To understand how this technique works, it’s important to fully understand that fear of public speaking is something that starts and “lives” in your mind.

Sure, your body feels the sweating and the nervous stomach, but what happens BEFORE the sweating and nervous stomach?

The answer is that you are running pictures and movies in your mind that are making you sweat and causing that knot in your stomach.

I’ve discovered in the public speaking trainings I teach that the movies are different for everyone – everyone has their own “recipe” to create fear of public speaking:

Some people picture the audience laughing at them.

Some people picture the audience getting up and walking out.

Some people picture themselves making horrible mistakes.

Some people even picture the audience as being like giants, and picture themselves as small and insignificant.

Although the movies and pictures are different for everyone, the common denominator is the fact that they are picturing total failure, horrible humiliation, or painful rejection of some sort.

That’s what causes fear of public speaking.

Now let’s get to how to get rid of fear of public speaking… but first I want you to rate your fear of public speaking on a scale of 1 to 10 – 1 being least and 10 being most fear.

Imagine the worst possible thing happening when doing public speaking.

Now, how do you rate your fear on a scale of 1 to 10?

Okay, now let’s get rid of that fear: sit or lie down comfortably where you won’t be disturbed for a few minutes.

Take the fingertips of each hand and place them directly above your eyebrows about an inch.

Touch your forehead on those 2 spots lightly – DO NOT press and DO NOT spread out your fingers.

Now start breathing deeply into your diaphragm so that your abdomen rises and falls as you breathe.

As you breathe deeply, begin to think about doing public speaking.

Run the movies in your mind of failure, rejection – whatever bothers you most of all.

Don’t hold back, really let yourself imagine the worst most painful things you can imagine.

BUT KEEP BREATHING DEEPLY!

That is super-important.

Keep your fingers on your forehead and imagine the worst-case scenarios.

Keep touching your forehead and breathing deeply to your abdomen & keep running worst case scenarios over and over.

After a few minutes, you’ll be surprised and delighted when you notice that those scenarios don’t bother you anymore!

Now – sit up, take your hands off your forehead, and now rate your fear on a scale of 1 to 10 – It’s much, much reduced, isn’t it!

Repeat the ESR Technique until thinking about public speaking worst case scenarios don’t bother you anymore.

This technique is ostensibly very simple, yet extremely powerful, and it really works! And what have you got to lose? At the worst, you’ll lose a few minutes of your time. But the upside is that you might discover that your fear of public speaking no longer has a stranglehold on you any more.

For more public speaking training articles visit http://www.bestpublicspeakingtraining.com

David Portney is the author of “129 Seminar Speaking Success Tips and the founder of the Academy of Public Speaking located in Redondo Beach, California where he personally teaches specialized workshops and public speaking trainings. Visit David’s website http://www.bestpublicspeakingtraining.com

Fear of Public Speaking, Public Speaking Training

What if you could conquer fear of public speaking with a stupidly-simple technique in a matter of minutes?

As a mentor and motivational speaker, I teach people key principles that work to generate wealth for themselves over and over again.  I believe anyone who has the desire can start a motivational speaking career especially when they have the right tools and knowledge right in their hands.  Here are six things you can do to get those public speaking jobs and experience professional speaking success!

1) Know who you want to target as a market and determine your affinity within this market.  Will their audience like what you have to say?  Who do you relate to and what’s your message?  Research your target market and see what kinds of products they purchase, what kinds of information sells in these niches, and lastly, review whether or not your materials match what you niche buys.

2) You would also want to know your competition in your niche.  What are they selling and how are they doing it?  (Motivational speaking tip:  Never be afraid to learn from someone else.)  Research is really important.  As you discover how to get bookings for motivational speaking gigs, you’ll find that you’ll have a much easier time selling yourself when you know what your niche wants. 

