Posts Tagged ‘Speaking In Public’

Hi Folks,

A subscriber to the Effectively Speaking Newsletter recently contacted me about a newly developed fear of public speaking.  With his permission I am sharing his question along with my response with you.

David.

————————-

David

I recently joined your newsletter and have been reading your articles on overcoming fear of public speaking.  Previously, I didn’t have problems speaking to groups - in fact I spoke in public many times.  Unfortunately, during a recent presentation I lost my place.  In addition, I neglected to bring my notes.  Panic set in and I was unable to complete my presentation.  If that was not bad enough, the sense of panic sets in every time I have to speak now.  To this point, I have only made brief announcements to one of the groups that I belong to.

Do you have any other suggestions that might help me?

Thanks

P.

Hi P.

Thanks for writing.  I’m sorry to hear of your (new found) struggles with public speaking.

Here are a few thoughts.

First of all I think you have a good approach of allowing yourself to get just a bit out of your comfort zone.  By giving the announcements you are allowing yourself to experience some successes - that’s great.

The articles that I sent you include some thoughts on losing track during a speech.  Read those and make sure that you keep them in mind.

In addition, keep in mind what I have to say about your audience.  They are not your adversary.  They really do want you to succeed.  The next time you have to speak (even just to make an announcement) keep in mind that they are not there judging you.  If you struggle they will do everything they can to help you succeed.

I spoke to a group of law students last year about speaking in public (can you imagine, people who are going to be arguing cases for a career and they are afraid to speak in public).  I pointed out that even their audience was not watching them for failures.  The opposing side might be… but not the real audience.  The audience, I explained, was the jury and/or the judge.  The students could ignore the opposing side and go about presenting the information that they needed in order to help the jury and judge make the correct decision.

Now my point is that if the audience is supportive in an adversarial environment such as a courtroom then it is certainly going to be supportive in your environment.  If you make a mistake or stumble don’t worry about it; just correct yourself and move on.

I realize that you are already doing this, but I would reinforce that you have notes with you whenever you speak.  You may not need them, but they will help reduce the panic.

Finally, you might want to take a look at the course I created at http://www.EffectivelySpeakingMembers.Com.  It goes into overcoming your fear of public speaking in a lot more depth.

As you pointed out, you were able to address a group in the past.  It’s your recent experience that caused you humiliation and therefore psychological pain.  You subconscious is programmed to avoid pain… both physical and psychological.  It has decided to associate public speaking with pain and therefore avoid it.  In dealing with your fear you will want to deal with both the conscious and subconscious.  Realizing that you were successful at addressing groups in the past is a good place to start.  Allowing yourself the small moments of success with the announcements is another.  Keep working at it and you will succeed.

I wish you all the best as you strive to overcome your fear of public speaking.

David

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?

<!–more–>

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.

It’s important to remember that we constantly making presentations - whether they are formal or not.

When we share our ideas, try to convince others, or just talk about our weekend, the style with which we say it is going to determine whether we captivate those we are talking to, or just lose them.

Here’s an excerpt from an article that makes the point quite well.

Read the rest of this entry »