I've done a TON of public speaking, in front of anywhere from 3-4 people, to a couple hundred. Preparation is key. Most people are going to have a bit of the butterflies, but the way to counter the extreme fear is to know your shit. You're going to give a presentation. OK, learn the stuff front and back. Record yourself doing it and play it back. They might say eye contact, but the way to fake that, look just slightly over the top of the two halves of the room.

Uh, like, um, those are natural parts of speech that most of us likely use talking to our friends. Try to limit it, but don't feel like using those terms invalidates your speech.

At the end of the day, realize that the audience is simply sitting through your talk, until they give yours. You're not being personally judged by them. The pressure is self-imposed. If you can let yourself look beyond that, then you realize that the audience doesn't have any power over you, you have full power, because you're telling them what they are going to hear. They're not guiding the speech.

If all else fails, get halfway through, grab your crotch, drop the mic and walk off. (note, don't really do that).

My first speech class got a D. Second time got an A. Why? Second teacher let me cuss, not for all speechs but most. That let me loosen up and not give a . And jokes help too. The first introduction speech that you always have to do, I went up and said "my name is Ruben and I'm an alcoholic... (shook my head) oh shit wrong speech. " Got a laugh and just went with it.

My face and ears flush easily too. I just ignore it.

I actually came to say the same thing about eye contact a lot of people said. I get extremely uncomfortable with eye contact, so I usually look towards someone (upper forehead), and blur my vision so i don't focus on their face. I do find myself forgetting to look somewhere else though.

I say "um" a lot when I give speeches. No quick solution there. Just try to catch yourself, but don't get too hung up on it. If you do, it'll probably mess you up more than if you allowed yourself to slip some "um"s.

It gets much easier. I had to give presentations twice a month at minimum in grad school, and covered a couple of lectures. Just get your butt up and do it, even if you're scared the first hundred times.

english isnt my first language and i killed all of my presentations in college. the only way i can gain confidence is by knowing whats necessary about the material.

be curious about the material, and if you're unsure about something, look it up. try to find out as much information as you can about the topic.

then rehearse. rehearse rehearse rehearse. use simple appropriate words. assume your audience knows nothing about the topic.

i remember presenting about the history of the smiley face. everyone loved it haha. some girl wrote that im "absolutely adorable" and invited me to her halloween party on my review sheet. i declined because and told her i had work... when in fact i just wanted to stay home and play some vidya

i still have that review sheet because.. im 4everalone...

but yeah... if i can do it, especially when english isnt my first language, im sure you can do it too.

like i said, knowing the material is key. draft your speech only after you're confident with the material. if you dont know the topic, how are you going to structure your presentation right? youd be lost.

While I agree about knowing the topic, I never bought into the idea of rehearsing. For me, it was better to rehearse only the flow, such as what topic follows what, and when to discuss certain topics, than rehearsing the entire speech. I always did worse when I rehearsed the entire speech, cause if I deviate a little, it throws everything out of whack. The only time I do is for timing, which is rarely accurate.

Originally Posted by elessar123 I actually came to say the same thing about eye contact a lot of people said. I get extremely uncomfortable with eye contact, so I usually look towards someone (upper forehead), and blur my vision so i don't focus on their face. I do find myself forgetting to look somewhere else though.

This is good advice.

A similar option: if you normally wear contacts, and you're very worried about getting nervous, you could just leave them out that day. You're nervous of how the audience will perceive you; if you're not able to clearly see (and, thus, over-analyze) every facial expression, you may feel more comfortable. When you're giving your speech, if you're like me, you're gauging your performance based on every minor body language cue that the audience gives you, and you're reading way too deeply into them. Taking away that component should reduce your self-consciousness.

This idea has been effective in my experience: while I haven't actually tried it in a formal speech, I've been more comfortable in other social situations when I've had to go contact-less for whatever reason.

(This is assuming you don't have anything crucial you need to see during your presentation, like note cards or presentation slides.)

Can't vouch for it myself (and no, I'm not a shill), but I have heard good things about the Toastmasters club as far as getting better at public speaking, together with other people in similar situations:

http://www.toastmasters.org/

I haven't read all the responses but my university had a public speaking requirement and I really hate being in front of people. My advice and what I did was to take the class at the oddest time, mine was something like 4:10 and instead of a class of 30 people it was 12. Also instead of giving speeches on anything I cared about I did the most lame possible subjects as the other students were already bored shitless and then I start onto why you should wear a seat belt no one is paying attention.

I am guessing you have a big FEAR of being laugh at or ridiculed.... And yes people will laugh at you and look at you funny, its part of public speaking or whatever

Once you get over that, you should be fine, unless you lack confidence.. You want to get some P*ss* and have girls like you easily, get over your fear.. You will be laugh at regardless, you just have to thicken your skin.

The best public speakers are ones who see those he/she is talking to as BENEATH him/her and that THEY are the only one that matters.

Better grow some skin, man...

And to the people who says know your material, thats BS!!!! You need to be confident, you could spew BS to your audience, but you need to be able to spew it with CONFIDENCE. You need to make what you say as THE WORD!!!

