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Tips to Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking

Written by: Don Smith

Article Overview: Most people equate public speaking with large audiences packed with experts just waiting to challenge every word you say. The truth is, everyday public speaking is just the opposite from an adversarial environment. So why do so many people fear doing it? If you quake in your boots at the mention of public ppeaking, The Speech Wiz has three tips to share on overcoming this fear.

Tips to Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking

Most people equate public speaking with large audiences packed with experts just waiting to challenge every word you say. The truth is, everyday public speaking is just the opposite from an adversarial environment. So why do so many people fear doing it?

The fear of public speaking has a lot to do with a person’s comfort level with their chosen subject matter. For many speakers, it is not who is in the audience, but what’s in their head that gets them feeling queasy. Their anxiety grows directly in proportion to their ability to remember what it is they have to say more than a fear of how the audience will receive their content. In my practice, I help people discover how they can create “The Speaker’s Comfort Zone” by selecting material that suits them to a T.


Here are three basic rules of The Speech Wiz Rules I coach my clients to practice to overcome their fear of public speaking.

Rule #1: SMILE – The audience remembers the first thing it sees and the last thing it hears. The first thing it sees is you, so show them your SMILE! It’s a powerful way to welcome the audience to your message and make them feel at ease. After all, a SMILE is a Spectacular Mental Image Loaded with Enthusiasm!

Rule #2: Use G.R.E.A.S.E. – Which stands for “Get Really Engage And Stay Enthused. – “The most important thing your audience has come to hear you speak about is… you. The best speakers talk to their audiences about the things they Know, Feel or have Experienced. Follow this rule and you will be an expert too… on you.”

Rule #3: Don’t Memorize, Familiarize – “Lots of people waste too much time memorizing what they are going to say. Besides making their presentations sound robotic, it has tendency to make the speaker even more anxious out of a fear they will forget something profound. My advice is to know your material and become familiar with the main point, supporting points and the final words you want your audience to remember.“ (See Rule #1).

There is a lot more you can do to overcome your fear of public speaking. Speaking is a skill just like golf or woodworking. The more you do it, the better you get at doing it. Practice may not make perfect, but it will get you very, very close. My advice is to seek out opportunities to speak in public about the things that you are either passionate for or know a lot about. Do these things and the fear in your mind will melt away.

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  Overcoming Fear

Article Tags: adversarial environment, anxiety, audience, audiences, comfort zone, fear of public speaking, mental image, proportion, rule 1, smile, speakers, subject matter, tendency, truth



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