It’s a well known fact that the one of the greatest fears of the majority of people in the world is public speaking, i.e. standing in front of a group of unknown people and speaking.

Then there is about 1% of the population whose greatest fear is speaking full stop, not just in front of unknown people, but in most situations! These are people who stammer or stutter.

So if you’re a person who stammers, why would you want to try out public speaking?
In my opinion there isn’t a better way to increase your confidence in speaking up. In the process you will also learn a bunch of other key skills to help you in your everyday life.

In order to get started, I’m going to suggest that you join a Speakers Club – the Association of Speakers Clubs in the UK or Toastmasters worldwide.
The beauty of Speakers Clubs is that you get feedback and you can practise in a relaxed, friendly and supportive environment.

So now let’s take a look at the five benefits you can expect from your public speaking:
 

1 – Learn to speak up

Put simply, you will learn to speak up.
By getting up in front of a group of people and speaking out aloud, you slowly begin to break down the fear of speaking. By doing so, you increase your ability to speak up in everyday situations, with friends, family, colleagues and with people you may have just met.
 

2 – Assertiveness

By continuing to get up in front of a group and talking, your assertiveness will increase, particularly in those situations where you would normally hold back.
There is nothing like the feeling of voicing your opinion during an occasion you know you would usually avoid!
Gaining confidence in speaking can also mean you will be more likely to speak up in a situation first, which just increases your assertiveness even more!
 

3 – Listening skills

A big part of public speaking is standing up and giving mini and longer speeches.
Equally important is giving a review of the speech of another person.
This not only involves you to keep your eyes open, so you can assess the performance of the speaker you are reviewing, but also to keep your ears open so you know what they’ve talked about.

Doing this again and again can improve your listening skills tremendously. This in turn can help greatly at work and in social situations, when you’re having conversations with other people.
 

“One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can’t utter.”
James Earl Jones

One of the iconic voices of our time, James Earl Jones stuttered as a child and took acting lessons to help.

4 – Increase your leadership and management skills

As you gain experience in public speaking at a particular club, you then also have the opportunity to get further involved in the running and management of a club, should you wish.
This can include taking roles such as Treasurer where you oversee the finances of your club, Social Secretary where you help to promote your club and organise social events, right up to Vice-President and President where you lead your club and have final say for major decisions to be made!
All the skills you develop from such roles can directly be transferred both at work and at home.
 

5 – Increase your social circle

Attending public speaking meetings is a great way to improve your social skills because you get to interact with other members! By doing this you make friends.
There is usually an interval during a meeting, which is time to catch up with existing members, and chat with new ones over a cup of coffee, or half a pint if you’re close to a pub!

Clubs also usually have their own special seasonal events such as formal dinners and casual lunches where again you can socialise.
 

And in conclusion ladies and gentlemen….

So there you have it.
Five ways that public speaking can help you, if you’re a person who stammers.
As you can see the benefits go far beyond increasing your speaking confidence.

What you will learn can be transferred in your everyday life to improve both your professional and social life. Sometimes the impact that public speaking can make in your life can be drastic.
I know believe me… it helped me get a job!
 

Time to have your say

Has public speaking helped with your stammer or stutter?

Has public speaking helped you overcome any other problems?

Please feel free to leave a comment, ask a question or pass on tips of your own in the comments below.
 

About Hiten Vyas PhD
Hiten is a personal development coach.
Early on in his life he experienced extreme amounts of fear and anxiety because of difficulties due to stammering, which pretty much crippled all aspects of his life.
He entered the personal development field in 2003, and since then has transformed himself into a successful individual.

It is now his passion to help you overcome your own difficulties, and assist you in living the life you want and deserve.

He has a PhD in Biomedical Information Systems, is a Certified Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), trained by Dr Bobby Bodenhamer in the United States, and is an Associate Member of the Association of Coaching.

You can contact Hiten via his main blog hitenvyas.com
or via his twitter account.

Credits:
My thanks and gratitude to Hiten for covering such a difficult subject in a knowledgeable, supportive and sensitive manner.

Please contact Hiten via his main blog hitenvyas.com
or via his twitter account.

I’ve got a book at home called “Juggling for the Complete Klutz“. My wife bought it for me one Christmas as a stocking filler… she’s good with stocking fillers.

It’s a great book, it teaches you how to juggle in easy steps. It starts with simple moves and slowly builds up to more difficult things.
Step V is called Special Problems and the author starts by saying…

“Almost everyone seems to have a strong tendency to turn to this section too soon. Deep in our hearts we all figure we’re exceptional – one way or another – and consequently deserving of some special attention.
It is often a deeply humbling experience to realise that our problems are neither very unusual, nor even very serious.”
John Cassidy and B.C. Rimbeaux – Juggling for the Complete Klutz

When I read that I had to laugh because he’s right. We all consider our own problems to be far greater than anyone else’s. Same with Public Speaking… we all consider that we are much more nervous than anyone else.

