Public speaking
How Public Speaking Will Change Your Life
5 Unexpected Benefits of Getting Over the Fear of Public Speaking
In this post, you’ll discover why overcoming your resistance to public speaking will be one of the most powerful gifts you can give yourself.
It’s been said that public speaking is a fear worse than death for about 80% of the population. Just the idea of standing in front of a group of people to speak or give a presentation can bring the bravest person to a sudden case of nausea, shaking knees, and the sweats. We’ve seen it happen.
But we are here to tell you that overcoming your resistance to public speaking will be one of the most powerful gifts you can give yourself if you want to be successful in your career. Being able to fully express yourself will allow you to feel fulfilled and free in your life. Public speaking skills are the key that will open the doors to everything you ever wanted in life.
Overcoming your resistance to public speaking will be one of the most powerful gifts you can give yourself if you want to be successful in your career
How do we know?
Speaker Nation’s founder, Eric Edmeades, has experienced it first hand and has since gone on to guide thousands of others to experience the power of public speaking in their own lives.
Eric went from deathly afraid to being word-class, and to show you what’s possible, here’s an excerpt from a blog post he wrote about it a few years back.
“I used to be terrified of public speaking. Phobic. 20 years ago I had to present an award to a close friend of mine; all told, this would mean being on stage for about 3 to 4 minutes. For the weeks leading up to the event, I had a hard time sleeping and I am sure I lost a few pounds because my stomach was permanently upset. I did the presentation, it went well, but I barely remember any of it because I had so much adrenaline ripping through my system.
And then one day, about 10 years ago, I got over it. I made some very small but powerful changes to the way I thought about speaking and became so comfortable with public speaking that I have since spoken hundreds of times in over 20 countries. I have addressed audiences from only a few to several thousand. I have also shared the stage with some of the most prominent speakers in the world, including Tony Robbins, Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy and President Bill Clinton.
Today, one of the great privileges of my life is helping others overcome their fears of public speaking and teaching people how to use public speaking to attract more business.
One of the most profound breakthroughs a person can have is to overcome the fear or nervousness they feel about public speaking. I have coached people through a variety of fear-smashing exercises, including fire walking, board-breaking, and rock climbing, and I can tell you that helping someone find their voice and become comfortable with public speaking creates a much more significant and long-lasting impact than just about anything else.
The bottom line is that becoming comfortable with public speaking builds self-esteem and confidence.
And so, today, I feel privileged to help people overcome their fears and, even better, become comfortable and joyful about doing public presentations.”
Even if you have no plans of ever becoming a professional speaker or stepping on a big stage any time soon, overcoming the fear of public speaking will enhance your life in ways you might not expect. Here are a few powerful examples:
5 Ways Speaking Will Boost The Quality of Your Life
1. Express Yourself Better
Public speaking helps you learn to formulate your thoughts in a way that clearly makes your point. Not only is this helpful when you are making a presentation, but it makes you a more effective communicator in general. Imagine having the courage and ability to communicate in a way that you never feel misunderstood or unheard again. You’ll never again walk away from a meeting or an argument thinking “Oh man, I wish I said that.” Imagine feeling totally free and comfortable to express your true self. Public speaking will give you that.
Imagine feeling totally free and comfortable to express your true self. Public speaking will give you that.
2. Feel More Comfortable In Social Situations
Do you consider yourself to be shy, introverted, maybe even a bit socially awkward? You’ve probably at some point found yourself in a social setting feeling alone or like you had nothing to say. You might be surprised to hear that developing some public speaking skills is the best way to prevent that. In a social setting, it can feel extremely awkward to approach someone and start a conversation. But what if you didn’t have to be the one approaching? If you learn the skills to speak and tell stories to large groups of people, you can make people want to approach you. You can effectively introduce yourself to an entire room full of people (or an online audience, if you’re speaking on video) and you’ll find that people you’ve never even met start treating you like an old friend, and social situations become comfortable and fun.
If you learn the skills to speak and tell stories to large groups of people, you can make people want to approach you.
On top of that, by becoming a skilled public speaker, you’ll know how to deal with any anxiety or shyness that comes up just before giving a speech. If done correctly, you can learn how to shift anxiety into true excitement about going on stage, and that skill automatically translates into how you feel in any social situation. You’ll notice you feel more grounded, confident, and at ease.
3. Be Seen As An Attractive Leader
People are naturally drawn to confidence. Someone who is comfortable making their points with charisma and authority in front of a large number of people will naturally be seen as an attractive leader because they seem to know what they’re talking about and others seem to be listening.
Someone who is comfortable making their points with charisma and authority in front of a large number of people will naturally be seen as an attractive leader.
This is what we call “The Stage Effect” and it’s one of the most powerful forms of influence available to you.
There was a college professor who did an experiment where he walked into a room full of students who had no idea who he was; he stood at the front of the room and said, “Follow me.” He then led them on a 20-minute walk throughout the campus before returning to the classroom and informing them that he was not their professor at all. Simply by being confident standing in front of an audience and speaking 2 words, he managed to get an entire room full of strangers to walk out of their class and follow him for 20 minutes. That’s how powerful The Stage Effect can be and how attractive public speaking can make you as a leader.
4. Opportunities Will Flock To You
Opportunities ultimately come from the people you connect with in life. So it makes sense that the more people you talk to, the more opportunities you might find. It also makes sense that the better your ability to confidently communicate your value and your message, the more likely it is for people to give you those opportunities. Public speaking gives you an opportunity to communicate your value with hundreds, even thousands of people at once. A video of you speaking might go on to get millions of views! Just imagine how many of those people in your audience might hold the key to the opportunity of your lifetime. And since The Stage Effect makes you a more attractive leader, those people will seek you out just to give you those opportunities.
The better your ability to confidently communicate your value and your message, the more likely it is for people to give you those opportunities.
5. Give Your Live Experiences A Deeper Meaning
Teaching lessons to audiences by telling your own stories helps you understand yourself better. By telling stories of the events in your life, you are forced to dig deep into their meaning, and this allows you to think about the most empowering meanings of bad events. Developing the ability to connect with an audience gives you insights into human connection and relationships that you may not get any other way, and it helps you see things from a perspective most people never get to. The power public speaking has to deepen your understanding of not only your own but other people’s life experiences is immense and cannot be taken lightly.
IN CONCLUSION
Just like it did for Speaker Nation’s founder, Eric Edmeades, and for hundreds of our clients, becoming comfortable with public speaking will completely change your life.
This doesn’t mean you need to aspire to stand on big stages and become the next Tony Robbins, but if you’re hesitant to stand in front of a group to teach, inspire, or simply share thoughts, there’s an entire new world waiting for you on the other side of the fear you feel.
Are you ready to upgrade yourself and unleash the power of public speaking into your life?
Click Here to download our free “The Stage Effect” mini-guide where you will learn more about the power of public speaking and how to use it to give yourself an unfair advantage in life.
