{"id":38202,"date":"2016-02-03T14:35:44","date_gmt":"2016-02-03T22:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=38202"},"modified":"2016-02-05T14:39:53","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T22:39:53","slug":"eliminate-3-common-public-speaking-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/eliminate-3-common-public-speaking-fears\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Eliminate The 3 Most Common Public Speaking Fears"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>Imagine yourself on a stage in front of 3,000 people. Everyone is staring at you with anticipation. The room is eerily silent.<\/p>\n<p>The eager listeners in the audience came to see\u00a0<em>you<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The topic doesn&#8217;t matter, only\u00a0the fact that\u00a0<em>you\u00a0<\/em>are the center of attention.<\/p>\n<p>Does this thought\u00a0inspire\u00a0your\u00a0supreme confidence and unabashed enthusiasm, or does it conjure up some of your worst fears?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;What if I forget the words?&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I might do something stupid and embarrass myself.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;They&#8217;ll have no idea what I&#8217;m talking about.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;My [insert body part here] is\/are sweating and everyone will know!&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>According to a Gallop Poll, 40{54c12dad2cc2b53ae830e39915b1a3e70288dbcbbeb8bbf8395437c5dc3c512c} of us are afraid of public speaking.<\/p>\n<p>So afraid that we&#8217;re more scared of speaking than\u00a0death or\u00a0snakes.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been there myself. When I was an intern in college, I called in sick on my last day of work just so I didn&#8217;t have to give a short presentation to a small group of engineers (who I had worked with).<\/p>\n<p>Why is speaking in front of others so terrible for most of us?<\/p>\n<p>It turns out that\u00a0the millions of people petrified of\u00a0public speaking share <em>the same three\u00a0universal\u00a0fears<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately,<em> all of these fears can be conquered<\/em>\u00a0if you just know what they are and\u00a0specific strategies for dealing with them.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s look at these three most common public speaking fears and how to eliminate them starting today.<\/p>\n<h2>1. How you\u00a0speak<\/h2>\n<p>The first is a fear of\u00a0saying the wrong thing, or in the wrong way.<\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;re trying to\u00a0express yourself, but you&#8217;re afraid you&#8217;ll forget what you wanted to say, you&#8217;ll &#8220;blank out,&#8221; you&#8217;ll mispronounce words, you won&#8217;t speak loudly enough,\u00a0or you will fail to articulate what you meant.<\/p>\n<p>Your goal is to share\u00a0content with your audience, and yet you fear stumbling over the\u00a0content itself (or completely forgetting it).<\/p>\n<p><strong>How to eliminate the fear of how you speak:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Do you\u00a0usually\u00a0memorize your speech from a script? If so, throw it out. Instead, use a single page of large-typed, outlined notes. Then, practice it&#8212;out loud&#8212;three to six times, depending on the length and your comfort level with the material.<\/p>\n<p>When I started out, I used to write out my speeches and memorize them. The problem with this approach is that any slip-up throws you off and results in the &#8220;blanking out&#8221; and losing your place that&#8217;s so central to this fear in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>By using higher-level notes that key you into the important points, each practice run will feel more like a conversation, and the speech will develop organically.<\/p>\n<p>After you&#8217;ve put together your presentation and notes, find a room that&#8217;s as close to the real deal as possible. Practice with an overhead projector if you plan to use slides, and get a feel for\u00a0the flow of the speech from start to end, such as transitions and\u00a0areas where you expect to involve the audience.<\/p>\n<p>Practice the opening, closing, and any critical points (such as quotes) more often. This will\u00a0increase your confidence at the beginning (when you&#8217;re most nervous) and help you close with a solid and memorable impression.<\/p>\n<h2>2. How you\u00a0look<\/h2>\n<p>The second is a fear of appearing awkward, or put another way, &#8220;looking like a complete idiot.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Should you fold your\u00a0hands, put them at your\u00a0sides, or gesture with them? Are you making sufficient eye contact? Are you rocking, pacing, or fidgeting? Is your face making the right expression?<\/p>\n<p>You might have a million thoughts bouncing around your head about\u00a0how you look that have\u00a0<em>nothing\u00a0<\/em><em>to do with the message<\/em>. And yet, you know you&#8217;re being judged.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How to eliminate the fear of how you look:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We all have nervous habits that make us\u00a0<em>appear\u00a0<\/em>nervous&#8212;whether we are or not.<\/p>\n<p>If you can become aware of those habits, and develop new ones, you could learn to appear<\/i> confident&#8212;whether you are or not.<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, even confident people can have habits that make them appear nervous. The key here is to appear as confident as you are in the message you want to deliver.<\/p>\n<p>If you knew you folded your arms, you would\u00a0practice opening them up and using what&#8217;s called a &#8220;power&#8221; pose. If you knew you liked to stare at the same person (usually the most friendly faces in the audience), you would\u00a0practice distributing your eye contact to\u00a0make more of the audience feel included.<\/p>\n<p>But the\u00a0only way to do this is to <em>get feedback<\/em>. How?<\/p>\n<p>Here are two ways I personally like to get\u00a0feedback. You can use these\u00a0to practice repeatedly and start\u00a0replacing bad habits with good ones.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Record yourself on video.<\/strong> Use your smartphone or a cheap video camera, and film yourself speaking for about 5 minutes. Then watch it back and write down the nervous habits that you notice most. This will give you the initial feedback to start replacing them with more confident, less nervous looking habits.