In this short article I’m going to show you how you can overcome the fear of public speaking and beat the butterflies, so that you can stand up and deliver your next presentation with absolute confidence.
Public speaking myths
Before I launch into showing you how you can overcome the nerves and beat the butterflies, I want to dispel a few myths about public speaking that you might have heard.
These are myths that are designed to help overcome the fear of public speaking , but they’re making things worse. Advice such as imagine the audience naked, your audience wants to see you fail, and don’t look the audience in the eyes because they’re not going to know the difference. These are all falsehoods!
They are designed to try to make you feel better, but the reality is they’re taking your energy and attention away from where you should be focusing onto these basically myths. They’re not helping you overcome the fear of public speaking and beat the butterflies.
How to overcome the fear of public speaking
Now let’s talk about what you can do that will make a marked difference, that will help you overcome the fear of public speaking, stand up and deliver your next presentation with confidence!
Prepare Early
Let’s start with something really simple, and that’s prepare early. Don’t wait until half an hour before your speech to start thinking about what you’re going to say in your presentation. Give yourself a couple of days. It doesn’t need to be a massive amount of effort, but just the mere act of preparing and the thinking about your ideas, starting to coalesce your thoughts into something tangible will make a big difference to your confidence.
You will be able to stand up there with a level of authority and positioning to show that you know your stuff because you’ve thought about your ideas, positioned them and considered how you can share them in the right way to have the right impact.
Use a proven speed structure
To assist you with that, you should ensure you’ve got the right structure for your ideas. In other words, have you structured your presentation effectively? Do you have a clear opening, a clear conclusion that has a call to action, and does the body of your speech that help you translate and transfer your audience’s thinking and ideas from where they started to where you want them at the end? Now if you need help with that, why not check out my website at the PublicSpeakingSkillsAcademy.com and download my seven-step formula to doubling your sales pitches and doubling your sales effectively. Go check that out now, and that will have a big impact for you.
Get to the room early and get comfortable
Once you’ve got your speech prepared, you can then start to think about getting to the room nice and early. Go the room where you’ll be delivering your presentation. This will help you A, first get set up and B, get comfortable in the area where you’ll be delivering your presentation from. The better prepared you are in terms of getting the feel for the room, checking out the speaking area and making sure that you’re comfortable. It’s a different perspective when you’re standing up in front of a group looking out across a room full of people with sets of eyes staring back at you.
If it’s the first time you’re seeing the room from that position and that angle, it’s disconcerting. Instead, get to the room early. Get yourself set up, so that you know that the PowerPoint is connected, the projector is working, everything is all good from that perspective. More importantly, you can get the feel of the room, and you get to understand and know what it looks like when you stand at the front, and look across the room with all these seats laid out for you to talk to before people walk in there and fill those seats up.
Meet and greet audience members
Now as your audience members walk into the room and fill the seats up, you want to be meeting and greeting. That is what’s going to help you build a connection. You’ll start to realise that you actually have allies in the room. There are people there that want to see you succeed because ultimately that’s important to remember. Your audience doesn’t want to see you fail, they want to see you succeed. By talking to people as they get into the room, as they arrive, you build that connection. You build a relationship, and you build allies in the room.
Your audiences want you to succeed
Finally, as I’ve touched on, remember your audience wants to see you succeed. They want to see you do well. Don’t approach this and don’t start your presentation with the thought of your audience is against you. They want to see you succeed, and I challenge you to think about this.
When you last sat through someone else’s presentation, did you sit there with the hope and intention that they would fail, or did you want them to do well?
I expect you wanted them to do a great job because that makes it more enjoyable for you. It’s awkward and uncomfortable for the audience (as it is for the presenter) if the speaker is struggling. If you as a presenter are struggling, your audience feels the pain for you. They feel uncomfortable. They want to see you succeed.
Remember that!
You want to see other speakers succeed. People in your audiences want to see you succeed.
Conclusion
Remember simple steps that will help you overcome the fear of public speaking and deliver your presentation with absolute confidence. Prepare your presentation nice and early. Use a good solid structure. Have a clear opening, conclusion and a body of your speech. Know what your call to action is. Get to the room early, get set up. Meet and greet, and remember ultimately your audience wants you to succeed. When you remember these things, and you act upon them, you can deliver your presentations with absolute confidence because you will do the best job that you can.
If you want more help, more information, more advice on how you can overcome the fear of public speaking and become a better public speaker, then come and check out my website at the Public Speaking Skills Academy where there are a range of free articles and other resources that will help you increase your influence, increase your authority and deliver great speeches and presentations.
