Some people are more afraid of public speaking than they are of flying or driving on the motorway. Fear is a survival mechanism. It motivates us to do or stop doing something, which means at times it keeps us off trouble. However, fear is a problem when it interferes with people’s goals. That’s why it is vital to learn how to control your fear and use all your energy to achieve what you have set your mind on.

You know that fear causes avoidance and avoidance causes more fear. Thus, by staying away from what we are afraid of we won’t be able to overcome fear. The only reasonable approach to this disabling state is taking the bull by the horns and fighting against our weaknesses.

A pounding heart, trembling hands, butterflies in your stomach and your legs turning to jelly are a few of the most common human reactions in exceedingly stressful situations; a racing voice and cluttered mind, even tension in the shoulder and neck area may be added to the list for the public speaker in particular. Such reactions are unhealthy and in most cases bring about undesired results. It is very important to learn how to recognize your body’s reaction to stress and anxiety and of course how to overcome your fears and gain self-confidence.

For public speaking, there are several exercises meant to help you get rid of the feeling of panic and the physical sensations it comes with. Anxiety tightens the muscles in your chest and throat. A restricted airway will not allow the necessary quantity of oxygen into your lungs and brain so deep breathing will expand the throat and chest, promoting relaxation. A couple of sighs before the speech are also known to do wonders.

Yet, a few breathing exercises before a public speaking event are not enough. We were born with the ability to breath from the abdomen, but later in life our breathing has become shallow; it is much easier to breathe like that and we think our lungs get enough air anyway. This is not true. Breathing from your stomach does not send the right quantity of air into your lungs and undoubtedly can’t reduce anxiety either. Learn to deep-breathe again and you will feel a lot better.

Specialists claim that your whole body needs some exercise for you to relax. Progressive muscle relaxation therapy is based on a series of exercises in which certain groups of muscles are tensed for about ten seconds and relaxed again for another ten seconds. Each group is tensed and relaxed twice before you move on to the next. Therapists will show you the best exercises for each muscle group and, though it is not easy, with some practice you will learn how to bring the feeling of total relaxation to your body.

Actors, for example, are in the habit of alternatively shaking their legs before the performance. Stand on one leg and shake the other, then switch legs. Next, shake your hands; hold them above your head and bring them back down. Finally, start chewing in an exaggerated way to warm up your face muscles. Shoulders and neck rolls are very effective too as they prevent the tension that might later affect the muscles of your neck and shoulders.

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Get more help for your public speaking anxiety and learn how to better cope with public speaking nerves.

In spite of the popularity of cross training, most people as a rule aren’t asked to do something totally out of their field. Yet almost everyone in a corporate or professional setting these days is expected, even required, to give presentations. Public speaking is a profession that requires training and practice just like any other. But we’re constantly being pushed to the front of the room to sell, educate, persuade, dazzle and shine. It can be scary for some and downright debilitating for others.

Here are my top ten “techniques” for giving Powerful Presentations.

1. The Plan In choosing your topic, realize the best speakers speak from their own experiences. It’s good to have references from (other) experts, but remember you’re the specialist here or you wouldn’t have been asked to speak. During the planning phase find out all you can about your listeners, location, and latitude. Customize your talk to your audience. Know how to get to your venue then arrive early. Know what’s expected of you and stay within your time frame.

2. The Preparation Mark Twain said, “It usually takes me three weeks at least to prepare a good impromptu speech.” The best way is to write your talk, then speak from notes highlighting what you want to cover. The second best way is to write the speech out and practice it until you can do it without referring frequently to your script. The worst ways are reading it with little eye contact or memorizing it (unless you’re a professional actor).

3. The Presentation The most important aspect is the visual — how you look, eye contact, body language, gestures and the visuals you use. If you look nervous, it destroys your message. As someone said, its all right to have butterflies, just make them fly in formation. The next important element is vocal how you speak, the tone, pitch, clarity, volume and quality of your voice. The final element is verbal  the actual words you say. It is important to be accurate and, yes, entertaining. The bottom line is that how you deliver the talk makes more of an impression on your audience than what you say. Audiences will forgive you for making mistakes, but not for boring them or wasting their time.

