Understanding your Audience

To create an immersive and informative presentation, we must first reach our audience. Engaging our audience may be the most critical part of our work as each individual has their own background, interest level, and motivation to learn from our presentation. However, there is a simple guide to establishing a unique, entertaining, and informational speech by catering to four distinct groups of people.  

• The first group are individuals who focus on the big picture. Think of a busy CEO who is interested in getting the most out of your presentation with the least amount of time commitment. These people search for key statements supported by bottom-line results. By including a mission statement or central theory at the start of our presentation, we can reel these big picture audience members in, enticing them with the important facts and then delivering relevant details.  

• Next are individuals who are exactly the opposite! These audience members are process oriented, searching for data, statistics, and spreadsheets that backup our claims. These are the analysts who love to get into the nitty gritty and pick apart the problem themselves. In order to reach these audience members, I would recommend including a few impactful pieces of research throughout your presentation. By calling attention to reputable sources and intriguing results, we catch the attention of these detail-driven groups. Finally, include links to data or provide a handout to share the complexities of the presentation. Through this process, we can capture the attention of both the big-picture and the little-details audience members. 

• Following these two groups are the collaborative thinkers. Similar to those obsessed with details, these individuals care about the step by step process of our presentations, emphasizing the usage of communication and teamwork to achieve the ultimate solution. This group may be filled with team leaders or conflict mediators interested in working with their group to implement the strategies we share. To attain their attention, discuss small but actionable changes that can be made to reach an eventual goal. These individuals will take your tips to heart and share them with members of their organization, spreading knowledge and inciting change!

• Finally, we have our audience members interested in the overall impact of the presentation. These are individuals focused on innovating their office culture. To reach this group, we can close our presentation with insights into how our presentation can change the team, organizational, or even global environment. Highlight how the central themes of our presentation can be used to solve problems in the workplace and surrounding community. Through this process, we illustrate the ripple effect our speech can have on their lives. 

To summarize these tips, here are four main ways to reach these distinct groups in your presentations: 

1.     Start with a bang!

A high-level main message will call your big thinkers to attention, ensuring that they are captivated immediately.

2.     Showcase our knowledge 

Throughout our presentation, we can expand our viewer’s knowledge and explain important facts and figures. These bits of information will grasp detail-driven audience members and increase our credibility.  

3.     Share the process

To create a relatable and influential presentation, we must share actionable tips which can be used to create an impactful change. Process-oriented individuals will latch onto these descriptions and implement our advice in the future!

4.     Create an Impactful Closing 

By tying our presentations to their personal, professional, and cultural effects, we highlight the advantages of actively employing our techniques in the workplace. While this ending will enrapture all audience members, it specifically fuels the impact focused individuals by showing their potential for change. 

Each time I give a presentation, I keep these four groups in mind, working through my four steps to ensure that I meet the needs of each and every audience member. This advice helps to create more engaging and interesting presentations that accomplish the ultimate goal of informing and inspiring our viewers to make a change.

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company. Her mission is providing guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within their organization.

Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential.

8 Tips for Managing Your Fear of Public Speaking

Imagine just as you’re about to begin your daily tasks, you hear the footsteps of your supervisor approaching you. They ask you to give an engaging presentation about a project you’ve been working on. Your face flushes and your heart begins to race as you picture yourself on a massive stage looking out into a sea of blank faces. But, what if you didn’t have to feel like this? What if you could meet the challenge of public speaking with excitement and confidence? Here are eight tips for understanding and overcoming your fear of public speaking.

1. It's all normal

The fear of public speaking affects nearly 75% of the world’s population, so it’s important to remember that this anxiety is completely normal (PSYCOM). It can be difficult to picture yourself in the same position as Barack Obama, Simon Sinek, or colleagues who seem like naturally gifted speakers; however, nearly everyone gets the jitters before delivering an important address. The first step to overcome this fear is acknowledging that our feelings are completely normal. After that, we can begin to overcome our anxieties with courageous action! In this case, practice is the key. Practice, practice, practice! Feel the fear and speak anyway. 

2. Prepare a question

If I feel particularly anxious about a presentation, I have learned to ask the audience an open-ended question at the beginning of my talk. This first step allows the audience to connect with me and activate their brains for my upcoming talking points. As they answer my question, I can take a moment to catch my breath before starting my talk. Through this method, we can overcome that initial surge of stage fright and begin to form an engaging interaction with our audience. 

