How to speak in public without fear or anxiety: More than half, approximately 75% of public speakers experience what is known as glossophibia which is the fear of public speech or speaking. This is a condition which could affect a persons work or emotions. This fear is bad for so many reasons. Whether it is for business or just passing across information, there is always a need for effective communication and this is hampered by the existence of glossophobia.
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In this article, I will not only teach you how to speak in public without fear but I will take you through the important and causes of fear during public speaking. I therefore encourage you to read this article painstakingly so that you will be able to grasp everything contained in it.
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Table of Content
Causes of the fear of public speaking
Some individuals are not great at Public Speaking because of their upbringing. As humans, we are a sum total of our experiences, education, environment and exposure. Thousands of people grew up in homes that are filled with negative affirmations, while some were groomed in environments that shut them up even before they attempt to speak. Negative words such as what do you know, you are too small to have an opinion and others filled their upbringing air.
Also, some people suffered as victims of domestic violence. Without knowing it, these factors have affected them and formed their base core over time. Fear was given a deposit base within such individuals and their confidence level was dealt an Anthony Joshua blow from the onset and it has robbed many of their public speaking skills
Furthermore, generally, the negative causes apart, many persons can not speak well because of Lack of Training and nothing more.
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Importance of a Good Public Speaking Skill
Public speaking is a very serious business and its importance cannot be overemphasized, some will be discussed below:
a. Leadership: Individuals of exceptional eloquence are usually called upon to take up positions of authority. They may necessarily not be the smartest in the room but loud enough to be heard and recognized. Public Speakers do not knock on doors, rather they build them.
b. It is lucrative: Research has shown that public speaking is one of the most lucrative skills to learn in 2021. Not only is it lucrative; it is also among the skill that is not likely go into extinction in the nearest future. It will surprise you to know that an average Youtube video content creator makes as much as $5,000 monthly. Yes! That is what public speakers make from youtube.
Aside from creating contents for YouTube, public speaking is gradually becoming one of the most demanded skills in the world today. For example, in schools, adverts, presentations etc, public speaking skill is essential.
c. Influence: Public speaking brings influence as having a recognized voice makes a person noticeable in the room and due to this, protocols could be broken for his or her sake. When it comes to people of eloquence, they understand the tools of power and navigate towards the heart of men and women of power and take a tenured seat there; they influence.
Public Speakers usually act as the power behind the throne, they stay as the people who raise the hearts and minds of leaders in their most vulnerable moments when they are not leading themselves. People break down and when they do, a great public speaker will be of great help.
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d. Career Advancement: As you progress in life , you would understand particularly in a structure such as Nigeria that public speaking skills will help greatly to advance in your career. It is not enough to do the work, it pays also to be seen doing the work. It promotes to know you did the work, and if people do not know, make it loud!
This does not mean that a person should overhype his or her worth, the speech should not be beyond the value you bring to the table but speak still of the value you bring, of the teamwork spirit and very importantly make it a habit to praise leaders. This can be done by words, actions or your work.
e. Good relationships: Good public speakers are generally good at networking and connecting with people. Our Words create our World; public Speakers are technically never stranded in love circles. The fact is that they seek or they are sought and thus they get to build good relationships.
Public Speakers get loved by people they know and by people they do not know , it just flows. But sometimes, they also get a reasonable bundle of hate too on the basis of their public speaking prowess.
f. Living happy: Most Public Speakers live happy lives, they mostly self motivate and are not totally dependent on external validations. In our world today where people need external confirmation, it is of the greatest comfort to be your own greatest fan. To know and actively remind yourself in your mind that you are more than enough and such power only comes from the skill of public speaking.
It is important to speak to yourself first before you speak to others and to ensure you are not speaking yourself into a fake life because the greatest form of truth is self truth. So ensure that your public speaking words are filled with truth and valid hope for a future.
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How to Overcome Fear During Public Speaking (Deal with Stage Fright)
We have already discussed the fear of public speaking and the causes of it, here are some solutions to the problem:
1. Be intentional and start speaking: As already mentioned above, public speaking is serious business and the individual must be intentional about public speaking, it is a skill which is grown daily and not in a day and the best way to become a Public Speaker without fear is to start speaking intentionally. This can happen when we give weekly calls to our various contacts, also by having mirror moments where we hold debates looking at ourselves in the mirror and so on.
how to speak in public without fear
As a speaker, it is necessary to make it a duty to call at least three persons weekly who will exclaim when they receive your call, atleast in the early stages as a public speaker and this is because such person always have something to talk about. And you can use them to work on your public speaking proficiency.
