I call it the “Why the heck am I doing this?” feeling. The feeling that would appear when it was dangerously close to presentation time. These used to beat the hell of out me. It would start about two hours before I knew I’d have to give a speech. I’d question it all. What was I thinking agreeing to speak? … Read More
Do You Rattle Your Comfort Cage?
Get out your little GPS contraption and search out a challenge that frightens you. Next step…beat the sh*t out of it. And I’m not talkin’ about your GPS. Rattle your damn comfort cage—violently. The challenge doesn’t even have to be something that you’re passionate it about, or even something that on the surface relates to your path in life. We’re after something … Read More
How Damned Difficult Is Public Speaking?
The amount of people that show up to a Toastmasters club meeting (a place to practice public speaking) and say they’ll be joining is incredible. You know what else is incredible? The amount who never show up again. Then, there are others who go one step closer to facing their fears. They’ll fill out applications to join, turn them in, and say they’ll … Read More
Listen And Observe: A Gift From Public Speaking
I get my haircut at one of those little franchise hair cutting joints (similar to Fantastic Sams but not quite as fantastic). I go about every 2-3 weeks. In fact, I’ve been going there for at least a year and a half on a consistent basis. Guess what? Not a single one of the stylists have remembered my name … Read More
The 3 F’s of Fear
What we generally describe as “stage-fright” or the fear of public speaking, is actually much more specific. The fears can be broken down. One by one. And obliterated. Why do you think you are afraid to get up and speak in front of an audience? Most people know it’s scary, but usually have no specific reason why. It’s like skydiving–we … Read More
Do You Get This Feeling At The Beginning Of Your Presentations?
That elusive feeling. It’s so darn difficult to accurately remember it. It might even be difficult to explain it, so bear with me. Here’s the situation: You’re about to get up and give a talk, initially there’s that bit of “excitement,” then you get going, all is well, and then finally you end your talk. Job well done. You … Read More
Your Public Speaking “Toolkit”
I recently read this blog article listing 10 confidence building tips for public speaking. The interesting thing I noticed is that some of them seem more relevant to constructing a speech rather than building confidence. Whatever, still good tips! But, the last one ignited some of my brain synapses: Create Your Toolkit You know how sometimes you come across something that you’ve been doing, but … Read More
Public Speaking Presents: The Currency of Confidence
Confidence can be gained from public speaking. A whole lot of it. It’s built by persistently putting yourself in the spotlight, or put another way, throwing yourself to the starving wolves as often as possible. There’s no doubt that you’ll gain confidence with public speaking as your tool. But, these new found guts, are they only good for public speaking? … Read More