Yes, the pause! It’s surprisingly hard to do because–to the speaker–even the briefest pause seems as if it’s lasting much too long, but to the audience it seems just right. I read somewhere that Charles Dickens was an absolute master of the pause; his pauses were so long that ladies swooned away. (Of course, that was another era.)

I’ve had to give quite a few speeches or talks or presentations over the years–mostly throughout college, esp. grad school–and I’ve also been inconsistent. I thought I had a stroke with my first speech! Toward the end of my college career, I was only mildly hyperventilating It served me well since I went on to teach at some local colleges (I was really nervous at first but couldn’t have done it if I weren’t used to standing in front of a group), also in several manager positions conducting team meetings etc.

I’m not so nervous anymore but every time I’ve addressed a group I think back to how I should have done this or that better or differently. My biggest fault, that I know of, is going too fast and not taking pauses. I”m sure I could improve in lots of areas.

Great post. TM sounds like a lot of fun!
Leah McClellan´s last blog ..Tip # 6 Blog comments

I would fully recommend anyone wanting to improve their speaking, presentations, confidence and people skills to go to their nearest one. You’ll meet great folks, learn new skills, improve old ones and sky rocket what you can achieve.

A great post which I loved reading and thank you for sharing

I can’t think of a more supportive environment for learning how to speak in public.

-Charley