3) Create your marketing materials.  When starting a motivational speaking business, get this part out the way first so you can have time to focus on marketing yourself.  The easiest thing to start with is to write a book on something that you want to speak on.  Pull from things that you have experience with.  If you have a speech, write it down.  Solve a niche problem and then create a workbook program or an audio / video training program that solves that problem.  Sometimes, the market may choose you.  Conference planners may tell you what they need and if you can meet those needs with your materials.  Research your niche and see if there are any speakers that target what you’re targeting.

4) Decide if you are going to promote yourself over a topic as you go after public speaking jobs.  If you’re wondering why you would want to promote a topic over yourself, the main reason is so that you can train other motivational speakers to do your talk.  Your speakers can speak for a lower fee or you can collect a booking fee from them.  Sometimes thought, a company will want only you.

5) Develop a unique selling point (USP) for yourself.  Why should conference organizers hire you?  You have to have a hook as you develop your motivational speaking career.  Your hook may not necessarily be a physical characteristic but it is a personal branding that will help people to remember who you are.

6) Develop a marketing plan and market heavily to your niche.  Consider putting together a marketing package that lets people know who you are.  Include your biography, a photo, a demo clip (audio or video), price sheet of your product for sale, testimonials and possibly even a sample client list.  Get all of your marketing materials finished and then market, market, market!  If nobody knows about you, they can’t book you!

http://www.GetSpeakingJobs.com is where you can find over 100+ hours of downloadable audio and video lessons that will show you how to make $100,000 to $1,000,000 dollars PER YEAR as a professional speaker. James Malinchak, the author of this article can be your online business coach and mentor. Simply visit http://www.GetSpeakingJobs.com to get started today with several FREE professional speaking audio recordings.

**Attn Ezine editors/Site owners**

Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site as long as you leave all links in place. You may not modify the content and must include our resource box as listed above. You may sign up as an affiliate at BigMoneySpeaker.com and insert your affiliate links.

Having taught many, many public speaking trainings over the years I’ve observed that at the core, fear of public speaking boils down to three common fears:

1. Fear of your mind going blank during your presentation.

2. Fear of making a mistake or not knowing the answer to a question.

3. Fear of appearing foolish.

In a way, all fear of public speaking really comes down to a single root fear: fear of rejection. Fear of public speaking wouldn’t exist if we didn’t actually care what other people think about us.

Worrying that the audience will reject you and make negative comments or have negative reactions or criticism is what creates the fear of public speaking.

In most cases it’s normal to have fear of rejection from early childhood experiences of rejection in school and these are not deep psychological problems requiring counseling. Most of the time getting some public speaking training can give you the confidence in your abilities to overcome that fear of public speaking rooted in childhood experiences.

Some people experience significant relief simply by discovering the root cause of their fear. When they confront the original experience or experiences that started the “chain of pain”, they can see it as being part of growing up and being an immature child who’s afraid of being judged by their peers.

Confronting the root cause of fear of public speaking can create a change on a “gut level”. You could think of this as “reprogramming the software” or as “deleting it from the hard drive”.

Dealing with the root cause can literally cause a neurological shift in how your brain represents public speaking, but it’s important to reprogram and reframe that early experience and not merely relive it.

Don’t dwell on the root cause experience; instead, transform the meaning of that root cause experience into something empowering.

Summary:

Try uncovering the root cause of your fear of public speaking – see those early childhood rejections for the simple growing pains that are natural and even necessary in life. If that causes a significant change in your fear of public speaking, that’s terrific. But if not, just move on to other techniques.

Don’t give up!-it’s 100% possible for you to conquer fear of public speaking and reap the many rewards that are waiting for you. And any public speaking training worth its salt will address fear of public speaking and support you in overcoming that fear once and for all.

For more public speaking training articles visit http://www.bestpublicspeakingtraining.com

Like in any industry, myths tend to precede real knowledge and it’s time to debunk some of those false ways of thinking and false bits of information.  Myths hurt any motivational speaking career because they often present themselves as barriers for a growing and thriving business. 

People often ask me the same kinds of questions over and over – how to make more money with motivational speaking or how to get bookings for motivational speaking.  What these people don’t realize is that the answers to all of these questions come when they deal with the three myths listed below.  

