5 secrets to rock Public Speaking 2/2

This is part two. Click here for part one.

3. Don't be afraid to make pauses

A pause has different functions in a speech:

• It helps the audience to process what you said. 
• It helps you to lower the filters again (ever surprised looked up in a lecture when it was suddenly quiet?)
• It helps you to 'slow down' your speech

For practice, look at the watch and make a three second pause while practicing your speech. Sounds easy? You will see, three seconds feel like an eternity if you're standing in front of an audience. But it's worth it! You will have everyone's attention after these three seconds!

4. Modulate your voice

In order not to lose the attention of your audience in the first place, don't just speak monotonely. It makes your audience fall asleep and then not even your three second pause will save you!

Source: Giphy.com

So: Modulate your voice!
Talk quietly and loudly, fast and slowly and stress single words. Just adjust your speaking to the content of your speech (but keep your natural voice!).

5. Use your body language

You won't believe it, but only 7% of our total communication is words! 38% is tone and 55% is body language. You see, body language is a very important part of a speech. How to integrate your body into your speech?

It's easy. Just act naturally. When you talk to your friends, you automatically use body language. Try to apply that to your speech. Of course, there are DO's and DON'T's with body language:

DO stress what you say with your gestures!

DO NOT cross your arms (it appears defensive)!

DO make eye contact (don't stare at them creepily though)!

DO NOT put your hands into your pockets!

Also, use the room! Walk around (but don't pace like a caged tiger!), change positions. Your audience will follow you! 

I hope this helps you at your next presentation. Just try to focus on these things and practice, practice, practice. You will see that you will get better and your audience will look forward to your next speech! 

5 Secrets to rock Public Speaking 1/2

In today's business world we hurry from one meeting to another presentation to the next conference. We listen to endless speeches and presentations which are, to be honest, mostly quite boring. In my whole career so far I have never heard someone say "Yeah, I'm so looking forward to this meeting!"

This shows us that public speaking is all the more important! That's why I want to share with you the key learnings of a seminar from Bill Hoogterp (who is an exceptional speaker and coach) I took part in back in 2011 during my time at Siemens.

No, imagining the audience naked is none of these. 

1. Lower the filters

Our brain cannot process everything we see, hear and feel. That's why we have filters that let only necessary information pass. These filters can go up or down, depending on the situation.

Your audience will probably expect another boring speech. That's why you have to lower their filters at the beginning of a speech to get your message across. But how?

Source: Reactiongifs.com

The most important thing is the start of your speech. Please don't begin with "I want to present you why...". This will raise the filters immediately!

Why not begin with a question? Or a quote? Or a little poll (e.g. "Will everyone who has >insert topic/action< please stand up?"). Especially the poll will lower the filters of your audience because they have to be physically active.

It's up to you! Try new things, be creative. You will see that your audience will be more attentive (and thankful for not another boring speech).

2. Eliminate weak language

A lot of the words we say don't add any value to the content like 'actually', 'basically' or the typical 'um' and 'err'. That is weak language. But why do we use it? Because we're afraid of pauses.

To eliminate weak language, it takes a bit of practice. Try this: Fill 1/3 of a glass with Coca Cola, add 2/3 of still water. Sounds disgusting, right (Spoiler: it is!)? Now concentrate on what you're saying. Everytime you catch yourself using weak language, take a sip. You will soon find yourself rather not saying anything than drink more of that!

Source: Reactiongifs.com

Which leads us to our next point, telling you what to say instead: click here for the second part!

What Scubadiving in the UK really feels like

Our uni scubadiving club has a new awesome blog and we needed some awesome content to fill it. As I wanted to practise my storytelling and writing skills, I volunteerd to write a post about our first dive in a drysuit. As I have written it anyway, I can post it as well on my own blog.

If you’ve always been what I call “tropical diving” you may wonder how it feels like diving in the UK (aka diving in cold waters). You must know that I am the typical “warm water diver”, preferring bath tub temperature. Well, but here I am now in England, no bath tub in sight and it looks like I need to adapt to the conditions. So I am going to tell you about my first UK diving experience at Andark Lake in Southampton.

Before the dive we're smiling...still! (Charlotte, Joanna and me)

It took quite a time until everyone was fully equipped. Then we arranged our tanks and BCD. Until this point, everything is exactly like preparing for a dive in warm water. Now it comes to the drysuit. First, you need to wear some warm clothes underneath. I went for thermal leggings, jumpers and thick socks. My drysuit was a onesie with latex collar and sleeves. After the painstaking procedure of putting that thing on (girls with long hair suffer even more!), we got a hood and gloves and off we went! Waddling into the lake, I realised that the hood and the gloves were not waterproof. Ouch, that stings! I really can't imagine how my friend survived a wetsuit dive in the 4°C Starnberger Lake...

