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7 Little Tricks To Speak In Public With No Fear

By on March 30, 2009 in Ideas


Lifehack.org:

Hopefully these tricks will be able to help you as they had helped me in overcoming fear of public speaking.

1) Admit nervousness
All you have to do is admit that you are a bit nervous speaking to your audience. When you do this, the audience will be more forgiving if your nervousness shows up later on.

2) Redefine your audience
Redefine your audience generally means changing how you see your audience. Instead of seeing them as lecturers who are evaluating you, maybe you can convince yourself that they are all fellow students who are in queue to present after you.

3) Invest in visual aids
Imagine a presentation with beautiful PowerPoint slides and even more impressive notes given to each of your audience members.

4) Make mistakes intentionally
This is another trick I encourage you to try. Once I “accidentally” dropped my notes on the floor, and while picking them up, I warned the audiences that the presentation will be more confusing after this. I heard some laughter from the floor.

5) Speak to one person at a time
One of the most terrifying things about public speaking is the crowd. Just by looking at the crowd, all in silence just to hear you speak, will send shivers down your spine. To overcome this, you just need to speak to one person at a time.

6) Be impressive with personal opinion
Just like blogging, everyone can copy an article and paste it onto their blog. However, people read blogs not only to know about things happening but to know what that particular blogger’s opinion is on the matter.

7) Have fun experimenting
This is the most important tips of all. Have fun with the crowd. Try new ways to give the best presentation to your audience.

Photo by evanrudemi.

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Rich Whittle has added 6,226 posts to Business Opportunities Weblog.

Another Idea: How to Start a Public Speaking Consultant Business

  • http://tv.factor77.com Jared O’Toole

    I think taking a stand with your opinion is very important. If you speak what you really believe in then your voice will come across much stronger. You also will do better thinking on the spot because you believe in what your saying. Worrying about notes and points won’t matter as much.

  • http://entrepreneurenclave.com Matt

    Nice post! Public speaking is something that I was very weak in… but I have made it nearly a strength. While I agree with points #3 and #5, I disagree with #1. I was taught to never drop the ball. eg. never apologize during a speech/talk/etc. It’s better to be a little nervous… instead of saying, “Sorry while I look at my notes….” it’s ok to have a few seconds of silence. Project confidence. No need to tell the audience that you’re nervous.

    I’m also hard on myself. To tell the audience that I’m a nervous speaker is to lower their expectations and mentally accept that I will probably get nervous (and probably increase the odds). Know your limits, but never accept them. Go beyond. Excel.

  • http://www.bestpublicspeakingtraining.com/ Public Speaking Training “Wizard”, David Portney

    These are decent tips, but I completely disagree with tip #1.

    My experience and the experience of my students is that saying “I’m nervous” or “I don’t usually do this kind of thing” does little to alleviate your nervousness, and this confession very often actually rubs the audience the wrong way. You’d cringe if your doctor, lawyer, auto mechanic or anyone else you were looking to for expertise or information to say something like that.

    I say that the audience is on a “need to know basis” – and if you’re nervous, they don’t need to know.

    Moreover, most times, contrary to popular belief, the audience cannot detect your nervousness unless you are overt about it.

    Best,
    David Portney

  • http://jack-fx.com Jack

    I think afraid of making mistake is the biggest problem. Thanks for your suggestion.

  • http://www.lambentpath.com Jason Monastra

    I like the tips, and might add one. I think most people forget why people are there most of the time. They are there to see you. They are there to learn from you. We stand up there, instantly lose all confidence and begin to question why it is we are there. Between humor and a little confidence knowing that people are there to see you – you can make it through it fine.

    The humor thing I will add is big. I do a great deal of presentations, some one on one and some in conferences and all in front of C level folks. Humor is an instant hit when done in stride and disarms people to realize you are human just like them.

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