The secret

Watch an expert go about giving his or her speech carefully, you will realize that the speaker is completely immersed in the task and oblivious to the surrounding but completely aware of the connection to the audience. This is the state a speaker has to achieve first, while performing to be able to draw the audience in along.

Achieving such a state immersion is difficult for someone not born with the talent for public speaking but with determination and practice it can be reached by just about anyone.

There is no hidden secret as such to speaking well and captivating your audience. Even if was a secret to speaking well, rest assured, no speaker would be able to keep themselves from speaking about it to their audience.

1 – Learn to focus

The preparation, practice, visualization, understanding your audiences etc all make for a good speech. But delivering a speech that would be remembered requires that extra ingredient which also helps you to consistently deliver no matter what stress or distraction you may face.

This ingredient to create a great speech performance is simply the ability of the speaker to solely focus on the immediate task at hand and focus with clarity on how to communicate his or her ideas to the audience. They achieve this focus by being ‘in the moment’, clearing away all other non important issues from their mind and reserving their energy for that task at hand.

2 – Breathe

The best way to begin achieving this state of focus is to begin by simply breathing slowly and deeply. Breathe through your stomach, using your diaphragm and do not heave your chests. This signals your body to relax and allow your mind to calm down and begin focusing on the immediate task ahead.

3 – Give it time

This ability takes time to develop. A conscious determined efforts needs to be made to achieve it initially but once you start noticing yourself more focused, the road becomes easier. This ability is not only helpful in making great speeches but will help you succeed in tasks which are heavily complicated by other difficulties.

An irrational fear

This fear is termed as Glossophobia, and is considered to be an irrational fear as this phobia is not in proportion with the danger. It is very unlikely that you will be put up for public lynching if you deliver a poor speech and make a fool of yourself.

Most people fear public speaking as they feel they might do something ‘stupid’ to embarrass themselves or be evaluated unfavorably. Sometimes self imposed pressure for perfection can also be the reason for speech anxiety. A bad experience in a similar situation in the past can also result in this fear. Overall, the fear is without valid reason and most of the tormenting demons are self conjured.

Apart from the emotional anxiety, often physical symptoms manifest themselves through sweaty palms, dry mouth, trembling hands and/or legs, shaky voice, racing heartbeat etc. In more sever cases nausea, panic attacks, feeling faint are common.

Dealing with your fear

There are a number of things you can to do to deal with your fear. One of best ways to overcome your fear is by thorough preparation and practice. These actions boost your confidence tremendously. In your preparation keep a note of the following points

1 – Find a topic that interests you, if the topic choice is out of your hands find an approach to speaking about it in a way that you find interesting.
2 – Know exactly what message you want to deliver.
3 – Know your audience and adapt yourself accordingly to deliver your message across to them.
4 – Time your practices and integrate good habits like enunciating words, eye contact, controlling your voice to be loud enough for everyone to hear, etc into your preparation.
5 – Practices in front a mirror, friends, family or someone you are comfortable with.
6 – Practice breathing exercise to help you learn how to focus.
7 – Have a safety net, by carrying small notes with the outline or points of your speech written on them.
8 – Use audio-visual aids in your speech.

Lastly do not concentrate on yourself, what people are thinking about you, how you look or how well you are talking etc all this have been covered in preparation and practice. By the time you are ready to give your speech or presentation you should be focusing on concentrating your energies to connect with your audience and getting the message across. Learning to focus on a single-mindedness task takes time to achieve but can be accomplished with practice.

Summary

Fear is useful; it drives us to achieve greater perfection if we understand it. Glossophobia is a common fear experienced by many people. And this fear, if utilized properly can motivate us to prepare, practice and perform in excellence.

Spread and Intensity of Glossophobia

A large majority of people suffer from this fear and is seen even among some seasoned performers who perform in public for a living. Although the fear is the same, the intensity of fear varies from the common low leveled nervousness to extremely high nervousness depending upon the person and/or the perceived situation.

Glossophobia is not only limited to stage exposure but it manifests itself even in situations which demands of people to be precise and persuasive. Essentially it is a normal biological response occurring in almost everyone who gets up to make a presentation or a speech in front of an audience.

Symptoms

The symptoms vary according to the intensity anxiety from low level nervousness with dry mouth and sweaty palms to high level nervousness with nausea, feeling faint, panic etc.
People with high-trait anxiety, meaning people anxious by nature, suffer more serious symptoms in comparison to people with low-trait anxiety.

