The Fear of Public Speaking Paralyzes Me Before An Audience. How Can I Overcome Self-Consciousness?

This is a very common concern among working professionals who approach the academy seeking help. They feel a lack of self-confidence when it comes to sharing weekly updates with their manager during team meetings, sharing updates with the senior management team during quarterly business reviews, sharing learnings from the past fiscal year and presenting their plan for the upcoming fiscal year for their respective territories during annual sales kickoffs, representing their company as a speaker at a global conference, meetings with customers and partners, small business owners presenting their business model and idea to investors to get funding, etc. All these activities give them loads of anxiety and sleepless nights. Some even seek help from mental health professionals and are on medication since they are not able to cope with the anxiety.

All it actually takes is a little effort in the right direction. The only prerequisite to becoming a great speaker is the willingness and commitment to be one.

After giving numerous presentations in my life, I realized that the fear of public speaking is almost an automatic response and the tendency to decline a speaking engagement is a natural reaction that follows. Sometimes it’s quite a difficult task for companies to identify and convince their leaders to represent the company as a speaker at a corporate event. Suddenly everyone gets super busy handling a very critical customer situation. No one wants to do it. The fact of the matter is, that everyone’s terrified of it, and rather avoid it.

So, if the fear of public speaking occurs as a result of the mind detecting a threat and automatically paralyzing you, what then is the remedy to it? The one thing that I have personally followed in my life and that has worked for me every single time, is “Feel the fear and do it anyway.” It doesn’t matter if you give a good or bad presentation, what matters is that you faced your fear head-on and took away some power from it. All great speakers were bad speakers at first. As the old saying goes, “Anything worth doing, is worth doing poorly to start.”?

The key is to grab every opportunity of speaking in front of an audience and become accustomed to it. The more you do it, the weaker the fear becomes, and there comes a point when you will be able to manage your nerves on the platform within a few seconds and appear extremely natural and authentic as though you are having a casual conversation with a bunch of friends.

The reason why you feel self-conscious in front of an audience is that you are giving undue attention to yourself. For the delivery, your message, the content, and your audience should be your primary focus. Be so immersed in your subject that there is no room for thoughts of fear and anxiety. Your mind can only focus on one thing at a time, so you must choose whether you want to focus on thoughts of fear and anxiety or on the important message that you wish to deliver to your wonderful audience who have come here to learn something from you, to be inspired by you, to be motivated by you.

Perfect preparation has always helped me deliver great presentations throughout my career. The one practice I used to follow that I follow to this day, is that once I have identified the key message that I which to deliver to the audience, identified my stories, statistics to back up my message, illustrations, and slide deck ready, I put together a very well-structured slide-wise talking points document.

It looks something like this:

(Slide No. 1)

Slide Name: “Public Speaking”

Talking Points for Slide No. 1:

"Public speaking is the art of speaking face to face with a live audience. However, technology continues to transform the art of public speaking through newly available technology such as video conferencing, multimedia presentations, and other nontraditional forms."

(Slide No. 2)

Slide Name: “Nontraditional Forms of Public Speaking”

Talking Points for Slide No. 2:

"TED Talks is a perfect example of a nontraditional form of public speaking. TED is a conference where speakers from all walks of life are invited to present to a live audience for 18 min. These conferences are broadcast globally creating a wider audience base and enabling the speakers to reach both the physical and virtual audiences who are watching their talk from the comfort of their own homes. These audiences can be watching from all around the world. YouTube is another nontraditional form of public speaking that can help you reach a larger audience. Many people don’t consider YouTube broadcasting to be a true form of public speaking because there is no real and physical audience. However, technology has transformed our traditional view of public speaking. Whatever channel one chooses to communicate with their audience, the purpose is either to inspire, motivate, inform, persuade, or entertain. Or it can be a combination of all."

Following this practice helps me form an association between the slides that will be displayed and their corresponding talking point. The talking points flash in front of my mind’s eye when I am delivering on the platform. That way the slide deck prevents me from deviating from my presentation outline, and my talking points help me speak fluently, and to the point.

A point of caution here – Now just because I have a well-structured slide-wise talking point document doesn’t mean I memorize the talking points verbatim, for doing so will be a perfect receipt for disaster. If you forget a single word, you will be forced to repeat the complete sentence for you to remember the next one. It will make you look amateurish and reveal to the audience that you are speaking from memory and not your heart. It will make you sound very mechanical, and no one likes to listen to someone who speaks mechanically. The only purpose of the well-structured slide-wise talking points document is to maintain consistency in your delivery and to help you internalize your content ahead of your presentation.

Where there is preparation, fear has nothing to feed on. It’s only the prepared speaker who deserves to be confident. So, whether it is your team meeting, quarterly business review, or a customer meeting, your preparation will give you the confidence that you need.

However, don’t be disheartened if you make mistakes along the way. As I mentioned earlier:

?“Anything Worth Doing, is Worth Doing Poorly at First.”

Hope this was helpful.

About SupeResources Academy LLP:

SupeResources Academy LLP, a corporate entity, is a Personality Development Academy geared towards helping students and working professionals develop a well-rounded personality.

SupeResources Academy LLP, based out of Pune, Maharashtra, India, has been Founded by PERSEUS UDACHIA - an Ex-Corporate Professional, a Certified Soft Skills Trainer, and a Licensed Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).

SupeResources Academy offers various online and in-person transformational Personality Development Courses for School Students, University Students, Fresh Graduates, and Working Professionals. While students can enroll directly in the courses with the Academy, SupeResources Academy also conducts various Personality Development Workshops for Schools, Colleges, and Corporates.

Our Flagship Course – "Public Speaking & Communication Skills" is designed to help students and working professionals develop healthy self-esteem and boost their confidence. If you feel that the fear of Public Speaking is stopping you from living your full potential, then this course is for you.

Through this course, participants learn how to overcome stage fear, improve their spoken English and overall communication skills, make an impactful presentation that inspires their audience, enhance their ability to influence people through their talk, use good body language and hand gestures, develop healthy self-esteem, and boost their confidence.

Public Speaking & Communication Skills Course for Working Professionals

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Best Regards,

PERSEUS UDACHIA

Founder at SupeResources Academy LLP | Personality Development Coach | Mobile: +91 9822290467 | Email: [email protected] | Registered Office: Convent Street, India, Maharashtra, Pune: 411001 | Website: www.superesources.com