• Charlie Elise Duff in Presentation Skills

    How do you get over stage fright and build confidence?
    • Lesley McGowan
      Lesley McGowan
      Here's my view on the topic:

      Public speaking has become an integral part of people’s daily life; you deal with it at work, the day of your best friend’s wedding, when you become a member of a group, it is everywhere. The art of public speaking is not innate; this is indeed a discipline you learn and develop through your life. How did Martin Luther King Jr become one of the best orators of our time? How did Winston Churchill’s “We shall fight them on the beaches” discourse during the second world war become one of the most powerful speeches in history?
      What all those great public speakers had were tactics and tools that helped them become powerful public speakers. Churchill used the ‘repetition effect’ in his speeches to good effect. A modern example would be Obama’s ‘Yes We Can’ theme in his 2008 campaign and his continual use of the rhetoric in his speeches appealing to people’s emotions.

      Public speaking is not about perfection, but about giving your audience something of value. Your audience is here to hear what you have to say and as long as they get something of value, they will consider their time with you beneficial and meaningful.

      Being familiar with your audience will help you gain confidence. Many studies showed that humour is a great tool to help you build a relationship with your audience. Indeed, using humor allows you to better grab the audience’s attention and also to gain more confidence in your speaking.

      A lot of speakers feel stressed when they don’t get all the audience’s approval. Reality is that public speakers never got 100% approval from their audience. Because people have opinions, judgement and different ideas you can’t only have positive reactions. But a negative reaction does not mean that you did badly, indeed, it can show you people’s sense of debate helping you to interact with your audience.

      Finally, in order to conquer your public fear, the last important point to take in consideration is to not consider yourself as a public speaker! Don’t compare yourself with today’s great speakers because experience builds confidence, which is the key to effective speaking. Try hard, experience yourself and enjoy interacting with your public.