Transcripts
1. Class Introduction: Hey, thank you so much for
checking out this class. I'm Beth Miller and I am so excited to share
with you what I've learned helping companies
and individuals over the last 15 years to find
and tell their stories. To really help you
understand how introverts can be really
powerful public speakers. By public speaking,
I don't necessarily mean talking to an auditory
and full of people. I define speaking as any opportunity that
we have to connect with someone else
to get your ideas across and meet our goals. So that could be one-on-one, that could be at a
networking event, that could be presenting
at your team meeting, or a host of other situations. If you identify as an introvert, we're going to talk
through some of the superpowers that
you have that you can really lean into to help improve your ability to make those connections
with your audience. As well as some
simple techniques and tricks that you could
incorporate to help overcome some challenges or concerns that you
might have when you are about to be faced with
an opportunity to speak. And I can't wait to
get started. Let's go.
2. Unleash Your Superpowers: First I want to talk through the different strengths
that introverts have that really lend themselves to being
super presenters. And these are your superpowers. And I want you to
really lean into these and dial them up the
next time that you are speaking or connecting with someone in a one-on-one setting or wherever the opportunity is. Number one is preparation. Introverts tend to prepare lot before they go into
any new situation. Whether that's thinking through the topic that you're
gonna be talking about, or thinking through
what questions or confusion your
audience might have. Any of that preparation
that you do in advance is going to make you a lot stronger and more
prepared when you walk into that meeting and it's going
to set you up for success. Secondly, introverts
tend to have a quiet but firm speaking style that can be really
beneficial and a bunch of different scenarios. For example, if you
are going to argue for something that might not be as popular in the room that
you're speaking to. Or perhaps you are trying
to build a case for something that people might not necessarily
believe when they're, when they first
start hearing you. Third is thinking
before we speak. And as introverts, we tend
to do this and we'd like to scenario planner or come
up with a couple of different options
in our heads before we actually say one out loud. And that can be really
helpful because it means that the
messages that you're actually presenting
when you share them are things that
you've really thought through and feel
really comfortable and confident in what it is
that you're saying forth. Introverts tend to ask a lot of really good questions in advance as part of
your preparations. Maybe you have an
opportunity to actually ask your audience or people who are like the people who will
be in your audience. Questions that they might have or points that they want
to know more about. That'll help your
presentation actually come across a lot stronger
on the flip of that. Another superpower
that introverts have is really listening to the answers and turning to listen really deeply
to those answers. If you have an
opportunity to have dialogue or a Q&A portion
of your presentation. It's really helpful if you
really listen to what it is that the person
is asking you. Because you can know then what are the points that are
confusing for your audience? What else do you
need to explain? Where are the questions, where are the hang-ups? You can really adjust
your messaging in order to help meet your
goals for that presentation. Sticks, introverts
tend to become very passionate about the topics
that they speak about. Now I know this isn't
always the case. We all have to talk
about things that maybe were not super
excited about. But when it is something that
you're passionate about, the level of thought
and research and preparation that you have done has an opportunity
to shine through. And that can really
help you when you connect with your audience and really establish yourself
as an expert in the room. In the next lesson, we're going to talk
through some of the challenges are the
obstacles that we might face as introverts and some
simple tips that we can implement to help us overcome those and really
achieve success.