3. Focus on the value

My first speaking coach shared a powerful statement with me: Your talk is not about you; it’s about the value you have to offer to your audience. This message is a constant reminder that that the purpose of a talk is the value we share with our audience. Reframing the presentation in terms of the audience’s benefit emphasizes that the presentation is not about our fears and the audience judging us. Instead, we remember that our mission is to use our voices to share impactful information and educate, inspire, or incite change in our audience. 

4. Create your own ritual

Having a routine does wonders for managing anxiety before a presentation. This may be going to bed early the night before, avoiding salty foods, or doing yoga the morning of your talk! Our ritual could be anything that makes us feel calm and confident. By focusing on these activities, we can trick our brains into thinking we are in control of the day! Implementing and following through with an uplifting ritual helps our bodies feel at ease and gives our minds the space to prosper.

5. Arrive early

The smallest changes can truly increase our comfort level at stressful events. One of my biggest tips is to arrive even earlier than you usually would! This allows ample time to explore the space, test out equipment, and begin to feel at ease. Showing up early illustrates our preparedness and also provides us with time to evaluate our space and even relax. 

6. Visualize yourself

Throughout the hours, days, or weeks before my events, I like to actively visualize myself giving my talk. To do this, I close my eyes, relax my body, and imagine the sound of my name being introduced. In the mental image, I see myself walking confidently on stage, sharing my knowledge with the audience, engaging with viewers, ending my talk, and walking back to my seat. Through this process, we ease the anxiety of the unknown! By the time we actually give the talk, it will feel like we’ve had ample preparation, calming our nerves. Each time we visualize our speech, we grow more and more comfortable with this scary process and eventually overcome our fears!

7. Do a POWER pose

It may seem silly, but I personally have found doing POWER poses being very helpful. Standing straight and tall with arms akimbo, similar to Wonder Woman, may actually increase our levels of success! The TED talk by Amy Cuddy shares the power of body positioning and how being in an open body position can boost self-confidence. Instead of closing in, we need to expand outwards! By taking up more space we can subconsciously change our inner emotions for the better!  Before giving a talk, trying out some POWER poses my give us that extra edge to overcome our fears. 

8. Square Breathing

Simple breathing techniques can help decrease anxiety and depression and even boost our immune system (Harvard).  My favorite exercise is square breathing. This technique encourages level and controlled breathing sure decrease your stress levels. To start, breath in deeply for four seconds. Hold your breath for four seconds, and then breath out slowly for another four seconds. Hold your breath for another four seconds, and then repeat the process. By engaging in deep breathing, we take control of the anxiety levels in our body and almost force ourselves to calm down! This tip is the best way to calm the butterflies in your stomach before going on stage. 

With these eight tips, we can begin to gain control of our fear of public speaking. Sharing our ideas doesn’t have do be nerve-wracking, and I hope these techniques help increase your comfort levels and self-confidence. 

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company. Her mission is providing guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within their organization.

Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential.

Terrified of Public Speaking? Here is What You can do about it

Many years ago, when I first started giving speeches, I was in my hotel room in Dubai on the morning of my first keynote address at a leadership conference. My eyes opened wide before my alarm clock sounded, my body was tense with anxiety and overcome with total terror.

I got out of bed in a panic and paced the room repeating, “I cannot give this presentation, I cannot give this presentation, …”

The thought of myself standing on stage in front of 200 people with blank stares quickly escalated my anxiety. So many “what ifs” swarmed my mind: “What if I lose my breath in front of everyone? What if I forget my points? What if the audience does not like it?”

I had traveled across the world from North Carolina to Dubai just for this conference. Changing my mind at the last minute was not an option. In the taxi on the way to the conference, I closed my eyes and prayed that the taxi would get in an accident so I had an excuse not to speak. Yes, I was that terrified and was desperate for any legitimate excuse to get me out of this speech.

The good news — my prayers were not answered and the taxi made it safely to the conference. However, I was visibly trembling in fear as I heard my name announced.

I took a deep breath and said to myself, “feel the fear and give the presentation anyway.” I walked on the stage still shaking, looked at the audience and trusted my mouth would say the words that I had prepared. After few minutes, I realized that even though it was still tough, the fear somehow started to fade once I connected with the audience. I started to feel a sense of joy-filled adrenaline.

Many years have passed since that terrifying morning, and I am now regularly speaking in front of new audiences all the time — even to audiences of thousands. The fear is still present, but over the years, I learned to transform that fear into power that motivates me.

I constantly meet people who avoid public speaking due to the same fear. Many of them do not realize that they are not alone and that this stage fright and fear of judgement is common. Many end up avoiding presenting at all, which yields horrible consequences for their career advancement.

