Public Speaking and Presentation Skills - Tips and Techniques That Really Work

Fear of Public Speaking & Stage Fright: Is This Good Advice ?-You Be The Judge!

I went to Google and typed in "Fear of Public Speaking", and here's what I found:

Now, of course, I'm skipping the paid listings on top and the paid listings on the side from Google's Adwords program, and just going with the "natural" organic listings.

In position #1, is a website by Morton C. Orman, M.D. (who better to learn public speaking skills from but a medical Dr., eh?) and his website is www.StressCure.com. I think the good Dr. makes a number of good points in his report "How to Conquer Public Speaking Fear".

Dr. Orman outlines 10 key principles. Now, I don't know Dr. Orman personally, but I think his 10 principles are good - in principle. Although much of what the good Dr. writes falls under what I'd classify as "traditional advice" you'll find in any library book, it is all good advice nonetheless.

But going beyond giving Dr. Orman a nice pat on the back and an "A for effort", I'd also offer the following critique, or more to the point, the following important distinction about his advice.

First, you should read his "11 Hidden Causes Of Public Speaking Stress" yourself which is part of the same article. Hint: look for repeated words.

Have you reviewed it yet?

Again, while everything Dr. Orman says is good advice, ultimately this advice does not work in the real world for most people - and by the way, when I say "most people" I'm referring to the fact that over the years I've done workshops on Fear of Public Speaking and How to Conquer Stage Fright and I've taught and tried out E-V-E-R-Y technique on myself and my hundreds and hundreds (if not thousands) of students.

So, what's the common denominator? What's the key repeated keyword?

Look closely, and you'll notice that it's "thinking". All the advice, while good advice, is about having some kind of mental shift. Having an intellectual understanding.

However, and here's the bad news, Understanding does not cause change!

Feel free to quote me on that.

Look: people go to therapy sessions and spend years talking about their problems. One of my family members has been in therapy for more than 25 years now, spent many thousands of dollars, and understands her problem very well... but still has her problem!

Understanding does not cause change. I will bet that our good Dr. is very well educated, very intelligent, and very cerebral. So naturally his advice on conquering stage fright and fear of public speaking is based on his most highly preferred method of operating in the world: thinking and understanding.

But, and this is a BIG but - change happens on a gut level, not a cerebral level. Right now I won't go into a lot of detail about the dynamics and details of that, but that is the bottom line: understanding does not cause change, change happens on a gut level.

Fear of public speaking, like all fear, is a gut level reaction to perceived danger. If you want to transform that fear, you need to do it on a gut level. The techniques my students learn in my workshops don't require any understandings or intellectualizing. The techniques I teach operate on a gut level to instantly (yes, instantly) cause a different reaction than fear.

It's my experience and the experience of my students that stuff like "knowing your audience wants you to succeed" and other intellectual understandings really just don't cut the mustard; your gut doesn't care about that stuff!

Frankly, this kind of cerebral intellectual advice makes up 99.99% of the "techniques" people teach to conquer stage fright and fear of public speaking. It's almost as if Adam & Eve wrote a book on this topic way back in the beginning, and everyone after that has been copying that book without bothering to find out if it really works or not!

Labels: fear of public speaking

You know what just makes me furious? You know what just makes my blood boil and veins stand out on my forehead?

It's bad and useless advice when it comes to getting rid of stage fright or fear of public speaking.

How many times have you heard the following:

"Everyone gets nervous about public speaking, so don't worry"

BALONEY!! First of all, I've taught a lot of public speaking classes in my day, and I can tell you that there is about 5% of the population (give or take) that never, ever had any fear of public speaking whatsoever. More importantly, for most of us, just knowing that other people get nervous really doesn't make a difference in how you feel.

"Breathe deeply..."

Okay, I'm about to throw something across the room... breathing deeply is great for before you go on stage or get up to do your speech or presentation, but how the heck are you supposed to breathe deeply when you're talking?

"Picture your audience in their underwear or naked"

Now I'm really going to go ballistic. Sure, the idea is to make the audience, in your mind, more nervous than you. But the experience of hundreds of my students is that simply does not work, and in fact, it's quite distracting (or even disgusting).

