Public Speaking.
These two words are a crucial part of everybody’s life, but most of us fear public speaking.
What is Public Speaking?
What comes first in your mind when you hear this word?
In my case,
I am a shy person, I can’t speak even a single word if I stand in public. But I can speak very well when I’m with my friends, family, and colleagues. I can discuss random topics but only when I stand in front of an audience of unknown people I speak nothing. Silent!
Here I have to mention the biggest fear that I have in public speaking with English…
Somehow I manage to speak in Hindi or mother tongue but, in English I became dumb.
You know what? I can write well, chat well and I can speak well by myself. I know this is not strange. This is almost everybody’s situation. All we can speak very well with self but in front of audience the situation is DUMB.
One incident of mine I have to share with you.
When I was in my 3rd year of Engineering, we had communication skills practical sessions for 2 hrs in a week. One day a professor came from an external reputed institute to teach us the importance of communication skills. First he took a Self Introduction of all students sitting and then he invited every student in front to say something on any topic for a minimum of 2 min. Then.
Think about me, what was my condition at that time? Imagine…
I am cutting others’ stories here to tell mine only.
When I went in front, my mind went completely blank and I didn’t understand what to say and I started with some topic I didn’t know what but couldn’t stop more than 30 sec and came back without saying Thank You.
After all students completed, the Professor gave everyone a score out of 10 and he started announcing student’s scores written on a piece of paper. He stopped. when I stood and said just 18 sec with no single correct sentence. I felt very bad and my friends were laughing and the whole class was staring at me. Worst feeling.
But still I never tried to get out of this fear for the next 3 years, even more I kept myself stepped back afterwards.
For now onwards, I will kick the fear of Public Speaking (English) practice by writing daily, reading a lot and then trying to express myself in front of the camera.
Recently I joined one course “How to Speak Effectively” by Ankur Warikoo. It is just a 60 min course but it seemed a lot to me after watching videos, methods, and strategies that gave me an outline to get started with public speaking.
He gave 3 main steps to get started with Public Speaking.
1. Storytelling
In this world every single thing is a story itself. We just need to understand and want to express it with others. So start storytelling.
2. Research your Audience
Researching your audience means what people want to hear from you. If you find what people want then it will be easy for you to speak on their interest. It will be easier for you to speak and people will appreciate your talk.
3. Body Language
Human brain is attracted more to body language and it understands quickly what front man speaking is true, effective and knowledgeable. You know very well when an actor’s acting is not good then we can’t enjoy the film. Exactly the same happens with public speaking. If a speaker’s body language is not related to his speech then the listener will not enjoy his talk.
So, today onwards I am going to follow these 3 steps to become a good public speaker and I know it won’t happen in a week or a month. It will take at least 3 months to reach a certain level with daily practice. Consistently.
I wish me very good luck to achieve success in 90 days.