4. A Positive Attitude This is a hard one when you’re feeling scared and nervous. And it’s the best way to stop the jitters. The key is to be prepared, then get your ego out of the way and stop thinking about how the audience might judge you and think about what you can do for them. It’s always about your listeners, not yourself. They want you to do well. You know you can do it!

5. Be Physically (and mentally) Fit This means taking care of yourself daily. Eat right, exercise, meditate, and get enough rest especially the night before. You must have real physical and mental energy; you can’t fake it.

6. Practice! 7. Practice! 8. Practice! The more you practice and hone your presentation, the better it will be when you give it. And the more you give actual presentations, the better you’ll get at it. In fact it’s the only way to master public speaking.

9. Play You thought I was going to say “pray.” That is always a good idea; I do it before every talk. Then Play. Relax and have fun. Giving a speech isn’t brain surgery, even if you would prefer a lobotomy to having to give one. Personal stories are the most interesting part of any presentation that’s ever been given and what people will remember most. Be naturally humorous rather than telling jokes.

10. Pick a Professional Coach If you really want to be good at giving presentations, hire a coach. You can also take classes or join Toastmasters. Practice first in front of someone trained to give you good, honest feedback and who wants you to excel!

Presentation skill training and coaching are a powerful combination in developing your effective presentation skills. Annette Estes is a former TV news anchor and professional speaker who offers presentation skills coaching to people who want to get over their fear of public speaking and develop effective presentation skills. She is a human resource consultant, trainer, coach, and author of the award-winning book “Why Cant You See It My Way? Resolving Values Conflicts at Work and Home.” Order the ebook at http://www.resolveconflictnow.com and get her free presentation tips at http://www.coachannette.com/presentations.htm

About the Author

Annette Estes is a former TV news anchor and professional speaker who offers presentation skills coaching to people who want to get over their fear of public speaking and develop effective presentation skills. She is a consultant, trainer, coach, and author of the conflict resolution book “Why Can’t You See It My Way?” Get free presentation tips at http://www.coachannette.com/presentations.htm

Fear of public speaking is very common; all of us in our entire life experience this at some point in our life. Whatever the reason of fear may be, it is very difficult to overcome fear. Fear of public speaking is commonly seen in a person that is giving a speech for the first time. However well prepared he/she might be yet it can be difficult to avoid it. The reason that we might be put to speak in public could be any, for presentation or about giving some information to the public. A first timer is bound to have fear during a public speaking session but he has to see that this doesn’t become a habit, where every time speaking in public might increase fear. On the other hand if your speech goes well you will gain confidence and each subsequent public speaking opportunity will get better each time.

A good speech in public is bound to increase the persons self esteem and confidence, however if not prepared to handle the situation you might land up in trouble. Many people prepare for the speech well before time trying to hide their nervousness by trying to avoid fear by practicing some simple procedure. As allowing the nerves to calm down by drinking a lot of water before speech or even taking deep breaths in order to feel free from the fear of speaking in public. For some people this works, but for the ones who have excessive fear of public speaking, it’s just not possible. Even a well prepared person will not be able to face the crowd if he/she has the fear of speaking in public.

Once you have taken the stage you will see that people are murmuring and you are supposed to grab their attention in order to carry out a speech that they will like. Once you start with your speech you see that people are listening to you, However when you look up and see that the amount of people that are looking towards you are plentiful. If you have the fear you will feel butterflies in your stomach, experience a dry mouth, and at the end of it the well prepared speech might end up a big flop. All this is caused due to public speaking anxiety.

Fear might be caused due to a past failure, when you might have experienced it in your early days. This could be where it all might have started for you. This is where your mind had assumed that you are supposed to be fearful during a public speech. With time the fear might keep increasing if something is not done in this regard. So the root cause is something that is related to your mind, a phobia that is related to fear at the time of public speaking.

Hypnosis is a treatment that is related to your mind, it allows your mind to relax and handle pressure situations with ease demolishing the anxiety from your mind. Fear is something that was developed in your mind. Hypnosis will abolish it and replace it with confidence. This hypnosis treatment is available in the form of mp3 downloads that is available straight from the Internet. Once you have used this you will see that you are confident enough to speak in public. Fear is no more a concern for you.

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For more on public speaking anxiety and fear of public speaking check out the links.

