Why Not Address Your Fears of Public Speaking Instead of Being Consumed by Them?

Yes, man's greatest fear is public speaking. The statistics tell us so. Instead of being part of those statistics, however, why not address those fears and learn how to put your nervousness to good use? Of course your first response is to question how that is possible. How do you take your nervousness and let it work for you and not against you?

The first thing you need to understand is that nervousness is a good thing. Many people are under the mistaken belief that they need to eliminate it - get rid of it. Instead, why not take your nervousness and allow it to heighten your senses, make you more alert and give you an edge? This is indeed what that rush of adrenaline does in the flight or fight mode. On stage or at the head of the boardroom table, those characteristics can make your delivery that much better.

The problem for most people is that they allow their nervousness to remain in control. If, on the other hand, you can make use of the marvelous benefits nervousness has to offer, your passion and your enthusiasm will take your delivery to heights unknown.

To gain this wonderful control, however, there are 5 things you must do:

1. Know your material both inside and out. That does not mean memorizing or reading your presentation. It means speaking it by...
2. Talking to your audience just as if you were having a conversation in your living room...
3. Making eye contact with those who have gone out of their way to listen to you...
4. Breathing as you speak and not waiting until you have totally run out of air...
5. Believing in yourself. (If you think you cannot do it, how successful do you think you will be?)

All 5 components are invaluable in dynamic public speaking and are the best means for gaining control over your nervousness and putting it to good use. One of the best ways to ensure success is to practice your delivery out loud. Incidentally, reading it over in your mind is not practicing.

Instead of allowing your fear to consume you, why not address your nervousness the next time you are scheduled to speak and discover just how great that rush of adrenaline really is!

The Voice Lady Nancy Daniels offers private, group and corporate training in voice and presentation skills as well as Voicing It!, the only video training program on voice improvement. Visit her website at Voice Dynamic and watch as Nancy describes the best means of controlling nervousness in any form of public speaking.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nancy_Daniels

Some Help to Conquer Your Fear of Public Speaking

The fear of public speaking is a common one. It's often said that we fear speaking in public even more than we fear death. Trouble is, we often have to speak in public whether we like the idea or not. Whether it's a report at work, a speech at school or college, a Powerpoint presentation or simply standing up in front of a few people and talking, there's some niggle that creeps in to our subconscious which grows until it becomes a full blown phobia about speaking in public.

So, what can you do to conquer this fear?

You need to work on two levels - your rational, conscious, mind and your less rational, subconscious, mind.

The conscious mind is fairly easy. Just tell it that you're only speaking to a handful of people. More than a one-on-one conversation but not many more. You can likely rationalize this quite easily.

It's the subconscious mind that brings up more issues. The worry of making a mistake - don't panic about this, most of your audience will just be glad it's not them speaking. The worry of drying up mid way through your speech. All sorts of different visions race through our minds at the thought of this. Actors call it stage fright.

One of the best ways to confront your problem is to do as the saying says: "Feel your fear but do it anyway".

Yeah, right.

Back to the real world...

Start small. Move up from single conversations to a couple of people. Then three, and so on.

And train your subconscious mind to be less afraid, maybe by using a hypnosis MP3 to conquer public speaking fears.

For more help to conquer public speaking fear just click here.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Trevor_Johnson

Get Rid of Public Speaking Fear by Practicing Your Speech Where You Can See It

By "practicing your speech where you can see it", what I mean is that you should choose a method of being able to actually see what is happening when you are delivering your speech. You should be able to notice your facial expressions and your body movements, so you can see not only the story you are telling with your words, but also the story that you are telling with your body.

For some, this means practicing a speech in front of a mirror. Many people prefer this "real-time" approach, because it gives them the opportunity to immediately notice and focus on weaker elements of their speech.

However, other people prefer to videotape themselves giving a speech, and then analyze the elements of the speech at a later time. Although this does not give you the advantage of being able to correct elements of your speech on the fly, it does give you the advantage of being able to distance yourself for a bit from your speech, and then come back later to analyze it when your mind is fresh. Also, videotaping your speech gives you the advantage of being able to review certain parts of your speech again and again, to determine exactly what is lacking.

