The 5 Corner Stones of Public Speaking - Part 1 Overcome the fear of public speaking

This is the first in a series of five articles on the benefits and issues of speaking publicly. You will also discover some great tips on how to present and discover things to avoid.  I hope you like them.

No 1 Fear of public speaking

Even TV commercials are now telling us there are only two fears we are born with.  These are the fear of loud noises and the fear of falling.  All other fears, like fear of enclosed spaces, spiders, interviews, public speaking, heights and fear of clowns, are learned

This means we as a species spend time thinking about then deciding on some irrational topic to be frightened of!  And all the time we know these things are irrational.  We all now that most phobias are easy to overcome.  Fear of Public speaking is common and even the best presenters feel nervous.  Nerves are your body’s way of reminding you to take care. A butterfly feeling in your tummy is a good thing.

Glossophobia; or the fear of Public Speaking comes pretty high on the list of phobias.  And there have been several surveys done where Public Speaking comes out top of the list.  It’s often followed by a fear of walking into a room full of strangers.  In fact Andy Lopata coined the phrase ‘And Death came third’ in his book of the same name.  Fear of dying which impacts us much more than talking to people always comes lower down the list than Public Speaking.

You know that the opportunity to speak at a function, wedding, anniversary, business presentation or sales pitch, is good for you.  In fact speaking to groups such as the W I, Local Interest groups, 6th form students or at an open meeting, will elevate you in the eyes of your peers.  Speaking is the quickest way to become recognises as an expert on a topic.  That is worth saying again.  By speaking publicly, you become known as a specialist, and once you are know as a specialist people activly seek you out. 

In business today it is often common place to ask applicants for a post to make a presentation.   I first became aware of this back in the 1980’s and it’s becoming more and more common place. The improvements you can make to your personal life and your business are immense, and all by just talking to people.

So why are so many of us afraid of speaking in public?

The answer is that a lot of people turn away from things they don’t understand!  Often leaving them untried or leaving them to the so called ‘The Experts.’ ’In fact we have learned to turn fear on just like turning on a tap. 

OK we know why people can find some situations a step too far out of their comfort zone. And you must all at sometime done something you were unsure about, we all have.  So the question is how do you do something and appear successful when you are quivering just at the thought of it?

That's a simple question to answer, remember when you started to drive.  Watching your parents it all seemed so easy.  But the first time you sat behind the wheel, how different it all was.  Just think of all the activities you have to perform and then you have to do them in the right order.  Don’t know about you but I crashed the gears, and bumped the kerb as well as kangarooing at the start.  I did these a few times each plus a lot more before I learned to drive. I went through all these poor experiences because I wanted to drive.

I bet that’s the case for the vast majority of people reading this. You persevered and learned to drive because you wanted to.  You are no different to anyone else we all learned to drive.  Look how about the one thing we all learned to do without being 100% conscious about why.  How many of us learned to walk?

Look at it from the other side.   How many of us have stopped doing something because we wanted to?  I stopped smoking at the third attempt, and that time I wanted to I had a reason to. How many of you have succeeded on a diet because you had good reason to loose the weight?

All I am saying is that you can overcome phobias and fears if you want to. That 99% of your ability to overcome the fear of public speaking comes from your preparation.  Remember the saying “You know the harder I practice the luckier I get.”  That’s how to take the first step to overcome your fear.  Not by standing up in front of large groups, No.  Be prepared.  Know your subject, because once you know your subject, the rest falls into place.

Try This Be Yourself!

Many of us have heard public speakers and thought "I could never be that smart, calm, entertaining, polished, Well I’m hear to tell you -you can. 

As we grow and develop in life we gather thousands and thousands of memories, some good some not so good.  The good ones are there to help you.  And you don't have to be brilliant, witty, or perfect to succeed.

Public speaking is not about celebrities turning up with a fixed smile or quick after dinner speech.  That’s not the norm.  Oh and you can make errors, we all do I do.  You can even be deadly serious and get a standing ovation.  Let me tell you there is no feeling in the world like that, and you can experience it and present like a pro.

And perfection is nothing to do with it.  Believe me your audiences don't expect perfection. So far that is the most important key you have learned,  So lets go through it again.  “Your audiences don't expect perfection.”

You can spend hours thinking about that now you know you don’t need to bother with that wasted time.   There was a time when I used to put incredible pressure on myself to deliver a perfect performance. I worked for days to prepare a talk, and stayed up nights worrying about making mistakes.  Blimey when I think back to all the hours and hours I spent, phew what a waste of time!

Take a moment and think what it is you want to achieve with your presentation? Usually you want to pass on information in a way it can be easily understood and your audience enjoys the experience. Deliver to your audience something of value.  That’s it, nothing else. 
Even if you dry up, pass out, get tongue-tied, or say something stupid your audience won't care! As long as they get something of value, they will be happy.

They don't even need to feel good to consider you a success. If you criticize people, or if you stir them up or challenge their beliefes to ultimately benefit them, they might still appreciate you, even though you didn't make them feel good at the time.

Here are some additional ways people overcome phobias or succeed at achieving their goals.

• Hypnotherapy
• Training
• Will Power
• Self Help books and tapes

Lets look at each one:

Hypnotherapy is a great way to overcome phobias and any hypnotherapist will tell you how and why hypnotherapy works on your unconscious mind.  This helps programme or condition your thoughts in such a way that helps you achieve your target.

Will Power; can be the most impressive, but not all of us possess the persistence to succeed. I stopped smoking using will power.  But I had a pretty strong reason to want to stop.

Self Help: Are good and they work, however statistics show that over 50% of people who buy self help books, never read them.  That staggers me.  Why pay money for something, take it home, pop it onto your book case and leave it there, amazing.

Training: Helps because like hypnotherapy there is someone to help you, a real person.  Where it wins for me is this.  You schedule your training and can ask all sorts of question as you go through the training session.

However you decide to work on or improve your presentation skills there is one thing you all have to do – Practice.  In most areas there are lots and lots of speaking opportunities available to you.  Check out local information sheets, magazines, newspapers, libraries and community web sites.  All of these will have events listed so you can pop along and see how others present.  Once you have done that why not volunteer to give a talk yourself!

In the next post you will see how important it is to prepare for your talk or presentation.  How to asses your presentation, what to prepare for and some tips on the best way to prepare.

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Paul Johnstone is the founder of

The Paradigm Shakers

Providers of Thought Provoking Training

http://www.paradigmshakers.co.uk/

©Paul Johnstone; The Paradigm Shakers