Archive for the ‘Fear of Public Speaking’ Category

Your Motivation

If you are in the process of researching presentation skills, then chances are you have a presentation coming up. Few people set out learning these skills unless there is some strong motivation.

Why - because most people in our society have a fear of public speaking? … and people don’t confront fear unless they have to.

When it comes to presentations skills, “have to” usually means that they are required to give a presentation for their employment or a social event (such as a wedding or a funeral).

If this is the situation that you are in, then you have come to the right place.

What are you looking for?

Most people who are confronted with an important presentation/speech are looking for help in a combination of areas:

• Help in overcoming the fear of public speaking
• Help in composing and preparing the presentation
• Help in delivering the presentation

With your permission, I would like to assist you in all of these areas. I would like to show you how you can easily:

• Overcome your fear with less effort than you thought possible.
• Confidently compose a captivating presentation
• Deliver it in a inspirational manner

These skills will not only help you in the short term – dealing with your upcoming presentation. They will also help you in the future.

Can you imagine how it will feel when you are asked to give a presentation because you are a truly skilled speaker. Think about how it will feel as you accept the task with confidence – knowing that in no time, you will be speaking confidently before an inspired audience. Can you imagine what effect this will have on your career?

Picture the admiration and recognition you will receive from others as they acknowledge your speaking skills and confidence.

STOP!

Now I want you stop for a minute. Did you really read the previous section and picture your success? Did you really imagine what it would feel like?

This is more important than you realize. One problem that we have when confronting our fear is that our subconscious keeps sensing danger and taking over to protect us. That’s why we still experience a paralyzing dread every time we have to address an audience, even when we know logically that it is not dangerous.

I cover this in depth in my course, Three Simple Concepts to Overcoming Your Fear of Public Speaking – but for now I just want to share one small tip from it. You can start to reprogram your subconscious by visualizing what you want it to believe.

So… do you really want to succeed with presentation skills? If so, then just take a moment to “feel” what it will be like to deliver an inspirational speech with confidence. Imagine the audience captivated by every word. Picture them being inspired by your every point.

This little exercise can have surprising results… believe me, I know. I too was afraid of public speaking – and had very few presentation skills.

My first speech was before an audience of 300 people. I was terrified, but I was also prepared (that’s important … as your presentation approaches, make sure that you’re as prepared as you can be).

I learned from that experience that I could overcome my fear and deliver an excellent presentation. I also learned that with a little guidance anyone else can as well. I learned as much about public speaking as I could. I also applied knowledge from other subjects that I know and developed a public speaking system.

I helped a few people on the internet and got tremendous feedback. More people wrote me and I answered them as well.  I ended up getting deluged with questions. People we’re seeking me out because of my unique approach.

I put together a course (Three Simple Concepts to Overcoming Your Fear of Public Speaking) to teach my system. I also created a membership area where people can view videos, listen to audio programs, read articles and communicate with others about presentation skills.

You can join the membership area for free. Once you sign up you will be able to access
• a series of articles I wrote about overcoming the fear of public speaking
• a couple of audio recordings of me speaking at seminars about fear and presentation skills
• some interviews with former students of mine were they discuss what ideas have helped them the most
• the complete introduction to my course, Three Simple Concepts to Overcoming Your Fear of Public Speaking.
• a couple of videos that discuss two very powerful techniques – paradigms and social proof.

… AND … my S.C.P. Public Speaking and Presentation Skills course

The S.C.P. course is delivered in short 5-7 minute audio lessons. You receive one lesson per day for 7 days. Each lesson discusses one aspect of composing a winning presentation.

On day 7 you will also receive access to a 40 minute conference call. In it we move on to preparing for the delivery. We also discuss some techniques for overcoming the fear of delivering presentations.

I have had countless people write me and tell me how much this material has helped them

If you are ready to move past the visualization exercises we just talked about, and make them reality, come on over to EffectivelySpeakingMembers.Com and join the community of people how are overcoming their fear and going on to deliver excellence in presentations.

The key to an effective presentation is preparation. The key to effective preparation is knowing how to go about doing it. You will find clear, concise information on how to do just that in the membership area.

Sign up for a free membership at http://www.EffectivelySpeakingMembers.Com

To your speaking success

It happens to all of us – we plan the speech of a lifetime only to have something go wrong. Now it feels like the failure of a lifetime. What are we to do?

The first thing to remember is that our perceptions are not as objective as we might think – in fact they are extremely subjective. There have been numerous times when I have made blunders and thought that the audience would never forgive me. After the speech I found out that they completely missed the errors, or didn’t think they were that significant.

The next thought is to remember that the enemy of a ‘good job’ is not a bad job, but an attempt at a perfect job. This is true for every aspect of our lives, not just public speaking.

How often do we make the decision that if we can’t do something perfectly then we’re not going to do it all. I actually think that this is why many people avoid public speaking. They’re afraid that they might make a small mistake in front of a lot of people. Their sub consciousnesses are busy asking how they could possibly deal with that level of scrutiny.

The truth is that none of us are perfect. The worst ones for expecting perfection is ourselves. Remember, our audiences aren’t looking for perfection – they are looking to be informed, moved, or perhaps entertained. Do a good job at that and they will be pleased.
Read the rest of this entry »

Public Speaking is the number one fear of our society – but why is that? After all, if we are objective we have to admit that it is not the worst thing that might happen.

Jerry Seinfeld observed that an internet search would reveal that public speaking is the number one fear of our society while death only makes it to number six. It stands to reason then that if you have to go to a funeral it is better to be in the coffin then delivering the eulogy.

Something is out of place here. Should we really be more afraid of speaking than of death – and if I am correct that we have a mis-perception and how did we get this way?

My own situation involves some childhood experiences at public school. When I was about nine my teacher gave my class an assignment. She told us to write a report/project on an animal of our choice.

That was it – write a report on an animal of our choice. No further instruction.

I had never written a report before – actually I could hardly write at all. How was I supposed to write a report if I didn’t know what one was?

I procrastinated and put it off until the day before it was due. I managed to scribble down some unintelligible sentences along with a picture that if you looked at it at just the right angle might have been interpreted as a dog.

I handed it in and hoped that it would be acceptable. Boy, I was glad that was over - what could possibly be worse than a research project? Well I found out soon enough – a research presentation. Yes, not only did I have the stress of having to read and write about a subject with next to no instruction but now I also got to stand up in front of my classmates and tell them what I knew (or didn’t know) about the subject. There was a recipe for humiliation.

Add together the stress of being responsible for the outcome of the presentation without knowing what would make it successful and the potential for humiliation and I got a lot of psychological pain. Now our subconscious learns from nothing better then pain – and it doesn’t matter whether it’s physical or psychological, our subconscious does not like it.
Read the rest of this entry »