Conquering Public Speaking Fear: Lessons from My Toastmasters Journey
In 2016 I had a goal that was a pretty big deal for me. I wanted to provide personal finance speeches in public, and help whoever I could to make better financial choices, and to put myself out there so I could become more well known in my community, and to hear what is on peoples minds.
I didn't feel 100% equipped with the ability to provide a great speech, and so I enrolled in a 6 week public speaking course put on by Toastmasters and I learnt so much from it that might be worth sharing with others, so here is what I picked up from my course and from my speaking experience afterwards.
1) I was quite nervous going in but I was blown away at how very nervous other people were as well. In a way it gave me some confidence to see that it is hard for me but hard for everyone.
2) A good smile goes a long way: I watched someone present very well who admitted later she was extremely nervous. However, she smiled throughout her presentation and it seemed to make her look relaxed, and made the audience relax.
3) Match your emotion to the material: In one of my speeches I was trying to smile and get everything else right. I was trying to think of so many things that I was told later on that I continued to smile through a more negative part of my speech. I felt pretty stupid about that at the time, but it's not easy to put everything together when you are nervous.
4) Practice your presentation exactly as you intend to deliver it. I recall practicing a speech only while sitting down. I figured the gestures would come to me on the night. Unfortunately I found that while I was trying to focus on gestures on the night, it made it hard to remember the words. Too much for my simple brain to cope with.
5) If you do have props, slides, or notes, get them perfectly organised the day before you present. I had a few evenings where I needed to find a printer at the last minute or couldn’t find my props and it really magnified the stress * 100
6) Try and do a speech outside of your comfort zone. I recall ambitiously attempting a theatrical, metaphorical speech without notes early on and it was a total flop except for one thing. After doing a speech outside my comfort zone my next speeches felt a lot easier. I certainly wouldn't want to have delivered such a flop in the workplace so I really appreciated the safety of a course to allow me to experiment.
7) Speak a bit louder than you think you need to. It projects confidence and authority. Record yourself presenting. This is really uncomfortable to do but it made a huge difference to me. When I watched myself presenting I was dismayed to see how flat my delivery was. I thought I was being so upbeat and engaging and I was anything but. It was hard to take. I tried again with more passion but I went too far the other way. I looked like a jumped up infomercial guy who was bringing an extreme level of passion to every word in every sentence. But it didn't take too many more recordings before the results improved. Suddenly I was bringing good volume, good tempo, and bringing passion to the right parts of my speech. Once I got this right and delivered it to an audience in this way, I felt that the audience were way more interested in what I was saying.
I wrote all the above points more than a year ago. Since then I joined a Toastmasters club, and I must have delivered 30-40 speeches. I entered speech competitions and I achieved my goal of delivering personal finance speeches to the public. Looking back on the points I have written, I think they are all valid as I read them again but sitting where I am now I am wondering what the big deal was in the first place. But that is me looking at things now with the benefit of experience.
And so here is the key point in my view. The more often I spoke, the more my brain was able to relax while presenting. Once I got up to about 15-20 speeches I found myself thinking on my feet, being myself and not trying too hard, and that allowed me to do so much better and to enjoy myself. I think it's just practice, or facing the fear enough times that the fear goes away.
I genuinely recommend a toastmasters course for anyone who is thinking they want to lift their ability to speak in public. You will be surrounded by people who are trying to improve themselves, who are humble enough to put their weakness and nervousness out there in front of strangers, and you get to see them improve dramatically and support them along the way. You get to hear many different perspectives, and you will certainly improve your confidence and ability to speak in public.