Also an interesting difference between these two types is that, the people with high-trait anxiety tend to show increasing level nervousness as their speech continues and are unable to habituate themselves. While people with low-trait anxiety, while showing similar high level of nervousness initially, begin to relax and anxiety levels decrease as they continue.

The Remedy

There are no pills or drugs to cure this phobia, however there are drugs such as beta blockers to reduce the anxiety. But I would rather recommend psychotherapy or counseling over the use of drugs.

If you are a low-trait anxiety person, pat yourself on the back. You have your work cut out for you. But if you are a high-trait anxiety person, don’t lose hope. Glossophobia can be managed effectively by practicing a few easy steps.

- Be prepared with your speech. A good preparation can boost your confidence levels.
- Know exactly what you want to tell the audience.
- Practice as much as possible in front of a mirror or find someone to listen to your speech.
- Visualize yourself in front of the audience and that you are giving a good speech.
- Have a backup plan, such as carrying small notes containing the speech outlay plan.

Summary

Fear of speaking in public is widespread and seen in most people. Different people suffer different levels of anxiety from Glossophobia. While dealing with it, you must realize that it is okay to be nervous in front of other people there is no shame in it. And that each time you are in such a situation, it won’t kill you but will only help you grow stronger. There are many strategies that available that can help people cope with speech anxiety.

1 – Watch and learn

Take you time to find videos of successful public speakers, watch how they present their speeches, their moments of silence, their mannerisms, their body language etc. Remember them and emulate some of their styles in your presentation.

2 – Understand your audience

If you understand the expectations, interests and the common threads linking your audience you can adapt your presentation to meet these common areas. Once you understand them, you can relate with them and get your message across.

3 – Be an actor

When you make a presentation, always remember you are a performer. How you wish to play out your part is entirely up to you. But there are some common rules. Personal grooming is one part that you must not ignore. Try to look smart, but be comfortable. The better you look the more confidence you have in yourselves.

When you speak, do it at a comfortable pace, do not race ahead. Enunciate your words and make sure you are loud enough for everyone to hear properly. The trick to do this is to pretend as if you are speaking to the people sitting at the last row. Do not speak in monotone, keep you tone varying and stress whenever required.

Maintain eye contact with your audience and do not start reading off your notes continuously. If you really need to consult your notes make sure to look up and make eye contact frequently.

4 – Get familiar with your stage

Nothing is more awkward than getting up to give your speech and not knowing your way around the stage or being unable to find the microphone. Don’t mess up even before you open your mouth. Check around the place where you are to speak and get familiar with the layout and where things are. At the same time visualize yourself giving the speech in front of the audience

5 – Relax

Remember most of the people listening do not know what you are going through, so whether you are shaking or close to being a nervous wreck, they will not notice it unless you confess. So hide it and keep going, after all it is just a speech and you have everything under your control.

Summary

A good presentation does not only depend on the materials that you present. But how you present it also plays a very important role in getting the message across and how people perceive you. In addition to your materials, get yourself prepared on how to present it by watching how experts go about it, by understanding your audience and presenting yourself as a performer on stage.  Hope these tips on delivering your presentation can help you improve.

1 – Who are your audience

Knowing you audience is the most important area to cover while making a presentation. It is futile to give a speech using complicated language to a group of kindergarten children. Also if you know your audience than you have a rough idea of what the audience needs from you. Therefore you can adjust the contents of your presentation to match your audience level and needs.

2 – Keeping up Appearances

When you stand in front of an audience, you are not just an orator. You become a performer/actor. The way you dress, your facial expression, your mannerism, the body language you project all accumulate to serve the perception your audience have of you. And if these are effectively used they help you in connecting with your audience. This connection is important because it is through it that allows your audience to be receptive of your message.

There are many tips out there that ask you to look and act pleasant, enthusiastic, relaxed etc. I personally would not recommend a set type of behavior. Each occasion varies and so are the demands. Your task is to be able to sense what appearances; mannerism etc is required for the moment.

3 – Connect to your audience

Even if you do not really believe in what you are speaking about, hide it and speak with conviction. Your audience will tune off if they realize that you don’t believe it and will be impossible to persuade.

The most effective way to connect with another person is to make eye contact. Always make sincere eye contact with your all audience. With large audiences make eye contact with a number of people not just in a single area but spread all over.

4 – Catch the reaction

Learn to read the audience reaction and respond to these cues. If you are not being able to connect, do not be afraid to change tactics mid-way.

5 – Entertain and enhance

No matter the gravity of a speech or presentation, there is always an appropriate moment in it where a dose of humor that can be injected. Use humor wisely to hold the audience attention and interest.

