Quote from: JoshuaBlack1 on May 03, 2018, 11:05:12 AM

Hi everybody I would like to share some insights that really helped me get over or manage should I say my fear of public speaking. In my job speaking in public has become more and more important and to be quite frank, it scared the living daylights out of me.

There were a few techniques I learned and deployed that have been extremely beneficial.

1) Anxiety Management

"85% of people fear public speaking and the other 15% are lying"

Understanding that the anxious feeling you get is little more than your body telling you what your about to do is important. Try greeting your anxiety as soon as you start to notice it creeping in. No...actually greet your anxiety, sounds daft but it works.

"Hi anxiety, this is me feeling nervous, I'm about to do something of consequence"

Another technique I use for anxiety is re-framing the situation I see myself in as an opportunity and not a performance. There is no wrong way to do it. Look at it as a conversation: Start with questions
Use conversational language
Be in the present moment (reciting tong twisters before speaking in my fav)

2) Dare To Be Dull

"Aiming for perfection prevents perfection"

There is nothing wrong with wanting to do your best however in the case of public speaking putting yourself under too much pressure can lead to you thinking about what you are going to say next instead of what you are currently saying.

Your mind will get in your way, we are rational beings and its a skill developed over thousands of years! In the case of public speaking this takes you out of the moment. Try a game at home where you point at an object and call it a name other than what it is ie..pointing at a bottle of water and calling it a cat. Notice how you stockpile words or name things in themes (this is you getting in your own way and not being in the moment!)

3) Tell A Story

"Responding in a structured way increases processing fluency by 40%"

A good story has structure, a good story helps you understand what the author is thinking. If your aim is to help the people you are speaking to understand your thoughts, tell a story. Have structure. This technique helped me the most!

PROBLEM/OPPORTUNITY > SOLUTION > BENEFIT or WHAT > SO WHAT > NOW WHAT

These structure techniques help me formalise what I am about to say and in what order and it also helped people understand a hell of allot better!

This may not be for everyone but once I found out the about it really did have an impact of my confidence to speak in public. Having said that I still get that sick to your stomach feeling before going out but let me tell you that following these principles has really helped me manage the whole process. Id love to hear other peoples techniques below!

Thankyou

nice ideal very thoughtful, another factor that really worked for me was practice over time, practice they say makes perfect, so a continous and frequent public speaking makes one a good public speaker.
your thoughts are very ins