Public Speaking and ADHD

[JadaADHD]

Hello I have been so afraid of public speaking but it's something I have to get over, however, when I start talking my anxiety takes over and lose my train of thought. Anyone have some suggestions I can use or attempt?

[nathanba95]

Practice perhaps. We have amazing mind abilities we need to channel in the right direction. Easier said than done, one needs to get out of their head

[JadaADHD in reply to nathanba95]

thank you so much

[Netjester]

Ok. I know this is a really stupid example and don’t know that I recommend this at all, but it worked for me once and changed everything about my public speaking.

Just an FYI. Some might call me a technology nerd, but regardless I speak at tech conferences a couple of times per year and it’s still never “easy.” However the sweaty palms, sweat dripping from forehead, etc. always happened until about 20 years ago. I still remember it like yesterday. I was schedule to speak to about 100 people at my company to introduce a new product. The good news is that the product was awesome and I knew everything about it and could easily answer any technical questions thrown at me. However, the anxiety of the upcoming presentation drove me nuts to the point of trying to get someone to do it for me. Anyway, the evening before we had a team party to celebrate the release of the product. To say that I celebrated too much is an understatement. Not only did I close down the bar, I invited anyone left at the bar to my house to continue to celebrate. I think bedtime happened around 4am or so. My presentation was at 9am. When I woke up, if you could call it that at 7:30, I staggered to the shower(stopping at the toilet) and took the coldest shower I could stand, then switched it to the hottest. It felt pretty good, but I still had a headache that wouldn’t stop. I also continued to feel like I could vomit at anytime. Regardless, I knew that I still had to show up. So with my body feeling like hell and my mind on not wanting to embarrass myself by vomiting on stage, I got up and presented. Everything was in slow motion because instead of trying to rush through everything, I would take a small pause here and there to make sure my stomach was minding it’s own business. My head was still pounding, so my voice wasn’t overly loud and things just flowed flawlessly. I was told by many that I was a natural after that day, given a promotion and basically asked to speak many, many more times for the next few years.

So no, I did not become an alcoholic, but I did realize that by making my public speaking less of a priority, I could control my anxiety. So fast forward to 20 years later, I do the following, leading up to my time in front of a crowd. I drink tons...just kidding. I make sure I know my shit. I make a point to ask as many questions possible about what I’m to present and make sure I answer them. Then I step into follow up phase. I follow up my answers with possible follow up questions, just in case there is that asshole that thinks they are smarter than you. Once I have that together (I call that my shit), I write out my topics with a couple of bullet points. The day and morning before the speaking engagement, I make sure I have conversations with people who question my knowledge of the topic I’m about to present. When I get on stage and I see a topic and bullet point, I just answer the questions that I wrote to myself. So what I’m basically saying, is that make the knowledge the important part, not the speaking. At the end of the day, you will be graded on what you brought to the table, not how you brought it.

Hope this helps and hope you never suffer the hangover to end all hangovers like I did.

[Wherearethosekeys]

I believe the key - aside from knowing your topic so you're confident that you can deal with questions as others have already suggested - is to have some form of detailed outline or script to ensure you proceed through the presentation without getting sidetracked. Some people feel most comfortable actually reading a prepared text, but unless you've got high-tech teleprompters like politicians use, reading generally comes across very poorly to the audience. So I recommend either a detailed outline or the use of PowerPoint slides with concise text bullets to keep you on point. (That does require you to have a monitor that you can see in front of you, but it has served me well in the thousands of presentations I've done to date.) Just don't make the typical mistake of having too many words on a slide, and ideally have each concise line of text appear just as you make the point -- don't give the audience the chance to read your slides all at once rather than focus on listening to you. I find that if I do start to drift off script, the appearance of the next text bullet will bring me right back to where I'm supposed to be.