If you are one of these people, here are some tips I learned over the years to help conquer stage fright:

1. Practice, practice, practice. Trust me, you will not be able to conquer the stage fright without actually speaking in public. Volunteer every time there is an opportunity for you to give a presentation. After you volunteer, make sure to practice in front of friends or co-workers. Practicing in a safe, judgement-free environment will help you prepare your body movements, eye contact, and using your visual presentation.

2. Don’t memorize your presentation. Memorization makes you more nervous and reciting by memory is boring for the audience. When you memorize a speech word-for-word the fear of forgetting becomes more overwhelming and makes you less comfortable giving your presentation. Instead, create an outline with one word for each main point that you want to cover, and get comfortable with the flow.

3. Focus on the value that you are delivering. Your presentation is not about what people think about you. Instead, it is about the positive value that you are bringing: new ideas, innovations, and products. Once the audience senses that you have value to offer, they will connect with you. This feeling of connection will put you at ease.

4. Create a ritual to do before each presentation. Some people need to calm down, sit in a quiet place, or do breathing exercises, while others need to feel energized and do physical activities that increase their energy. Find what works for you and create your own ritual.

5. Prepare a question. The best advice I ever received was to prepare a question ahead of time to ask the audience in case you lose your breath at the beginning of the presentation. While the audience is thinking about the question and answering it, that gives you few moments to catch your breath.

6. Go to the conference room early. Before anyone arrives, stand there, feel the environment, and practice your presentation. This will allow you to feel more comfortable with your surroundings.

7. Engage the audience. Initiate a discussion, make them laugh, and encourage them to share their experiences. The more you engage the audience, the less fearful you will be since you can now gauge how they are responding to your presentation.

8. Be open to feedback. It is okay for your presentation or speaking skills to not be perfect as long as you learn from the experience and are open to input so you can continue to improve. A great way to get feedback is to join a local Toastmasters chapter. It is the best environment to practice and receive constructive feedback from individuals who practice weekly.

So, next time you get the chance, say yes to public speaking and prepare with these eight tips. Remember, you can feel the fear and give the presentation anyway! You can do this!

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

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5 Questions for Entrepreneurs in 2021

As leaders, business professionals, and entrepreneurs, we must continuously evolve and improve our strategies, skills, and organizations. As the new year dawns, this is the perfect time for us to evaluate our businesses and make impactful changes for 2021. This reflective process allows us to gain a different perspective on our professional goals, and we may already have the answers within ourselves! However, to dig up these nuggets of knowledge, we must start asking questions, researching, and delving deeper into our organizations. This blog holds five questions that will help give our businesses an edge as we transition into the new year. 

1. How are we differentiating our businesses? 

This question enables us to look externally at competitors but also internally at our business offerings. Do we create something unique for our market? W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne’s book Blue Ocean Strategy describes this problem in a powerful metaphor. Think about the clients like fish in the ocean, while the competitors are like sharks. Where there are many sharks the water will turn red with blood as the they compete and chow down on their chosen meals. However, if we can swim out to areas with less or no sharks, we have a better chance of being seen and thriving in the clear waters. This translates to business by emphasizing how important it is to be unique. If thousands of organizations are fulfilling the same market place, it is time to differentiate our business! By being creative and come up with new offerings, we can separate ourselves from the crowd and truly shine for our potential customers. 

2. How are we diversifying our revenue?

As the pandemic hit, we were all faced with new and overwhelming challenges. Government-mandated closures and quarantine impacted many businesses like restaurants, event hosting, and retail. As a keynote speaker, I saw so many of my speaking engagement put on hold. If my business only depended on this aspect, I would have been devastated. However, by diversifying my business to include multiple services, I was able to stay afloat amid uncertainty. To branch out, we must first think about our skillset and knowledge areas. How can we incorporate this information into different products or services? Don’t be afraid to venture into new areas to expand the organization’s area of influence. This is a great chance to invest our time in creating unique offshoots of our current companies. 

3. What are we doing to position ourselves as thought leaders? 

As a leader or entrepreneur, it may be tempting to hide behind our brand and let our business take the front seat. However, if we have the confidence to become our brand, clients will flock to our business because of our personal qualities and values. Being a thought leader means being present in your community, supporting local organizations, and engaging in public events. Clients see us giving speeches at business conferences, posting informational videos, and participating in panels! We can use this visibility to boost our sales and services. I realize this is not always easy for some. If you are afraid of public speaking, you are not alone. There are so many resources that help us find our voice, including some of my blogs and my new Professional Speaking Program. By becoming a thought leader, our clients will begin to seek us out as well as the products we are offering. They will be more willing to try new services and remain loyal to our brands because of their personal connection. Our position as thought leaders allows us to expand our influence, inspire our community, and maintain our customer base. 