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Join a speaking club.\u00a0<\/strong>Clubs like Toastmasters International, and training courses like Dale Carnegie, are designed around providing group feedback in a live setting, which will accelerate your awareness of your nervous habits so you can address them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>3. How you\u00a0connect<\/h2>\n<p>The last is a fear of the audience not understanding you or your message&#8212;failing to connect.<\/p>\n<p>Why are you speaking in the first place? To inspire, persuade, teach, or inform others. You might have the most amazing TED-worthy idea in the world, and yet you&#8217;re afraid the audience just won&#8217;t get it. Your fear is that you won&#8217;t connect.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How to eliminate the fear of how you connect:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Remember that you&#8217;re trying to solve a problem for the audience&#8212;whether it&#8217;s inspiring or educating. They&#8217;re not here for\u00a0<em>you<\/em>\u00a0the individual but rather\u00a0<em>what they will hear from you\u00a0<\/em>that satisfies their burning needs, pains, or desires.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>One idea that&#8217;s worked for me is reaching out to or interviewing potential audience members in advance. If you can talk to even two or three members of your audience, you can tailor the speech to exceed their expectations. This will make it easy to connect.<\/p>\n<p>Also, make sure to mingle with the audience before you speak. This will help calm your nerves, give you a chance to ask what they&#8217;re expecting of the talk (and tailor accordingly in real-time), and appear confident, authentic, and personable.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, tell your story. In\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/1KgcTPD\" target=\"_blank\">Made To Stick<\/a><\/em>, Chip and Dan Heath found that telling a simple\u00a0story with emotion is much more powerful than your presentation delivery skills.<\/p>\n<h2>Final thoughts<\/h2>\n<p>My personal experience with these techniques gives me the confidence to stand by them. I used to be a\u00a0shy, socially awkward, introverted engineer afraid of speaking up even in small meetings.<\/p>\n<p>Today I regularly deliver speeches to large crowds, compete in speech competitions, and present myself as capable\u00a0and competent. But that&#8217;s only because I worked at eliminating these fears by developing skills, not by changing who I am. You can do the exact same thing.<\/p>\n<p>Now that you know the three most common public speaking fears and how to eliminate them, take action today!<\/p>\n<h2>Did these three public speaking fears&#8212;and how to eliminate them&#8212;resonate with you? Reply below!<\/h2>\n<p>If you liked this article, you might also like\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/howtoattainsuccess.com\/hey-pickthebrain\" target=\"_blank\">howtoattainsuccess.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n<p><em>Philip Pape is an author, public speaker, and Success Coach who helps smart people become confident and self-disciplined at <a href=\"http:\/\/howtoattainsuccess.com\/hey-pickthebrain\">howtoattainsuccess.com<\/a>. He\u2019s here to help you transform your approach to life\u2014while making it all feel like it\u2019s who you were meant to be. <a href=\"http:\/\/howtoattainsuccess.com\/hey-pickthebrain\">Checkout his free giveaways here<\/a>. Follow Philip on Twitter <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/philip_pape\" target=\"_blank\">@philip_pape<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine yourself on a stage in front of 3,000 people. Everyone is staring at you with anticipation. The room is eerily silent. The eager listeners in the audience came to see\u00a0you. The topic doesn&#8217;t matter, only\u00a0the fact that\u00a0you\u00a0are the center &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/eliminate-3-common-public-speaking-fears\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12163,"featured_media":38220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[38,205,112],"tags":[4653,4028,1562,66,104,4652,4629],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How To Eliminate The 3 Most Common Public Speaking Fears<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fear of public speaking comes down to three universal reasons. 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All three can be eliminated if you just know what they are and how to deal with them.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/eliminate-3-common-public-speaking-fears\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pickthebrain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-03T22:35:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-02-05T22:39:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Confident-Man-Fear-Public-Speaking-Large-Audience.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"664\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@pickthebrain\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@pickthebrain\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Erin Falconer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/eliminate-3-common-public-speaking-fears\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Confident-Man-Fear-Public-Speaking-Large-Audience.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Confident-Man-Fear-Public-Speaking-Large-Audience.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":664,\"caption\":\"Confident Man Fear Public Speaking Large Audience\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/eliminate-3-common-public-speaking-fears\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/eliminate-3-common-public-speaking-fears\/\",\"name\":\"How To Eliminate The 3 Most Common Public Speaking Fears\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/eliminate-3-common-public-speaking-fears\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-03T22:35:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-02-05T22:39:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2da8ae162c097bdb749ab098472b4cc5\"},\"description\":\"Fear of public speaking comes down to three universal reasons. 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