Glad I found you all!

Hi Rachel,

The fear of public speaking combined with nervousness and anxiety is the number one fear people have. Here are some helpful tips that might help you overcome your fear:

- Prepare! Prepare! Prepare! The more you preapre for your speech the less fear you have and the more spontaneous you sound!

- Videotape and watch yourself! You need to see, how other people will see you before holding your speech! It really works and helps you reduce your fear.

- Hand out fact sheets! Don't focus on memorizing and figures! It is impossible to memorize everything! Put the major facts on a fact sheet and hand it out to your audience!

- Tell a story! Get away from abstract points and take about real things/situations people can visualize and relate to!

- Don't look at your whole audience! Try to make eye contact with one person for 5 seconds, then go to the next person in the audience! That way you create a conversational more relaxed atmosphere.

You can also follow us on Twitter @MediaTrainingW to get more tips on presentations and public speaking. I am more than happy to help and answer questions.

Hi there and thanks very much for your kind reply. I will note what you say and report back on my progress!

Thanks MediaTrainingW for the good suggestion to reduce the fear during the public speaking ..

plz do u have any account on the Facebook ?

Yeah, its great to have this forum and to be able to share the knowledge.

MediaTrainingW wrote:- Videotape and watch yourself! You need to see, how other people will see you before holding your speech! It really works and helps you reduce your fear.

Watching a video of yourself nervously speaking in public can be an agonizing experience. Watching the same video with dozens of other people is pure torture. My teacher let the whole class experience that more than once! How cruel of her!

That was more than a decade ago. And until today I'm still thankful for her idea of putting us through that.

The video camera trick works wonders. The camera will capture everything and the playback won't lie. You will notice every awkward movement and hear every slip of your toungue. you will learn more about yourself with this exercise than any other feedback mechanism.

I encourage everyone to give it a try!

All of the opinions and suggestions here are excellent.

One of the things I will caution you on, however, is over-preparation.

If you spend too much time rehearsing your lines then you can get stuck in that rut where you feel like you lost what you had to say and show that deer in the headlights look.

To prevent that it's useful to think of public speaking as a conversation with one collective person. The people in the audience are just single entity.

Talking to a brick wall? Sure. Whatever helps.

-----
Devin Ambron
Leadership and Lifestyle Development Expert
Founder of The Daily Inspiration

TheDailyInspiration wrote:All of the opinions and suggestions here are excellent.

One of the things I will caution you on, however, is over-preparation.

If you spend too much time rehearsing your lines then you can get stuck in that rut where you feel like you lost what you had to say and show that deer in the headlights look.

To prevent that it's useful to think of public speaking as a conversation with one collective person. The people in the audience are just single entity.

Talking to a brick wall? Sure. Whatever helps.

-----
Devin Ambron
Leadership and Lifestyle Development Expert
Founder of The Daily Inspiration

But if you pretend you're talking to a brick wall, won't that have a negative impact on the presentation in terms of body language and eye contact?

Good point. Directly in that context I would say that talking to a wall would not be the way to describe it. Think of it as putting on a theater in an empty room in preparation for your big day.

The vigor and passion you put into a shower singing session that no one sees but the shower head.

Imagine and get yourself into that element or state of mind.

booktribe wrote:

MediaTrainingW wrote:- Videotape and watch yourself! You need to see, how other people will see you before holding your speech! It really works and helps you reduce your fear.

Watching a video of yourself nervously speaking in public can be an agonizing experience. Watching the same video with dozens of other people is pure torture. My teacher let the whole class experience that more than once! How cruel of her!

That was more than a decade ago. And until today I'm still thankful for her idea of putting us through that.

The video camera trick works wonders. The camera will capture everything and the playback won't lie. You will notice every awkward movement and hear every slip of your toungue. you will learn more about yourself with this exercise than any other feedback mechanism.

I encourage everyone to give it a try!

I can't stand the sight and sound of myself. Too bad I want to be an actor. However, you get used to seeing and listening to yourself. After a while of seeing yourself on camera and listening to yourself talk, you will be more comfortable with yourself.

In reading everyone's contribution something else came to mind...
After watching a youtube video of a 12 year performing in front of millions he replied in the follow up interview "yes I was nervous. I just remind myself that this is what I want to do, so I get on with it!" One would never know he was nervous.
What I got from what he said was Connection. Connection as to the gift he had to share. Connecting to the value the audience will receive.
Connecting to your "Why" it's important to you to do this. What's the greatest outcome you can imagine if you "nail it"? How will that event impact your life. And just run with all the possibilities of all the doors you will be opening and hearts you will be impacting.
From the deepest place in my heart...
Much Love and Success
Nana Jann