The Art of Public Speaking

Facing an audience is a daunting task for many. The unrelenting glare of the audience is known to send shivers through the knees of many brave men. People who have been known to win arguments and debates simply fail to open their mouths in front of an audience. What is it about people's glare that infuses such fear? How do the great speakers of our times enthrall their audiences with their speeches? How can one single man infuse emotions in a huge group with a couple of speeches? Awe inspiring but not unachievable! These great speakers are after all, human. How did they train themselves to attain such great heights? The answers to all these questions lie in just a few points. Following these points will make a great speaker of anyone. Some people are born with it; some have to be trained for it.

Here are a few most common causes and their remedies:

1. Fear of performance

The first step! Every single person who goes up on stage is afraid how he will perform before a crowd. How will the crowd react? What if they do not like the speech?

The remedy to this malady is to tell yourself to forget the audience. Speak for yourself. You are free and this is how you feel. You can't be prosecuted for your views and speaking your mind. Speak with a firm voice and show that you believe in what you are talking about. The moment the audience realizes the views expressed are not really yours and just a script, they will not be interested a speck in your speech.

2. Wrong Grammar

A wrongly put sentence can cause havoc. In order to correct that you might end up fumbling with the next sentence and the domino effect could end you up messing up the entire performance. Instead just let it go. If you mess up one sentence forget it. The audience memory is short and if you make the rest of the speech worthwhile, they will end up forgetting that one mistake.

3. Numb feet and hands

Numbness affects most speakers. Numb hands usually fumble for something like shirt buttons giving out the impression of an amateur. One of the hest techniques is to lock the fingers of the hands. That way the fumbling for the buttons can be prevented and at the same time, gives out the impression of a mature speaker.

4. Audience not interested

The best way to get the audience interested is to get them to participate. Involve the audience in your speech or performance. The best way to do that is to involve some humor in the speech or asking the audience some questions so they do not get the opportunity to let their mind drift away.

All the above might only help in getting the basics right but nothing can beat hard work and that comes from practice. Keep practicing. Learn new and better words and quotations of famous personalities. Practicing in front of the mirror is a good way but a better way is to get a few friends to listen you out often. Never let an opportunity to speak pass you by. The fear of performance is what gets most of the wannabe speakers. The fear of failure is worse than failure itself because it makes a loser even before the war has been started. It is better to fight and lose than to fear failure and never make it.

Many a great speaker has had to fight fear before he could capture the audience. How true the famous dialogue from The Matrix is "Everyone falls the first time". But some people remain fallen and the others rise and jump again. And the great performers and speakers have always been the latter people. So, flow, don't stop, rise and be a speaker.