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Become a fearless, confident public speaker

For most people, just the thought of—or the hint that they might “have to” —speak in public automatically raises their anxiety level to red alert. In fact, it’s well know that many psychological polls rank public speaking as people’s #1 fear… usually ranking above the fear of death.

If you have any level of fear, even if you are terrified when it comes to public speaking, I’m here to tell you that you do not have to live with it. There are all sorts of techniques you can use, but the people at ThinkRightNow.com have produced a new audio program.

”You can literally erase your fear of public speaking… whether it’s a brutally intense fear or just a small twinge. And you can do it without effort or struggle with a new audio program just released:”

Fearless Public Speaking Now!

Develop the confidence to achieve your goals

You probably already know that the most successful people have incredible levels of self-confidence. They have accomplished great levels of success and happiness in their lives and seem to be unstoppable in everything that they do.The fact is, that when you develop unshakable self-confidence your whole world will change for the better.Unfortunately, through years of life experience, our beacon which is located inside all of us, begins to loose strength. For some reason or another we forget how truly powerful we are.

We lack the Self-Confidence to put our ambitions and desires into action!

Do not live one more day with these limiting thoughts and beliefs. You have the power to take control of your life. You have complete artistic creativity. Whatever you can imagine, you can bring into your reality.

Brian Tracy’s The Science of Self- Confidence Training Kit contains the proven secrets possessed by every successful person in the world.

“Build Rock Solid Self-Confidence and Achieve All of Your Goals”

You will receive:

The Science of Self-Confidence

 The Science of Self-Confidence
(6 CD Program)
By using the ideas in The Science of Self-Confidence, everything becomes possible. Your belief in your ability to succeed in all areas of life becomes unshakable. Your life will never be the same, once you learn to practice The Science of Self-Confidence.

The Science of Positive Focus

 The Science of Positive Focus
(2 Hour DVD Program)
Would you like to know how you can stay positive, energized, and powerful? In my 2 hour DVD I teach you how to defeat negativity. I teach you how positive focus can create the life that you want!

Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life

 Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life (60-minute CD)
Change the way you think about yourself and your potential. Open new doors to unlimited possibilities and put yourself on the road to a better, more fulfilling professional and personal life. This 60 minute CD will show you how to take charge of your life, become wealthy, and achieve every goal you set for yourself!


The Science of Self-Confidence Training Kit

***BRIAN TRACY’S TIP OF THE WEEK***

An excerpt from Brian Tracy’s Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life:

The Great Truth:

“You can learn anything you need to learn, to accomplish any goal you can set for yourself.” This principle offers a way for you to take complete control over your future. When I was young and struggling, failing and frustrated, this principle came along to change my life.

Generally speaking, no one is smarter than you, and no one is better than you. Just because someone is doing better than you doesn’t mean that he is better than you. It usually means that he has just learned how to succeed in his particular field before you have. And whatever someone else has done, you can probably do as well.

This is not an easy rule, but it is definitely simple. You, too, can learn anything you need to learn to accomplish any goal you can set for yourself.

Once I learned this idea, I was unafraid to change jobs, and even industries. I learned how to sell advertising, investments, automobiles, and office supplies. I worked in real estate sales and leasing, and then real estate development. Then I engaged in importation and distribution, then banking, printing, consulting, and eventually speaking, writing, recording, and corporate training.

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Resolve today to make 2008 your highest achieving year – get Rock-Solid confidence

Twelve Tips for Terrified Speakers

If you are overcoming the fear of public speaking, these tips will be of enormous benefit – very useful, and obviously practical. You will also find all sorts of useful, practical information on public speaking at Nick’s blog.

Read the 12 tips here.

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In The SpotLight, Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking and Performing

In the spotlight

Author:  Janet E. Esposito

From the Reviews:

Why is she so effective? First, she’s been there. You can totally relate to her as she describes her experiences. Second, Janet resolved to overcome her problem and tried many different approaches to do so. Her book focuses on the most effective methods that attack the problem from several directions. It is practical and helpful, with shortcuts to use, and modeling yourself on people who have overcome a similar problem not only makes the process faster, but also gives the comfort of knowing that you’re not alone– “If you suffer from performance anxiety, do yourself a big favor and read this book.”

Overcome your fear of public speaking with mental preparation


Mental preparation is a vital part of the process of overcoming the fear of public speaking.  It is one of four processes successful speakers use to make sure they lose their fear and use their nerves for success.
 