Going down, you feel the suit press onto your body as the water pressure increases (make sure to get the air out of your suit, otherwise you won’t go down!). We took some time to get familiar with the new conditions (limited mobility, visibility of less than 2m and the cold) then we practised some rescue skills like using the DSMB (Delayed Surface Marker Buoy). Soon, we got a bit chilly (these warm water divers cannot endure anything!) and went off to dry lands again. As it turned out, a drysuit doesn’t necessarily keep you dry…

Looks like I've been to the gym lately...

When I asked Charlotte, our instructor, why on earth she swapped her instructor job in Australia with the UK, her answer got me thinking: “Diving in the UK is challenging. In Australia, you always have good weather and good conditions whilst here not every dive is a good one. But when you have a good dive, it’s a very good one!”

I will probably always be a warm water diver, but at this moment I am so very ready for some adventurous UK diving!

Frieda goes PR

Literally, Frieda goes PR. Or rather went PR because I joined today's PR graduate conference from Solent PR. It was basically supposed for PR graduates to get in touch with PR Professionals and to receive tips for the future career, but all other years and us masters were invited, too. About 30 (I'm bad at guessing and didn't count) PR students attended the speeches of PR professionals (see bottom for further information). 

What, in my free time? Don't I have a life? Well, yes, I do have a life. However, I take my future career very serious and don't want to let any opportunities to shape it slip through my fingers. So, yes, I managed to overcome the urge to just stay in bed this morning and guess what, I didn't regret it!

I want to share my insights about a successful career start with you and want to tell you why it is important to attend events like these.

1. Know who you are

For a successful career start you need to know who you are, what you're good at and where you want to go. Then, and only then, you can convince a potential employer to hire you. Or have you ever seen a successful salesperson selling a product he has no idea of? Yes, you are the salesperson and your skills are the product. It is not all about degrees, passion is at least as important.

2. Know your audience

So you want to work at this fancy agency? Do you know what they do? Yes, of course, you probably know their clients (if you don't, then you'd better do some research!), but do you know their culture and their style? You can have the most creative video-application with QR-Code on your businesscard, if the agency is rather conservative, it will probably land in the bin. So make sure you know who you are applying to, and even more important, make sure you and your future employer go well together. 

3. Know the news

This one's easy. As a PR person, you make the news. You want to be in the news (well, not you, but rather your product, you know what I mean, don't you?). This is why you need to know today's headlines. 

(And because you should always practise what you preach, I'd better go and buy today's newspaper...)

These are just the tip of the iceberg though. There was so much more that was being discussed and presented today. Now you get it, right? It is so helpful to attend events like these. Not everyone has the opportunity to listen to and talk to professionals (networking!!), the more I wondered why almost no one took the chance to chat with the speakers at the 'Business lunch' afterwards.

However, I realised that for the next event I'd better get some business cards for me. 

Speakers and Industry Experts at Solent PR conference on 06 November 2014:

• Ilona Hitel, MD & Founder CommsCo
• Tomasz Dyl, Founder GottaBe Marketing
• Beth Ansell, Lemon Squeezy Marketing (Freelancer)
• Emma Hazan, Deputy MD in the UK, Hotwire
• Mark Stretton & Michelle Williams, Fleet Street Communications 

My little cloud and me

When I tell people what I study, a lot of them ask me what PR is. 

No, I am not queuing up after the hundreds of thousands of scholars and practitioners who looked for an all-embracing, globally applicable definition of Relations (Spoiler: They haven't found it yet). But, if you want to know, I will recommend you my friend Susanna's blog, who recently wrote about defining PR.

I want to tell you why I want to work in PR, what - in my opinion - you need in that industry and what it is for me. And because it is all about visualisation nowadays, I will do that with the help of my little word cloud I created:

created with Wordle

So, what is PR then (no, still not a definition, rather an outline)? Back then, I used to associate PR mostly with Press Releases and Press Conferences, but I have now realized that it is so much more than that! Public Relations is a serious and important profession. A practitioner is not just someone who likes to annoy Journalists. 

I want to be a PR practicioner, because I think it is the perfect job to apply my Creativity, Communicating and Digital Skills. You need to be Outgoing as there's a hell lot of Networking to do to be successful. The good thing is, I am really good at that and I realize that, especially since I've been living in Southampton, I am improving more and more. I am being quite realistic knowing that I will probably Work my a** (sorry) off to meet all the nice Deadlines.

Still, I think it is a great business and so Fast Moving you can shine with your Flexibility! Nowadays, it is not only sending your Message to the Media with the hope to be in the News tomorrow. You have so many more Channels to reach your Audiences! Just look at all the different Social Media platforms like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn! It is not just Writing messages for your Stakeholders, it is Developing Relationships, managing and marketing your Content, and that all with a clear Structure.

