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The Art of Public Speaking
Our Public Speaking training classes are designed for both the inexperienced presenter or as a refresher for more experienced members of your company or organization. Our training workshops are offered in most major cities across the United States and Canada. All public speaking skills training classes are small which will give you all the face to face time you need with our training team.

Our public speaking training classes (presentation training) will eliminate your fear or inexperience in public speaking and dramatically improve your speaking skills whether you are persuading, educating, or informing. Our highly interactive workshops focus on professional business communication including preparation, structure, delivery, and strategy, use of visual aids, and handling questions & answers. Contact us today by phone at 713-627-7700 or via email: service@publicspeakingtraining.net

Public Speaking Skills Training: Stage Fright Tips and Tricks - Public Speaking Skills That You Need to Know

It's not just actors who need stage fright tips. We all have to put on a performance from time to time - giving a presentation at work, going for a job interview, going on a first date and so on. These situations put us in the spotlight, and very few of us are naturally comfortable being there. Fortunately we can learn to be comfortable, and this step by step guide will show you how.

Step 1: Accept

The first and most important thing in any list of stage fright tips is the recognition that it is actually a perfectly natural response. Going on stage, whatever that stage happens to be, separates us from the group - and that's something we have an inbuilt resistance to. For our distant ancestors, being separated from the group would have meant a swift demise, and we've inherited this feeling from them.

Although giving a presentation won't literally kill us, our bodies react as if it will. All of the physical symptoms of stage fright - sweaty palms, racing heart, urge to vomit etc - are the result of the primitive fight-or-flight survival mechanism kicking in with a big hit of adrenaline.

Step 2: Take Back Control

Once you've accepted that to be frightened is normal, you can stop worrying that you're somehow weird or deficient and get on with the business of taking back control. The following stage fright tips are practical ways to do just that.

The adrenaline in your system is urging you to get moving, so discharge it by going for a short walk, doing some stretching exercises, or whatever else is appropriate for your circumstances.

Combat hyperventilation by deliberately breathing slowly and deeply, ideally breathing out for longer than you breathe in, which activates your body's natural relaxation response.

Be AWARE. This is a technique used to control panic attacks, which are just an extreme form of stage fright.

1. Accept that you are frightened
2. Watch what happens inside your body and mind
3. Act normal
4. Repeat these steps until the fear subsides, and
5. Expect the best

Step 3: Turn It To Your Advantage

One of the greatest stage fright tips of all is that it is actually your friend. Even the greatest performers suffered at some point, but they knew that it was this surge of adrenaline which gave their performance charisma and edge.

You may not be playing Hamlet at the National Theater, but you can do the same. When the symptoms begin to strike, think of them in a new way - excitement. Exactly the same stuff happens in your body whether you're excited about getting on a roller coaster or dreading it. It's only your personal expectations which determine how you view the sensations you're experiencing, and those can be changed. Learning to welcome stage fright as juice for your performance radically transforms the experience.

Dian Winter: link

Subject: Public Speaking Skills Training