Are you ready for a pop quiz? Define glossophobia. If you are thinking that this word means an intense fear of something, you are halfway there. Glossophobia is an acute fear of public speaking. Now raise your hand if you suffer from glossophobia. Chances are, your hand is high in the air right about now. Statistics have shown that public speaking phobia is right up there with a fear of snakes and death. It is clear that public speaking sends many to the depths of terror, but the good news is that there are methods that you can employ to overcome your public speaking phobia.
The first question to address when confronting a public speaking phobia is why the fear exists in the first place. For most folks, the thought of standing in front of a group of people makes them worry about how they will be perceived by the crowd. No one wants to be laughed at or seen as foolish, and putting yourself in the public eye seems to increase the odds of that occurring. You may be concerned that you will forget what to say, or that you will stumble over your words. If you suffer from this kind of fear of public speaking, here are a few tips to help you overcome them.
How to See your Audience
There is an age-old piece of advice that suggests you will be less nervous before a crowd if you imagine the people in the audience in their underwear. Most public speakers will probably agree that this is not the most effective way to approach an audience calmly and professionally. Perhaps a better method is to ponder the fact that these folks want to see you succeed in your public speaking endeavor as much as you do. Think of the group as pulling for you, and you will have a much better chance of connecting with your crowd. It also helps to count to ten once you approach the podium, and before you start speaking. This will give your audience a chance to prepare for what you have to say, and will allow you to take control of the room. Once you begin speaking, smile and make eye contact with your group to get them to respond to you with interest and enthusiasm. It may not be an easy task if your knees are knocking below, but it will help you to relax a bit and gain some confidence before beginning your speech.
Of course, overcoming a public speaking phobia begins before you ever enter the auditorium. If you have prepared your speech thoroughly, and researched the room that you will be speaking in, the crowd that you will be talking to and the resources that you will be utilizing, you will naturally approach the event with a great deal more confidence. It also helps to practice your speech a number of times before the big day. Don't rely only on the mirror for your practice time either (although this is one good technique). Practice in front of your family and friends, and allow them to offer constructive feedback to help you improve. This exercise will greatly help you to get past your public speaking phobia.
Finally, remember that many people suffer from the same public speaking phobia that you are experiencing. Even some famous performers still have to grapple with stage fright before a performance. Knowing that you are not alone in your fear will be a great help in overcoming your public speaking phobia. And once you have delivered a few of these speeches, the process will most definitely become much easier. Practice makes perfect or at least less fearful.
You can take the same exact written talk and give it to two speakers and one will turn that script into an exciting live event for his audience and the other will leave that crowd cold.
Obviously your goal as to be that speaker that can really make any presentation come alive. The first "myth" to get out of your head then is that how well you do at creating excitement has anything whatsoever to do with your subject matter.
While it always helps for you to be excited about the topic itself, you can develop the skills to take any text and turn it into a genuinely exciting public speaking event for any crowd and to do it every time. Its just a matter of knowing how.
Much of how excited your audience will be has to do with your own level of energy, your sense of humor and how much you are enjoying yourself up there. This is one of the great secrets of the really great entertainers or public speakers. If you are having fun, your audience will have fun too. Fun is contagious.
Think of the great late night host Johnnie Carson. He always seemed to be having a great time. And as a result the world wanted to join him and have a great time too. You can cultivate that personality and that attitude when you are on stage.
To have fun during your public speaking engagement, you have to learn to have some fun with the subject matter. This is not always easy if the subject matter is mundane and ho hum. But if you see that topic as boring, so will your crowd and your time talking to them will be a tedious trial on your soul and on theirs too.
So have some fun even with how mundane the topic is. If you join the audience in their feelings about the topic, you and they become partners to find the excitement in this topic.
But along with finding excitement in the topic, learn to have fun with the audience. You can do that even before you begin to speak on the outline at hand. Take some time to step away from the podium and interact with the audience.
Ask them questions and learn who the vocal members of the crowd are. Find out who the big jokers are and the ones who will have some wise cracks to add as you speak.
These connections and spontaneous friendships will pay off as the presentation begins. But you are doing something dangerous there too. By energizing the crowd, you are also giving them permission to jump in during your talk and "help you out".
As you begin to speak, put energy and excitement, humor and personality into that text.The excitement of the crowd that sprung into existence because you started your relationship with them with affection and humor will feed your presentation.
Yes, if you put this kind of snap and pop into your time in front of a crowd, you will see feedback come back from that audience, particularly from those wise crackers you took time to make friends with at the start.
But as scary at having that kind of interruption is, it means your crowd is energized and you an actually used that for your advantage. You can actually develop the ability to "surf" these interruptions and use them to propel your prevention forward.
By teasing the crowd, asking them questions, the funny remarks that come back will actually be pertinent to what you have to say next. You can take your cues from their comments and take them right back to your outline and take the presentation forward to its conclusion.
This kind of public speaking can be dangerous and more than a little scary to learn to do.But because you had fun and our audience had fun, that presentation is full of "snap" and is 100% more successful. And that makes it worth taking the risks to learn this kind of public speaking.