The first most common myth that people in a motivational speaking career have is that money is bad.  As a result, these people inherently pick low paying speaking engagements or worse yet work for free because it’s all they think they can attain.  These are often the same people asking me how to get bookings for motivational speaking.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not talking about the people who are using free speaking gigs as leverage to get their foot in the door or to build credibility and notoriety in their niche as an expert.  I’m talking about the people who seem to think that money will eventually come despite not ever being paid a dime!

Here’s what I learned.  When I got serious about learning how to make money with motivational speaking, I decided to get “myself” out of the way.  Once I got old ways of thinking and doing out of my motivational speaking career, I found that there were people who were willing to pay me a ton of money just to speak.  That’s the revelation I got and the revelation you need to receive today! 

The second most common myth in motivational speaking I hear is that motivation is all you need.  Wrong!  I have an acronym that I teach people about that kind of thinking – MDPYM (Motivation doesn’t pay your mortgage).  One of the things I learned early in my speaking career is that just because I was motivated didn’t mean I could pay my bills!

Now, I teach people to get rid of this kind of thinking because it simply doesn’t do much for them.  In fact, I teach the people I mentor to get motivated by finding different ways to get people to give them money.  As they learn how to make money with motivational speaking they essentially learn to start the cycle of earning to help more and more people.

The last motivational speaking myth I hear most often is that one must work harder in order to make more money.  Sorry folks!  That kind of thinking is again wrong!  My Dad was the hardest working man in my life but he never made more than $29,000 annually.  He was the model hard worker but did he have the kind of pay that matched his effort?

Then I learned about working smart which again, is only half of the picture.  The other half of the picture is working right.  The truth is that it doesn’t matter how smart you work.  If you’re not working right, you’re still off.  In this motivational speaking industry, people often beat themselves silly trying to fulfill their egos instead of filling their pocketbook.  I also often find people who don’t have a clue about the kinds of needs that their target niche market has and as a result, they don’t market themselves correctly in their niche.

Get your motivational speaking career off the ground by dealing with these three myths in your mind!

http://www.GetSpeakingJobs.com is where you can find over 100+ hours of downloadable audio and video lessons that will show you how to make $100,000 to $1,000,000 dollars PER YEAR as a professional speaker. James Malinchak, the author of this article can be your online business coach and mentor. Simply visit http://www.GetSpeakingJobs.com to get started today with several FREE professional speaking audio recordings.

**Attn Ezine editors/Site owners**

Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site as long as you leave all links in place. You may not modify the content and must include our resource box as listed above. You may sign up as an affiliate at BigMoneySpeaker.com and insert your affiliate links.

I like public speaking for lots of reasons, but perhaps the single most reason why I love my motivational speaking career is that I will always benefit from multiple streams of income.  At any one speaking engagement, I’ll have pre-sold material ready to be delivered, I’ll charge a speaking fee that justifies my time and I’ll also have materials on hand for back of the room sales.  In my motivational speaking career, I’ve had to learn how to become a master marketer as I learned how to make money with motivational speaking.  Now here’s what I want you to do.  I don’t want you to think like a speaker any more.  I want you to start thinking like a marketer!

As a motivational speaking marketer, I want you to start thinking out of the box and start looking at your speaking engagements as an opportunity for your store to be open.  What can you sell besides yourself and your time as a speaker?  Can you write a book or get a book written about a topic in your niche that sells?  What will it take to record some audios or videos of your public speaking jobs and package them for sale?  Get all your marketing materials ready so you can focus on three easy ways to expand your income in public speaking.

The first area of income expansion is in your speaking fee.  Here’s one of many public speaking tips you’ll get from me – Don’t be afraid to ask for the big money.  People often ask me how to get bookings for motivational speaking.  What they really want to know is how to make money with motivational speaking because they’re not making any.  They are working for a low fee or even for free.  Folks!  You must overcome the mental hurdle of asking for $10,000 versus $5,000 a gig!  When I did just that, I found that I was the only one stopping me from professional speaking success!

