stop analyzing. Start following the fun.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.