The first step is to acknowledge that the fear is normal. 
 
1.  A huge range of successful people like Helen Hayes, Johnny Carson, Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers, Lisa Minnelli and Sydney Poitier are known to have suffered from nerves.
 
2.  And there was the published survey that identified public speaking as Americans’ number one fear.  This reinforces the fact that you are not in a minority, you are not a freak or a failure, but part of a huge group who all feel the same – normal!
 
3.  Seinfeld quipped that if people fear public speaking more than death, then therefore they would rather be in the coffin than making the eulogy.  It is so common that Seinfeld jokes about it!  It is a natural, normal response – the body’s way of coping with a challenge.
 
It may be that you have reasons in your past or from within your family that build the fear, and send your body into the fight/flight response.  It may be that, like me, you need to run adrenalin to stay alert and focused.  It may be that you are not confident socially and need to build confidence to speak.
 
Whatever the cause, this is a normal response to that cause and accepting that this is just a normal response, and not your own personal, horrible secret, means that you can acknowledge it, and start to treat it, overcome it.
 
This process of looking at your fear/nerves and identifying their source/s is a major step towards overcoming them.  Often people don’t articulate what it is they fear, or where the fear comes from. If you can do that, then you have something concrete you can tackle, and a way to move forward.  Find the root of the fear or nerves, tease it out so that you understand it and then use logic to deal with it.
 
The third mental technique is to accept that, for whatever reason, you are running adrenalin, so you might as well use it. Make it work for you.  Channel it to create excitement and enthusiasm. These give power to your speech and you can speak with rapid-fire enthusiasm, or hold attention with power pause.
 
The excitement and enthusiasm will also work with other strategies to build a strong confidence.
 
You can use the enthusiasm to reinforce positive self-talk.  Whether you call them mantras or call them affirmations, choose positive statements beforehand, to say to yourself to keep yourself positive.  Or you can create them at the time.  They too, will reinforce your confidence.
 
Combine these with a fifth technique – visualization.  Very early in the preparation for your speech or presentation, visualize yourself leaving your seat, walking to the stage/podium, greeting the audience – all with calm confidence and enthusiasm.  Watch it and experience how it feels.  Then, as you progress, visualise, too, and feel, all of the aspects of your presentation – the sections of the speech, any prepared movements, and any visuals.  See every one of these occurring successfully and see your confidence permeating every one.    This may sound very impractical, but it works for me, and did, long before I really knew I was doing it.  I just see it as part of my preparation – then, once prepared, it’s something I don’t have to think about at the time.
 
We will look more at preparing the speech in another article, but if you do prepare well, in as much detail as possible, and use visualization as part of the process, then that in itself will give you confidence.  Being able to reassure yourself that you are prepared is a major confidence builder, and you can use it as one of your reassuring, positive statements. “I am prepared.  I have every aspect covered.  I have nothing to worry about.”
 
You will have accepted the nerves as normal.  You will have found their cause/s and used that as a foundation to build strategies for success.  You will have mentally prepared for each part of your presentation.  You will have learned to channel the nerves into power for your presentation. The processes of mental preparation will be a powerful part of your success in overcoming the fear of public speaking

Five tips for overcoming public speaking nerves


Your mouth is dry, heart palpitating, and knees knocking.
You go into panic, facing a dreaded public speaking assignment.
It doesn’t have to be so.
These five tips will give you some strategies to overcome those symptoms and have the butterflies flying in formation.
1. Deep breathing will pull in oxygen.
Adrenalin, secreted to help you deal with the fear brought on by little doubts, causes breaths to become shallow, or causes you to hold your breath.
Deep breathing will help your brain work to capacity, and forcing the slower pace will quell the panic.
2. Bluff. Stand tall, with shoulders back and chest out.
Smile. Even though you don’t feel happy or confident, do it anyway. You will look confident and your body will fool your brain into thinking it is confident.
This really works!!
Bluff – body and smile
3. Keep you mouth and throat hydrated.
Plan to keep a drink on hand while you are speaking., though this sounds impossible. Visualising how you will use it if you need it, and calling up the audacity to do such a thing will carry across to your attitude as you take your place to speak, placing your glass just where you need it to be.
4. Adrenalin sends the blood rushing to the fight/flight centres of your brain at the base of the skull.
Place your hand on your forehead and press gently on the bony points.
This will bring the blood to the parts of the brain that need it to present your speech best.
5. Know you are prepared.
Obviously this depends on actually being prepared, so take every opportunity in the days leading up to the speech to prepare your material.
Be familiar with the structure of the presentation, and the ideas to use.
Memorise the most important parts, and the parts you are frightened of forgetting.
I would memorise the opening of the speech and in the moments before presenting it, would reassure myself that I knew that part, and that would lead on to the rest.
It worked!!

