Building Patient ( Business ) Relationships , One Communication at a Time | by Jezra Kaye
straight . If you have a Public Speaking Avatar ( a streamlined , focused version of your best speaking self ), or a ritual that you go through to gear up for something hard , snap into that now . Breathe out to settle yourself . Smile , and tell yourself that everything is going to be fine . Try silently talking to yourself ; this is called “ self-talk .” Remember , you ’ re the expert in your field , and you bring valuable information that will help other people live better lives and feel better in their skin .
And then jump into your conversation !
2 Make Things Easy for Your Conversational Partner . When you and the person you ’ re speaking to first connect , check in with them about how much time they can give you . Maybe you scheduled 30 minutes for this conversation , but they ’ re having a tough day and can only spare 10 . Your willingness to ac-
Speaking slowly , clearly , and with lots of pauses is the Public Speaking Gold Standard . commodate them — to adjust what you ’ re doing to make things easier for them — won ’ t go unnoticed .
If you ’ re speaking on a virtual setting , such as Zoom , make sure that you ’ re easy to see . You should be the biggest object in your
Zoom box , with your head , shoulders , and top chest ( down to about your collarbone ) filling most of the space and clearly illuminated by a light source that ’ s in front of , or sometimes beside you . Make sure that the light source is not behind you . Looking at your Zoom box , a listener should feel as though they ’ re viewing you across a conference table . If they can see the ceiling of your room , your camera angle is definitely wrong !
Another important thing to notice is that whether you ’ re on Zoom or in person , your dress and grooming should never distract the people you ’ re dealing with . You should be at least up to
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