Last, but not least, Research has shown that PR is the best industry to work in. Just kidding, but I needed to place 'research' somewhere...

Speaking of National holidays...

Today is the 3rd of October which is the national holiday in Germany. Living in England, I wondered about the English holiday. I googled it to find out that England actually doesn't have an official national holiday, but I'll come to that (speaking of weird national days).

So I decided to do some research on national holidays around the world.

It's all about independence

According to this list of national holidays, 116 countries celebrate the "Independence Day". That is very creative, isn't it?

You keep forgetting birthdays?

Then England is your country! Though it doesn't have an official national holiday, the queen's birthday is being celebrated. But, wait, that's not truly correct. The Queen's Birthday is on 21st of April. The day which is being celebrated actually varies. It's being determined every year, mostly in May or June.
So if you could choose your own birthday, what day would that be?

Casual Friday holiday?

If you like the casual friday at work, you should think about moving to Bermuda. On 24th of May the country celebrates the Bermuda day, which is the first day local residents consider about going into the sea. It is also the first day Bermuda shorts are accepted as business attire.
That sounds like a dream!

International national day

Even the European Union as a union of 28 European countries has its own holiday, the Europe Day. But the fact that I have neither heard of it nor "celebrated" it (celebrating in terms of sleeping in and not going to work/uni) shows me that it is probably not that much of a holiday.
By the way, it's on 9th of May.

And again, the Queen!?

Gibraltar celebrates its National Holiday on the 10th of September. On that day in 1967 the country was to vote if it wanted to stay with Great Britain or be part of Spain. The result was indisputable: 12.138 vs. 44 votes. The 'Gibraltarians' seem to like the Queen!


Fun fact at the end: The 3rd of October wasn't actually the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Wall was opened on 9th of November in 1989, The 3rd of October was determined in the Unification Treaty almost one year later.

Do you have any fun facts about National Holidays in your country?

First Impressions Pt. 2

In my last post, I didn't manage to tell you everything I've seen and done so far. I wanted to update you about our trip to the Isle of Wight:

The Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is an island on England's southern coast. It is separated from the mainland by a strait called Solent (which happens to be the name of my uni). You can get there easily from the ferry port in Southampton. So the six of us (Joanna, Signe, Marvin, Mika, Matthew and me) began our journey (which happened to be longer than expected) at noon at the Speed Ferry terminal.

After a short ride across the Solent we noticed that the island was much larger than expected (as we did not really prepare, we had actually no idea how large...) and it took us about 2 hours (perceived!) to arrive at our destination: The Needles.

The busride itself was quite an adventure though, as the busdriver did not really care about the narrow roads or a speed limit.

With its diverse landscape the island is often said to be "England in miniature". It is famous for the annual "Isle of Wight Festival" (see here for more information) and I just learned that Bear Grylls was born there!!

So eventually we arrived at Alum Bay (to get to The Needles). It was pretty late already, and the first thing we saw was some kind of amusement park with only a few people, which was a bit creepy. When we came back after our hike through the beautiful landscape and barely caught the last bus, it was even creepier with no human soul...

All in all the Isle of Wight was such a wonderful experience. Too bad we didn't have enough time to see more of the island, but that is just another good argument to go there again!

You'll find some more photos of my first impressions here. 

First Impressions

The town

So, I've been to Soton (that's what "we" Sotonians call Southampton) now for about a week.

Besides the fact that most travel guides don't even mention Southampton, my guide (this one) tells the excited traveller everything about Soton on three pages ("...und so präsentiert sich Southampton heute weitgehend im Einheitsgrau der Betonarchitektur..."). You guess it, it is not everything.

Though Southampton is not known for its beauty, it is actually pretty nice. Yes, there are a few concrete buildings, but there are also a lot of these little English houses, quite a decent park right next to the uni and some cool pubs and tearooms.

You also find some old structures in some places. On High Street, for example, there are ruins of a church which was destroyed in WWII.

As Soton has quite a big harbour, you can see huge cruise ships every other day. Usually, you can see them come in at Mayflower Park, which is currently closed for public due to the Southampton Boat Show.
If anyone wants to come visit me by cruiseship, you can book a "Schnuppertour" on the Queen Mary 2 from Hamburg to Southampton (see here for more infos). :)

Plus, you have everything in walking distance. Now that I moved into halls, I need a maximum of 10 minutes to get everywhere (uni, IKEA, cinema, shopping mall, supermarket, bars...)

The people

I have met plenty of people in this week. There are a lot of international students, so it is really a cultural mix here. We have Germans (besides me Joanna and Susanna), Canadian (Matthew), Finnish (Mika), Danish (Signe, Nikolai), Greek (my flatmate Georgia), French (Quentin), Slovakian (Samuela) and of course some Brits (Nick, Scotty, my other flatmate Sam...) ... with much more to come!