Originally Posted by parKer #2 Look at people's foreheads. It will give the illusion of eye contact. 2 seconds per forehead should be enough. Find someone in the audience who is a "nodder" or "smiler," usually it's the teacher and your friends. Their positive feedback will help your confidence. Do a sweep across the room of foreheads (divide the room into thirds and give some love to each third), but when you feel like a freak-out is coming, find your nodders/smilers. Avoid the floor and clock at all costs.

This.

If you're short on time and practice and want to get over the anxiety fast, this is an extremely useful quick tip.

I am terrible at presentations, and had to perform in front of an audience of 200 people for a skit as a host.

When it was time to put on the show, the one thing I am glad I did was stare towards the audience at a level barely above their eyes/heads. It's an excellent illusion to anyone but yourself that you're really focused on the audience, where in fact, at least in my mind when I was speaking, I was pretty much projecting to a large empty room, or at least a room of weird, meaningless entities.

Also another thing that helps is your stance as well.

Stand up straight and tall. Lift up your chest. In this way, you can physically feel a sort of confidence that allows your voice to project wide and far. And this helps to get you on track, or at least to keep talking rather than hit a blank and stop altogether. Talk loud and clear. With the forced effort to talk out there, you're less able to go "umming".

knowing material is key; i also think about two other things. when you are watching someone speak in public what do you think about them? Not much right, if your interested you pay attention, if not you don't. So everyone in the crowd is doing the same thing. half probably aren't paying attention to you and the other half probably wants to hear what you say.

The other thing is to not forget a couple seconds of silence is not a bad thing. It seems like forever when your the one speaking but it's not. Don't rush and just take your time.

I myself abhor speaking in public but unfortunately due to my job, I have been forced to conduct training sessions in front of a group of I've never met before, conduct WebEx trainings online (people see what is on your computer and you are basically on a conference call with a bunch of people), and I also have to participate in weekly meetings.

The bad news? It doesn't get any easier the more you do it. The good news? People aren't sitting there waiting for you to mess up or care if you are beet red. Have you ever listened to someone else speak in public? If they made a nervous slip, are you going to spend the rest of your day talking about it? Nope.

Don't concentrate on where to look or how to stand. Simply concentrate on your material. If you know your material inside and out, you will gain confidence naturally. Think about when you're having a conversation with a friend discussing a game or a movie. 100% of the time when you are talking about it, you're main focus is to get your point or opinion across. You're not even spending 0.0001% thinking about "Should I look at my friend's forehead when I speak to him or should I look at his nose?".

You're there to share information with others who don't know the material as well as you do. As long as they get a single useful thing out of the presentation, they will be satisfied.

Originally Posted by Kendro 100% of the time when you are talking about it, you're main focus is to get your point or opinion across. You're not even spending 0.0001% thinking about "Should I look at my friend's forehead when I speak to him or should I look at his nose?". You're there to share information with others who don't know the material as well as you do. As long as they get a single useful thing out of the presentation, they will be satisfied

True, but the OP is talking about a speech class.

That is the difference between a graded public speaking class versus actually giving a formal presentation. For speech class, how you present is more important than what you present, which differs totally in the real world where content is king.

In my high school speech class, on Mondays, the teacher gave out random topics like "how to eat a hamburger" or "why am I taking speech class" or "if I had $20..." You got 5 minutes to prepare and then you gave a 5 minute impromptu speech. She checked to see if you followed guidelines on how to give a speech. How you present > What you present.

Anyone who's ever taken a speech course knows the drill: eye contact, speech flow, volume, filler words, material flow, etc. These will all be scrutinized significantly more compared to just talking to a friend or training personnel. Teachers love catching mistakes, so it's best to train yourself to not make them in the first place.

Thank you guys for the helpful advice. It's comforting to know that I'm not the only one with speech anxiety.

I gave my speech a few days ago and prior to that I rehearsed like a mofo.

I brought my index cards to read off of but my nerves took over so much that I forgot to look at them. My face didnt flush but my voice was shaky and I was extremely fidgety. Overall I did ok. She gave me a B.

And during my speech the words just kind of came out but I was thinking the entire time "where should I look? stop looking at that person!"

I made eye contact(perhaps too much) with 3 people(why did those people catch my attention? I dont know). There are 25-30 people in the class. Those 3 people might think i'm weird now.

Originally Posted by Kylearan If you're worried about how you look or are perceived, your concentration is in the wrong direction. They're there to listen to what you have to say, not you there to await their approval. Give yourself permission. Don't expect it from them. You won't get it.

I really like what you said ^. I'm going to chant that from now on before a speech. Please give me strength.

Advertisement

Register for free to remove this ad

I have the same problem :(

Originally Posted by hotpocketninja I have the same problem :(

Let form a support group.

Get some Xanax.

A "B" is good. Congrats OP. Thanks for the update.

Remember what you learned and next time will be easier (assuming you are prepared) because you know you can do it now.

Not that this will help you for for short term, but conquer yourself and your insecurities.

Originally Posted by Kay_Faraday Let form a support group.

I've dropped a lot of classes too and done many things to avoid talking to people. I was not like this in high school, well... not really.