3. Tips and Ideas to Tackle Challenges: In this lesson, I want
to talk through some of the challenges or obstacles that we might face when we're
presenting as introverts. And a couple of simple
techniques or tricks that we can implement to help us navigate
those and achieve success. Number one is scenario planning. This goes back to
that superpower that introverts have to be really
prepared for a presentation. With scenario planning,
I want you to think through all the different things that could happen in
your presentation, that you feel completely prepared and that you can
handle anything that comes up. Now this could be
technical challenges. What do I do if I'm
supposed to present online and my internet goes out, it could be a video that you have that you want
to play, doesn't play. Or it could be the dynamics
of the situation change. Secondly, is black
in our calendars. We can actually block time
off before and after, so that we have an
opportunity to really recharged and really kind
of prepare ourselves. Don't get overstimulated and
just make sure that we're in the best place that we can be for when we have to present. Third, you can ask for your ideal circumstances
when it's possible. What do you mean by that is if you know that
you're going to be presenting a monthly update and the team staff
meeting, for example. If you are somebody who likes to go first to get it over with, you can just ask whoever
organizes the meeting, or if you are somebody
who really does mornings and by the
afternoon your whites, maybe you could ask if you
could be on an agenda or have an event
scheduled earlier in the morning rather
than later in the day. It's not always
gonna be possible, but you'll never know unless
you ask for is visualizing, thinking through what is the situation going
to look like? If you're presenting online? Think through, what's it gonna be like to have all
of these people staring at me and these
little squares on my screen. Is that possible to change the view that I'm looking
at to maybe get a little bit less overwhelmed if that is something that
might trigger me. If you're presenting in
a room full of people, is there a way to kind of
focus on just one row or one small group of people that would make you feel a
little bit more comfortable. In number five is
showing up early. Now if you are someone who tends to get a little
bit overwhelmed, if you just walk into a room or join an online meeting
that's already in progress. It might make sense
for you to show up early to the event
if that's possible. If you're presenting in person, it might make you feel
a little bit more comfortable if you're there
before the room fills up. And then you can see people
slowly start to come in. And that's a little bit less jarring than walking into a room full of people and a lot of noise when people are talking. If that's something that
seems like that would help you go ahead and ask, and that would also help
set you up for success. So another tip would be preparing for your
audience questions. Now, as I talked about before, this is one of your superpower is probably thinking through what questions your
audience might have or maybe as part
of your preparation, you've even asked your audience what those questions might be. But thinking through
and scenario planning, what are the possible
things that could trip people up, could confuse people? What are the objections
they might have? An actually writing
those down and writing potential
responses to that is going to help
you feel a lot more prepared for whatever
question you get. There, you have it. Six different techniques or tips that you can try
incorporating into your next opportunity to
make you feel a little bit more comfortable and
a lot more confident. So that you can
better connect with your audience and get
your idea across. In the next lesson,
we're going to talk through what
your project is for this class to help bring all these concepts
together. See you there.
4. Class Project: Create Your Action Plan: For your class project, I want you to pick three superpowers that you
personally have that you think you could really dial up for your next speaking opportunity to become more confident
and comfortable. Then next to those,
I want you to list out how you can actually apply them to one
specific opportunity that you have coming up. For example, if you
are really good at asking questions and getting
inside your audiences minds, think through one
opportunity that you have. Let's say it's
presenting an update on a project you're
working on a team meeting, think through how you're
actually going to apply that to that situation. Maybe you're going to ask two people who are gonna
be in that meeting what questions they might have about the topic that
you're talking about. Then secondly, I
want you to think through the tips and tricks and techniques that we
talked about to help you overcome some of the things
that might make you nervous. I want you to pick
three that you think are actually
going to work for you. Then just like before, I want you to apply them
to that same opportunity. For example, if you pick
block in your calendar, I want you to write next to it. I am going to block half an hour before
and half an hour after this presentation on my calendar so that no one books that time. We have a worksheet
available for you to download to complete this. Or you can feel free to put on your own piece of paper
or just type the list up. Cannot wait to see all
of your superpowers and ideas for how
you're going to apply these to your
next presentation.
5. Final Thoughts: Alright, so in this
class we talked through some of the
real strengths and superpowers that introverts have and how they can
really dial those up to really feel good going into their next opportunity to
connect with an audience. Whether that's a smaller setting or something much larger, whether that's
online or in-person. At the same time,
we talked through six different techniques
or tricks that you can use to overcome some of the
common challenges that I've heard introverts
share with me about some of the things
that intimidate them about public speaking or things that make them a
little bit nervous. Thanks so much for
taking the class. Check out our other videos on Skillshare for other tips and ideas so that you can feel more comfortable for your
next presentation, whether that's
virtual or in-person. Thanks so much and best of luck.
Beth Mueller, Discovery + Story
