Through my life I have seen hundreds of ted talks and many times they are incredibly engaging or absolutely boring but never have I experienced being in a stage and having the challenge to share people a valuable idea of my own. Today in the innovation academy we had our first talking experience in the Performance Arts Center stage, a practice for our upcoming TED TALK presentation next week. As I am a constant performer weather it is acting, singing or dancing I have learned that what controls your success is your confidence. As Mr. Topf said today, you become who you think you are. Last year for el 'rastrillo' when I had to walk the runway I was head to toe nervous and that was reflected in every move I made. A professional model approached me and told me that the trick was believing you where the BEST in the whole world and with this I gained an attitude. Now, sitting there in the auditorium I felt head to toe nervous but I decided that the best way to confront the situation was going for it with excitement and believe I could really do a good job. When you believe in yourself, others do too. |
As I started I felt very nervous and that started controlling my tone and voice... I realized that it was taking me from delivering my point in a powerful way. A technique that helped me to get away from this feeling was taking control of my breathing and when I was able to do that; my talk just flowed.
Being in front of a spot light with a real audience was definitely a challenge, but one I am glad I faced because I now know how to be prepared for monday. First, I have to work on my eye contact and relating to the audience. A very strong point came out while talking to David Fishman today and it was that when you are speaking you are so fixated in yourself and what you are doing that you do not create an empathetic bond with your listeners. One of the ways that you can overcome this problem is by thinking on WHY you are giving the speech and how will that influence and HELP the people listening. By doing this you don't only make the talk much more personalized and passionate having a greater impact on the audience but you also loose your nerves because it increases the value of what you are saying and serves a motivator.
Another technique I learned was to think about some one in the audience that you CAN'T let down no matter how bad it goes, this for many can be their mother, teacher or even your best friend but I realized that by feeling that support you also gain an inner strength to let it all out.
I have to confess that before stepping up to that stage today I had a completely different idea of what I was going to talk about. I had already planned my introductory sentence and repeated it over and over again in my head so I would not forget it but I was standing there I decided to leave behind all the memorizing and start at the most valuable point.. I was obviously rough at the beginning but as I started to tell a REAL STORY one that had actually happened I started to empathize myself with it and the reality was that as I reflected upon that anecdote I was able to make it powerful. Why? because it was real, deep and I myself believed it was valuable. I chose to talk about something that meant a lot to me and by demonstrating that I cared about what I was saying I feel others cared for it as well. This is something to keep in mind when creating my talk since anecdotes are an amazing way to connect to the people.
I am really excited for next week's presentations!!!