Basic Tips On Overcoming the Fear of Public Speaking

Public speaking has placed greater fear in people’s hearts than going to a dentist or receiving a notice from the I.R.S.! The main reason’s I have discovered over my years of coaching and teaching are the audience will think I am horrible and I can’t talk for an extended period of time. I have been amazed at how many people think that ten minutes is an extended period of time.

One of the things I initially do with someone that wants to learn public speaking is to have a discussion on a subject they are very comfortable with. I have discussed sports, movies, television, fashion or whatever the student desired, the key is to get them talking.

Once we have had 10 or more minutes of discussion and the majority of it was them talking and I am listening I will let them know, WOW you just talked for over 10 minutes and you previously told me you couldn’t do that. The typical reply will be but you are only one person and I am not standing in front of a crowd.

The basics of becoming an excellent speaker will require loads of practice and being open to constructive criticism from your mentor or coach. A few of the most basic rules are to look at your audience and make eye contact. This is a basic rule but one that takes time to overcome. A new speaker will be looking over the heads of their audience or looking at the floor or ceiling. Another rule is don’t teach the class to the first friendly face or someone that you know, it is very easy to get fall into this habit. Talk to everyone in the audience, eye contact from you keeps them interested.

The next area that requires major attention is verbal pauses. A verbal pause is when you lose your chain of thought or are trying to teach a class from memory. A few examples of verbal pauses are, coughing, umm, and ok. This is overcome the same as all the other issues of speaking by practice and coaching.

The first rule in public speaking is to have extensive knowledge of the subject you plan on speaking about. You can’t worry that everyone in the audience has a greater knowledge of the subject than you do. I am not suggesting that you are the expert in the country but that your message that you are trying to send is based on personal knowledge that you have researched and not from hear say.

A smart investment would be a small tape player that you can record your speeches and then listen to afterwards. Initially you will be quite surprised and think to yourself, is that what I said as it isn’t what I thought I said. The next step is to teach your class looking into a mirror with the tape player recording. It would be nice if you have a video recorder but it isn’t a requirement initially.

So we have covered the very basic’s of public speaking as it is a subject that I could talk about for days but like everything else you have to have a starting point. I suggest that you find yourself a great coach, select your subject, buy a tape player, and work on the basics of eye contact, verbal pauses and nervousness. This will all come together through practice and coaching.  This is a great start for anyone that desire’s to become an excellent speaker