Truth is… everyone gets nervous, in fact according to a frequently cited survey, most people consider public speaking more frightening than death!
Personally I’d rather lecture to a thousand people wearing only my socks than die….. but they are rather nice socks.

Fear of public speaking is not new, Shakespeare knew all about it…

“Steel thy fearful doubts and change thy misdoubts to resolution.”
William Shakespeare

I couldn’t have put it better myself.
So let’s see if I can persuade you to follow Bill’s advice and “change thy misdoubts to resolution”.

What is Fear of Public Speaking / Stagefright?

Fear of public speaking, public speaking phobia, stagefright, nerves, communication anxiety, collywobbles, call it what you will, is our response to a situation we perceive as stressful.
What you perceive as stressful can be good or bad.
“Winning a million dollars can be just as stressful as losing a million dollars – you get the same type of stress response.”
Whenever we get stressed, our primeval urge to “fight or flee” kicks in and our bodies produce a rush of adrenalin. It’s this rush of adrenalin that causes the symptoms that we associate with the fear of public speaking.

A woman went into a room at a posh hotel and saw a man pacing back and forth as he talked to himself.
She said, “What are you doing here?”
He said, “I’m the keynote speaker at a banquet. And I’m on in ten minutes.”
She said, “Do you always get so nervous?”
He said, “I’m not nervous. What makes you say that?”
She said, “You’re pacing. You’re talking to yourself. And you’re in the ladies toilet.“

Don’t worry… it doesn’t get any more technical than that, but knowing what causes all those weird symptoms can be useful.
It lets you know that your reactions are normal and you’re not going mad.

How to fight Fear of Public Speaking

There are lots of proven methods for lowering your stress level and beating Public Speaking Fear so let’s take a look at them.

Preparation and rehearsal

In my post “Practice, Practice, Practice” I stressed the importance of preparation and rehearsal in order to make your speech flow well and sound natural.
The extra benefit of preparation is that it will calm you down. Knowing that you are well prepared will do wonders for your confidence.

Rehearsal and preparation will reduce your fear of public speaking by 75 percent.
“What generates confidence is preparing well, practising with astute colleagues or coaches and getting their feedback, making sure all the little details are taken care of, and speaking often”
Tom Leech

Practise in front of an audience – Join a Speakers Club

Thing about Public Speaking is that it’s not natural!
In day to day conversation, I say something…. you say something… I say something… you get the idea.
But in a speech, you’re doing all the talking and that feels weird.
You need to get used to that weird feeling by giving lots of speeches in front of a real live audience.
Check out my post “A helping hand” for advice on how to join a Speakers Club and get that practice.

Fighting the symptoms

Our natural response to stress results in some uncomfortable symptoms. Yours will be different to mine, but I’ve listed the common ones below, along with a few ideas to lessen their effect.

Practise deep breathing to reduce your fear of public speaking by another 15 percent.
“ If you are afraid, breathe slowly, feel your feelings and share them if you need to and then proceed to enrich the lives of others through your presentation. ”
Terry Cole-Whittaker

• Shaking – your hands shake, your legs feel wobbly, your knees give way.
  Put your notes on the lectern. If you hold them they will amplify your trembling. If you must hold your notes, use 3 by 5 inch cards.
• Sweating – your palms sweat, your forehead perspires, your armpits get damp.
  Don’t wear a shirt or blouse that will show the sweat. You may know you are sweating, but nobody else will.
• Shallow breathing – you run out of breath and can’t finish your sentences.
  Breath through your nose not your mouth and breath from your diaphragm… so called “Belly Breathing” – take a look at this great article on deep breathing.
• Heart pounds / palpitations – your heart pounds as though it’s about to explode.
  The audience can’t hear your pounding heart and as you get into your speech it will slow down.
  And don’t worry… it won’t explode.
• Dry mouth – your mouth gets dry and it becomes difficult to speak.
  Go easy on the coffee and take a drink of water whilst you are waiting and just before you are announced.
• Upset stomach – nuff said.
  Watch what you eat and find out where the nearest loos are.
• Memory stops working – you can’t remember the first line of your speech or any of the dates, names or quotations you are going to use in your speech.
  When we are stressed our memories can let us down so here are a few specific things you can do:
  First line of your speech – if you can only remember one line of your speech, the opening line is the one. Practise this line like crazy.
  “Amateurs practise so they can remember, professionals practise so they can’t forget.”
  Plus, as you put your notes on the lectern, look at that first line….
  Dates and names – make sure they are in your script, highlight them if it helps.
  Quotations – don’t even try to remember quotations. Pick up your notes and make it obvious that you are reading it… nothing wrong with that.
• Feeling of total panic – you think that whatever symptoms you are feeling will escalate out of control as your speech progresses.
  That doesn’t happen, but you need to give a couple of speeches before you realise it.
  The most stressful part of your speech is the beginning. As you get into your speech and start noticing smiling faces and people nodding in agreement, your tension will reduce.

