How to Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking

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Posted by Kari Hulac on Aug 20, 2014 4:00:00 AM

There’s a lot being said these days about the need for finance and accounting professionals to master soft skills such as communication, and it’s for good reason: If you want to get ahead in business you need to conquer your fear of public speaking.

A survey by Protiviti, a subsidiary of Robert Half, found that of all the soft skills that internal auditors need to improve, public speaking was ranked No. 1.

Advancing your career depends on it, says Ryan Sutton, a Boston-based Robert Half senior regional president who regularly speaks to groups and appears on television news programs.

“If you ever really want to be an executive, no executive was really hired one-on-one. You’re interviewed by a board, you’re presenting to a board,” Sutton said. “The difference between being comfortable (with public speaking) and not comfortable is the difference between being the leader versus the contributor.”

Sutton says the key to feeling comfortable speaking in public is preparation. If you’re presenting a deck of slides, don’t try to walk your audience through each slide point by point.

Trying to retain and then deliver all of the information in a slideshow deck is just too overwhelming. And it's not really a speech, Sutton said.

“It gets very dry and becomes a data dump,” he said.

Instead, he advises, create a bullet-point outline of the key things you want to talk about.

“You’re presenting the topic, and the deck is a reference to your presentation versus BEING your presentation,” Sutton said.

The outline should serve as a guide for the stories, analogies and metaphors you’re going to share.

“It’s important to make sure you tie technical data and stories to how it impacts people,” he said.

Of course it's normal to be nervous, Sutton said. But knowing the material and just speaking naturally will help.

Know the material and practice
Dan DeNisco, a senior vice president with Robert Half Management Resources in Florida, said that when he was a CPA, public speaking was not his forte.

He learned that the tough way when he gave a talk about a technical issue that he wasn’t familiar enough with. He ended up feeling embarrassed and even more fearful about speaking in public.

Fortunately, DeNisco said, a Dale Carnegie leadership course set him on a new path. The class emphasized knowing the material and practicing the delivery of it, and now he describes himself as a “ham” who loves being on stage.

“You have to know the audience. If you have friends in the audience, focus on them, make eye contact,” DeNisco said.

And if he doesn’t “know the room,” he tries to get to a speaking engagement early to mingle and make connections with audience members.

“My advice would be if you do have anxiety or you are not very good at it, invest in yourself and take a public speaking course,” he said.

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'Finding Nemo' is Disney's inspiration for reviving 1950s sub ride

Originally appeared in The Oakland Tribune, June 17, 2007 

By Kari Hulac, STAFF WRITER 

Caption: 

ANAHEIM - WHEN DISNEYLAND'S submarine journey to see "reptilian patriarchs of the deep" was shut down nine years ago, it was the end of an era.

This 1959 E-ticket (the best of the best) ride, representing the latest in visual and sound effects, had become campy — dubbed "fish on strings" by many a Disney exec. Ride attendance was down in the late 1990s, and it was time for something fresh, keeping true to Walt Disney's mantra that "Disneyland will never be completed."

Yet reworking such a key attraction proved easier said than done. It took a white-and-orange fish courtesy of Emeryville's Pixar to give Disney's Imagineers (attraction designers) the inspiration they needed. And earlier this week, the original subs — now electrically powered and bright yellow — were back in action as the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage.

Disney never wanted his park to become a museum, but the lagoon, where diesel subs built for him by General Dynamics chugged around in the spirit of the 1954 movie "20,000 Leagues under the Sea," had become just that.

Tony Baxter was 8 years old and among one of the first to ride those subs on opening day, June 6, 1959.

He said the alien experience of going underwater made such an impression on him that he went to work at Disneyland — scooping ice cream at first, then becoming a sub captain and later, after studying art, design architecture and theater in college, ending up in his current role of Imagineer in charge of the Nemo project.

He was there the day the old ride was closed, on Sept. 7, 1998.

"I was very teary," he said. "I vowed I would see it reopen."

At the official opening day ceremony on Monday, he saw his vision come to life, surrounded by a crowd of Disney and Pixar top brass and press from around the world. Jelly fish props jiggled in the sky as a live band performed tunes such as "Yellow Submarine," and performers in diving suits danced in flippers.

"It's surreal," he said.

Once again the ride features all the latest Disney magic — new computer animation technology and a travelingsound system to show a three-dimensional story through each rider's porthole. Guests see and hear a slightly different show, depending where they sit, but all riders will see the characters the same number of times during the trip.