To overcome the fear of public speaking, you need to understand the underlying causes

Once you can identify the causes that are underlying your public speaking nerves and fear, you can choose the strategies you need to build your confidence, use the fear and present successfully.

Most people suffer from some fear of public speaking.  The survey that identified it as America’s number one fear was accurate then and remains so today. But the causes of that fear can differ from person to person.

One of the most important steps towards overcoming the fear of public speaking is to identify the things in your life that have created the fear and then choose the strategies that relate to those causes and that will conquer the fear and allow you to harness it to enhance your presentations and speeches, not destroy them.

So let’s list some of the factors that underlie the fear of public speaking and see which ones apply to you.

The first on the list is the fact that fear of public speaking can run in families. I’m not sure if there is a genetic cause for this but I do know that if you have seen your parents or a family member speaking or performing confidently in public, then you will most likely see it as something you can do too.  But if you see fear and aversion to public speaking then you will probably adopt that as part of your culture as well.
The second factor lies in the way your brain functions.  It may be that your brain is not functioning in a way that builds confidence.  It is possible that the neurotransmitters that allow your brain to transfer information are not operating as they should.
Previous personal experience can affect our confidence in any situation.  Teasing of any sort can destroy confidence and if it was associated with public speaking then any chance of future confidence in public speaking will be shattered.  Thoughtlessly expressed criticism can do the same.  A teacher, peer or parent can destroy confidence with unthinking negative comments.
Beliefs.  Many people’s fear of public speaking is founded in the belief that they are responsible for always creating a positive impression … and its corollary that if they do not create this wonderful impression then they have created a disaster.  Your family, your peers and your associates, not to mention the media, can all contribute to this expectation of any situation.  So if you feel an unreal demand on you in terms of the need to create a great impression then anything you do in public will be fraught with anxiety.
Because people fear public speaking they then set up systems to avoid it.  Any opportunity is met with avoidance, rather than either a positive expectation, or a confident attempt that could be the basis of development.  And then that avoidance becomes a habit – it self-perpetuates.

So … did any of those scenarios strike a chord with you and your experiences?  Did you recognise any of them acting in your life?  It may even be that more than one of these factors is present in creating your fear of public speaking.   Rest assured, though, that for each, there are strategies that can be used to overcome it.  Use them in conjunction with some other processes and you have a strong, guaranteed basis for developing confidence and skill in public speaking.

©  Bronwyn Ritchie  All rights reserved.  If you would like to use this article, you have permission to use it only in full, and with the following Resource box attached.

 

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Tips for keeping your cool before your presentation


You need your nerves.  You need your excitement and you need your energy before you present.
 
You also need to keep them under control and channelled into the best presentation you can give.
 
Depending on the space and the time that you have, try these physical strategies to tame the nervous in the body and give your mind a chance to relax and be positive before you bring speaking.

Stretch to relax. Rise on your toes and reach for the ceiling, with your head back. Tighten your muscles from legs up through abdomen, and then release. Relax the neck and shoulder muscles, letting head loll on neck in different directions.
Breathe to relax. Stand erect, but relaxed and balanced. Inhale while silently counting to five. Hold the breath for five counts, then exhale for five – all breathing is through the mouth. Your diaphragm should move, but your chest should not expand. You can gradually increase the number of counts for each breath to 10.
Relax your Jaw. Let your head loll forward. As you raise it, keep your jaw relaxed. Let it hang open, and smile to yourself at how silly it feels.
Relax your throat. Yawn …. This is how your throat needs to be to speak well – open, and relaxed.Keep relaxing the muscles throughout your body, your jaw, neck and throat until you walk to the presentation area. Then smile! and begin.
 
Take your focussed positivity, generosity and passion out onto the stage/platform/presentation space …. and enjoy!