Speaking in public is one of the most popular phobias in the world , along with agoraphobia , and it is that the fear of being judged and saying something stupid and that others may hurt you for it, is what makes us feel stopped when we have to give a speech in public. Although it is not as disabling a phobia as others, but a common fear that can be overcome with practice.
Overcoming that fear and that shame of speaking in public, although it seems impossible, can be achieved if we carry out the correct techniques and put effort into it.
How to cope with the fear of public speaking
The first thing we have to bear in mind is that to overcome a situation that prevents us from living normally is to want to face it and overcome it, so it is essential that we want to overcome that phobia and shame of speaking in public that limits us so much . Once we have this clear, take paper and pen that we are going with some infallible tricks to lose the embarrassment to speak in public.
1. Prepare yourself. Preparation is essential when giving a presentation or speaking in public and one of our greatest fears when we have to face this situation is saying something nonsense and being judged by others for it. For that, the best we can do is prepare absolutely everything that we are going to speak in public, including possible questions that may arise from our intervention. The more prepared you are about the topic you are going to talk about, the less afraid you can have of losing the thread of your presentation, going blank and messing up with something we say.
2. Humor. This is one of the keys if we are very nervous before making the presentation. Allow yourself the luxury of starting with a little joke or joke , as this will help make the atmosphere more relaxed. Also, throughout the presentation try to make use of good humor, as this can be a very effective tool when it comes to hooking the public that has come to see you.
3. Rehearse. It is just as important to prepare the presentation or speech well as to know how we are going to say it. For this reason, it is essential that we rehearse what we have prepared ad nauseam. This, apart from helping you manage the times, the inflection points and the tone that we are going to use, will make us have more confidence in ourselves. To rehearse and practice the speech, it is best to always do it out loud, as if you were already in the moment of terror. Once you think you have mastered your speech, try doing it in front of friends and family , apart from seeing yourself in the position of speaking in front of an audience, they can advise you on how to improve.
4. Public. The response of the public many times will influence us throughout the speech and will make us feel comfortable or not as our performance progresses. The behavior of the spectators who are listening to us will not depend on us , so it should not affect us in our presentation. If we see that there are people who leave, talk on the phone or are not paying attention to us, do not worry. There are always going to be people who are going to be there out of obligation. For this, the best thing is that we focus on those people who are listening to us, are interested in the subject and are seen to be attentive.
It is essential that we adapt the message to the type of public we are going to face . It is not the same as giving a talk to a group of university students, to some children or to PhDs. Adapting the message is what will guarantee us success.
5. Resources. Another trick to overcome the shame of speaking in public and that our presentation is wonderful is to support our text with audiovisual examples. These will always entertain the viewer more and it will make your talk much more entertaining for them. Make yourself a presentation even in Power Point, since this will also help you if at any time you find yourself very nervous, do not lose track of what you are talking about, at the same time that you will not have anything left in the pipeline.
As you can see, overcoming the fear of speaking in public only requires a series of tips that if we take them to the letter we will make our presentations great. The first times we do them we will continue to feel a bit insecure but little by little and as we make more presentations we will lose our fear.