So you wanna speak eh? You’re just starting out and don’t know how to get your foot in the door? Well the following 5 tips will get you out there and in the public eye immediately. While these jobs may not pay the big bucks if you’ve got a killer presentation, getting out there like this will ensure you get noticed and get more bookings which can lead wherever you like.

1. Rotary

The Low Down: There are probably about a dozen Rotary, Lions, Probus or other similar service clubs within 15 minutes driving time of you meeting each week worldwide. Most of these clubs are crying out for interesting speakers at each and every meeting. You’ll typically get about 15 to 20 minutes with about 5 minutes for question time at the end.

The How’s and Where’s: Got to your local Rotary website, start here: www.rotary.org and search from there.

The Thing to Remember: I’ve always found I have to slow down my speaking at service clubs due to a percentage of the members not being… shall we say Gen Y like myself. This is a great learning experience and has actually dramatically improved my speaking.

The Bonus: Hook up with a Rotary club to speak while travelling and you’ll instantly be able to say to future clients that you’ve recently arrived back from speaking in… Brazil (or wherever you’ve travelled). Glamour plus!

2. Schools

The Low Down: I have found in my many speaking experiences that kids are painfully honest. While this can be bone shatteringly brutal at times, if you can wow a room full of high school age kids you can speak almost anywhere.

The How’s and Where’s: Write to your local schools, include a profile and tell them why you should be allowed in to corrupt, er, shape young minds.

The Thing to Remember: Get kids to remember you by setting up a myspace page that they can log into and join as your “friend”.

The Bonus: If you really crack a kid audience, they’ll go home and tell their parents and voila – more work!

3. 5 x 5

The Low Down: If you have 25 friends you can do this. Ok, that scared a lot of you, if you have 5 patient friends you can do this. Set up a regular time each week for 5 weeks and give a 20 minute presentation to 5 of your friends. Then sit down with them for 20 minutes (yes a whole 20 minutes afterwards) and drill them for feedback. Each week a different presentation, and different (hopefully improved) feedback.

The How’s and Where’s: Bring coffee and doughnuts and be well prepared – don’t waste your friend’s time.

The Thing to Remember: Pick friends who won’t just tell you that the sun shines out of your… microphone. You want honesty. Get the friend who tells someone when their bum looks big in the mirror!

The Bonus: With only one week to prepare a new speech you’re under the pump – use this to your advantage and don’t cancel for any reason even if there’s only one person in the room!

4. Be Industrious

The Low Down: If your industry has a convention, local, national, whatever, start volunteering to play a part in it. Introduce one of the keynote speakers, provide an update on a new technology or do as I did and offer to do a keynote at a convention of over 1,000 real estate agents before you’ve ever done a big speaking job. (You never know they just might say yes!)

The How’s and Where’s: Your local industry group is the best place to start, as is attending a conference first (so you can get your bearings).

The Thing to Remember: Your peers will be one of the more terrifying audiences you will ever speak in front of. Rock this crowd and you’ll be a legend, fall on your face and you’ll never live it down.

The Bonus: Speaking is a great way to become known as an expert in your field. Being an expert naturally leads to more business.

5. Shmaltz, Lives and Videotape

The Low Down: Before you attempt any of tips 1 to 4 videotape yourself giving an entire presentation.

The How’s and Where’s: Even many digital still cameras these days have a video function so you’ll be able to borrow a camera.

The Thing to Remember: Regardless of the fact that there’s no audience do NOT stop for anything. Pretend you’re on stage and kick through it, regardless of how badly you miff your opening line.

The Bonus: In 5 years time when you’re an old hand at this you’ll have some hilarious videos to watch with a cocktail in hand!

About the Author

Kirsty Dunphey is one of Australia’s most publicised young entrepreneurs and is the founder of www.reallysold.com - the ultimate tool to help real estate agents write amazing advertisements. Kirsty was a self-made millionaire at 23 and a self-made multi-millionaire at 25 and was retired at 27. To find out more head to www.kirstydunphey.com

We all know that audiences are drawn to a speaker with confidence. We all know that we need to have confidence as speakers. But what is this magical thing called confidence, and where does it come from?

How do you gain the ability to believe in yourself and to demonstrate that belief to the whole world? Do you always have to feel confident to look confident? And is reducing anxiety the same thing as gaining confidence?

