5 tips how to overcome public speaking anxiety
Public speaking terrifies many people. Sometimes even the bravest and the most confident ones can’t help sweating and rubbing their hands nervously. The fear of public speaking is called glossophobia. Read the 7 tips below which might help you deal with this tricky fear which is most often unjustified.
1. Rehearse
You will feel much firmer during your presentation if you have practiced in advance. For example, you can involve your friends or family asking them to listen to what you have to say. You will build confidence step by step and larger groups will eventually stop making you feel as if you are paralyzed. When it’s “time to shine” you will just remember how well you did at home and try to replicate the same.
2. Don't Just memorize word for work
Most important for you is to remember the key points but not the whole speech word for word. We have this desire to learn everything by heart just to be sure that we don’t fail once all eyes are on us. If this happens to you as well, just try to relax and believe in your ability to improvise. There’re many ways to deliver the same message without behaving like a programmed machine so just be more open-minded about it.
3. Include real life examples
When people do presentations, they tend to include a lot of raw and boring bullet points. It’s fine to present information in chunks, but you have to make sure the audience doesn’t fall asleep during your speech. To make your material more vivid and easy to grasp, try to give them a couple of real-life examples. This is also how the audience will be more likely to view your material as truthful and reliable.
4. Don’t stress out
Just remember – in most cases the fear goes away just after the first second when you step out. All you have to do is to force yourself start and then things will get easier. Try to visualize the positive outcome and how people applaud – this will help you breathe and stay calm.
5. Engage your audience
First of all, it will make your speech livelier and more interesting for the listeners. Secondly, if you have the group involved, you will have time to reorganize your thoughts if you see you are going off track.
You might also be interested to take a look at our recent blogs for more learning tips and guides.
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