1. Public Speaking Training Tip 1 –
Recognise the true source of your fear. Is not knowing what will happen when you are in front of people, giving your speech or presentation?  Your fear of public speaking is not that you don’t know your topic. It is the uncertainty of outcome – not knowing what will happen when you step to the podium or stage.

• Most of the time when I coach professionals on public speaking – the most commonly cited fear of public speaking is caused by fear of being judged, making a costly mistake,  or the lack of self confidence because of the comparisons with better speakers you see on TV.  If you are coming from an authentic place, and you cover the material with clarity and sincerity, you’ve won 75% of your inner battle with fear.

2. Public Speaking Training Tip 2 –
Be Comfortable and Share : Whenever you feel uncomfortable about a presentation, it’s invariably because there’s a slide with something on it that you don’t really believe, or that you’re putting in to achieve a certain result or reaction from the audience.  Sometimes you get stuck on phrasing things a certain way so that your listeners will think a certain way. On many occasions, I met many managers ‘inherit’ slides from bosses or colleagues and sometimes are not comfortable with certain messages but they simply keep the old sleek looking slides because the messages sound professional even though they don’t sound right.

• My advice, for those who have attended my Public Speaking Course (in Singapore and Malaysia) and Impactful Presentations Skills Training Workshop (in Singapore and Asia) especially when you’re starting out, is to avoid keeping every slide that you have inherited, and instead adopt the mindset to share rather than to impress. The most important thing is to be comfortable with your material, and to feel like you’re genuinely sharing how you feel about whatever subject it is you’re talking about. The last thing you want to do is to be trying too hard to make sure that you phrase things in just the right way and everything is perfect. When you let go of trying to be perfect, and just try to honestly share what you know it lowers the stress level of public speaking or delivering a presentation immensely.

3. Public Speaking Training Tip 3 –
Spend MORE Time in Rehearsing : Are you one of those who can spend hours and days or weeks to prepare the materials for your presentations or public speaking, but neglect to spend sufficient time on your rehearsals?  Perhaps the most important piece of advice I would give to professionals who aspire to improve their public speaking skills is this :

• Don’t be fooled.
  A final note: even the best “impromptu” presentations are rehearsed. Mark Twain, as the story goes, was fond of saying, “It takes 3 weeks to prepare a good impromptu talk.” And Winston Churchill, one of history’s greatest leaders and speakers, was thought to spend as much time preparing and rehearsing his “impromptu” remarks as he did on his formal speeches.
  

In my Effective Presentations Training Workshop, you will learn how to rehearse using power techniques like Key Messages, Verbalisation and Visualisation

4. Public Speaking Training Tip 4 –
Do not be Afraid To Pause frequently.  The true story of King George VI reveals that the kind suffers from stuttering.  In the movie,  “The King’s Speech,” one of the successful strategies the speech therapist deploys to help the king overcome his stuttering is the use of pauses. Pausing helped the king regain his composure whenever he was gripped by anxiety.  It is natural to feel anxious when public speaking, therefore do consider pausing more frequently.  To reduce your fear of public speaking and improve your public speaking skills – consider a few strategic pauses between key messages to experience a calming effect. 

5. Public Speaking Training Tip 5 –
Get Used to the audience expressions – Fast!  You will definitely become more anxious when you misinterpret the audience’s facial expression.  In daily conversations, we’re used to getting feedback from the listener – an occasional smile or a nod that signals approval. This however is different when are are presenting or public speaking, audiences listen differently.  Audiences are more likely to give the speaker an ‘unexplainable’ blank stare, which doesn’t mean they don’t like or disagree with what they hear.  More often than not, it simply means they’re focussed on listening to the message. This is especially true of audience members who are introverted.  So don’t be too affected by expressionless faces of the audience even when you think you have given your all.

FINAL PUBLIC SPEAKING TRAINING ADVICE :
I have coached many professionals and managers in the areas of how to overcome nerves and fear of public speaking, and to improve their public speaking skills, BUT I have met a greater number of people who kept enquiring for months and took NO action to attend any Public Speaking Courses or Effective Presentations Training (Singapore, Malaysia, Asia).  They would ask a long list of questions such as – which is the best public speaking training out there, are toastmasters Singapore courses helpful, who is the best public speaking coach (in Singapore, Asia, Malaysia), how to improve public speaking, are courses offered by British Council Singapore effective for public speaking, how do Presentation Skills Training Courses offered by 36 HR Training and Consultancy compare with Dale Carnegie’s Effective Presentation Skills Training courses, and what are the best public speaking courses BUT after asking for months, they remain exactly in the status quo mode and did not take any action to attend any Presentation Skills Training or Public Speaking courses.

Stop justifying why you should delay overcoming your fear of public speaking.  Stop the excuse on why you haven’t progressed in your career because you suffer from stage fright.  Take MASSIVE action today to discover :

• how to overcome your shyness,
• how to overcome fear of people
• how to fear of failure
• how not to be nervous about public speaking
• how to IMPROVE your public speaking skills and take your business and career to the next level

Contact Tan Teck Kim, Director of 36 HR Training & Consultancy, Public Speaking Coach (Singapore, Malaysia, Asia) to learn how to overcome your fear of public speaking, and to deliver Impactful and Effective Presentations.  Start connecting with your audience, and stop fearing them.

Email : tk36hr@gmail.com

or

Register here for the next Impactful Presentation Skills Training (Singapore) workshop

About Tan Teck Kim, Master Trainer
Tan Teck Kim is trained in NLP,  is a certified MBTI trainer and coach, and is also a certified FIRO and FIRO-B Trainer and coach.  He helps professionals, business managers, managing directors to differentiate themselves through their personal brand and ability to persuade.  He also conducts corporate in house training programmes such as : Communication Skills Training, Effective Presentation Skills Training, Team Building using MBTI, Team Building and Team Bonding.