Archive for the ‘Fear of Public Speaking’ Category

Toastmasters

Toastmasters International is an organization that is dedicated to assisting individuals to become public speakers and leaders. This is accomplished through a series of local clubs throughout the world. Toastmasters clubs offer a safe environment in which you can practice the speaking skills that you are learning and be exposed to new skills.

I highly recommend investigating a Toastmasters club near you.

To find out more about Toastmasters International you can visit their website at http://www.toastmasters.org. Among the wealth of information that they have at their site, you can perform a search to find a local club.

What is Toastmasters?

A lot of people found Effectively Speaking because they were looking for Toastmasters on the web. Some people have even confused Effectively Speaking with Toastmasters International. To help everyone understand, I would like to:

• Explain who I am in relation to Toastmasters and what I think of Toastmasters
• Give you suggestions on what to look for in a club
• Tell you how to find a local Toastmasters club that you might want to join

Who I am in relation to Toastmasters.

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Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia?

I recently came across an article about phobias. There definitely are a lot of them - but I have never read about hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.

You can see the article here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/10/nphobia110.xml

Now we can get completely overwhelmed (perhaps even phobic) about the number of fears that are out there. Alternatively, we can draw some comfort from them. After all…

The article also points out that people do overcome phobias. The last point is definitely good news. Phobias seem overwhelming to people (hey, that’s why they’re phobias) – yet with the right help, we can conquer them.

You can start by deciding that you are going to move outside of your comfort zone. Start by taking a small controlled risk. Use the information that I have shared with you to compose and present a small speech. As I’ve said before, you don’t even have to let your audience know that it is a “planned speech.” It could be an introduction, a toast, or some other small action that allows you to set a goal and see some success.

Personally, I don’t have a clue how to overcome hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (ironically, the fear of long words), but I do know about overcoming the fear of public speaking – together, as a community, we can work together and conquer your fear.

Transcript of Audio Article

Practice versus Presentation

This is a transcript of an audio program located in the membership area of EffectivelySpeaking.Com. Find out how you can maximize your efforts at conquering your fear of public speaking by joining for free, at
http://www.EffectivelySpeakingMembers.Com

Hi, this is David Mudie of EffectivelySpeakingMembers.Com.

And I would like to share with you the difference between preparation and practice.

When speaking in public, there are two terms that we often confuse and they are preparation and practice.

Often times, people don’t prepare. Speaking in public is uncomfortable - so they procrastinate, putting it off until the last minute. They do a poor job and then blame it on their inability to speak rather than their need to prepare and practice.

That however, is not what we’re talking about now. Right now we’re talking about people who take the time to prepare, yet still struggle.

How often have you heard someone speak and then later confess that they were not as prepared as the would have liked.

When asked how much they prepared, they frequently admit that they worked on the presentation for days or weeks. For days? How could they possibly be unprepared?

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And here lies the paradox. What exactly is preparation? Is it effective to prepare for a speech? Can there be too much preparation? And most importantly, can too much preparation increase our fear instead of decreasing it?

Now people will know that I am an advocate of preparation. I have always indicated that being unprepared can be one of the biggest causes of stress.

In fact, I had such an event just recently. Several weeks ago I was the master of ceremonies at a wedding reception. Now that shouldn’t have been a problem. I’ve been a master of ceremonies before.

The problem lay in the preparation. As the master of ceremonies it was my job to keep the program moving and to introduce all the speakers. The problem was, I didn’t know all the speakers.

A few days prior to the wedding I received a list of possible speakers. It went something like this…

John, if he decides to speak
Fred, if he decides to speak
Barb, don’t let her speak to long
Etc.

I needed to get prepared and do it fast. The night of the rehearsal I was meeting, bothering, even stalking each of the speakers. I was trying to get their full names, their relationships to the bride and groom, and what they wanted said when they were introduced.

They were all pretty nonchalant about the whole thing.

I think that most of them were probably procrastinating, like the rest of us. They didn’t want to offend the Bride and Groom by not speaking - but they also, really didn’t want to speak.

As a result, they had not only not thought much about the speech, but they also did not think much about what they wanted me to say when I introduced them.

I eventually did get the information I needed - and I did an adequate job. I would have done a better job if I was more prepared.
Whenever we speak we need to be prepared. That means having:
• The right information at your finger tips.
• Props that will illustrate your points (and if you choose to use them). Incidentally, PowerPoint and other presentation tools are props.
• The right venue for your presentation.

Finally, you need to have at least a frame work for your speech. That is, what is your theme? What are you trying to accomplish? How are you going to present it? What are your points? Etc.

If you need some tips on putting this together, listen to the S.C.P. program that I’ve got on the EffectivelySpeakingMembers.Com downloads page.

All of that is preparation, and preparation is good. But can there be too much preparation? Can too much preparation increase our fear?

I would argue yes. Yes when all of that preparation comes at the expense of practice.

There are two equally important elements to any successful presentation - the content of the presentation and the delivery. Back before I was involved with public speaking I believed that there was only one important element - the content. I felt that if the content was profound enough, the audience would forgive a poor delivery. As such, I would sacrifice the delivery and read my notes directly, in a flat monotone voice, to make sure that I did not miss a single point in my content.

It was only later that I realized that if I lost the audience because of my delivery, it wouldn’t matter how profound my content was.

It is only by truly practicing a speech that we can start to get a feeling for how effective the delivery will be and how we can make improvements. As we recite our material we will start to learn it.

Practice breeds familiarity. Familiarity reduces the need to mentally process the speech as we deliver it. So, by practicing, we will l be preparing to deliver the speech in a much smoother fashion. We will develop what most presenters strive for - a conversational tone.

A conversational tone is typically much more effective than a lecturing tone in maintaining an audience’s attention - and isn’t that what we desire.

In addition, we will discover how the words sound and flow together. We will start making small adjustments to improve the speech.

Finally, familiarity brings comfort. As we become comfortable with the speech, and we know that we can deliver it, we will reduce our fear. We will worry less about stumbling and losing our place because we know that if we do, we will be able to recover it.

So, preparation is key to ensuring that the content of your speech is correct. But make sure that you don’t spend so much time preparing the content that you don’t practice the delivery. By practicing you will improve the speech itself, increase your knowledge of it, and reduce your fear.

This is David Mudie of EffectivelySpeakingMembers.Com - and I will have more great articles posted in the EffectivelySpeakingMembers.Com articles section for you soon.

This article is available to be heard in the private members areas. Visit http://www.EffectivelySpeakingMembers.Com to learn about all the great information that is available to you right now. Start overcoming your fear with less effort than you thought possible.