Let’s explore these questions and solve the mystery of this most desirable and elusive trait.

First of all, what does confidence look like? A confident speaker exudes positive energy that feeds and excites the audience. A confident speaker appears strong and authoritative, but not intimidating. A confident speaker appears relaxed but not sloppy, positive but not saccharine, and knowledgeable but not arrogant. Whew! That’s a lot to live up to.

Confidence is both mental and physical. It’s the positive way you perceive yourself, and it’s the way your body projects that positive self-image. Here are some strategies to move toward both the mental and physical expression of confidence.

Pointer 1: Always be prepared

You must be well-prepared in order to feel confident. That means you’re speaking about a topic you believe in, you know your topic inside and out, you’ve organized your thoughts into a cohesive presentation, and you’ve practiced it enough not to be thrown off by unexpected questions or mishaps. “Winging it” or tossing together your presentation the day before it’s due is only going to increase any anxiety you have about speaking.

Preparation means visiting the venue where you’ll be speaking to get a feel for the room, the layout, where people will be sitting, how much you’ll have to project your voice, and how intimate or formal the setting will be. Where will your equipment go? Where will you stand? Feeling comfortable in the space where you’re speaking will increase your confidence.

Preparation also means anticipating distractions or mishaps. Plan ahead for computer glitches, hostile audience members, forgetting your place, a waiter dropping a plate, and any other problem that might arise. Anticipating mishaps is not the same as worrying about them. When you’ve got Plan B and Plan C in place, you can actually relax more, because you know you’re ready for anything.

Pointer 2: Embrace your uniqueness and imperfections

A confident speaker doesn’t worry about what the audience thinks of her. A confident speaker is more concerned with delivering value and meeting the audience’s needs. So what if you have a lisp, a visible tattoo or a hearing impairment? So what if you have a Scottish accent, a booming voice or you’re from the projects? Make the most of your uniqueness, stand out from the crowd, and be proud of who you are!

If you have a strong accent, slow down when you speak and get feedback on your presentation before you deliver it to make sure you can be understood. If you have a booming voice, make sure to use vocal variation, and be sensitive to the size of the room and how close the audience is to you. The point is this: make your uniqueness work for you, not against you. Never be ashamed or embarrassed about who you are.

Audiences don’t want speakers who are perfect, by the way. They want to be able to relate to and connect with the speaker. A presenter who is perfect makes her achievements seem unattainable. Be human, be real, and be you.

Use positive self-talk to reframe the way you perceive yourself as a person and a speaker. Before your presentation, say to yourself, “I believe in myself,” or “I’m special and unique, and there’s no one in the world like me.” It seems a little corny, but affirmations work! Pair your mental practice with physical practice. Make sure your posture, eye contact and body language also say “I’m confident.”

Pointer 3: Don’t apologize

A confident speaker doesn’t let the audience know when he’s nervous. What? Confident speakers get nervous? Yes, of course they do!

The difference between a confident speaker and one who lacks confidence is that the latter tries to gain favor with the audience by pointing out or apologizing for his nervousness. This doesn’t gain points with the audience; in fact, it makes them pity the poor speaker. A confident speaker doesn’t want pity; he wants respect! A confident speaker appears calm and relaxed, even when nervous. This takes physical and mental practice, but the pros do it every day and so can you.

When things go wrong in your presentation, don’t dwell on them and don’t announce them. The audience most likely has no idea that you’ve lost your place or left something out. Keep going as though nothing has happened; the show must go on.

In the event that you make an obvious mistake, like spilling your water all over the lectern, take care of the problem quickly, lighten up the situation with a little humor, then move on. If you dwell on it, so will the audience. Successfully and smoothly handling a mishap shows you’re a professional and adds to the audience’s positive perception of you.

These tips are mostly about how you perceive yourself and how the audience perceives you as a result. You don’t have to be confident to appear confident, but the beauty of this mental and physical practice is that the more you appear confident to others, the more your confidence will grow for real. When you believe in yourself and believe in your message, your audience will, too.

About the Author

Lisa Braithwaite works with individuals to uncover their challenges and build their strengths in presenting themselves confidently as speakers. Find your voice with public speaking coaching! Sign up for my newsletter and find out about my free consultation by visiting http://www.coachlisab.com.