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| How to Overcome Stage Fright |
Public speaking skills are not simply a God-given talent to anyone. Some maybe endowed with the suaveness and easy gab of an eloquent speaker but to most, public speaking requires a lot of skills that are to be learned and practiced.
A Good Public Speaker Must Have a Clear Grasp of His / Her Subject
A good public speaker is one who primarily is knowledgeable of his/her topic and has the full grasp of the subject he/she speaks in front of the public. However one tries to impress anyone that he/she knows the subject well but did not do his homework and did not do proper research, he/she ends up saying nothing.
Simply, a good public speaker is best exemplified if he/she always prepares beforehand what he/she will speak in front of the public. Preparation may either be a small piece of paper where you will jot down an outline of your speech or bring with you a prepared speech for a specific subject. This is particularly true for speaking engagements where you will face a huge number of people or in formal activities where specific subjects and themes are required of you to speak.
Stage Frights Are Common and Should Not Be Feared
Stage frights are common for some public speakers and even to first time public speakers. This should not be feared but must be faced as a fact. This is one of the facets of public speaking skills that one should be aware else he/she will end up standing in front of the public saying nothing. And there is no exception to this that is why public speaking is a skill that has to be learned and re-learned over and over again.
Notice the few of the best public speakers in your town like your favorite politician or let us relive our High School batch extemporaneous speaker. They who excel as best public speakers are they who learned the skills of public speaking with not a flick of a finger but underwent a rigorous training of speech, non-verbal coordination of hands, eyes, among others. They were our classmates who were trained and taught by their parents, first, and then our teachers, second.
They are also those who read, studied and communicated with people and even enjoyed life’s daily experiences. The last one being that it gives more empathy to his being a good speaker and putting to deeper meaning his/her public speaking skills. Ergo, a good public speaker is someone who can infuse humor and life to his speech which he/she draws from life’s daily funny moments.
Being an expert on the subject is also an added advantage and is a lot easier task in speaking to the public. But always, as I learned from friends who speak well in public, stage frights and not being prepared of the topic is a no-no to them.
Even a junked piece of tissue is a good example of a hurriedly placed notes on what to speak during a wedding program, or a piece of carefully folded notes hidden somewhere in your pocket, are but a few anecdotes to show that speaking in public is not an unprepared task.
Public speaking skills thus are not inborn. You may have the gift of gab but the skills in public speaking are not embedded in you while you were still with the womb of your public speaker mother or the genes of a toastmaster father.
A Good Public Speaker Must Have a Clear Grasp of His / Her Subject
A good public speaker is one who primarily is knowledgeable of his/her topic and has the full grasp of the subject he/she speaks in front of the public. However one tries to impress anyone that he/she knows the subject well but did not do his homework and did not do proper research, he/she ends up saying nothing.
Simply, a good public speaker is best exemplified if he/she always prepares beforehand what he/she will speak in front of the public. Preparation may either be a small piece of paper where you will jot down an outline of your speech or bring with you a prepared speech for a specific subject. This is particularly true for speaking engagements where you will face a huge number of people or in formal activities where specific subjects and themes are required of you to speak.
Stage Frights Are Common and Should Not Be Feared
Stage frights are common for some public speakers and even to first time public speakers. This should not be feared but must be faced as a fact. This is one of the facets of public speaking skills that one should be aware else he/she will end up standing in front of the public saying nothing. And there is no exception to this that is why public speaking is a skill that has to be learned and re-learned over and over again.
Notice the few of the best public speakers in your town like your favorite politician or let us relive our High School batch extemporaneous speaker. They who excel as best public speakers are they who learned the skills of public speaking with not a flick of a finger but underwent a rigorous training of speech, non-verbal coordination of hands, eyes, among others. They were our classmates who were trained and taught by their parents, first, and then our teachers, second.
They are also those who read, studied and communicated with people and even enjoyed life’s daily experiences. The last one being that it gives more empathy to his being a good speaker and putting to deeper meaning his/her public speaking skills. Ergo, a good public speaker is someone who can infuse humor and life to his speech which he/she draws from life’s daily funny moments.
Being an expert on the subject is also an added advantage and is a lot easier task in speaking to the public. But always, as I learned from friends who speak well in public, stage frights and not being prepared of the topic is a no-no to them.
Even a junked piece of tissue is a good example of a hurriedly placed notes on what to speak during a wedding program, or a piece of carefully folded notes hidden somewhere in your pocket, are but a few anecdotes to show that speaking in public is not an unprepared task.
Public speaking skills thus are not inborn. You may have the gift of gab but the skills in public speaking are not embedded in you while you were still with the womb of your public speaker mother or the genes of a toastmaster father.
Media coach I would like to say that this blog really convinced me to do it! Thanks, very good post.
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