For many people, public speaking is scarier than death itself, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

According to the Chapman University Survey on American Fears, public speaking is the number one fear.

Drowning is number four, fear of zombies ranks ninth.

That means the average person would rather drown or be attacked by zombies than give a speech. Now that’s serious.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

No matter how much you fear public speaking, always remember that you can manage your fears and become a more confident public speaker.

And if you can conquer the fear of public speaking, who knows what other fears you can conquer?

Be that person that engages rather than escape from the fear of public speaking.

Of course, there are entire classes available on public speaking, so a single post only scratches the surface.

Notwithstanding, I will be giving you the steps that you can follow to transition from a nervous speaker to a more confident public speaker.

5 Steps to Becoming a Confident Public Speaker

1. Prepare

Most often fear or lack of confidence comes from a lack of preparation.

Chances are if you are nervous speaking to a group of people, it’s because of a lack of practice and preparation.

If you are going to give a 15-minute presentation, and all you put into it is 10 minutes practice, you are likely to get nervous when go on stage.

On the other hand, if you spend a cumulative 2-10 hours (depending on how familiar you are with the material) preparing for your presentation, by practicing in front of the mirror, recording yourself, evaluating your performance, you feel prepared, and that would give you a huge confidence boost and to a good extent reduce your fear.

So, when you are very prepared, you know exactly what you are going to say, and how you are going to say it. With this, you get less nervous.

Prepare thoroughly, so when it’s time to deliver, you are ready to go.

2. Focus on the audience.

Now you are on stage. It’s time to make your speech all about your audience.

I used to get nervous whenever I walk up to the stage because all I could focus on was myself.

I was so concerned about what the audience would think about me.

I would ask myself; do I sound professional? Will they understand my accent? Am I telling the story perfectly? Do I sound smart? Am I well dressed?

Do not worry about whether you are standing in the right space or making the right gesture, just focus on giving your audience some value.

Whenever you are in front of an audience, and you focus on yourself you are likely to get nervous because you are afraid of being judged.

However, when you shift the focus to your audience, you tend to get less nervous.

Focus on making sure your audience walks away with value.

Focus on how your message would change the life of your audience.

Remember your audience is a gathering of individuals with hopes, dreams, fears, and disappointments of their own.

They will be listening to you not mainly because they want to hear your story, but because they want to change for the better themselves.

So, how will your speech help them live a better story?

If you are not sure, spend some time jotting down possibilities.

The moment you stop focusing on yourself but them, the fear disappears.

Focusing on your audience helps you connect better with them, and when you do; your fear begins to melt away.

3. Engage your audience

Now that you have made your speech about them, it’s time to take an extra step.

Focus on creating bringing energy to the room.

By this, I mean to get them to engage and participate in the speech.

Imagine you are on stage, and you just keep talking and talking about your subject matter. It becomes easy to lose confidence because you might be tempted to think that you are not saying the right things.

But when you engage your audience, you take the attention away from yourself, you get the full participation of the audience, and that ultimately reduce your fears.

Remember, one of the best ways to engage your audience is by asking questions.

4. Use Storytelling

Insert stories in your speech.

Storytelling allows us to connect our audience to something they can relate to.

As Solomon Asine, a public speaker, life coach, and founder of Home of Influence rightly stated,

“Some of the greatest conversations that you will ever have, are conversations that contain stories in them”.

Check out his video on storytelling and why you should start telling stories.

As humans, we have a natural tendency to want to hear stories. So, when you tell stories, your audience connects with your message.

Also, your speech becomes easier to deliver when you tell a story. This is true for stories that you are familiar with. The structure of stories makes them easier to deliver, which ultimately douses your fear.  

5. Give them the freedom to choose.

Sometimes we think it’s our job to persuade people to make a decision, but it’s not.

It’s your job to simply give people the information they need to change themselves.

No one likes to feel like they are being forced to do something even if it’s something that they want to do.

We can’t force people into a decision. We can only plant the seed and allow them to make the decision to either let it grow or unearth it.

When you convince yourself that you have to make your audience go in a certain direction, you put a lot of pressure on yourself, which can cause anxiety.  

Reminding yourself that your job is just to deliver a message (even in the case of a persuasive presentation), reduces your anxiety and boost your confidence.

Bonus tips:

Do not picture your audience in their underwear.

This may be classic advice, but it’s wrong.

Having a picture of your audience in their underwear is distracting, weird, and unprofessional.

Instead, imagine you are talking to your friends in your living room.

Treating your audience like friends you are having a casual conversation with can take some of the pressure off you, and hopefully making you feel less nervous and more confident.

Conclusion

Becoming a confident speaker doesn’t happen overnight, it takes practice.

However, don’t just give speeches, gain experience by evaluating what works well and what you’d like to do differently.

After reading this post, it’s safe to assume that you now have all the tools required to go on stage and speak confidently.

I’ll be cheering for you as you decide on how and when to use these tools to overcome fear and move to a new level of personal and professional success.

Opinion

If you find this post helpful, please comment below. I’ll be happy to hear from you.

This article was contributed by Godwin Amanyi

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