Comments on: Public Speaking Jitters

By: Steven Harold

Steven Harold — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 12:00:49 +0000

I have always found that mental rehearsal… imagining giving a speech and doing it calmly and looking like you are enjoying it, with smiling faces from the audience, helps tremendously. Too often people who are nervous about public speaking imagine the worst outcome. Here is a way of using the power of your imagination for you and not against you.

By: Chris Campbell

Chris Campbell — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 00:12:00 +0000

That’s a good idea about looking for “friendly faces”. It’s hard when the crowd is full of strangers, and looking at someone who is bored doesn’t help.

By: Adrian Trenholm

Adrian Trenholm — Sat, 27 Aug 2005 18:39:00 +0000

Ditto for Toastmasters.

The advice about picturing the audience naked is a load of nonsense. What works for me is to keep an eye out for a person in the audience who is smiling or nodding in agreement.

So you focus on him or her for a few moments. That gives you enormous confidence in yourself and your message. Then you move your gaze around the audience, making eye contact with one person at a time. You will probably find half a dozen people smiling or nodding.

If you feel your confidence start to wane, look again at each of your “friendly faces” until you feel confident again.

Here’s a post I wrote on how to handle Q and A

By: Daniel Read

Daniel Read — Sat, 27 Aug 2005 00:38:00 +0000

I can second the recommendation for Toastmasters. I’ve been a member for a couple years now (Peachtree Toastmasters in Atlanta, GA, USA), and it has helped me tremendously.

The cool thing about Toastmasters for me is that there is no hidden agenda there—no one is trying to sell you anything or convince you of anything. The whole weekly meeting structure is simply a contrivance to create as many speaking opportunities in a single club meeting as possible. And every time you speak you get immediate feedback from other members of the club.

Dan