How to Overcome Glossophobia (An Irrational Fear of Public Speaking)

We've spent the last few months covering ways to reduce nervousness and the last couple of weeks uncovering a few low-risk venues to practice presenting. For the next few weeks, I'm going to show you how to make your presentations more fun and interesting.There are two major components of a fantastic speech. First, you have to have good content that the audience wants or needs to hear. Second- and this is the part that many presenters overlook- you have to have entertainment value in your presentation.You can have great content, but if your content is boring, no one will really hear you. So, for the next few weeks, I'm going to give you some of my top ways to make your presentations more interesting.

This is part two of a two-part series about low-risk venues where you can practice public speaking. In the introduction last week, I mentioned that the absolute best place to practice public speaking is in a public speaking class with a great coach. A good public speaking class is a controlled environment, so the risk is very low. However, over the years, I've come across a bunch of other low-risk venues to practice public speaking. Last week, I covered a number of low-risk virtual venues where you can practice speaking in front of a group. Virtual venues can be great for fine-tuning your message and learning to be concise. And, in most cases, you can practice and get your message perfect before unveiling it to the public.This week, I give you some of the best low-risk venues to practice in front of a live audience. The live audience is crucial for gaining public speaking confidence because most of your confidence will come from seeing that positive visual feedback from the audience. When you communicate well, your audience will give you positive expressions. Those little nods when they agree with you and smiles when you make them laugh are critical to overcoming public speaking fear.

One of the most common questions that I get as a public speaking coach is, "Where can I go to practice speaking?" It is usually a good idea to practice your presentation skills somewhere that is more low risk than in front of a big client, or your boss, or the board of directors.Obviously, I'm pretty biased, but with good reason. I believe that the absolute best place to practice public speaking is in a public speaking class with a great coach. A good public speaking class is a controlled environment, so the risk is very low. Also, you get practice presenting in front of real people. That is an important part of the learning process.However, over the years, I've come across a bunch of low-risk venues to practice public speaking. So, over the next couple of episodes, I'll give you this list.That way, you'll have a bunch of different options to choose from. Pick the one or two venues that you feel will give you the best practice.

We just finished a series on public speaking fear and how to reduce nervousness during a speech. This week, I discuss how to better prepare for your presentation.For most people, the absolute most nervous part of the speech -- the place where they feel the most uncomfortable -- is right as they step foot in front of the audience.That nervousness builds to a crescendo up to that point. So, in this episode, I give my favorite tips for reducing presentation jitters from that day to a few minutes before you take the stage. 

This is part 3 of a three-part series on public speaking fear. If you've been with us for the last few weeks, I started by explaining the difference between glossophobia and public speaking fear. In those episodes, we basically discovered that glossophobia is an unreasonable fear of public speaking that keeps people from presenting in the first place. Last week, I covered a simple four-step process that will help you eliminate this fear. This week, I'll give you ten tips to help you implement this four-step process more easily. These ten public speaking tips can help you reduce nervousness and present with more poise and confidence. So, if you want to finally reduce your public speaking fear, these ten simple tips can really help.

This is part 2 of a three-part series on public speaking fear. If you've been with us for the last few weeks, I started by explaining the difference between glossophobia and public speaking fear. In those episodes, we discovered that glossophobia is an unreasonable fear of public speaking that keeps people from presenting in the first place. Last week, I covered part one in this series about where public speaking fear comes from. We covered a number of different activities that presenters do to reduce nervousness that actually causes nervousness. For instance, relying on notes to deliver a presentation or memorizing a presentation will make you more nervous.Today, I'm covering a simple four-step process that will help you eliminate this fear. And then next week, I'll give you ten tips that will help you more easily implement this four-step process.

In the last couple of episodes, I covered the difference between Glossophobia and just normal, everyday public speaking nervousness. In the episode, I'm going to delve more deeply into where public speaking fear comes from. I'll talk a lot about triggers that make people more nervous when they stand up to speak because if you know what is causing your fear, you can better eliminate it.Because of all the info, I'm breaking this into two sessions. Then, in the third week, I'll give you my ten simple tips that will help you eliminate public speaking fear. So, enjoy this fantastic series.

In the last episode, I covered the difference between Glossophobia and just normal, everyday public speaking nervousness. In summary, everyone gets some nervousness when they stand up to speak in front of a group. However, a phobia is an irrational fear. So, if the fear is extreme or irrational, your fear may be a full-blown phobia. On this episode, I'm going to give you some tips that will help you reduce or even eliminate this fear. If you do these things, you can calm your nerves and become a more poised and confident public speaker -- even if your public speaking fear is extreme. Unlike most phobias, glossophobia doesn't need medication or therapy. It can be conquered with practice and coaching -- as long as that practice and coaching builds self-confidence during every step along the way.

For the next couple of weeks, I will cover a quick series on Glossophobia and public speaking fear. This week, I explain the difference between the two forms of presentation jitters and give you a few tips to help. Then, over the next couple of weeks, I'll cover more details on things that you can do to calm your nerves and become a more poised and confident public speaker.By the way, the episode is sponsored by FearlessPresentations.com. So, if you are looking for a faster way to reduce public speaking fear or become a more persuasive speaker, We have 2-day public speaking classes coming up in Miami, Minneapolis, Detroit, Boston, Washington DC, San Francisco, Phoenix, Tampa, Atlanta, and Houston. For details, go to fearlesspresentations.com.

We are continuing our series on how to create great presentations. If you remember last week, I mentioned how one of the major ways to reduce public speaking fear is to design a fantastic speech. If your presentation is not that good, you will definitely be way more nervous when you present.Last week, I talked about how to deliver business proposals or sales proposals to customers or people outside of your company. Those speeches can be nerve-racking because a great speech can open a lucrative door and a bad speech can shut one.This week, I'm going to give you a few tips about how to deliver a similar type of speech to management. So, if you come up with a great idea that you want your leaders to embrace, the tips in this episode will help a lot.Even if you are the leader, the tips in the episode will also help in situations where you are presenting to other leaders in your own organization or even outside your organization.Enjoy this simple four-step process to help you deliver a proposal to management with confidence!