Another way of engaging the audience is by using audio-visual aids, these tools not only helps to enhance your presentation to get the message across but also add variety and breaks the monotony of a single form of presentation.

Summary

Giving presentation can be quite stressful. A few simple steps like, getting to know your audiences, preparing your appearances and connecting with the audiences etc can make a big difference to your performance and can turn a stressful situation into an opportunity.

So, the key on how to improve public speaking is to know your fear.  Read on.

We all have experienced it at one time or the other, the dry mouth, the racing heart and for some people even nausea or feeling faint. All these followed by an acute and magnified self-consciousness.

Why do we suffer this and hamper our own performance? The reason is, ironically the fear of failure, the same fear of failure feeding an endless negative cycle of lowered performance and even more fear.

It is time to break this cycle

Many a times, fear of public speaking can be broken by simply pushing on and gaining more confidence as you continue to speak, this only works well if you have not been too far handicapped by your fear. This method is not recommended because even if you managed to perform, the first impression you give to the audience is damaged.

The best way to fight off the fear is to deal with the root cause – Fear of failure.

You can fight your fear by preparing for your speech more thoroughly; you will get a positive feedback cycle as the more you prepare the lower chances of failure and the greater confidence boost.

Once you have prepared a good speech, practice it. There is no substitute to practicing your speech, read it out aloud, look and listen to yourself, gather an audience of friends or family to practice and use their feedback.

Summary

Speaking to an audience or a group is hard for most of us; we all have experienced the fear at one time or the other. But with understanding of this fear comes the wisdom and knowledge on how to improve public speaking and prepare ourselves against it. With preparation and practice we deal with the core cause of the fear and without fear, the opportunities are yours for the taking.

Speech anxiety is a common problem.  Most of us suffer different degrees of speech anxiety and it is not something to be ashamed of to admit it. Even many seasoned professional who spend their entire careers in the public glare suffer from Glossophobia. A large population of people all over the world suffers from speech anxiety.

Signs of Glossophobia

Symptoms of Glossophobia can occur to some people even by simple suggestions that require the person to be concise and persuasive. The symptoms can range from:

- Heavy perspiration especially in the face and hands.
- Dry mouth and throat
- Feeling of butterflies in the stomach
- Acute self consciousness
- Enhanced hearing
- Stuttering

To more serious symptoms which include:
- Nausea
- Feeling faint
- Panic attack

Causes

The exact cause of Glossophobia is unknown. But generally people experience speech anxiety attack when they feel that they might look foolish in front of many people, especially if the people involved are of particular importance to them.

There are also possibilities that negative experience of a similar situation may cause the development of Glossophobia over time. It is more common in people prone to being anxious and the symptoms of Glossophobia are more sever in them as well.

Coping with Speech anxiety

The most effective way to deal with speech anxiety is to simply prepare well and leave nothing to chance. Prepare your material, know exactly what you are going to talk about and know who your audiences are going to be. Always practice, either alone or in front of a mirror or people you are comfortable with or even your dog.

Keep things simple and short enough to get your message across. This makes managing your preparation simpler.

It is not always that you will get time or have time for a good preparation/practice. In such cases always remember, a good beginning can do wonders to calm your nerves so at the very least find time to prepare the initial part of your speech well and focus on executing it as planned.

For people with more extreme degree of speech anxiety there are certain drugs such as beta blockers that can sooth the nerves before a speech. However to deal with the root causes options such as counseling, psychotherapy etc are recommended.

Summary

Anxiety of public speaking is a problem most of us face in various degrees. And the symptoms differ according to the degree of the problem. The exact cause of Glossophobia is unknown however it is possible to manage speech anxiety and there are strategies and methods of helping people to deal with it this problem.

Know your enemy

The best method of disarming fear is to examine it thoroughly. Why do you have the fear of speaking to an audience? The reasons generally are the fear of failure and also the fear of making a fool of yourself in front of people important to you. There is plenty you can do to deal with this fear.

Step one: Preparation

Take or make time to prepare thoroughly. Know exactly what you are going to talk about and what message you want to convey to the audience. Do not memorize what you plan to say, it never is a good idea. But have a strong grasp of the overall speech layout. Know who you are your audience so you can prepare accordingly to get your message across.

Step two: Practice

Practice by reading your speech out loud, so you can also adjust your tone. Practice in front of the mirror, it forces you concentrate more as you are forced to focus on how you look as well, and it teaches you to make eye contact. If you can, record your reading and listen to the playback or else standing in a corner and speaking out loud works well too.

Get a friend/family member or someone you know and practice in front of them making eye contact.

