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Do you find yourself dreading preparing speeches for a live audience? Do you feel sick to your stomach the minute you walk up to the stage in front of a packed auditorium?
Public speaking is a challenging vocation that can be enjoyable for some, but terrifying for others. Whether you are new to the industry and doing your first-ever talk, or are an experienced public speaker, it can be tricky finding the right techniques to build self confidence on stage.
In this article, we explore simple and reliable ways to help you increase your confidence in public speaking. While self-confidence is more natural for some people, any speaker can build self esteem by speaking in front of an audience.
Whether it's demonstrating your work at school or college, presenting at a meeting or conference, many public speaking techniques can help you overcome obstacles and boost your self-confidence as a student.
What is the Cause of Low Confidence in Public Speaking?
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Lack of Preparation
It is crucial that you go into a speaking engagement confident in the material and your delivery style. For example, if you know your opening remarks well, it engages the audience and gets positive reactions and sets a strong precedent for the rest of the talk.
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Fear of Failure / Being Judged
We all care about what other people think about us but it’s important to remember that you can’t please everyone and you shouldn’t try. Fear of being negatively judged is one of the biggest hindrances to creativity and public speaking. It can make people shy away from putting their content out in the world because they’re afraid of what other people will think about their work.
If we’re overly worried about what others will think about our performance, then you won’t be able to perform as well because we’ll be too concerned with protecting ourselves from criticism.
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Large Audiences
One of the most important things to remember when you’re speaking to a group of people that are not exactly like you is that everyone has something in common, everyone has a shared human experience that they can relate to. Everyone has felt the pain of rejection or the thrill of success. The most important thing you can do when you’re going to present is to think about the audience. What are the questions that they might have about what you’re talking about? What kind of gaps could there be in your talk?
4 Signs of a Confident Speaker
Speaking in public is an experience that many of us will eventually face. It is often terrifying for a person’s self-esteem and confidence when forced to memorize lines, rehearse scenes, and speak to large numbers of people. A confident speaker can be anyone – it’s the attitude you have going into your speech that counts.
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Engaging smile and eye Contact
The way you deliver your message is just as important as the actual words you use.
Looking up at the ceiling while you speak or looking down at your notes will make you look unconfident and unsure. The tone, pace and volume of your voice can convey a whole range of feelings and emotions. It can make you seem pleasant and inviting, engaging or bored.
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Body language
It’s important to exude confidence and charisma when you speak because people are far more likely to listen to you and believe what you’re saying if you’re confident about it.
The way you carry yourself, your body language and your presence reflects these factors. It also creates a sense of comfort with the people around you and how they react to you.
During a speech or presentation, you should stand up straight and act like the person in charge. Don’t cross your arms or fold your arms across your chest—this sends a defensive message and makes you seem closed off.
If you don’t already do it, practice speaking in front of a mirror so you can watch your facial expressions, your stance and your hand gestures.
If you want to be taken seriously, you need to make sure that your body language is communicating that you are in control.
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A strong voice
A confident speaker speaks with conviction, knows their subject matter and strives to make their message heard. Your voice is one of the most powerful tools you have to achieve this.
One of the most important things to do if you want to become a more confident public speaker is to realise that volume is not everything. Yes, it helps if you can speak loud enough to be heard, but it’s far more important to make sure you have a strong voice that people can actually understand.
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Comfortable on stage
This is a tough one to learn because we’re taught that it’s rude to hog the spotlight, but it’s not. Confident speakers know they have a lot of value to offer, and they’re not afraid to take centre stage.
It’s important to get comfortable in the space you’re presenting in. If you’re on a stage, walk around and get used to where the lights are. If you feel like you’re too close to the audience, then stand back. If you’re too far from the audience, then move forward. If you feel like you’re facing the wrong way, then turn around.
8 Tips To Gain Confidence In Public Speaking
With the help of the 8 solid tips below, you will not only learn how to speak confidently in speech, but also become a dynamic speaker. You don't have to believe that you can be the next JFK or Martin Luther King, but you do have to believe in your ability to improve your skills.
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Draw on positive past speaking experiences
Remind yourself that if you have done it once before, you can do it again! Sometimes, we tend to overlook the occasions that work out positively, and cling to the instances where we fell short. The best thing to do is take notes about the event soon after it has occurred. Write down your thoughts and experiences, why you think it was a success and any positive feedback you received.
