Changingtools asked:

www.changingtools.com PREP is a technique that you can use to give your speech structure. Public Speaking is an art you can learn.

JustBeWell asked:

www.justbewell.com The fear of public speaking is said to be the most common phobia in the world. Whether this is true or not, it is certainly possible to overcome public speaking phobia with help from hypnotherapy (hypnosis) and NLP (neuro-linguistic programming). Public speaking fears hold people back in meetings and they prevent people from being their best when doing presentations. It isnt just work life thats affected. Most people have to stand up and say a few words in front of other at some point in their lives, when they get married, for example. Hypnotherapy and NLP are so effective in dealing with the fear of public speaking because they tackle the problem directly. This is not therapy or counselling, this is practical training and reconditioning and the techniques have been proven with thousands of people through the years. It does not matter where your phobia started, and you certainly werent born with public speaking anxiety, you learned it along the way. We arent going to talk with you about how difficult your life has been, we are just going to get on with helping you to change these horrible limiting fears. Now getting rid of this phobia does not instantly give you Obama like eloquence, but it when you feel confident and comfortable speaking to groups of people you are obviously going to come across better. So whether it is for a best mans speech, for a business or college presentation, in fact whatever its for, you can change this, and you can change it …

Barbara Hofmeister asked:




According to ‘The Book of Lists’, the fear of public speaking ranks number one in the minds of the majority of people. Far above the fear of death and disease, comes the fear of standing in front of a crowd.

Public speaking is a common source of stress. Many of us would like to avoid this problem entirely, but that is nearly impossible. Whatever our work eventually we will need to speak in public to get certain tasks accomplished. And if we want to be leaders or achieve anything meaningful in our lives, we will often have to speak to groups, large and small, to become successful.

But instead of appropriate levels of adrenalin and excitement to optimize our performance, we get a fear response like we are being attacked by a wild animal.

Everything in our body and mind screams “run away”! But we can’t, we have to ignore our ‘fight or flight’ response and stay put. And what’s more, we are supposed to sound eloquent and informed at the same time. Not an easy task.

The reason most people get anxious when required to speak to a group is that they are afraid of looking foolish or stupid in front of others. The fear that their lack of speaking skills might lower the opinion others have of them becomes overwhelming.

The fear of public speaking often results from painful experiences during school days when we failed in class and were teased by the other children. Being humiliated can destroy a person’s ego and confidence for a long time and a short experience followed by humiliation can result in this life long fear of public speaking.

The brain links the negative feelings associated with that experience to other similar experiences. Attaching emotions to situations is one of the primary ways that humans learn. But sometimes we get the wiring wrong. Many people suffering from fear of public speaking believe they are alone in feeling so frightened, when in fact this fear is shared by millions even though nobody likes to talk about it.

If you can adopt the following sentence: “I stopped worrying about what people would think about me, when I realized how seldom people think about anyone but themselves” you have got it made.

There is no real trick to public speaking, there is only confidence. And confidence is gained by practice and experience. Of course good preparation and relaxation techniques before giving a speech help but practice will make you a master.

To gain experience outside those scary live performances in front of your peers, joining a local Toastmasters Club is a great idea. Or get yourself a Public Speaking or Speech Coach. In both cases you will get the chance to practice and hone your skills in a friendly environment. And you will get valuable feedback.

Overcoming fear by actively and consciously facing it in the least painful way has proven to be extremely effective – also in this all encompassing fear of public speaking. So go out and speak! Finding your voice in public will be the most freeing experience you can imagine.

Trish Springsteen asked:




Fear of public speaking is one of the Top Ten Fears that people have. The technical term is Glossophobia. In some lists it is number two after the fear of flying, though more often than not people will state they fear public speaking more than death.  Now that is saying something!

So what is it that makes people fear public speaking so much?  In many cases it is the fear of the unknown – it is something they don’t do very often so they don’t know what to expect.  It is often a fear of making a fool of oneself – they lack confidence and feel that people won’t want to listen to them.  There is the fear that they will forget what they are going to say – that they will be there in the spotlight mouth open and nothing coming out.

The symptoms of this fear range from sweaty hands, heart racing, shaking legs, red face, nausea and even in extreme cases tongue tied – physically not able to get a word out.

