8 Effective Tips to Overcome Public Speaking Anxiety

Public Speaking Anxiety is a fear or nervousness of speaking or expressing ideas or building a conversation in front of a group or congregation. There can be various reasons for this and this is a very common form of anxiety.

When you go to give a speech in front of a group of people, you may experience difficulties such as trembling legs, excessive sweating, numbness in your limbs, slurring of words, and forgetting what you are going to say.

The reasons for this may be lack of preparation, lack of previous experience, fear of the response of the congregation, fear and doubt that the speech will be wrong or the congregation will laugh at him and he will have to be embarrassed.

Here are 8 tips to address these issues and deliver an expressive, interesting, and powerful speech in front of an audience.

8 Effective Tips to Overcome Public Speaking Anxiety

01. Preparing the Story

If it is a speech to be presented on a special occasion such as a speech of acceptance or a speech of thanks, since you are aware of it in advance, you can prepare the speech you are going to give that day with good facts.

If not, imagine that you had to voice your opinion. In such a case, keep in mind only the essential facts that you need to talk about. Then arrange those points in order. Then present the relevant points one by one in a very orderly and restrained manner.

When we go to speak without any preparation, there is a high chance that our speech will be meaningless. So in such a case the congregation may refuse to listen to it, and you may also be greatly embarrassed.

Likewise, if the essentials are limited, don’t try to make the story long by adding unnecessary facts. Practice talking based on only relevant points and facts. There is no point in prolonging the story unnecessarily. What matters is how relevant and important your story is.

Therefore, collect only the most important facts and build your story concisely and clearly.

02. Memorizing the Story

No matter how good we create a story, if we don’t memorize that story, it’s useless. Because if that happens, the written speech will only be on paper and will not be in our memory.

It was really difficult to speak in front of a congregation without remembering what to say, and it was a case of putting yourself in trouble.

Don’t let the audience feel like you’re a particularly prepared speaker. Listeners should feel that you are speaking naturally and in a normal manner. For that you need to make your story flow well. Otherwise, if you try to carry out the story by repeating facts from time to time, it is more likely to be boring as well as uninteresting.

03. Improve your Pronunciation

Each language has its own set of consistent, substantive, formal words and phrases. Similarly, even the way to pronounce those words is different from each other. Practice correct pronunciation of relevant words. The way you pronounce the words is also very important to enhance its interestingness.

04. Your Tone and Style

The tone of each other’s voice is different, but we can maintain it at a certain level. Never allow your voice to become high-pitched or monotone. It can be very difficult for the listener.

Speaking style or handling of language varies from person to person as well as from language to language. However, try to adapt your language and speaking style to the story.

05. Balance Your Voice

It is very important to take care of the volume of your voice, as well as its tone. Be sure to speak loudly when you need to speak loudly, and keep your voice down when you need to speak softly.

It is inappropriate to speak too loudly or too softly throughout the speech. Controlling your voice during a speech is a very professional and rewarding trait.

By manipulating your voice where needed, you will be able to deliver your speech better.

06. Your Motions and Movements

Speaking from the same place, like placing a tree on stage, can be quite primitive. Moving around the stage in an unnecessary manner and talking, also takes a rather disturbing form.

Make sure to do only as much motions and movements as necessary.

07. Prior Training

Before giving your speech, practice your speech in the way you expect it to be that day. If you can use the same venue for this, you will become more familiar with the venue. Otherwise, imagine the necessary surroundings in your mind, even in your house or room, and act out your speech.

Be aware of the points mentioned above. Take advantage of those things and do the rehearsals several times to come up with a better speech.

08. Don’t Think About Mistakes

Many people have a great fear or nervousness to speak in front of a congregation because of the feeling that they will make a mistake and the congregation will laugh at them.

Don’t get into the habit of focusing on the bad and negative side of everything all the time. Instead of thinking as mentioned above, think like this, “if I do the speech well, how well the crowd will respond to me, everyone will appreciate my speech, everyone will applaud”.

By practicing this way of thinking, the pressure and fear of your mind will decrease. Also, this will give you the energy you need to deliver a better speech on the day.