May
12
Speaking in front of a group is stressful. Even if you overcome fear of public speaking, each crowd is different. A small group, a large conference gathering, a sermon to church-goers all require different public speaking skills.
If you suffer from social anxiety or any type of talking phobia, and you want to understand effective public speaking so you can work toward overcoming that fear, you need to do more public speaking, not less! The art of public speaking takes time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and you won’t become a perfect speaker overnight, but you can improve overnight. Here’s how!
1. Start or join a small group of other speech givers and share your public speaking tips with each other. Invite people to join who are old and new to speaking in front of groups. Talk about what works and what doesn’t. Create a forum for ideas and information to help one another.
2. Take or attend speech classes about overcoming your fear of public speaking. Whatever your anxiety – public speeches, crowds staring at you, claustrophobia in large growds – a course in how to give presentations will show you how to face those fears.
3. Determine what triggers your fears. Is it clocks? Is it the size of the crowd? If it helps you to have a loved one in the crowd to support you, then make sure to invite them ahead of time. If it makes you more nervous to have friends or family watch you, then ask them politely to stay away. Offer to record it so they can support you that way.
Get my very best tips here.
May
10
Making public speeches go from boring to exciting is done the same way a canvas goes from being blank to being art. How you present yourself, how you sculpt your speech, and how you paint pictures with your words will have your audience focused or falling asleep.
If you want to engage the crowd, you have to be charismatic and interesting. You cannot just stand behind a podium and talk in a monotone. The art of public speaking in front of a group requires public speaking skills that come easy for some, while for others they must be learned.
If you have a fear of public speaking, it will show in your level of speaking confidence. Your audience is there because they are interested in your topic and seeing you speaking in public. The instant your anxiety rears its ugly head, your audience will begin to lose interest in what you have to say.
You need to move around the stage, not just walking back and forth, but using your steps to add emphasis. Your hand motions and body language create visual appeal and punctuate your public speaking. Our eyes are drawn to movement, and if you aren’t moving and something else in the room is wiggling, you will lose your audience.
Use notes if you need to, but do not read from a script. If they wanted to hear you read about your topic, they could buy your book on tape. They want you to look at them in the eye and convey confidence in what you are saying. They want to catch your excitement, but they can’t if you don’t have any.
If you have tried everything on your own, and you still cannot speak well, or you have too much stage fright, consider public speaking school or classes. Experts don’t become experts by themselves. They get proper training. Learning new public speaking skills is always worth the cost of a class.
May
03
Public speaking fear is quite common and manifests itself in the form of shaking knees, sweaty armpits, higher heart rate, and an upset “butterfly” stomach. Even experienced public speakers will get nervous butterflies, but they know how to overcome fear.
Public speaking phobias go much deeper, causing real panic and public speaking anxiety. Someone who is accustomed to speaking in front of crowds will be able to push their speech fear aside and take the stage, acting confident even if they feel nervous. If you have a phobia about being in front of people, it might prevent you from speaking in public at all.
Here are a few tips to help you overcome your fear of public speaking. Pick a couple of these public speaking tips that resonate with you and try to apply them soon.
- As soon as you start feeling nervous, close your eyes and take some slow and deep breaths. Teach yourself a few different yoga breathing styles like the “Bellows Breath” where you take five or six fast breaths followed by one long slow breath. Do this until you feel more calm.
- Distract yourself from your fear of speech by moving your eyes to neutral places. Do not watch the clock. Rather, find something that amuses you like a child playing in the corner, or a man who picks his nose, or a pretty outfit someone is wearing. If you have memorized your speech, then it might help your focus to un-focus a little.
- Tell someone about your stage fright. Sharing your fear of speech with someone will do two things for you: It will release some of the tension coiled inside of you, and it may result in receiving some good talking techniques you can put to immediate use.
- Take a public speaking course that will teach you skills and tips that you might not be able to learn on your own. Watch the experts. Ask them questions. You will discover that everyone starts with a fear of public speaking, not just you, and you can move past it.
May
03
Have you ever met anyone who didn’t like to laugh. Stand-up comedy is becoming big business, because laughter sells! Laughter relaxes an entire audience, and it also relaxes the public speaker.
Of all the tips for public speaking you have ever received, this will be the best one: Tell a joke that fits with your topic. Even if you are dealing with serious subject matter, a light joke can help drive the point home.
Effective public speaking isn’t just about presenting facts or making point after point. In public speaking training, you will learn that laughter helps you because it creates breaks in your speech and illustrates important ideas.
Telling a non-offensive joke also gives your listeners’ brains a break. Laughing helps them process what they just heard, and studies show that the happy emotion associated with laughter helps people remember more of what you said.
Plus, if you make people smile and laugh, they are more likely to come back for more. They will remember they had a good time at your public speaking course, and they will tell their friends and family and facebook about you.
