I used to be terrified of public speaking – now it’s natural and fun.
Dry mouth, fast heart, sweaty palms, blank mind – yeah I’ve been there! It’s easy to fear public speaking. But I was never just content with overcoming fear. I wanted to be a great speaker. What I needed was a way of calming down and applying simple techniques and strategies to talk like a pro.
When I’d learned to relax (more of that later) I learned and applied the following four steps.
- Reassure your audience – they need to know you know your stuff and you are human!
- Hook them by being interesting and relevant. Tell them why what you are saying is relevant to them.
- Inspire them by giving them information and ways of seeing that are new and applicable.
- Leave them on a high by telling a story them encapsulates your central message.
How do you become confident enough to apply the four steps?
Here are some tips some of which are practical some of which are to do with the way you think about your public presentations and also how you can start to change the way you feel about them.
Tip One
Breathe your way to calm. When you breathe out you relax that’s why people sigh when they’re stressed.
Breathing in without breathing out causes hyperventilation and worsens anxiety. Just before your speech, take five minutes breathing in to the count of seven and out to the count of eleven (quick count-not seconds!). On the out, breath hold it a second before breathing in again. This will produce quick and lasting calm. Remember extending the out breath calms you down.
Tip Two
You have a responsibility as the presenter but relax you don’t carry all the responsibility. Presenting is a team effort. Audiences are responsible for politeness, extending their attention and attempting to learn. It’s not all you-it’s a meeting of two halves. Never mind how they judge you. How do you judge them?
Tip Three
Use metaphor and stories. We all experience life metaphorically. The most technical logical person spends at least two hours a night dreaming! Talk detail if necessary but present patterns with metaphors. Folk from 4 to 104 love stories. Use em.
Tip four
Captivate attention by using words that evoke all the senses. Describe how things look, sound, feel, smell and taste. Paint pictures and sensations in their minds with your words.
Tip Five
Vary your voice tonality and speed of delivery. Keep them alert and engaged. Convey energy when need be and slow down when you need to ‘draw them in close.’ You are the conductor to their orchestra. And pepper your talk with humour. Your willingness to be funny shows personal confidence and confidence is contagious.
Tip Six
Tell them what they are going to get. What they are currently getting and then what they have got from you. Sell your sizzle!
Tip Seven
Watch and learn from other great speakers until compelling, relaxed speaking is a part of you.
Rehearse positively. You need to rehearse how you’re going to feel as well as what you are going to present. Don’t think about your forthcoming presentation whilst feeling nervous as this creates an instinctive association between fear and presenting. This natural negative self-hypnosis is very common with nervous speakers.
Hypnotically rehearse your speech whilst feeling relaxed. This produces the right ‘blueprint’ in your mind. In fact, when you do this enough times it actually becomes hard to be nervous!
All great speakers know how to use great self-hypnotic rehearsal. Hypnosis changes attitudes and can bring emotion under control. I used hypnosis, to change my instincts around public speaking. Now I just can’t get nervous whether it’s 50 or 500 people. The world needs great communicators. Go for it!
Cure your fear of public speaking at HypnosisDownloads.com
Article by Mark Tyrrell of Hypnosis Downloads.
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Love this! I’ve been speaking for 5 years and do workshops on helping people overcome their fear of public speaking so I know just how needed it is!
That’s wonderful Rachel, as a coach, I know so many people avoid public speaking altogether.
I love all of these! As a high school English teacher, I’m pretty much “public speaking” on a daily basis. But I still can get nervous when I have to speak in front of hundreds of people (like I did when I was maid of honor at a wedding!) Great tips!
Love these tips! I teach these to my high school students, but I think next year I will share this post with them – I think a lot of times kids need to hear it from someone else for it to really sink in : )
I absolutely agree. I work with a lot of school children, but my own son doesn’t take my advice.
Thanks for your comment Kelsie. My son is speaking at a wedding in July. I’m going to print off these tips and just leave them where he will see them. He wouldn’t take the advice from me.
Public speaking is one of my worst nightmares. I try to do the breathing tip and it helps some 🙂
Great tips! I enjoy public speaking but still get so nervous!
I think some nerves are okay and natural, I hope these tips help even more. What do you talk about when you do public speaking Adriana?
I used to feel exactly the same, I remember doing a radio show and was shaking 30 minutes beforehand, I used some of these tips and calmed myself down in time for the show. I told the host afterwards and he couldn’t believe I was so nervous.
Hope these tips are useful for you.
These are awesome tips! I absolutely despise public speaking. I’ll have to try them out next time I’m up in front of a crowd! Thanks 🙂
Chelsea | https://coffeewithchels.com
You’re welcome Chelsea, hope they make a difference. xx
These are defintely live saving tips for me. I had to take a public speaking class last semester. It was so hard for me. I know it won’t be the last time I’m in that situation so these tips will help me for sure.
I’m so pleased.
Oh my goodness, Wendy. What you’ve shared is going to help me in so many ways. I’m doing a lot of one on one presentations, product launches and soon will be doing group presentations for my Forever Inspired business since there isn’t any one doing so in my area. I appreciate that you shared Presenting being a team effort. I had never thought of it quite like that before. Also I like to use metaphors and stories so I’m going to focus on this even more but not neglecting the other great tips you’ve shared. I’ve been doing the breathing to relax and it does help. I may not show the anxiety on the outside but it can take it’s toll inside. Self-hypnotic rehearsal is going to be a big one for me to start using. Thanks so much!
Oh my goodness, Wendy. What you’ve shared is going to help me in so many ways. I’m doing a lot of one on one presentations, product launches and soon will be doing group presentations for my Forever Inspired business since there isn’t any one doing so in my area. I appreciate that you shared Presenting being a team effort. I had never thought of it quite like that before. Also I like to use metaphors and stories so I’m going to focus on this even more but not neglecting the other great tips you’ve shared. I’ve been doing the breathing to relax and it does help. I may not show the anxiety on the outside but it can take it’s toll inside. Self-hypnotic rehearsal is going to be a big one for me to start using. Thanks so much!
I’d love to take credit for these tips but they’re actually from my friends over at Hypnosis downloads.
I’d love to take credit for these tips but they’re actually from my friends over at Hypnosis downloads.
I think I did notice about Hynosis downloads. I am still thankful you took the time to share. These tips are invaluable!
Thank you for sharing these tips. I really need this. I hate speaking in public – these tips will come really handy.
That’s really good to hear.
I am still terrified of public speaking. A trembling voice and an insecure look – it all concerns me on stage. But I can say that I definitely like to interact with the audience when I talk about what I like. For example, at presentations of some products and launches, I’m certainly nervous, but very quickly I get charged with the energy and interest of the audience. And it makes it easier for me to interact with the public.
Thank you! I find your advice about what to say at presentations super useful. If you can interest the listener, then you can consider your performance successful.