So what does being able to see yourself practicing your speech have to do with overcoming your speaking fear? Well, simply put, it does two things: First, it helps you notice movements, "filler" language, facial expressions, and other elements of your speech that may be inconsistent with the message you seek to convey. Second, it helps to solidify what your perfect speech looks like in your mind, so that you will be able to recreate it for your audience.

In order to be more specific, lets examine both of these elements in a bit more detail:

Noticing Inconsistent Elements of Your Speech.

When you see yourself giving your speech, you will pick up on nuances of your speech that detract from your message, or are inconsistent with the crux of your speech. Often times, speakers do not realize how much their body language affects the content of their speeches. Unfortunately, even if you have written a flawless speech, if you are displaying body language that is distracting, you will find that you are "losing" your audience - and you probably wont even know why.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dennis_Severt

3 Tips to Deliver a Better Presentation

Public speaking is something everyone has to face in his life time. No matter whether you have to speak at a wedding or in front of your boss. You need to be able to deliver a dazzling presentation.

In this article I want to present you some tips that you can use while speaking in front of an audience.

Prepare Yourself

Preparation is one of the most important aspects of speaking in public. Not even World Champions of Public Speaking are able to pull off their great speeches without preparation.

There are several things you can do that will have a big impact on your speech:

* Outline your speech
* Familiarize yourself with the place at which you are going to hold your speech
* Hold your speech in front of friends

The Beginning

One thing I want to emphasize here is that the beginning of the speech is the most important part. If you lose your audience there then you will not be able to pull them back.

Make sure that you have something at the beginning of your speech which grabs your listeners' attention. It can be something very simple such as a story. You could use video among other things, just be creative.

Once you have hooked your listeners it will be a lot easier to make them listen to you and to achieve the results you want to achieve.

Backup Plan

A backup plan is important especially if you rely heavily on technology such as Powerpoint or other things. If there is an overhead projector available then make sure to copy your presentation (or only the important parts of it) onto a transparency. It will be worth it when something stops working.

Also if you prepare yourself well then it should be easy for you to still hold a great presentation even though something might stop working.

Public speaking is important and there is nothing more important than learning from someone who has the experience and skills necessary to deliver a dazzling presentation.

If you want to improve public speaking skills then be sure to visit my website. Ultimately it will help you to become a better public speaker.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Julius_Kuhn-Regnier

Exercising Tips to Improve Your Public Speaking Skills

If you want to improve your public speaking skills then it's essential to exercise.

Focus On Your Goals

It's important to know what you want to get out of your training. Do you want to be more confident? Do you want to create a better presentation? Ask yourself these questions.
Then write your goals down.

Just Do It

Thinking about doing some exercises is not enough. You actually have to go out and do it.
So stop thinking about doing it and start doing it.

Get Feedback

Feedback is an important part of practicing. You will learn a lot faster if you have someone that gives you feedback as to how you are doing and what you should improve.

Be sure to pick someone that gives you genuine feedback. It's not going to help if your friends are telling you that you are doing everything right. Feedback is about criticizing that person.

How to Get Better at Public Speaking

Public speaking is the number one fear in the U.S.. Number two is death.

It's strange that people are more afraid of speaking in public then of death. There are definitely ways to overcome this fear, to get better at public speaking.

Reading Books

If you want to get better at this then it's definitely valuable to read books. Books can give you a tremendous amount of information about public speaking. In order to effectively learn from them you actually have to read a book. If you bought one then don't let it rest on your shelf. Start reading it.

Another thing that gets in your way of actually learning from books is not applying the material. The issue is a simple one. Books provide you with theoretical information. But in order to truly learn from books you need to apply this information.

You can do this by following exercises that are presented in the book or simply by using what you have learned on a daily basis.

Taking Courses

Most of the people decide to take courses on public speaking instead of educating themselves through books. That's fine if you learn better that way.

There are lots of courses on improving your public speaking skills. Decide on one and then use all of the information that is given to you. Again if you don't invest any time in it then you will not gain anything from it. Apply the information that was given to you.

Videotape Yourself

One of the best ways to get better in public speaking is to videotape yourself. A video of yourself makes your weak spots obvious and will help you to correct them, making you an even better public speaker.
If you can't record a video yourself then ask a friend to do so. It will help you tremendously.