First post here
I hope someone can help me. I was born hard-of-hearing and it has been the bane of my existence so far (I'm 31). I talk with an "accent" due to the inability to hear the pronounciation of certain words. I have trouble with high frequencies and this makes up a large portion of human speech. Anyways, as you can imagine, this has affected my public speaking as well as my social life due to confidence issues. The absolute WORSE feeling in the world is a combination of public speaking to a large group + lack of confidence + knowing you have a handicap. Been there. College and high school was hell for me.
I've begun to take speech therapy classes but it's not helping much. On the other hand, I have started watching and emulating great public speakers like Brian Tracy, Jim Rohn, Carnegie, etc and I believe that is helping me. I've put more energy into my body language, facial expressions and the fact that I always know what I am talking about. I try to engage the audience as much as possible by questioning them and making them feel like part of the discussion. Furthemore, I try to make my presentations as visual as possible through powerpoint and other media with a mix of humor and drama. I think all of this helps me during presentations. I'm getting a bit more confident the more I do it.
I was wondering if anyone else has any advice for me or perhaps know of someone that has successfully dealt with the same issues I am going through?
Thanks!
