Fact: - Public speaking is a common source of stress for most people.
So how do we overcome this irrational fear?
And if you want to be leaders or achieve anything meaningful in our lives, you will often need to speak to groups, large and small, to be successful.
You probably know already that to grow our business or enrich your careers, speaking is one of the quickest ways to achieve that goal. The truth about public speaking is: It Does Not Have To Be Stressful!
Once you understand the hidden causes of public speaking stress, and then you keep just a few key principles in mind. Speaking in public will soon become an invigorating and satisfying experience for you.
Purpose Of This Series of Articles
Is to help you overcome the fear of public speaking by sharing with you 10 Keys to Overcoming The Fear of Public Speaking. I call them keys because these will unlock your potential and open the door so you open the door of opportunity and embrace speaking in public.
Let’s start by discussing the ten keys. You are probably aware that if you approach any problem in life from the right starting point, everything else falls into place. So ask yourself “Why would you start from anywhere else?”.
This series will reveals to you the eleven "hidden" causes of public speaking stress. These have been summarized, along with the ten keys of overcoming the fear of public speaking. 
The 10 Keys
Key 1--Speaking in Public is NOT Inherently Stressful
You just like me and everyone else on this planet have only tow fears we are born with. They are falling and fear of loud noises. Everything else we have learned to be afraid of.
Most of us believe parts of life are inherently stressful. In fact, many of us have been taught to believe that life as a whole is very stressful!
To deal with any type of stress effectively, you first must understand that life itself, including public speaking, is not inherently stressful. Honest it’s not and you’ll learn why it’s not right here.
Thousands of people have learned to speak in front of groups with no stress at all. Many of these people were initially terrified of speaking in public. Their knees would shake, their voices would tremble, they would break out into a sweat, they would behave irrationally and their thoughts would become jumbled, you know the rest.
And yet they learned to eliminate their fear of public speaking.
You are no more or less human than they are. If they can overcome the fear of public speaking, so can you! It just takes the right guidance, the right understanding, and the right plan of action to make this a reality.
Believe me, it's not difficult. I'm a good example of someone who went through all those irrational feelings. And while it didn't happen overnight, it wasn't difficult. All it took was approaching the subject in the right way.
Have you ever looked at public speakers and thought "I could never be that good, or that entertaining, polished or professional." Well, I've got great news for you. You don't have to be brilliant, witty, or perfect to succeed.
That is not what public speaking is about. It may look that way, but it's not.
You can be average. In fact you can be below average. You allowed to make mistakes, allowed forget your words, or stray from what you had originally planned to say. Yes it’s all allowed. You can even get away without telling jokes and still be successful.
It all depends on how you, and your audience, define "success." Believe me, when I tell you, your audience doesn't expect perfection. They expect to hear what they have come to hear. In other words they expect what has been advertised.
Before I realised I didn’t have to be perfect, I used to put so much pressure on myself, just to be perfect. I got a nervous rash on my face. I worked for days to perfect my presentation
The essence of public speaking is this: give your audience something extra, something of value. Simple. That's all there is to it. When people in your audience walk away with something (anything) of value, they will consider you a success.
When they walk away feeling better about themselves, feeling better about some job they have to do, they will consider you a success. When they walk away feeling happy or entertained, they will consider their time with you worthwhile.
Even if you get tongue-tied, or say something really stupid during your presentation, they won't care! As long as they get something of value, they will be thankful.
They don't even need to feel good to consider you a success. If you criticize people, or if you stir them up to ultimately benefit them, they might still appreciate you, even though you didn't make them feel good at the time.
But how do give them something extra?
That is the straight forward part. Lets say you are speaking about how to get ahead using Face Book or Twitter. Your audience are expecting information on those two social media platforms. And that is what you will deliver.
To add value to your audience share with them tips on how they integrate with other elements of social media- share with them a technique about using another social media platform, or show them how you can promote what you are doing at little or no cost.
The second part of this series on Overcoming the fear of public speaking will be published in the next day or two. So check back for the second piece. You can get this sent to your RSS reader by subscribing to this blog.
Paul Johnstone is a Speaker, Trainer and Paradigm Shaker. Founder of The Paradigm Shakers and a Subject Matter Expert.
Providers of Thought Provoking Training
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P.S I always appreciate feed back and comments and new followers!
©Paul Johnstone
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