Disney is saying it's one of the most technologically complex attractions ever built for a Disney theme park.

The ride's creators made a full-scale simulator and 3-D virtual reality program so Pixar animators in Emeryville could test the ride remotely with Disney designers in Southern California.

To get sturdy water-proof colors that match those so vibrant on the big screen in the film, Imagineers came up with their own paint using more than 30 tons of recycled glass to create more than 40 custom colors with catchy names including Toast, Swamp, Danger Red, Split Pea and Burning Coal.

The effect is classy and stunningly beautiful — a world away from the dingy, faded look the sub ride had in its later years.

During a late afternoon media preview ride, shafts of sunlight pierced the lagoon's surface, illuminating the reef's oranges and reds and purples as if it were a real underwater scene.

While the ride offers a fantasy version of a real Australian coral reef, said Kathy Mangum, executive producer and vice president of Disney Imagineering, coral animation experts from Pixar worked with Disney to recreate the reef seen in the movie.

Riders peer through the portholes watching just about every "Nemo" character talk, swim and frolic — some with the original voices from the movie, such as Barry Humphries (Bruce). An original soundtrack inspired by the film score was composed by Ed Kalnins.

Viewers even get a glimpse of an animatronic version of evil dentist niece Darla. Those who pay attention can see some features from the original ride, such as those giant clams, moray eels and stone icons from the lost city. The starfish-covered wall that starts the ride off is also quite familiar, and there are still bubbles covering the portholes to simulate submersion.

The sub captain has been updated to speak with a genuine Australian accent in a nod to the Sydney setting of the movie.

The ride, now longer at about 12 minutes, still won't sit well with park guests sensitive to being stuck in dark enclosed spaces or who are disabled (The hatches and spiral staircases of the original 52-foot submarines couldn't be retrofitted to accommodate wheelchairs). But those unable to board can watch from a special viewing area underneath the monorail track near the sub dock via a high-definition porthole cam.

With some of the story taking place in total darkness with sirens sounding, red lights flashing and explosions booming, the ride might be too scary for children younger than 3.

But the 3-year-old we took on a preview of the ride came through relatively unscathed, happily quoting "Light, please," the rest of the day to anyone within earshot. (In the film and on the ride, a fierce-looking, deep water angler with its own light source and LOTS of big teeth tussles with Nemo and Dory.)

A 5-year-old we rode with closed her eyes during some of the scary scenes but said, "I want to do that again," as soon as she stepped off the boarding dock.

Disney execs are hoping that adult park guests' nostalgic desire to return to the ride of their childhood will keep the park thriving, calling it key to Disneyland's health.

"This is one of the most highly awaited (ride remodels) by guests and us," said Disney Imagineering executive vice president and senior creative executive Tom Fitzgerald at a media roundtable interview after Monday's grand opening ceremony.

Stories of How They Met

This story was originally published on Feb. 12, 2008. 

By Kari Hulac

Caption:
Click here to view image: BEST OVERALL: Richard Pollock and Renae Wilber look at photos of themselves in their old high school yearbook in Wilber s
San Ramon living room. They had a crush on each other in third grade in Alaska but just recently got together as a couple.
(JAY SOLMONSON Staff)

EVERYONE REMEMBERS the moment they found love.

While fairy tales like to tell that story in terms of starry eyes and tweeting birdies, we learned from our readers that real life doesn't quite work that way.

In the more than 70 stories submitted to our How We Met contest, it was clear that Cupid's arrow strikes in the oddest of places. And it definitely takes its own sweet time — sometimes decades — to work its magic.

Here are some of the best stories we received:

'Third Grade Crush'

By Renae D. Wilber,San Ramon

Quietly, I closed and locked my bedroom door and sat on the edge of my bed with the white eyelet bedspread. Staring into his eyes on the black and white class picture, I kissed his face, somehow thinking this would bring him to life in front of me. We were in the third grade in Alaska, and Richard was my first crush.

As I walked past his desk, I felt the slightest tug on my hair, which was so long that I would boast that I could sit on it if I tilted my head back far enough. I looked back, and there sat Richard with a mischievous grin on his face.

My heart skipped a beat. It was then that I first noticed him. As the school year droned on with Mrs. Sheet's lectures on double negatives and how humidity formed, my attention continued to be on only one subject; Richard.