Also, talking for longer moments helps really to become confident in speech and it must be such that you must be intentional about it.
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2. Find out who your audience are: To make an excellent and bold speech, you must be able to predict the kind of audience you are to address. This is not something everyone knows, it is a secret trick I think will help you. There are three(3) things predicting your audience will help you do.
a. It will help you choose the right words for your speech.
b. It will help you to know how technical your speech should be.
c. And lastly, It will reduce your tension.
3. Read a lot: A public speaker must be a reader, there is something about new knowledge that needs to be shared, hence when you read you have something new to talk about to a person or group of persons about and this will go a long way to help in making your speech fluent and killing your fear of speaking.
tips to speak in the public without fear or anxiety
4. Train yourself: It is important for any public speaker who wants to attain proficiency in public speech to make it a duty to get further training on public speaking by going for various work shops and seminars on public speaking. And even while we attend the training it is important to keep speaking.
how to prepare for a public speech
5. Prepare ahead of time: here what is necessary is practice. As a public speaker, when you have gotten your speech written, it is necessary to go over it severally and to repeatedly read it out to yourself or anyone who can listen to you and very importantly to try to look for loop holes in the paper and look for possible questions that the audience may throw at you and pre answer them.
6. Don’t fear a moment of silence: One important point to always have in mind when speaking in public is the fact that, it is not a crime to have a moment of silence. Usually, many people are afraid of doing this and it has caused them to get disorganized in their speach.
How to deal with fear in public speaking
If you feel, at any point during your speech, that you are getting distracted or disorganized don’t force yourself to keep talking because that will cause even more problem. At this point, the best thing to do is to calmly put yourself together again (even if it will require you to have a moment of silence). This is a killer tip that will help you deal with fear during public speaking.
The truth is that, while you’re thinking that your audience may find you awkward, they aren’t going to do that. Those who are paying close attention will take it that you are either getting distracted and you don’t want to give them a wrong information or something. Trust me, there is no crime to have some moment of silence.
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7. Stay focus: it helps to reduce the fear of public speaking if the speaker can focus on the topic of the presentation and deliver it instead of dwelling majorly on the reaction of the audience or on his fear of public speech.
how to overcome fear during public speaking
8. Be comfortable with the topic: A person cannot give what he does not have, therefore every public speaker is to be well acquainted with the topic he is going to speak on so that he can be at some level of ease and comfort instead of the tension that will prevail when he is not well versed in the topic in question. It is important to be confident and prepared on the subject or topic to be presented.
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9. Speak out and do not rush: it is very important in boosting your public speaking skills and overcoming the fear when you realise that your audience actually are not bored but are listening to you and you can successfully get your audience to listen to you by being articulated and holding on to their attention.
how to give a public speech without fear
This may be done by speaking eloquently in a loud enough voice, speak out and also by steadily going through the discourse instead of rushing and losing your audience.
10. Write down your speech if necessary: Weather or not you are giving your speech off-hand, you should write it down in piece of paper. However, this is not what you must do (for those who are already good in public speaking). But it will be of great help to those who are very callow and timid in speaking to the public.
Tips to overcome fear during public speaking
The advantages of this to newbie speakers cannot be overruled. Writing down your work, should replace cramming your work. This is so because writing down your work helps you to prepare a very coordinated work, and keep the work in your memory without necessarily cramming it.
11. Note your key points: Now that your work has been penned down, the next step is to get the key points in that work. Make sure you have the key points of your speech in your head.
How to overcome stage fright during public speaking
It is as opposed to cramming the whole work, which is capable of destroying your speech presentation. Noting your key points, will also facilitate a cohesive speech presentation, and will make it impossible for you to be short of words.
Before I conclude on this topic, I personally encourage you to watch the video below if you need more inspiring tips that will help you to start speaking perfectly in the public.
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In conclusion, it is very important to remember as a public speaker that you are not alone in the fear of public speaking and that this fear is very easy to overcome if the above given solutions can be followed intentionally, strictly and consistently.
Edeh Samuel Chukwuemeka ChMC, is a Law Student and a Certified Mediator/Conciliator in Nigeria. He is also a Developer with knowledge in HTML, CSS, JS, PHP and React Native. Samuel is bent on changing the legal profession by building Web and Mobile Apps that will make legal research a lot easier.
I don’t know why I really find it so difficult to speak in public, sometimes is because I am not interested or I don’t know how to speak very well. Then how can you help me