Bad advice like that just makes me want to scream. I never teach such useless baloney in my workshops.

What other bad advice have you heard?

Dedicated to your public speaking and seminar success!
David

Labels: fear of public speaking

Public Speaking,Group Events, and Extreme Customer Loyalty:

Can public speaking create extreme customer loyalty?--the kind of rabid, die-hard loyalty that is usually reserved for the fans of rock stars?

For years I've been teaching speakers and small business owners how to do exactly that by holding customer appreciation events, and the reason is because those kinds of events not only solidly cement customer loyalty, but also generate referrals like crazy.

Here's a real world example I just witnessed first hand: do you know the name Todd Rundgren? Todd is a longtime recording artist and musician and although you may not recognize his name, you'd recognize at least a half dozen of his songs over the last 40+ years of his career.

I was invited to attend his 60th birthday party at his house on Kauai, along with about 250 others. This was a "birthday party / customer appreciation event" Todd held to say thanks to his longtime fans.

We spent a week there being served meals and attending special events such as a group interview with Todd, an autograph signing, and the week culminated on his birthday with a private concert just for us and some of Todd's friends.

NET RESULT: I've talked with many, many of those who attended this event, and every single one of them has expressed that their loyalty and appreciation of Todd has gone 'through the roof' - each of those attendees have purchased more of Todd's merchandise and attended more concerts as a result.

So, should YOU invite your customers to your house for a week?

Probably not appropriate.

But you SHOULD rent a hotel banquet room and cater a free dinner for your best clients and customers - AND you should get up and speak. Speak about how much you appreciate their business and referrals. Share some information with them that is valuable and provides tangible benefits to them.

Will you spend money? Yes.

Will it be worth it? Yes, Yes, YES!

You will generate tremendous goodwill - your customers and clients will "love you to death" and they'll refer you business like fans of a rock star!

Dedicated to your success in public speaking and seminars,
David

Labels: fear of public speaking, Public Speaking Articles, Public Speaking Tips

Public Speaking - Your Worst Nightmare May Be Your Dream Come True...

Ah yes - public speaking - just the thought of it can send a lightning bolt of fear down your spine and a cold sweat to break out on your forehead (or other places...).

You'll do almost anything to avoid all forms of public speaking, right? Well, not all of you - there are some you have to pull from the stage with a hook, but in the general populace would rather walk on hot coals than speak in front of people.

And, I know that first hand. For many, many years now I've been teaching public and private classes and workshops on how to get rid of stage fright and fear of public speaking. I love to ask people, would you rather speak in front of 100 people, or walk barefoot across hot coals - most choose the hot coals.

But if you work for a company, your future raises and promotions may depend on your willingness to speak to groups - again in my workshops, I like to ask people to raise their hand if they ever let a promotion and raise go to someone else because the new position would require them to do some form of public speaking.

The other major group in my workshops were authors, coaches and business people with every kind of business you can imagine who came in to learn how to do seminars of their own. These sharp entrepreneurs knew that they'd HAVE TO conquer their stage fright in order to more effectively promote their product or service.

So whether you work for someone else or work for yourself, the reality is that your "worst nightmare" is actually a dream come true because by conquering stage fright and fear of public speaking CAN make your dreams of more money come true... and in the immortal words of the American Philosopher Stephen Colbert: "money can't buy happiness, but it can buy stuff that will make you happy".

By being willing to conquer stage fright and actually do some public speaking, you really do get a leg up on your competition too - and that's true whether you're your own boss or an employee because think about this: if YOU'RE willing to do what other people won't (public speaking) you'll be rewarded where the others won't, you'll move up and ahead and leave your competition behind!

Have YOU let a promotion pass you by because of public speaking fear? Or, have you GOTTEN the raise and the promotion because you faced your fear?

Jump into the conversation right here and make your voice heard, I'd love to hear your opinions and experiences, so go ahead and post your feedback right here on the Seminar Speaking Success blog.

David, here at the American Seminar Academy in Redondo Beach, California
PS: Yes, I am passionately dedicated to helping you to maximize your income and success.

Labels: conquering stage fright, fear of public speaking, Seminar Speaking Success