How To Overcome Your Anxiety of Public Speaking

January 25th, 2011 maltin091 0 Comments

To beat the dread of public speaking use the following Five “P’s”…

1. Preparation

Prepare yourself carefully for your speaking engagement. To start with know your audience and just what they expect. Who are they, how old they are etc? This will likely help when choosing your subject matter. Meet up with a number of them first as it is easier to deliver a speech to people in advance.

Decide on a subject that will interest the audience and will be worthwhile to them. Study your topic thoroughly. Your main resource should be your own individual expertise and after that read up on subject. Thorough research can make creating and preparing your speech a lot easier. When you are beginning it’s better for you to write the speech out word for word. If you will read your speech, ensure it is prepared in spoken English.

The more thoroughly you are prepared the more self-confident you’ll feel. .

2. Passion

Choose a subject that you are interested in and will interest your audience. Your passion for the topic you’re presenting will always make it better for you to speak on the topic and that enthusiasm is infectious. Also, you will have discussed this topic before and when you are presenting you’ll simply be extending the conversation.

3. Positive

Visualize a positive final result. Create a brilliant picture in your mind of a successful speech and keep focussed on it. Just before you go on stage to present take many deep breaths to calm the nerves and really go overboard with your positive self-talk. Explain to yourself how great you are. Your audience will react well to your confident demeanour as you approach the stage and begin to speak.

4. Practice

Practice is of primary importance in making confidence. Practice as often as you can facing a mirror and in front of your friends and family. Re-write the speech to make it easier to read and to make it more conversational. If you are going to be reading your speech, practice the tone and pace of your speaking. Lift your face up from the page. Practice until you’re comfortable with the speech.

5. Persistence

Once you’ve taken your first step, the best way to beat public speaking fear is always to keep on undergoing it. George Bernard Shaw used this method to overcome his speaking in public fear. To improve on his technique, develop a short speech and deliver it frequently.

In summary the fear of speaking in public is a normal fear, but it has been learned and can be overcome by using the 5 “P”s. The benefits are there to be claimed by you in taking the steps to benefit your audience.

I got over my public speaking anxiety by using an online course to guide me step-by-step through the process.