A little bit of nervous tension is good for the public speaker.  That nervous tension can be turned into adrenalin which gets the heart pumping and helps to add that charisma, that oomph, the extra sparkle to a speech.  Good speakers have learned how to control their fears and nerves.

What can be done to turn your fear of public speaking into energy to add sparkle to your next speech?

Firstly work on your attitude, bring a positive attitude to your speaking.  Instead of believing that the people are going to laugh at you and that you will make a fool of yourself, think to yourself “I am excited, I can do this, I am confident”.  Mentally have a stop sign that you see every time you start to get nervous.  See your stop sign and say to yourself “I am not nervous, I am excited. I will be great and I am confident.” This will short circuit that downward spiral that is caused by the fear.

Next, give yourself every opportunity to speak, take away that fear of the unknown.  The more you speak the more experience you gain, the more you know what to expect and the more confident you then become.  Start small, step forward when asked to introduce someone at a meeting, step forward when asked to give a vote of thanks.  Every time you get up to speak you break down that barrier of the unknown.

Practice, practice, practice and prepare, prepare, prepare.  The more you practise and prepare the less opportunity there is for Murphy’s Law to kick in.   When you know your subject you are more confident in yourself.  Don’t worry about notes, if you need them use them.  Just learn to use them unobtrusively so that they assist you instead of becoming a barrier between you and the audience.

Finally, find a training organisation near you. Attend a workshop read some books on public speaking.  Always take the opportunity to put into practice what you learn because you can’t learn public speaking without actually doing it!

These are all practical ideas that work – how do I know this because I have been there and done it.  I too had a fear of public speaking, whilst it wasn’t my top fear it was at least one that I could do something about.  So if I can get to a point where I now love speaking – then you can do it too.  All you have to do is take the first step.

There are many more tips and tricks you can apply and for these resources and more you can log onto www.trischel.com.au. These will give you the basics and a start to becoming a public speaker – an organisation like Toastmasters International will give you the opportunity to hone and practise your skills.

Oh, what is my top fear? It is the fear of heights, which I might add is not as easy as the fear of public speaking is to overcome.  I am still working on this one!

AaronChrisBall asked:

This film is pure nostalgia! Great for training in the office as an ice-breaker (Oh, the things we had to do in the days before PowerPoint! This early Coronet film takes us through the basics of effective public speaking, with its focus on body posture and gestures. There is some very funny footage here; especially in the scene demonstrating how not to make gestures when speaking (what a forensic geek this dude is!). The final “live” speech is great in that it is about nuclear energy! The speaker’s motions are so calculated (albeit exaggerated for example), they are counter-productive to the film’s lesson and ultimately distract from what the speaker is trying to say. Great film. See the complete original print of this film for auction on eBay through 10/23! Note: The following clip was taken directly from the original 16mm print and has been edited to approximately half the film’s original length.

expertvillage asked:

Learn how to use hand gestures sparingly in public speaking with expert public oration tips in this free online public speaking video clip. Expert: Don Varney Bio: Don Varney was one of the first 33 members of the US Air Force to receive the Professional Performer Award, an award created in 1974 to honor excellence in the Air Force. Filmmaker: Mark Sullivan

Ryan DRH asked:




Fear of public speaking is one of the most common fears that is seen in the modern generation. One of the reasons for this may be the fact that in the modern day, we live a much alienated life than our forefathers did. We are brought up in alienation and like to live our life by ourselves.

However there might be other reasons behind this too. Whatever be the reason, fear of public speaking can become a source of great worry especially if you are in a profession like the corporate world, where your performance depends on speaking. In this article, we shall discuss a few ways to get rid of this fear of public speaking.

Speak Up

That’s correct. Speak up your mind. You might be scared, you might be hesitant or nervous, but don’t let this stop you from speaking your heart out. Rather, don’t care. If you let this stop you now, then it will be much easier to stop you in the future. Do it!

Select a Goal

The first few times, this will not be an easy task. You will feel like a heavy burden has been dropped on to you. But select a goal and make it a point to finish it. It might take a few extra efforts before you realize that this work has not killed you! This will make you less scared of the event, the next time it happens and you will be able to speak more freely.

You might have heard that practice makes a man perfect. The more you keep on speaking publicly, the more will your performance level increase. This will in turn increase your confidence. Thus it will also get rid of the fear of public speaking.

