This is the third of three videos about how to increase your public speaking confidence using the 3 P’s: Purpose, Preparation and Presence.
Here’s the first video where I talk about Purpose.
Here’s the second video where I talk about Preparation.
This video is about presence. What is presence? Being in the here and now.
Having a positive presence in one sense relies on Purpose and Preparation. Without a sense of purpose or if you are feeling underprepared, you’ll struggle to fully be in the moment because you’ll be busy trying to prepare as you communicate, and those are two different activities. You can’t prepare your communication and be in the flow of communicating at the same time. You’ll know you’ve done the “right” amount of prep for you when, in the moment, you can let go of the prep and be in the here and now, connecting with your audience.
Another way to think of presence is orientation, or feeling connected to your environment through your 5 senses. I have a whole video about that and how this kind of presence matters in communication contexts.
While positive presence does require preparation, this kind of orientation is also super helpful if you tend to suffer from anxiety around public speaking no matter how much you have prepared, because it helps your body on a physiological level find a sense of safety, so that, while the speaking context might be a big deal, it won’t send you into overwhelm. More detail on that in my presence video. Having this kind of presence means you can feel connected to yourself, your environment and your audience as you communicate, and that connection, when aligned with your purpose and your prep, makes you feel more confident!
If you’re struggling with public speaking confidence, try thinking about the communication context with these 3 P’s in mind, and see if your confidence improves. Let me know how it goes!
If you’d like access to some warm ups that can help you prepare physically and vocally and deepen your felt sense of presence, check out my podcast and my digital course, Demystifying Deep Breathing in 30 Minutes.
If you’d like to go deeper, please reach out for information on public speaking coaching.
This terminology around presence is inspired from Organic Intelligence(r).