Step three: Visualization and control

Get a feel of the stage, on which you are to deliver your speech, before hand and visualize how you will go about delivering your speech. Visualization is a powerful tool in public speaking exercise; make the best of it in practice. Sometimes it helps to sooth anxiety by visualizing intimidating situations as small and unimportant. Visualize in whatever way it helps you.

Control your breathing and try to focus on your task at hand before a speech. Control your urge to speak immediately, take your time and count to ten before you begin your speech.

Carry a small note with brief points or outline of your speech plan, you may or may not use it but the security it provides can boost your confidence.

Summary

Everyone has experienced the fear of public speaking ‘Glossophobia’. This fear stems from the anticipation of being humiliated. A few simple steps of preparation, practice along with visualization will help you deliver a great speech. Having a backup plan, such as carrying small speech notes can help boost confidence for a satisfying performance. Hope this helps in overcoming fear of public speaking.

I have narrow down 3 common ideas that your fear might have come from.

1 – Afraid that your audience don’t trust you

This is the most basic preparation to eliminate your fears.  Often, we have this voice in our head that can be pretty convincing.

We will be thinking the many “what ifs”.

- What if the audience find me boring,
- what if the audience hates my guts,
- what if they hate my hair,
- what if they look the way I look,
- what if they hate my voice,
- what if they find me stupid,
- what if they think i am a con artist

Trust comes from showing off your knowledge.  Your first task at hand is to convince yourself that you are the expert in your field and you are the best.  If you are not one of the best experts, then the audience should be the one on stage instead of you.  Use your body posture to show professionalism, your voice to command respect, your emotions to show your passion and finally your body language to support what you have just said.

2 – Afraid that you will not be able to capture the people’s attention

You are definitely not going to capture anyone’s attention if your voice sounds boring, your body posture looks lazy or uncomfortable and your speech is just presented in 1 tone.  Practice your commanding voice, add in jokes, add a bit of music, find the common factor between you and the audience and use that information to enforce an idea or to make them laugh together.

Building rapport at the beginning will go a long way in capturing their attention.  But everything needs research, and practice.  What are the common jargon they use, why they are here listening to you etc.  Use these information to your advantages.

3 – Afraid that you cannot answer the questions from the audiences

Remember, you are the best in your field, but it does not mean you are good at everything.  You cannot know everything but you are definitely strong in certain areas.  The best way is to research and anticipate the type of questions that might be asked.

Based on your experience, you should be able to figure them out.  Then with each question, you prepare an answer.  But if there is really an question that you do not know, do not lie.  Audiences are not stupid.  Just be honest and let them know you do not know the answer to that question.  The people below cannot fault you for something you do not have experience in.  But they will give you credit for being honest.

Conclusion

Hope that these 3 public speaking fears tips can help you in your future speech or presentation.  Basically, there is no easy way out.  It is always good to prepare, practice and practice to become perfect and be the best speaker on stage.

I have listed 3 factors you should look at:

1 – Emotions in your voice

What could be more boring than to have someone on stage talking straight out of a text book? There are no ups, no downs and no signs of humor or power.  This is the reason why people start dozing off, playing games on their mobile.  A good speaker will always make their speech come alive.  There may be no trees or wind blowing in a room but an experience speaker can deliver a speech with audiences imagining the trees around them making them relax or feel the force of wind blowing at them with convictions in the speaker’s voice.

2 – Volume of your speech in words and sentences

Would you stay and listen to someone whom you can barely hear what they are saying? And if the speaker is too loud, don’t you just want to leave the room immediately to stop the suffering of your ears? The volume of your voice can give wonders.  And it also gives the projection of emotions as well.  You should be soft when it needs to be and you should be loud when you want people to know your strong approval of objections.  Your volume can also give a certain calmness when people listen to you speak.

3 – Projection of honesty and Sincerity

I am not sure if you are aware of this point but did you know that a person’s voice can affect how others view him as a honest person or not.  It is strange that your voice can determine your honesty level but if the audiences don’t trust you, how can you expect them to continue listening to what you have to say.  If you fail on this point, which is especially crucial in the first 10 minutes of your speech, then you are going to face an impossible task to get the people to listen.

Remember not to Overdo Things

In these 3 points, you have to be careful of over-doing it.  You might deliver a presence of being too cheeky, too unbelievable or you might deliver an image of a person not knowing what exactly is he talking about.  So always practise, practise and practise.  Memorise your speech by heart, totally understand each sentence, study which part of your speech to be soft, to be loud, to show emotions and you can easily win your audiences attention.