7 solutions to overcome your fear of public speaking

75% of the global population have a public speaking fear. 7 solutions to help you overcome this fear…

1. There is no one size fits all for preparing.

Try what others suggest, but do what works for you.

Ask:

• Where do you do your best thinking?

• Are you task or people driven?

• How do you like to prepare?

• What stories can you tell?

This shapes your content preparation.

2. The hard thing is preparing your mind.

You have fear of screwing up,

Of being embarrassed in front of everyone.

But nobody is expecting you to be perfect.

Perfection does not exist.

You are instead striving for ‘good enough’.

3. You wonder, ‘what can I add that other people don’t already know?’

The reality is they don’t have the knowledge from your perspective.

You are not an imposter.

You would not be speaking if you didn’t know the topic.

Back yourself.

4. Less is more when overcoming your public speaking fear.

People confuse time speaking with impact,

But, you don’t need to say a lot to have a big impact.

In fact, being long-winded can ruin your message.

Be concise.

When you say less, it makes it easier to remember your key points.

5. What story are you telling yourself?

‘This will be stressful’ is a common narrative before speaking.

But public speaking is just a conversation with more than one person,

And you know how to have a conversation.

Make this your narrative.

6. Avoid a script to overcome your public speaking fear.

If you have a script and you forget one word, it will throw you off.

Instead:

• Have themes you are comfortable talking about

• Craft stories you can tell using your experience

• Keep it simple — better for preparation, better for the audience

7. Practice speaking often to overcome your public speaking fear.

The best way = joining Social Audio eg. Twitter Spaces, LinkedIn Audio, Clubhouse.

Why?

• People can’t see you.

• You don’t have to speak for long.

• You can have your notes in front of you.

Social audio removes a lot of the barriers most speakers face.

Regular practice = increased comfortability speaking.

Increased comfortability = increased confidence.

High confidence = better execution.

Even if you are a great speaker, you need to practice.

Like any skill, you will become rusty if you don’t do it often.