Overcome Your Anxiety With Effective Public Speaking Tips

By Zoe Smith


If you are reading this you're probably one of those people who break into a cold sweat at the thought of having to face an audience and speaking to them. You look at speakers who are completely at ease and you think that that's a talent reserved for only a lucky few. Well, you are wrong. I have friends who used to have really bad public speaking anxiety and they have overcome it successfully. Here are simple and helpful public speaking tips to help you get into that platform and speak at ease in no time at all.

1. More often than not, we will have ample time to prepare before giving a speech. Gather every bit of material you can on the topic needed and study like crazy. You don't need to incorporate every trivia you got, but you must make sure that you know as much as you can about what you are speaking about. When you are confident on your expertise or knowledge of something, it will significantly ease the anxiety you are feeling.

Even if you have prepared well, don't aim to deliver it verbatim-speak from your heart. An excellent public speaker knows his material so well and is passionate about it that he can veer away from the speech and still effectively put his point across.

2. If you are giving a power point presentation, do not give a boring bullet point presentation. Make it interesting. Incorporate compelling visuals, images, videos or sound bites. You will lose people's attention fast if you use slides and just read the bullet points. A short and concise presentation with suitable illustrations is the best.

3. Now, even if you are well prepared and have a fantastic presentation going for you-public speaking anxiety can still grip you. The scariest moment is 1 minute before your actual speech and when the fear hits you- take deep breaths. Imagine the positive outcome of your speech. Replay the points of your speech in your mind and envision your audience responding to it well.

4. When you face the sea of faces, it's always a good thing to find a friendly face that can encourage you throughout the talk. If you don't find any look for people, no matter how few, who are interested and focus on them during the down times of the speech. If you have at least one person who is helped by you, your whole presentation has been worth it.

5. If you want to make your speech a success, engage your audience. Involve them in stories or in whatever you are talking about. Ask questions and think about it as if you were simply conversing with a group of friends. When you encourage the audience to actively participate in the discussion, they will be more interested and remember your speech more positively.

Every single individual has something to say-don't be deceived into thinking otherwise! Go ahead, learn these helpful public speaking tips, practice in front of a few friends and get ready when the time comes for you to shine. Live and be free today!




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