Public Speaking & Keeping Eye Contact

Just imagine you're just chatting with your close friends. Even though I know that's not easy, at least try it. My only problem when speaking in public is that my voice tends to be shaky. I cannot control its shaking. A public speaking specialist once told me that singing helps strengthen the diaphragm which helps me to control my voice more and stop the shaking. I can't sing that's why I still can't control my shaking voice until now.

I think that is just normal girl as some may call it "stage-fright". We all try to be physically, emotionally and mentally prepared before speaking in front of a crowd, but sometimes all these preparations get shattered. Maybe, just because it's not the usual thing that we do or maybe, there's a difference between our common listeners and the crowd with which we speak with.

i hate talking in front of people! i think eye contact is very important! i have even talked to people one on one where they are not looking at you. it gets to be very annoying.

That is common for people who do it the first time. I have a lot of training with public speaking and am very much comfortable with the way I speak in front of them. It takes a lot of experience to truly perfect talking (but still it wouldn't be perfect all the time). Anyhow, I could remember my training with your topic. Our trainer told us to keep eye contact - or at least pretend to. Why? The secret to this one is that if you're not yet comfortable talking or keeping eye contact, look at the forehead instead. You see, when you look at the forehead, you don't necessarily look at people straight on the eye but it would seem to that person that you are looking at him on the eye. Then as time goes by slowly go further unto looking the person directly on the eyes. But be careful not to look at the same person, and actually 5 seconds is too much. If you keep count, you'll end up forgetting your topic hahahaha.. Just do it for around 2-3 seconds. Have a great MyLot experience ahead!

I am always confused, when I would be giving oral presentations in class, with what to do with my eyes. Who do you look at, when you are speaking in front of a group of people? I think what I used to do always was just focus on something in the back of the room. Ha ha. Presentations are hard enough without worrying about who to look at!