Joe Bridges, a 30-year-old greenhouse officer working in local government, was presenting his first paper at a Global Warming Conference in Yamba, south of Brisbane.

He'd been waiting all day for his 40-minute power point presentation to start, and felt a creeping insecurity that this conference was peopled with experts.

His anxiety rising a few notches after a third cup of percolated coffee, Joe arrived at the lectern tense and sweaty. He looked blankly out at his audience.

“I stood in front of them and felt absolutely incompetent,” remembers Joe of the worst moment in his brief career as a public speaker. “I felt like a sham. I had no words, my mouth dried, I wanted to run away. I was falling and the audience was witnessing me crashing and burning. I was naked before them in my tragedy. I shouldn't have been up there. I felt bad for days afterwards. I was numb.”

This sort of experience might frighten many off public speaking for life, be it a work presentation, toasting a best friend at a wedding or celebrating your mother's brilliant life on her 100 th birthday.

There are many opportunities in life to stand up and say a few words, whether it's delivering a report at the weekly team meeting, accepting an award, launching a product or introducing the next speaker at a conference.

How much easier life would be if you actually welcomed these opportunities to shine instead of retreating into the far back corner of the room.

“Public speaking builds confidence,” says Laurie Smale, who wrote the best seller How to Take the Panic out of Public Speaking in 1999, after spending 20 years questioning a commonly held belief that successful public speakers were gifted, articulate, witty and born that way.

“People want to talk to you after you get up and talk. Things happen in your life. If you're one of the flock, you're one of the flock.”

Smale went from being an awkward, clunky, waffly speaker to effortless, compelling and entertaining raconteur once he disregarded typical guidelines on the subject such as cutting out the ‘Ums' and ‘Ahs', cupping hands in front, cracking jokes while at the same time maintaining a smooth, highly confident persona.

He has since found that, like singing, everybody has a voice but not everybody can, or even wants to, be operatic.

He has also discovered that people can transform their public speaking skills overnight once they undo faulty thinking on the subject.

As Steven Covey ( The 7 Habit Of Highly Effective People) said: “If you think the problem is out there, stop yourself, because the thought is the problem.”

Working on the person

Most people fear public speaking for the following reasons:

• fear of failure

• fear of not being funny

• fear of going blank

• fear of drying up

• fear of people looking at you

• fear of that someone in the audience knows more than you

• fear of looking nervous

• fear of the audience talking over you or walking out

• fear of a heckler

• fear of not being able to answer a question

That's not the ideal approach in anyone's books. If you had the thought, ‘I'm going to enrich this audience with some great ideas,' how much better would you feel than if your overriding mantra was, ‘I'm going to get this over and done with. I hope I don't muck this up and look like an idiot.'

The key is in believing you have something to say, and who would be asking you to speak in the first place if they didn't think you possessed some expertise on the subject?

“You are the sum total of all your experience,” says Smale, who left school at 13 and returned at 40 to complete his education.

“Guess what? Your audience is just like you. You're not a fraud, you're not a fake. Why not tell an interesting story as you would over a cup of tea? A speech should be a priceless gift that people remember for years. You've got to have something to say and then say it.

“People always have something to say. They have many years experience. One guy was worried about what to do with his hands. He wouldn't think about it in the normal course of life. Speaking in public is no different from communicating with friends and colleagues.”

Preparation

Sounds easy enough and confidence will surely flow once you accept the fact that you do have something to say. But to ensure a positive experience, nothing beats preparation.

Since retiring from the professional tennis circuit at Wimbledon in July, champion Australian player Todd Woodbridge has been inundated with requests to speak at business luncheons and will soon begin a new career as a TV commentator.

It's not hard to see why Todd's in such demand. He talks fluently, is well groomed and knows his topic. It wasn't always that way. When Todd started out as a young tennis player at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra he was given extensive media training.

“We were ordinary at it,” he says. “I've given hundreds of press conferences now and I'm comfortable about that format so if I start to feel stilted and stunted during a speech, I go to my safety zone – a Q & A. It's much better for audience involvement as well and it gives intelligent types in the audience an opportunity to ask what they want.”

Just as he invested in the best footwear when he was practising for a grand slam title, Todd has since undertaken further media training with former Footy Show producer, Harvey Silver, constantly simulating pressurised speaking situations.

Now, when asked to deliver a speech, Woodbridge prepares a script a week in advance, researches his subject thoroughly, types it out and reads it repeatedly until he is very familiar with the main points.

Story-tellers

This approach is advisable for any occasion, whether you are expecting to speak or if there is the remotest chance you might be called on to do so.

The foundation of a good speech is telling a story to illustrate a point.

So be one step ahead. If you're going out for dinner to celebrate a friend's fortieth birthday, think of a story that illustrates her character.

“Put it in the drawer of your mind,” says Smale. “Let the story mature. That's what the so-called spontaneous speakers do. They will go to a function thinking, ‘What would I say if they asked me for my perspective on this?' It's no more complicated than that. Tell a story, make a point, tell another story, make a point, invite everyone to fill their glasses and that's it.

“Who cares if you ‘um' and ‘ah'. Just be accessible and warm. For 20 years I didn't have a connection with the audience because I followed the rules so closely.”

The more confidence develops the more free your mind will be to come up with ideas and stories no one else in the room could think up and expressed in a way unlike anyone on earth. Believe this, and you'll soon be the toast of the town.

DO

• Know the opening and the end of your speech very well.
  
• Sit yourself down quietly for five minutes a day and take yourself to the gathering in your mind.
  
• Think of being informal and friendly instead of staid and distant.
  
• Begin with the end of your talk clearly in mind.
  
• Know where you want to take your listeners and how you want them to feel. Find vivid, illustrative examples to take them there.
  
• Relate to people. Share a little of your journey with your listeners. Let them know you are subject to the same human frailties and vulnerabilities as they are.
  
• Acknowledge that you are an expert on the subject, and an expert on yourself! No one can represent your life better than you.
  
• Believe that most people want you to succeed.
  
• Check out professional speakers and enlist in extra training if you want to develop your skill.

DON'T

• Don't practice in front of a mirror.
  
• Don't memorise the speech but have mental joggers for each new ‘story' and point your are going to make.
  
• Don't apologise for feeling nervous. You'll only draw the audience's attention to your plight when they might not have detected anything.
  
• Don't let yourself be put off by one clunky speech.
  
• Don't hope to ‘wing' it on the night. This is a recipe for disaster.

Resources

National Speakers Association of Australia

http://www.nationalspeakers.asn.au/

The NSAA has a number of members who specialise in coaching or training to assist overcoming the fear of public speaking.

How to take the PANIC out of Public Speaking by Laurie Smale
Wrightbooks 1999

Laurie also provides one-on-one coaching in Melbourne

Web: www.lauriesmalepresentations.com.au

Phone: 613 9890 3224

Toastmasters
Toastmasters groups can be found Australia wide and meet regularly. Joining a group provides ongoing pract and feedback in a safe environment.

Go to: www.toastmasters.org.au/ to locate your nearest Toastmasters Club.