MICHAEL WALSH BUSINESS. If you are in business, chances are there are going to be occasions when you have to address an audience.

When you are watching someone else speaking at an event, it comes across as Bobby’s job. Don’t believe it.

For many people, standing up in front of an audience and setting one’s stall out can be the most unnerving experience of their lives.

Curious as to how speakers respond to such situations, a test was carried out.

Several heroic figures, including a mountaineer and a fighter pilot, were wired up.

Whilst doing their ‘day jobs’, the stress of doing things that would scare the daylight out of us in them was barely noticeable.

However, wired up before they appeared on a dais to address an audience, they fell to pieces. Their heart rate and blood pressure shot up to the red section on the gauge.

Constantly referring to notes as you are speaking, or reading from a written speech, is a no-no. You will still trip over your own tongue.

Your delivery will be met by yawning listeners with a polite response, but the impact of what you want to say will be negligible.

There is no easy solution. Like much else, some can and some can’t.

These unfazed, fortunate souls tend to be the exhibitionists of life. They are filled with ‘look at me’ self-confidence. For the rest of us, we would prefer a visit to the dentist.

Those called to the soapbox have their own tricks to help them through the ordeal. I cottoned on to mine when in my early twenties. I had two tricks up my sleeve.

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I never look at the audience. It is there, but for me, the people in the seats are background, like wallpaper or empty furniture.

What I do is deliver as though I were talking to myself. It works for me. It might for you, too.

There was another ploy I learned quite early on. This occurred after I noticed that, among the hundred or so faces staring up at me, there was one soul who appeared to be responding well to my presentation.

Ignoring the rest of the audience, I spoke with passion and self-belief to him or her as though we were having a one-to-one meeting. For me, it worked like a charm.

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