Getting Over the Fear of Public Speaking
I remember when growing up, I was terrified to speak in public. I had all the symptoms; shaking hands, trembling voice, fast heart beat, etc… I dreaded everything about public speaking. Public speaking pushed me out of my comfort zone. It wasn’t until I heard some advice that changed my whole perspective.
“PUBLIC SPEAKING IS EASY. ALL YOU NEED IS TO KNOW A LITTLE MORE ABOUT A PARTICULAR SUBJECT THAN THE MAJORITY OF YOUR AUDIENCE.”
How easy is that? All you need is to know a little more than the majority of your audience. Once I heard this advice, it completely changed my perspective on speaking in public. I use to be so afraid that people would ridicule my presentation because I felt they knew more than I did and would let me know. But once I learned the idea that my audience probably didn’t know much about the topic, it made me much more confident.
Yes, there are a couple other tips that can make your speech more powerful (such as rehearsing, adding phrases to motivate your audience, etc…). But for the most part, the fact that your speaking out a topic in which you know more than your audience makes the once “dreaded” speech, become not so stressful.
Practice this exercise and see how your high level of public speaking fear is a thing of the past.