Cracking the Public Speaking Code || Acharya Prashant, with NIT-Jamshedpur (2023)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...  ~~~~~  Video Information:  04.10.23, NIT-Jamshedpur (online), Greater Noida  Context: How to overcome stage fright? How to structure my speech? How to engage my audience? How to deliver a memorable speech? How to handle distractions while speaking? How to improve my vocal delivery? How to intone my speech effectively? How to manage my body language during a speech? How to prepare for a speech? How to handle expectations from the audience?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Good evening, sir. Myself, Rita Kumari, a second year B.Tech student. Sir, you have

00:10taken so many seminars and sessions. So, sir, my question is that, what do, what do you

00:19love in the art of public speaking? How do you love the art of public speaking?

00:26I, I do not think about public speaking. When you are in front of me, I'm speaking to you.

00:39And my effort is to, to communicate what needs to be communicated. The manner, the style,

00:50the words, the language, the metaphors all follow. The intention is supreme. The intention

00:59is that if I'm talking to you, I must be looking into your eyes and be gauging all the time

01:06whether you are really benefiting. That's, that's the only thing I care about. All else,

01:16where do the stories come from? Where do the examples come from? Where does the particular

01:21manner of speech come from? All that comes from the intent to help. Equally, if the intent

01:32were to be polluted, if I were looking to impress an audience or whatever, then everything

01:39would be distorted or diluted. Public speaking is not about speaking in a way that impresses

01:47an audience. When you speak, the intention must be to benefit the audience by presenting

01:54the truth. And if that intention is right, everything else falls in place.

02:04Trying to impress someone, think of it, is a bit like violence. I've come to you so that

02:16I deliver an imprint on your consciousness. Is that not very self-centered of me?

02:27I want that when you walk out after the session, you should be carrying my memory and an impression

02:38of my superiority. Is that not violent? But unfortunately, that's what most of this public

02:46speaking thing has come to be. Impress your audience. Speak in a way that leaves them

02:56speechless. The real speaker speaks to give voice to his audience, not to leave them speechless.

03:09Today you have so many people, they say we'll teach you the art of public speaking or the

03:14art of conversation. And in all that, what is it that they want to teach? How to confidently

03:26throw garbage at an audience and mesmerize them.

03:34Be confident and just keep speaking. Even if you have no substance, no content at all,

03:42you have to look confident. No, you don't have to look confident. You have to be honest.

03:52If you don't know, then ask. If you must listen, then keep your trap shut if needed for hours

04:02altogether and just listen. Public speaking is not a vocation. Public speaking is not an art.

04:14Public speaking is an expression of your truth and your love. I reiterate, if you go to an audience

04:24to impress them, that's violence. You have to go to an audience to uplift them.

04:37And never try to throw jargon or vocabulary at people. Even if you know a bigger word,

04:48a heavier word, which is more accurate yet archaic, try to find a simpler substitute.

04:58Even if that substitute is a bit approximate, not fully accurate, yet use a word that your audience

05:06will be able to relate to and understand. Your job, I repeat, is not to leave them spellbound.

05:16Your job is to pull them out of the spells they are already caged in.

05:29Are you getting it?

05:36When the word pain can suffice, why say angst? It sounds cool. Don't do that.

05:46And it's a practice that you often pick up in college.

05:54And it's a habit that gets reinforced because of feedback from deluded people.

06:07If they could not understand what you said, they'll say that you spoke brilliantly.

06:17So you take that as a habit. Let me use words and phrases and metaphors and idioms that nobody knows of.

06:27And then they will get impressed. And when they get impressed, my ego feels elevated.

06:33Your job in front of an audience is not to burnish your own ego.

06:43When you are with a set of people, your job is to help them understand something, be better.

06:51It's a very cheap kind of admiration that you get by bombarding people with incomprehensible stuff.

07:00And they will admire you because they too are quite deluded and listless.

07:08Especially in India that happens. That's our Sanskritic upbringing. You understand that?