As most of the students, especially the internationals, don't know anyone here, everyone is quite open to new people. We have taken trips to the New Forest, the Isle of Wight and the local pubs (which is not that of a trip considered I am living five minutes away).

The New Forest

The New Forest is a large national park west of Southampton (about 350 km²) with wild horses, donkeys, boars and cattle. We took a Scooter trip there and thought we had to look for them, but especially the horses were everywhere! Though they are pretty shy when you approach them, they just stand and walk on the streets and don't care about the cars (which have to go round them).

Besides all the animals, the New Forest has some picturesque little villages, too. We went to Beaulieu for a cup of tea. Beaulieu is what you have in mind when you hear "English village".



Sorry for the long post, but I have seen and done so much in the last seven days, it is not easy to keep up. All in all, I am having a pretty good time. I promise to write more!

The Countdown has started...

Now it's only 12 days left. A few days ago, I wanted to use this as an opportunity to write a post about preparations: What should you organise, if you're moving to another country for a year?

But then I realized that there are a lot of things I didn't even think about. Of course I considered which mobile tariff or bank account I should take. But when it came to the place of residence, one question lead to another and soon I was lost. If I quit my place of residence in Germany, I am no longer health insured. But what does the student insurance at Solent cover? Where do I insure my beloved scooter?

After some mental stress, I eventually decided to just leave everything like it is. I'm having enough fuss with my move.

But I can tell you everything I have actually organised yet.

Uni

If you've not chosen future uni yet, maybe the website Mastersportal can help you decide. The application process differs from uni to uni. But usually, you need a personal statement, some references from lecturers and, of course, your Bachelor certificate or grades. As for me, there weren't any deadlines, but I heard that some unis choose according to "first come, first serve", so the sooner, the better. 

I sent my application in march, and already 3 weeks later I received the so-called "conditional offer". After handing in my Bachelor certificate, I got another letter with my unconditional offer (as I met the expectations for the course). Together with the conditional offer, you get a form of acceptance which you have to send back in order to take your reserved place.

After accepting the offer, I only got one more letter telling you the date of your welcome meeting (mine is on 17th, I'll report!). Everything else works via e-mail/online, which is pretty modern compared to my ex-uni...
Sometimes it doesn't work 100% (when the online registration opened, the system crashed), but eventually it worked, I registered online for my course (enrolment is during Freshers week) and now I am able to pay my tuition fees via pay-to-study, which is a good option to avoid international bank transfer fees.

Accommodation

I applied for a room in student halls (in April) as I have never lived in halls before and wanted to try this. While waiting for the acceptance (until August!), I checked out some private accommodation (via Spareroom.co.uk, which is roughly the British version of WG gesucht). 

I noticed one thing which is driving me crazy: You're never told the room size! You measure a place by the bedrooms (like I care about how many bedrooms a house has!). After replying to some offers (to which I almost never got an answer due to the fact that I am not able to come to a viewing), I gave up and just waited for my acceptance from student halls. All in all, it seems to be a bit more expensive there, but basically you know what you get, the halls are perfectly central and with an extended contract (you could choose between standard and extended, extended goes until middle of August) it is even cheaper. 

Last but not least, I received my acceptance: I am going to live in Emily Davies (who was an English feminist fighting for women's rights to attend university). After also accepting this offer, you need to complete an online induction which tells you for example that they're testing the fire alarms in halls every Friday at 10:30 A.M. EVERY FRIDAY! This is just insane!

To be honest, this is not very much of organisation. But i joined quite a few Facebook groups and checked out the societies and sport clubs. I think everything else will be sorted out at my arrival in Soton (which is already in 5 days!!). Until then, I will need to pack a lot and clear my flat...

I'll keep you posted!

England = London?

"So, what are you up to now?"
"I'm going to England for a Master."
"Wow, great! To London?"

This has been exactly every single conversation ever since I got accepted to uni. No one has ever considered that I could not go to London. Why should they? London is a wonderful city with wonderful people, so much to do and see, it has great unis with a good reputation.

But on the other hand, there are a lot of good reasons not to study in London. One is certainly that London is incredibly expensive, let alone for a student! In addition, there are basically as many reasons as there are universities in England.

Please, don't get me wrong. I love London! I just want to make clear that England is not London!

England has much more to offer than "just" London: from the beautiful landscape in Cornwall over the canal-woven city centre of Manchester to the white cliffs of Dover. On www.visitengland.com for example, you can choose different themes like romance, family, culture, lifestyle or activities and get inspired where to go next. 

As for me, I can't wait to move to Southampton. It may not be the most beautiful city in England. But the uni has a good reputation for my studies, Public Relations and there are a lot of interesting spots in the surroundings (Downton Abbey!!!). There will be plenty of trips I'll make. One of them will be to London.