Dangit.
So much pressure. Thanks for the honesty.
How can I take some of the focus off of me?
You want the focus on you. Because what you’re saying is important.
Withstanding the focus, with composure, IS the test!
First Mountain De TV commercial. It ties in with the hillbilly historical aspect.
StG
As God is their witness, they thought turkeys could fly.
Your visual aid looks great now, good job! I notice that it shows the different flavors, which are not mentioned in your speech. I’m sure the brand site would give you a brief timeline or history of the various flavor changes - try to work in a couple of sentences. I always love when the visual aid has cites and back-up information pasted up. When the questions come, and the person can flip that thing around and quote some serious facts or statistics, (things that would have been boring or too long in the speech) it really impresses.
Also, you don’t mention the caffeine content. When it first came out Mountain Dew was infamous for being the highest caffeine soda you could buy. That led to a sort of race to the bottom, with companies adding more and more caffeine to sodas. Jolt came along to compete with it if I recall correctly. Mountain Dew was the first one I remember that started the race which ended with today’s “Five Hour Energy” and “Red Bull” market. So I would definitely mention that. I seem also to recall that the caffeine content went down significantly when the big name bought the brand (Pepsi, I think?) Anyway, check that out before using it, but it might lead to something controversial enough to grab their attention.*
Also, also, a post above led me to google-image search “Moutain-dew mouth” man, that’s really a thing. ick! I actually wouldn’t include it as it’s incredibly unpleasant, but thought I’d mention it. That also led to this article, which I thought might be useful.
Good luck!
*Again, please don’t rely on my memory. Be sure to look around and find a cite before using any of this. I’m just hoping to start you down an interesting path.
Missed the edit window: I meant paste up cites on the back of the visual aid.
I think your material will be fine. After you are done ask a few people how you went and how nervous you looked. You will discover that, if the material is interesting no-one notices much about you although it doesn’t seem like that to you. No-one even notices all the stuff that seems to scream nerves to you. This will hold you in good stead in future, it is good to know that feeling is a trick of your brain - the spotlight effect.
I would try for a laugh to begin things. Just a chuckle will do to relax you so I would start like this:
I want to tell you about someone whose company I have enjoyed since I was a kid. So this speech is an introduction to and a brief biography of my closest buddy… Mountain Dew.
How ever you decide to start, after the brief intro take one long slow breath and have a glance around. You will see that you now control the room for a few minutes. You are the only person who gets to do what you want, the others can only sit and watch.
Have fun.
brovolone, if you were your visual aid, look how far you’ve come…!
The fear or the excitement of public speaking are about one-degree apart. Fear comes when you don’t know your subject well enough - excitement comes when you do.
There are four things to keep in mind from the perspective of your audience: what is it, why do I want to know, what do I already know, and what am I going to learn.
Practice your presentation until it’s muscle memory. THEN you can enjoy the thrill of keeping people’s attention. 3 minutes won’t seem like such an eternity.
Go with it, you’re doing well. Just drive yourself crazy by knowing it all off by heart. The gestures, the pauses, the movements. And I think a joke’s okay but it has to be well placed, short, sharp and good. If you can’t manage that, then a joke’s not okay and the unfunny part of it will go straight to your bladder.
While you may hate it, an intrinsic part of giving a speech is having people looking at you. You can’t avoid it.
If it makes you feel any better, those people aren’t really focusing on you, though. In a speech class where everybody has to get up and speak, most are busy worrying about their own turn in the front of the class. Others are going to daydream and tune you out (I recall giving a speech in high school where I watched a kid in the front row keep trying to pick up his pencil with his mouth. He didn’t give a flying fuck what I was doing).
Even those who are paying attention are really focused on the topic and your words more than they are focused on you, the person. Just to be safe, though, make sure your zipper is up before you go to the front of the room.
In my opinion, if you are one of those people for whom standing in a room and speaking is worse than death (Seinfeld joke, which I am paraphrasing and completely butchering: More people are afraid of giving a speech than dying. If they have to attend a funeral, they’d rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy), volunteer to be first. For one, there will be no previous speaker to compare you to. For another, your three minutes of terror will be over quickly and you can spend the rest of the time relaxing and enjoying the rest of the speeches. If you dread the experience so much that you wait until you are called on, then you will be stressed out and panicking the entire time, even when you are in the audience. Better to get it over with quickly.
Internet wonky, so couldn’t find a link, but there is a bluegrass/hillbilly song, “That Good Old Mountain Dew,” probably derived from the Irish one given above, that has some cute verses you could quote. Sample verse: My uncle Bill had a still up on the hill, where he brewed up a gallon or two, the buzzards in the sky got so high they can’t fly, just from smelling that good old mountain dew." Wikipedia entry is helpful.
It’s important to remember that everyone else is nervous too. You probably can’t tell that they’re nervous, just like they can’t tell that you are.
I have a booklet that has that song in it. Though the song about the woman so mean hell wouldn’t take her is better.
Moonshine is illegal in Florida, unless it comes from a licensed craft distiller, in which case it’s really just bad whiskey. See here.
If the speech is supposed to be about something you already have in your possession, are you actually supposed to be doing research?
Here’s a version of what sounds to be the same song by the Stanley Brothers. It doesn’t have that particular verse, but it seems the type of song where the lyrics are readily adapted by the performers.
I remember collge speech class, and I remember this type of assignment. I seriously doubt it. Research was always a key part of what we needed to do. If anything, they wanted to inspire you to do research on something you have.
Even speeches about my personal life needed some quotes with citations.
So, bro - how’d it go?
If you throw up, try using one of the mountain dew bottles to catch it.
Remember ABC and XYZ.
Always Be Cheerful
eXamine Your Zipper
Brovolone posted a follow-up thread afterwards. I’m on my phone and can’t search for it.