4. What are we doing to understand our clients better? 

While we all have a general understanding of our central market, new research is published each and every day about different demographics and their wants and needs. We must figure out the central issue our clients face and how we can be the best solution for their problems. For example, a large part of the consumers are Millennials and Gen Z. These generations make up 51% of the world population! If we do not have a strategy to reach these clients, we miss out on a large portion of our potential customers. One way to relate to these age groups is to incorporate a central meaning or purpose to our brands. These younger generations want to see how we are making a difference in the world. We can achieve this by highlighting our positive actions in our community, donating proceeds to a cause, and focusing on Diversity & Inclusion.

5. What are we doing to motivate our employees? 

In today’s socially distanced world, we must work harder to keep our team connected. With a lack of face-to-face communication, employees may feel disconnected from their supervisors, worrying about the state of the company and recent economic instability. We must make an intentional effort to value and support our team and initiate conversation with them. Communication and connection are essential to establish an open, inclusive, and productive workplace culture. In the coming year, we need to continue to embrace our team members and celebrate their achievements whenever possible. The stresses of the pandemic are as prevalent as ever, so remaining supportive and understanding is a necessity in 2021.

Give these five questions some thought. Maybe talk about them with your coworkers or write through your answers in a personal journal. Through these moments of introspection, we can come to a greater understanding of ourselves, our businesses, and our central mission for 2021.

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company. Her mission is providing guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within their organization.

Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential.

How to Define a Vision and Bring It to Life

What would you do if you could achieve your biggest dreams? The truth is that we all have the power to live the life we want, but to do that, we need to define our vision, believe in it, and have the courage to pursue it.

 A vision is an image we have of the future, and a goal is a specific target that moves us toward that dream. Both are important, but we tend to get caught in the details, so taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture helps us to understand what our vision for the future looks like. Now is the perfect time to reassess what we want, who we want to be, and what new aspirations we may have for our lives. 

Here are three key steps on how to define a vision and bring it to life.

Visualizing the Life We Want

Visualization is a powerful exercise that allows us to imagine ourselves in a certain time and place. In fact, studies show that visualization can lead to positive outcomes as effectively as actual practice. We can also think bigger and use this technique to build a vision for our life.

Many of us are going through change, and this presents an opportunity to think about what we want our life to look like. But what if we don’t know exactly what we want? We can use methods like “100 Questions” and the “I Want” list to clear our minds and focus on what matters most.

The 100 Questions Method

In the book How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day, Michael J. Gelb suggests we write down 100 questions about anything that comes to mind. The more we write, the more we are able to dig deeper and reflect on what is important to us. Our questions – especially those that are repeated or rephrased – will reveal interesting themes, and picking out the 10 most powerful ones will lead to a better understanding of our aspirations and fears.

The “I Want” List:

in The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, Jack Canfield recommends writing three lists: 30 things you want to do, 30 things you want to have, and 30 things you want to be before you die. This exercise provides more clarity about our vision as we focus on specific actions, items, and accomplishments we’d like to achieve.

Whether we are asking questions, making lists, or journaling, let’s give ourselves permission to dream without limitation!

Dig Deeper and Ask “Why”

After picturing our ideal life, it is important to think deeper and ask WHY. Why do these things matter to us? Reflecting on our motives ensures we are concentrating on our own hopes and desires, instead of others’ expectations. It can be easy to dwell on comparisons, but seeking what others have will only cloud our vision and lead us off path. We deserve to pursue our own dreams and accomplish great things. Asking “why” helps us to better understand our unique ambitions and to cast away fear, guilt, and worries about what others might think.

See It, Believe It, Act on It

Once we define our vision, we then need to believe we can achieve it and act on it. Seeing helps us to believe, and we can bring our dreams to life by drawing in a journal or creating a vision board. A vision board is a collage of magazine clippings, pictures, or quotes that depicts our hopes and desires, whether that’s a community of friends and family, a nice brick house with a yard, or a trip to New York City. Capturing our biggest aspirations in a journal or on a vision board helps us to see what our life could look like, and it allows us to truly believe in it. Then, our actions are the only thing between us and our ideal life. If we really want to achieve our dreams, we have to be open to change, and act with intention. 

Defining a vision takes time, reflection, and self-belief. When we think deeply about what we want, it is important to trust our intuition. We know ourselves best, and our vision is unique to our needs and ambitions. Let’s cast aside limiting thoughts and instead embrace our dreams, knowing that we deserve to succeed. Most of all, let’s be creative and enjoy the process. We should all dream about the life we want without holding back!

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company. Her mission is providing guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within their organization.

Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential.