To Get More Clients Conquer Your Fear of Public Speaking!

I’m so excited I have a great opportunity to market to my ideal clients. All I need to do is give a 30 minute presentation to the group. Woooo! Hold your horses. Do you mea I have to actually stand up in front of a group of people and speak?

Maybe you’ve experienced it too? Stopped in your marketing tracks by fear. Even though you don’t want to admit it, fear of public speaking that’s holding you back. But does it have to stop you? No you can do something about it.

Here is what you can do:

1. Be prepared. That’s sounds pretty simple and obvious too. But one of the things that can hold you back is either trying to memorize the entire presentation word for word (big mistake) instead of highlighting two or three talking points. Word for word memorization usually won’t work because as soon as you get stumped your speech stumbles. You might still be afraid but let it flow naturally. Now I am NOT saying don’t be prepared and try to wing it. That’s probably worse than the straight memorization method. Review your material a number of times until you feel you can comfortably speak on the talking points.


2. Don't expect perfection. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself by expecting perfection. In fact, chances are your audience doesn't expect perfection either. They don’t even know what you were going to say in the next sentence unless you’re in a room full of mind readers. Then why speak at all. Let them read your mind. So if you skip a part… forget about it (that’s supposed to be spoken with my best New York accent Sopranos style). I’ve never gone to a presentation that I didn’t want the best for the speaker and hurt a little for them when they fumbled. Your listeners will feel the same way about you.


3. Start out speaking to small groups. Well who said speaking to groups of thousands will do wonders for your marketing? It will… either positive or negative. If you are not comfortable speaking to small groups don’t start with groups of a thousand. Remember what your mama told you - practice makes perfect. Well I say - practice makes improvement; there is no perfect. But you do have an opportunity to get past your fear of speaking to small groups. It’s a great opportunity to ask for feedback from the participants.

In the end, it's important to remember that even if you do mess up, it's not the end of the world. Just pick back up and go on to the next speaking opportunity. What's your number one tip for erasing public speaking fear?