Public speaking fear can paralyse you and prevent you from doing all you’re capable of.
Perhaps you have to go for a job interview and you want to impress the interview panes with your expert knowledge and skills…
…or you give a professional, knowledgeable and expert speech to your work team or to
management in your company and engage your audience…
…or you even speak to a large audience with intensity and self-assurance…
Public speaking is a key skill that you will need to get a promotion or even get that coveted career. And preferrably, you want to be calm, assured and compelling.
Actually, though, what you may be feeling is everything but calm and confident. Your nerves may be giving you grief, or you may suffer from public speaking fear while just contemplating your presentation.
Perhaps you’re very accustomed to public speaking fear if you’ve given any presentations or done any public speaking. You’re standing in front of a group and all of a sudden you observe all sorts of strange things in your body.
I have often wondered why it was that when I was standing in front of people some years ago, my hands started to sweat, my knees threatened to give, my stomach was a bunch of knots, and when I was finally speaking I didn’t breathe anymore. And then I was breathless after a couple of sentences, and I had to stop and take big gulps of air.That didn’t give the confident and professional impression I was aiming for.
The same in job interviews.
And even when I attended training courses and we had to give a short introduction to ourselves, our names and why we were there, I felt the same.
In those situations, I used to sit there, listening to all the others being so confident, and thinking desperately what great things I could say. And when it came my turn, suddenly heat was searing through my body, I started hyperventilating, and my voice was croaking.
It was not surprising that I used to hate training courses, workshops and particularly introductions at the start.
Well, this is all behind me, because I learned to get over the fears that come over us when speaking to an audience.
Believe it or not, I was particularly afraid tht everyone in the audience would be judging me. I was worried what they would think of me. I saw all these faces, when I had time between gulping air and being a quivering mess, and would discover that some people would watch me intently and disapprovingly, I thought.
What a relief it was when I discovered that my audience was listening intently to what I was saying and were waiting for more.
And I realised that when I was focusing on my audience and what they are interested in, and I was able to engage them with what I was talking about, it became easy and very enjoyable to talk about something I was passionate about.
It wasn’t important anymore that I was suffering from public speaking fear, that my hands shook slightly, or that I forgot what I was going to say. Because I knew my audience didn’t actually notice.
The next time you need to give a presentation, or you go to a job interview, one key tip to reduce your public speaking fear is to prepare beforehand. You will feel more confident when you know what you’re going to say, even at an interview.
Another thing you can do to stay calm is to remember to breathe. And take a couple of deep breaths before you start. Slow down when you talk and pause at the end of the sentence.
It may sound too slow for you, but for your audience it will be just right because it will allow them to understand what you’re telling them. And you will have time to breathe.
These couple of techniques, and many others, will help to reduce your public speaking fear and you will feel much more assured and in control of what your saying and how you say it.
The other thing that will be of great help, of course, is to enrol in any one of a number of good public speaking courses.
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