Once you get good at it, you will also learn to enjoy it. This will further reduce your inhibitions about public speaking.

Don’t Expect Too much

Fear of public speaking is caused directly by too much expectation people have of themselves. It’s more like you are being asked to fly a plane when you don’t have nay instructions or have never flown before. It is therefore not unnatural to succumb to this pressure. Chances are that if the pilot called you to fly a plane in the midst of a journey, you are likely to crash. There is no harm in admitting that.

Failure is Not Fatal

People are not going to throw stones at you if you are not god at public speaking. Relax. You learn best when you fail. Unless you stumble, you will not be able to walk. A person who is speaking for the first time in public is not expected to dazzle minds. Set realistic expectations.

If you follow the above steps, it is most likely that your fear of public speaking will go away.

Ronald Myers asked:




I’m going to show you how to overcome public speaking fear. Surprisingly, statistics show that people fear public speaking more than death. I find that hard to believe because people rarely ever think of “death” all the time, so naturally speaking in front of a large group of people would scare you. There is absolutely no reason to have a fear, I hope to show you how to get past it.

People Don’t See Nervous: When you’re walking out onto the stage toward the podium, no one knows you’re nervous. Your stomach could be in knots and you feel like you’re going to be sick, but you really aren’t showing nervous behavior. I think the idea of nervous thought, especially with public speaking, is that people may notice you’re nervous and this makes you even more nervous. There are only a few sutle cues that show a person is nervous and they’re so small, that the ordinary person wouldn’t put more than 1 second into them. Don’t worry so much. People don’t see that extreme nervous beast inside you. Be Prepared: This is just one important thing that can get you through this. Naturally, this is how to overcome public speaking fear, because you force yourself to be prepared to give a good speech. You know what you’re going to say. You know how you’re going to say it. You know the material. That doesn’t guarantee that you won’t bumble on some words, but you’ll do fine and it’ll really take the edge of knowing you’re prepared. The Impossible Scenarios are Impossible: You’re going to have the most far fetched things going through your head when you’re nervous before a speech. You have to accept the fact that most of these are impossible. You could have situations running through your head of booing, you might even feel like you’ll get sick on stage. All these are scary thoughts, but none are going to happen. Everyone feels these, but none of these will really happen and you need to accept that.

regraham asked:

Robert Graham (www.grahamcomm.net) teaches the fundamentals of great public speaking and presentation skills. grahamcomm.net grahamcomm.net Benefits for Roberts Presentations, Keynotes, and Workshops: * Increase Your Confidence When Selling & Presenting * Increase Sales and Revenues * Enhance Your Profile Inside & Outside Your Firm * Conquer the Fear of Public Speaking * Deliver Compelling Sales Presentations * Effectively Lead Meetings with Clients and Colleagues * Minimize the fear and reluctance to selling * Improve public speaking skills * Create relationships and establish trust – genuinely * Improve Sales Performance

Ronnie Taggy asked:




If you have a fear of speaking in public (like millions of people do…), you may want to consider taking up a public speaking class. They can be extremely helpful in getting over your fear of speaking in front of large crowds and/or giving a speech. Just like with anything else, schooling and training can help you to become skilled and more confident in whatever area you are studying. In this case, being trained to speak properly and how to properly address your audience depending on who they are would significantly boost your speaking self esteem.

When choosing the right public speaking class for you, stop for a moment and jot down on a piece of paper what your strengths and weaknesses are. Also, what areas of giving a speech do you need most work on?

Maybe you have a problem projecting your voice loud enough, or maybe you get so nervous that you can not stop rubbing your hands together while you talk. Whatever it is that you need assistance with, make sure that the particular public speaking class you are checking out covers that area. Speak with the teacher, or read the online course description and see if it fits your personal needs.

Within a very short amount of time, you can see a dramatic improvement in your speaking abilities with the right public speaking class. Sometimes however, it can take a little bit longer if someone has a really intense fear of speaking in public. Anxiety can be uncontrollable and it is a very unpleasant experience for many. Some people have trouble sleeping days, weeks and even months before they have to give a speech. They let their nerves get the best of them. I like to win the battle against my nerves and fight back with serious mental training and self education.