One afternoon as I was preparing to go to a birthday party there was a knock on the front door. There he stood in front of me with his striking dark hair, asking if I could go on a picnic. "I can't," I said with disappointment. "I'm going to a birthday party."

Giddily, I watched him ride away on his bicycle.

My crush grew to be quite big for a little girl and remained into the next year, even though Richard had moved away. I thought about him constantly.

During the fourth grade, Donny Osmond hit the charts with "Puppy Love," and I held onto the lyrics, knowing that at least Donny understood that this was more than just a crush. Inevitably, Richard became a part of my past. To my surprise we both attended the same populated high school but exchanged only smiles on the rare occasion that our eyes met in the halls. Just before graduation in 1979 I mustered the courage to ask him to sign my yearbook.

"To my sweet girlfriend in third grade, I loved you so much back then, I still do now...," he wrote, and he was gone.

But a year ago I received an e-mail. "I don't know if you remember me..." it began. Within moments I was replying, confessing all the things I wanted him to know years before, that I had been crazy about him; that as a child I kissed his picture and even had a song for him. He told me that he had made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the day he asked me on the picnic.

By a twist of fate we had both left Alaska and were living in the Bay Area only miles apart. Only this time, we could build on where we left off, so many years before, with destiny and true love finally in our favor.

'Buns'By Jon Rego,Clayton

I was in Safeway shopping for my barbecue, and I happened to see this very attractive woman checker and saw how friendly she was to all her customers. I decided to get into her line. While checking out my groceries, she looked at my hamburger and hot dog buns, smiled, and started ringing everything up, asking if I was having a party. She was easy to talk to and that seemed like an "opening" to me, and so in one brave moment I asked her out.Anne very politely told me that she didn't date her customers. She hinted that maybe after she had seen me and spoken with me six or seven times, she might reconsider. So I left the store, came back in, picked up some non-essential items, and got in her line again and again and again. After doing this about five times, she laughed and told me that I was very creative and that I might get a "chance" to see her socially. Well, as they say, the rest is history.So now when people ask how we met, I simply tell them, "We met one day while she was checking out my buns!" It always gets a laugh and sometimes I'll even explain that they were only hamburger and hot dog buns!This April 2nd will be our 31st anniversary, and I still enjoy her checking out my buns, even though they may not be as "firm" as they used to be.

'Costco Man'

By Patricia Cruz, Pleasanton

I was a 35-year-old single professional woman. I had been divorced for eight years and feeling I would be single forever. I had been dating but hadn't yet met anyone I made a connection with who shared my love for children and sports. My wish was to meet a man with two boys.After many evenings alone and with my office mates prodding, I decided to try an Internet dating service. One morning I was about to initiate the online dating process when I got cold feet. Instead of signing up I decided to head to Costco in Livermore to get my shopping done.As I buzzed through the aisles, negotiating other shoppers eating their way through the store, I turned a corner only to have a near head-on collision with another cart.The man behind the cart smiled and laughed. I, on the other hand, must have had a distressed look on my face as the man with the electric smile said, "You thought I was going to ram into you!" I replied, "Yes I did, and now I will be scarred for life, living in fear whenever I go shopping."He chuckled and retorted, "Only when you are bulk shopping." We laughed and exchanged banter for a few moments and went our separate ways.I had never believed in love at first sight and rolled my eyes when people said it happened to them, but there was something about this man. I plodded on with my shopping, thinking about this unique guy and feeling I would see him again someday.As I was leaving the store, a deep voice from behind me asked if I was stalking him. It was him. We chatted outside the store for a few minutes and exchanged numbers. It was during this conversation he mentioned he was a recently divorced father of two boys living in Pleasanton and was rushing to get his shopping done so he could go golfing. My heart jumped as he asked me to give him a call.As I was loading my car he pulled up alongside and asked if I would join him on his round of golf. I accepted and rushed home to unload my groceries and grab my clubs.Not wanting the day to end, after the round of golf, we went to lunch and then a movie. It was as if we had known each other for years.My family has always referred to him as the "Costco Man." We were married a year and half later and memorialized our first date by creating wedding invitations made out of golf balls. We have been happily married for five years and enjoy taking our boys golfing and to a multitude of other sporting events. To this day my mother asks me to take my sister to Costco so she can meet a nice man.