Overcome Fear of Public Speaking in 21 Days by Mastering Your Anxiety and Phobia Through Preparation

The best time to conquer your fear of public speaking is 21 days before you give your speech. Like all public speakers, you are frightened of failure. You are nervous about standing in front of an audience and delivering a talk that tanks. That's why you need to take time to prepare. "A well-prepared speech," as Dale Carnegie liked to say, "is already nine-tenths delivered."

Nothing overcomes stage fright better than preparation. An actor who walks onto the stage on opening night unprepared has every reason to suffer stage fright. The only reason actors look relaxed on stage as they deliver their lines is that they've rehearsed. They've memorized their lines, studied their character, rehearsed their entrances and exits. In a word, they've prepared.

Give yourself enough time. Not too much and not too little. Start preparing too soon and you won't be motivated (or nervous enough). Start too late and you'll only exacerbate the nervousness you're trying to avoid.

I start preparing 21 days before I am to give my speech, workshop or presentation. Three weeks gives me enough time to gather my thoughts, meditate on my material, re-arrange my thoughts, and master my outline.

In week one, I gather my material into one place, read all that I have to, think hard about what my audience wants or needs to hear, and choose my topic.

In week two, I outline my talk. I usually have a three-point outline, and under each point I usually have three sub-points.

In week three, I work on my opening and close, and hunt for stories and anecdotes that I can use during my talk to illustrate my points.

The day before I speak, I print out my notes and read them over at different times during the day, make handwritten annotations in the margins, and underline key points I need to emphasize.

The main advantage of giving yourself 21 days to prepare for your speech or presentation is that your subconscious mind works on your talk while you aren't. When you spend time on your message every day for 21 days, you discover ideas and thoughts in week two and week three that never occurred to you in week one. My insights come to me at 2:00 am. Or while I'm cycling to work. Sometimes while I'm listening to a sermon on Sunday morning (I can't help it, honest!).

When you give yourself 21 days to organize your thoughts, meditate on your topic and revise your outline, you discover that your fear of public speaking subsides. The more you prepare, the more confidence you gain. When you finally walk to the microphone, you still have some jitters, of course, but your palms are dry, your hands are steady, your heartbeat is reasonable, and your voice is confident.

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Public Speaking Secrets - Breaking Though the Wall of Speaking Improvement Through Competition

New speakers often find themselves hitting a wall in their speaking. They start attending Toastmasters club meetings or attend a Speaking Workshop and see improvements, but at some point they will hit a wall and stop improving as quickly as they did early on in the learning process. Though a slowing of improvement is to be expected as you gain speaking experience, I want to share with you one thing you can do to break through the improvement doldrums and kick your speaking into high gear.

In Toastmasters during the first few months of the year, many clubs are getting their speakers ready for the International Speech contest. The International Speech contest is the only contest that Toastmasters requires all of their districts to perform and it gives speakers the opportunity to compete for the title World Champion of Public Speaking. Through six grueling levels of competition, speakers are challenged to deliver their best five to seven minute speeches. Only the best speakers make it to the final competition where speakers from all over the world compete at the International Toastmasters Convention. One key to breaking through the wall of improvement is to compete against your peers and enroll in the contest.

For the first year that I was in Toastmasters, I didn't compete. I was happy to give my speeches, perform a role, and slowly move up the improvement ladder. However, at some point I got stuck and I didn't know what to do in order to get unstuck until I attended a District 40 Spring Convention. There I saw Darren LaCroix, the 2001 World Champion of Public Speaking and got to watch my first district level speech competition. After seeing Darren's keynote and watching the competitors, I knew that competing was something that I had to do if I wanted to get better as a speaker.

So the next year, I prepared my speech, practiced, and then won my club contest. I then went to the area contest and got eliminated. So what did I do next? I didn't give up at that point and vowed to continue to improve my speaking and my speech writing skills so that this year I would be able to compete at a higher level. Competition forced me to be devoted to writing, practicing, getting feedback, and finding resources that helped me improve my speaking.

That is the magic of the International Speech contest for improving speakers. The level of the competition continues to get better every year, so it encourages speakers to get better as well if they want to succeed. You can't float though the competition. A speaker has to write, practice, get feedback, write, and practice more at every level in the competition in order to be successful. This makes you improve as a speaker and forces your to break through the wall of improvement and become a much better speaker.

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