Have you ever had a terrible public speaking experience and are afraid of speaking in public again?

If yes, then you have come to the place because here in this article I have tried to mention some very effective ways that might help you to overcome the fear of speaking in public. 

A lot of people suffer from glossophobia when they are asked to speak in front of an audience. 

It requires a lot of courage to speak in front of an audience. When it comes to facing the audience, people feel severe nervousness and anxiety because they start thinking of the whole scenario and fill their minds with negative thoughts.

Another reason for their fear can be their terrible past experiences with public speaking. Later on, their mind exaggerates the whole scenario and they feel severe anxiety whenever they prepare themselves for the next presentation or speech. 

How to speak with confidence in public?

Here I have tried to describe some practices through which you can prepare yourself well before the speech so that you may not feel the fear of speaking in public. 

1. Know your audience first:

Knowing your audience first is the most important step before speaking in public if you want to overcome your fear. Your audience can be from different countries, belonging to an entirely different culture, and may have distinct demographic characteristics. Audiences have certain expectations from the speaker. By knowing all these things you can better understand whom you are going to speak with, the importance of the topic the eyes of the audience, and their prior knowledge regarding the topic, and then you can tailor your speech accordingly. Moreover, it would become easy for you to prepare your speech and you may confidently deliver whatever you want to deliver without getting confused. 

If you have done your prior research, you no longer need to fear the audience because you already have a clear picture in your mind and you are more confident now. 

2. Stay away from negative thoughts:

               Believe in yourself and think positive

It is normal for the public speaker to think about the negative events that might happen if he or she gets confused during the speech. The two sides of our brain always fight about whether we can do it or not. Doubting yourself every time can result in the form of pre-presentation anxiety and can ruin all your confidence. If you have a can-do attitude you may get relief from the fear of public speaking. Think about the positive feedback from your listeners. Give yourself the courage that whatever you do will surely work out. 

3. Work on your topic:

Having a clear understanding of what you are going to talk about is crucial. Conduct in-depth research on your topic and try to get knowledge from every aspect of it. Search your topic using different reliable sources and gather all the authentic relevant details. Once you have a clear understanding of what your topic is you will feel less fearful and more confident.

The audience might ask certain questions from you that might confuse you. If you have properly worked on your topic you will find your mind in relief throughout the presentation. 

4. Write your topic:

Your speech will be more organized if you write your topic before delivering it in front of the audience. Whatever you get during your research write it down before you forget it. The benefit of writing the speech is that you will have an organized set of ideas and a sequence of thoughts in your mind that will help you to stay on track, and you will not miss any single detail of it. A well-written script will help you avoid mistakes and you will not feel the fear of getting blank during your speech. It will help you to memorize the key points. Selection of words becomes easy when you write it down and now you don’t need to stop and think about what to say.

5. Give a good time to your practice:

If you want to feel comfortable during your speech so practice as much as you can. You probably must have listened to this saying

        Practice makes a man perfect

Practicing your speech keeps of significant importance. You will be able to take into account the time you are taking during your speech. The level of nervousness will extensively reduce because it will help you gather the courage to open up and deliver your words. . In addition to this, you will get to know whether you are delivering your speech up to the energy level or not. Your flow of delivering the speech will also get better.

6. Practice in front of the mirror:

One of the best approaches to gaining the confidence of facing the audience is mirror practice. Through mirror practice, you can make yourself comfortable with the material of the speech. You can assess the quality of your speech delivery for the final room. You can assess your facial expressions and body movement. Moreover, you can prepare yourself for a certain time limit.

7. Record your speech:

It is also one of the effective ways to build confidence for speaking in public. It will help you to track your improvement. 

You will not realize how you perform in front of an audience until you record yourself. This approach of practicing overcoming your fear of the audience looks simple but it does make a huge difference. It will help you to open up in front of the audience. When you watch your recorded speech, you will be able to understand the areas where you lack and can make improvements accordingly. 

Imagine yourself giving the same speech that you have just recorded in front of the audience. You will be able to realize if is this really up to the standard. 

Repeat the practice of recording yourself until you feel you are fully prepared to speak in the crowd. 

8. Practice in front of professionals:

When you give your speech to professionals it helps you to come across professional advice. Professional advice might help you to deal with anxiety because you will be able to know which areas you need to work on more. After seeking help from these professionals you will feel less fear because you have already performed in front of toastmasters and you have their approval. Next time when you will give your speech to the audience you will be properly prepared. 

9. Keep an index card with you:

The fear of going blank during your speech increases your anxiety about giving a poor performance. The best way to avoid this is to write all the key points that you want to speak about in the form of a bullet on the index card. It will make your mind free and keep you on track. After that, you will not have any pressure to memorize every idea in a correct sequence. 

Final thought:

Whenever you find yourself in such a situation do not think that you are the only one who is facing this issue. There are hundreds of people who have already dealt with this problem but they worked on themselves. Stop judging yourself from the audience’s point of view because you judge yourself more than the audience. Always think that your audience wants you to perform well on the stage. Follow all the tips that we have discussed above and then feel the difference in your personality.