You can refer to these notes when you prepare for an upcoming event that you feel nervous about. Reflect on your last successful event and try to recreate the same state of mind to help raise your self-confidence and boost your self-esteem.
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Deal with negative public speaking experiences from the past
Who hasn't experienced awkward moments on stage? You may have mumbled under your breath, or stuttered or tripped over the words. In fact, you may have become tongue tied and found yourself unable to speak at all. It doesn’t matter what happened because it’s not the end of the world.
Thinking back to this negative experience, you may be overcome with a feeling of anxiety and want to flee at even the slightest mention of a speech or presentation. Like many life experiences, it is up to us to decide what we take from it.
You may try to accept the negative experiences of the public speaking experience and not look at yourself too harshly for it. Rather than being too harsh on yourself, you may try accepting the negative experiences of the public speaking experience.
Take the mistakes in stride and learn from them. You could also work with a guide or professional to help you get better at public speaking.
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Don’t hide your anxiety
Hiding your anxiety from your audience or pretending to be alright when you’re not, can cause more harm than expressing it. Bottling up feelings of nervousness and anxiety can worsen the feeling and over time, become more difficult to handle.
This state of being hyper aware and active, be it anxiety or excitement, is a natural occurrence and expressing what we’re feeling is natural and genuine to our collective self in any situation. Regulating this expression or conveying something else is also a mentally draining task and only adds to your list of worries.
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Take public speaking courses:
Professional trainers can pinpoint the granular changes in technique and style that are specific to you. They can help you build on your existing strengths and find an approach that feels natural and comfortable to you. If you try to adapt a style or speaking personality that doesn’t come to you easily, that might hamper your growth and ultimately, affect confidence.
Public speaking courses offer a safe and productive environment to apply your speaking skills without hesitation. With easy-to-follow steps, trainers provide actionable feedback and encouragement to help speakers articulate better with confidence.
As you get familiar with the process, you can adapt these skills to all areas of life, like presenting a seminar or taking part in college competitions. Having a strong foundation allows you to refine your approach to public speaking while enjoying the process itself.
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Divert your anxiety to excitement:
When you’re feeling anxious, the adrenaline rushing into your system makes it difficult to calm down as it seems counterintuitive to the body. So, instead of trying to suppress it, you are better off acknowledging this state of nervousness and feel more excited about the opportunity to perform.
It’s more of a natural progression from anxiety to excitement rather than calming down. The reason for this is that both anxiety and excitement are similar states of psychological arousal. So, instead of reacting to the situation as a threat, you can better embrace the situation from a positive mindset.
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Ask the audience
Ask the group if they like the pace, style and method of conducting the classes and whether they understand everything. Your communication style must be adapted to the needs of the audience, so they absorb as much knowledge as possible. Therefore, do not be afraid to ask them and change your approach accordingly.
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Visualise success
Here’s a positive thinking tip for you: visualize your success with public speaking, to create your success with public speaking.
Just as you want to visualize success in yourself as part of your preparation; you also want to visualize success in your audience--which means that you want to imagine the members of your audience reacting positively to your presentation, paying close attention and nodding their heads as you make your points.
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Posture and Clarity
When you address a group of people, they are listening with more than their ears and relating deeper than your topic. To top it all off, your audience is also absorbing your energy.
So if you stand tall and speak freely, your audience will also engage more freely and connect with your persona, sometimes more than the subject matter itself. If a speaker comes across as slouching or standing in an informal pose, the audience may become disinterested in what you have to say.
When you’re giving a presentation, you may have a tendency to use nervous gestures. Gestures are a form of non-verbal communication and speak volumes about how you feel, how confident you are in what you're saying, and what your attitude is toward the audience. If you’re trying to get someone to listen to you, pay attention to your body language.
Nervous gestures such as fidgeting with your watch or pen, covering your mouth with your hands, or rubbing your forehead can distract from the message you’re trying to send. You don’t want to make too many gestures because it makes you look nervous and insecure, but you also don’t want to make too few gestures because it makes you look cold, distant and uninterested.
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Wrap Up
Confidence is contagious and will help you win people over at your next presentation. Some people are born with the gift of gab and are totally at ease when it comes to public speaking. But for those of us who aren’t so gifted, it’s something that can be learned and developed over time. To do this, you can start by doing a lot of low-stakes public speaking opportunities.
If you’re about to give a speech or presentation, remember that the audience is there for the same reason that you are: to have a mutually constructive time. You’re both there to learn from each other and to share knowledge.
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