07:14Nobody knows Sanskrit. But the moment you throw Sanskrit at someone, they immediately bow down with folded hands.

07:26And that has become a deeply rooted habit now.

07:32From Sanskrit that has moved to English. Sanskrit you could not understand.

07:38So you surrendered. Now English too, when you cannot understand, you tend to surrender. Don't do that.

07:47Instead, if you find that someone is not able to understand even a simple word, try to break it down.

07:55Always keep looking into your people's eyes. See whether there is any real connection at all.

08:02You get the right to be satisfied when you have uplifted your audience.

08:13That's when you can allow yourself to feel satisfied.

08:16You get the right to be satisfied when you have uplifted your audience.

08:26That's when you can allow yourself to feel satisfied.

08:32Instead, if you have just impressed them,

08:39then you have just made them feel a little more inferior. Have you not?

08:47They and most people, especially in India, already suffer from a sense of inferiority.

08:57Especially when it comes to the languages.

09:00By languages, I mean languages like Sanskrit and English and other exotic languages.

09:06And then you throw this and that upon them and then they say, you know,

09:10this entire lecture has convinced us even more that we are worthless.

09:19If this has been the net impact of your engagement with them,

09:26then this engagement was surely toxic, or was it not?

09:31Even if you can speak very fluently, check your pace.

09:37It's not about displaying how fluent you are with your language.

09:44If you are holding a kid by the finger,

09:50do you walk too fast or do you walk too slowly?

09:54If you are holding a kid by the finger,

09:59do you walk too fast or do you try to run?

10:03Or do you keep in mind the kid's limitations?

10:10Then why try to be so fluent and so pacey?

10:14150.

10:20150 words a minute the chap is delivering.

10:26And the audience is absolutely flabbergasted.

10:30Because he is using words like flabbergasted.

10:33At the rate of 150, that almost feels like a car going at 150.

10:45And the audience is saying wow.

10:51Even if you can move fast, slow down.

10:56Even if you can be complex,

10:58even if authenticity to an extent demands complexity,

11:04still be simple even at the cost of diluting your content.

11:10Give them examples they can relate to, not examples that are so high flying

11:16that they just can have no connection.

11:24Stand for them.

11:28Speak to them.

11:32Don't speak at them.

11:37When you speak at them, then you are throwing words at a target.

11:43There's the target and the target is their mind and I'm throwing words to, you know,

11:50nail their mind down.

11:58More and more I'm seeing this tendency always existed even in my times,

12:02but it's becoming more widespread and more deep rooted now.

12:13To dress, to walk, to act, to live and to speak in a way that impresses others.

12:25Don't do that.

12:28Sometimes you may even have to compromise on pronunciation.

12:32That's okay. You don't have to be exact.

12:36There are so many words that English borrows from let's say French or Greek or Latin.

12:46Especially the words from French.

12:50If you pronounce them accurately to an Indian,

12:58he won't know what to make of it.

13:03Because in India we are used to the phonological way.

13:11What's that way?

13:14We write exactly as it is heard.

13:21That's not how Western languages operate, especially French, not at all that way.

13:29So it's all right to not to pronounce it exactly accurately.

13:36Your chief concern is not linguistic accuracy.

13:42Your chief concern is internal comprehension.

13:52What about criticism?

13:55Criticism is just engagement.

13:59Criticism is engagement.

14:01If they are saying something and that exposes another dimension of the issue at hand

14:10or questions one of your conclusions, that is good.

14:18Why label it as criticism in particular?

14:22It is engagement.

14:26Anything done to uncover the truth must be welcomed.

14:32You have said something and if somebody from the audience

14:37is saying something that makes you or challenges you to explore deeper into your content,

14:44one should welcome that.

14:47On the other hand, if that fellow is just being egoistic

14:54or is trying to score a nasty point, let him be.

14:58Why care about him?

15:04Thank you, sir.

15:21No part of this recording may be reproduced

15:24without Mooji Media Ltd.'s express consent.

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