Do you have a fear of public speaking? I do.

Most of us have a fear of public speaking and will do whatever we can to get out of it.  In the past few days, I have had the horror of having to give a number of public speeches that were to audiences with which I was not used to speaking. I did a quick review of what I used to do to help settle my nerves. One trick that does not work for me is the trick of imagining your audience naked. But here are some of the tricks that I use that work for me. When public speaking, pause frequently. Pause before you say something in a new way, pause after you have said something you believe is important, and pause as a relief to let listeners absorb details.

When I was first trying my hand at public speaking, I was told a successful speech was in the presentation. “Tell the audience what you want to tell them. Tell the audience what you just told them and then wrap up by telling them again what you just said.” The point is that repetition is the key to a good speech. Repetition and one message at a time. People can get confused when or if you give them too much information at once.

It is important that if you are giving a thank you speech, for example, you just say thank you, acknowledge those who have helped you and stay on course. If you are welcoming a person to the group or to your community, focus on the welcome, what the community can do for the person and what, if anything the community can expect from the person being welcomed.

I write the speech out and practice before I give it. When it is time to speak, I have it mostly memorized, and I talk to the audience without referring to my notes often. I do refer to the notes to make sure I have not left anything out. If I am asked to speak and I have not prepared anything, which does happen from time to time, I make the speech short and to the point, and if possible I use humour to break the ice.