All of these symptoms are caused by that pesky old adrenalin preparing you to do a runner or take on Joe Frasier. A great way to burn off some of that adrenalin is to introduce dynamic gestures and movements into your speech. Take a look at the great motivational speakers, they use that adrenalin to add dynamism, energy and power to their speeches.

Changing perception

Remember what I said earlier about Stagefright / Fear of Public Speaking… it’s a reaction to stress. Good thing about stress is that it is a mental phenomenon and hence can be controlled mentally.

Control your mind to reduce your fear of public speaking by that final 10 percent.
“ Always visualise the end of the program with 5,000 people standing up and applauding your ideas and presentation – it removes stage fright. ”
Thomas Faranda

Do you know what you’re scared of? You probably don’t.
You just have a feeling of unease.
It’s a bit like your mum telling you to be careful… but she doesn’t tell you what to be careful of.
Most of our fears bear little relationship to reality so let’s take a look at our fears and compare them to reality.
Time to move from “half empty” to “half full”.

“We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Stagefright fantasies commonly fall into two categories: how badly you’ll perform and how horribly the audience will react.

Common stagefright fantasies

• Fear that you’ll perform badly, your speech stinks – “My speech isn’t good enough. My material is terrible.”
  No way! If you’ve followed my advice on writing your speech, practised, revised your speech and practised some more… you will have great material.
  You may not bewitch the crowd with your silver-tongued oration, but you are doing something that most of the audience wouldn’t even try.
• Fear of how the audience will react – “The audience hates me. They’re out to get me.”
  That just ain’t so and to prove it, I’m going to quote from Professor Max Atkinson’s book – Lend me your ears.
  “…members of an audience are not, as many people seem to assume, wired up to each other in such a way as to constitute a collective mind that somehow enables them to conspire together against the speaker.
  …when asked whether, when they are in an audience, they sit there feeling hostile towards speakers, hoping to see them fall flat on their face and make a fool of themselves. The answer is invariably no…. “
  Now you may not believe me, but a professor?

General stress busters

Because the symptoms of Stagefright are the body’s reaction to stress, it follows that any stress busting technique will reduce those symptoms.
My favourites are:

• Deep breathing – if you only have time to do one thing from the whole of this post, this is the one. Deep breathing will slow down your breathing, give you something to focus on, calm you down and relax you. For a step by step guide, take a look at this great article on deep breathing
• Relaxation – any form of relaxation you can do whilst you are waiting to be introduced will help. I consciously relax various parts of my body, jaw, shoulders, arms and carry that feeling with me as I walk out.
• Exercise / keep fit – the reaction to stress causes an increase in heart rate. If you’re fit your body can cope more easily with that increase and you’ll notice it less. So get in shape.

The real secret….. don’t look nervous

In his book “Public Speaking for Dummies”, Malcolm Kushner says:

“The uncommon knowledge is, it doesn’t really matter how nervous you are – as long as you appear calm. As long as the audience thinks you’re confident, that’s what counts.“

That is great advice.
What you have to do is act out being calm and we all know what calm looks like. Relax your shoulders, let your arms hang loose, no fidgeting, no pacing, no stiff movements.
If you’re looking for role models, take a look at the masters of calm:
Bill Clinton – cool, calm, collected, no hint that he isn’t enjoying every moment.
Barrack Obama – loose limbed and lithe, a man to inspire with his word pictures and delivery.
Gordon Brown – for his sincere smile and sophisticated banter with the audience.

Things not to do

You might be tempted to try some of the remedies that are trotted out whenever Public Speaking Fear is mentioned.

• Imagine the audience naked – This strategy adds to the idea that “the audience are out to get me” they really aren’t. The audience is just a group of individuals, treat them as such.
• Don’t look at the audience. look over their heads – I said earlier that speaking to an audience is unnatural… you are doing all the talking and you aren’t getting any feedback. Correction, you aren’t getting any spoken feedback. If you look at the audience you will see smiling faces, nodding heads, puzzled looks. That’s the feedback that you need to get used to in order to make your speech feel more like a conversation.
  Look at the audience members and start getting that feedback.
• Have a couple of stiff drinks – What I’m advocating in this post, is that you take control of your fears and learn how to control them. If you use alcohol as a crutch, it may relax you but can result in slurred words, fluffed timing and fumbled notes. You look silly and your confidence takes a nosedive.

Final thoughts

There are three secrets to conquering the Fear of Public Speaking, unfortunately… nobody knows what they are.
In other words there are no quick fixes.

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.”
Mark Twain

It may be that you will never remove all those butterflies, but if you give it time, follow my advice and stick at it, you will learn how to keep them flying in formation.
Good luck, and let me know how it goes.

Credits:
My thanks and gratitude to:
Randy on Flickr for his Butterfly image.
Stock,xchng for lectern and chairs image.
Mike Baird on Flickr for his sunset photo.
And the following authors whose books I have used as references and quoted throughout this article.
Malcolm Kushner – Public Speaking for Dummies
Laurie Rozakis – The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Public Speaking
Lilly Walters – Secrets of Successful Speakers
Professor Max Atkinson – Lend Me Your Ears