DEV Community

Cover image for Become the next Steve Jobs in Public Speaking
quest!on mark
quest!on mark

Posted on

Become the next Steve Jobs in Public Speaking

Do you really become so nervous when you approach audience at public events on stage?

Do you wonder how to overcome this kind of anxiety and nervousness?😑

Public speaking, rather than indicating it as a skill, this can be described as an art.

But what does it matter for beginners? Yeah, that is really an interesting question. If you are a beginner and experimenting yourself as a speaker for the first time ever, that is a true adventure!

Believe me or not public speaking isn't only meant for experienced speakers, it is also intended for beginners too! Beginners can take the opportunity of facing the audience very sportively.

 It would be similar to trying a new dish at an unknown restaurant or exploring a new place. It is nothing but a sport, but why do people freak out or become scared?

That is another interesting question to answer. This nervousness would cloud their mind due to multiple reasons, the fear of being wrong, the fear of bad memory, the fear to stammering in front of people, or even the fear of transition for a beginner to excellent speaker. 


Image description


But how to overcome all these? lets see one by one…


The Fear of Being Wrong

For a good speaker, what it matters a lot is their confidence!

Confidence is the key or even the foundation of a good stage talk. As a beginner, few people can attain confidence through practice, yes practice can boost your confidence as you are aware of what you are really gonna speak and what's next. 

If you have practiced the content of your talk or speech you really need not worry about the performance. But what if you eventually forget things?


The Fear of Bad Memory

If you think that even proper practice will not help you, may be because you are likely to forget things easily, then this actually should not be considered as a fear, in fact, I consider this to be a gift!

Do you wonder why, the statistics says that even the people who practiced a lot before their talk have only the responsibility of delivering that same and right content to the audience, with same detailing.
 
But if they are likely to forget things, then they need not worry about the proper content delivery, they are free to do modifications! Yes they enjoy the freedom of speaking out what is in their mind, and not just stick to the prepared content. These people are praised as natural speakers !


Image description


The only thing you have to take care in that circumstances is to keep yourself on track because to much of modifications can divert you from the original content. So be cautious if you adapt natural speaking. Also, you can master this through experience, the best teacher!


A Glimpse of my Life, Stepping into the Battle made It Success!

During my school days, I was responsible for delivering some of the important information to officials who visited us for campus inspection. A meet was organized and the teacher asked us to speak our part beforehand. 

I was literally very nervous, and I wasn't able to speak correctly, not even once, so the teacher went mad on me. She was pretty much sure that I was about to blabber things, but she couldn't do anything as I was the only person responsible to speak that part of the content.

After sometime the officials and the principles turned up, and the meeting started. My heart beat raced, I took a deep breath(following my mother's advice). And yes, when it was my turn, I started speaking things which were not in my content script! I started speaking my own thoughts, yes, these were the natural speaking instincts


Image description


As I said before I just spoke what was in my mind rather than the script I was given, I knew the teacher was staring at me with surprise and anger. But I continued with that, and to everyone's surprise, I was very comfortable being a general speaker and answering to questions which were asked after that.

At the end, I was the special mention🤩 by each of the officials, for being so natural and giving honest answers to their questions! Yes, magics do happen, what you really need to do this is step into the battle field, the victory is all yours!!

You can win appreciation of many hearts, or you can even win lessons! Whatever it is, be optimistic and embrace the outcomes as a stepping stone, as a constructive feedback. Keep trying!


Podium's Favourite

The podium will definitely start loving their frequent visitors and eventually you will become podium's favourite. So, do speak whenever you get a chance! This will help you a lot to overcome your fears.


Beginner's Mantra🧘

( i ) Close your eyes

( ii ) Take a deep breath, inhale confidence and exhale all your fears

( iii ) The stage is all yours!

Happy speaking!!

Top comments (0)