The second area of income expansion is through pre-selling materials.  Sell your knowledge through books, CDs, DVDs and training systems.  Here’s how I pre-sold my book at a conference I spoke at.  I asked the conference planner if she was interested in giving a copy of one of my books to every person attending her event without it costing her a dime.  She said she was interested so what we did was include the cost of the book in the registration fee for the conference.  I then had her send the difference after the conference ended.  So basically, I made money with my speaking fee and I pre-sold my book to every person attending the conference for $10.

The third area of income expansion is through the back of the room sales.  Again, I don’t want you thinking like a motivational speaker.  I want you to think like a motivational marketer.  You can boost your sales by making your audience hungry for more of the information you’re sharing with them.  Give them nuggets from your book or CD / DVD sets and then super charge your sales by making irresistible offers.  A couple of offer strategies include:  discount pricing for today only or promoting your training program as “power packs”.

Start working these extra avenues of income and watch your motivational speaking career take off!

**Attn Ezine editors/Site owners**

Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site as long as you leave all links in place. You may not modify the content and must include our resource box as listed above. You may sign up as an affiliate at BigMoneySpeaker.com and insert your affiliate links.

http://www.GetPublicSpeakingJobs.com is where you can find over 100+ hours of downloadable audio and video lessons that will show you how to make $100,000 to $1,000,000 dollars PER YEAR as a professional speaker. James Malinchak, the author of this article can be your online business coach and mentor. Simply visit http://www.GetPublicSpeakingJobs.com to get started today with several FREE professional speaking audio recordings.

How to Conquer Your Fear of Speaking – 3 Causes and 3 Choices

By Dr. Robert Portnoy

As professionals, we’re frequently called upon to give both formal and informal presentations – whether to customers, colleagues, bosses and even board members. Some of us are trained, readily prepared, and eagerly welcome or create the opportunity to inform, demonstrate, persuade, inspire and motivate. Others of us run, shirk and when absolutely necessary – squeak by. And many of us are scared to death, even though we may not show it. In fact, statistics show that nearly 75% of the population has a fear of speaking. It’s often said that when it comes to common fears, the fear of speaking tops the list right up there with fear of snakes, spiders and death itself. As Jerry Seinfeld said, “The average person at a funeral would rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy.”

While certainly common, the fear of speaking can be devastating – not only to careers, but to relationships. Communication is the crucial bridge that connects people and when it’s compromised by fear, the connection is limited, threatened and easily broken.

The extent of this fear runs along a continuum from normal and mild to severe and debilitating. Most everyone feels a bit nervous when getting up in front of audience or making an important presentation even if it’s only to a few people – if those people can impact the speaker’s success. And this slight nervousness is easily managed and overcome once the presentation gets underway – especially when the speaker is well prepared with a point and a purpose. But towards the severe end of the continuum, the anxiety can be overwhelming and the physical manifestations can be significant – including impact on blood pressure, heart rate, muscle weakness, flushed skin, sweaty hands and more.

Much has been written about the fear of speaking. And various practitioners, ranging from self-proclaimed experts to highly trained professionals, offer methods and remedies to help speakers overcome it. From an overview perspective, there are three primary causes – any one of which (or in combination) that lead to the fear of speaking.

The first type of cause is an anxiety disorder – leading to a phobia. A phobia is defined as an irrational, intense fear of an object or situation that poses little or no actual danger. At first glance, a phobia may seem similar to a normal fear. It is the degree to which a person is affected that determines whether that fear has become a phobia. The fear of speaking is a type of social phobia – a fear of being embarrassed in public. The key to both understanding and treating a phobia is recognizing that while the fear and anxiety can be intense and “real”, there is little or no actual danger. There is nothing in the situation that can actually harm the person who is experiencing the anxiety. There is no snake that will bite, no ladder that will fall, no gun that will shoot, etc. The danger is not real – only imagined. Getting up in front of an audience, for a person who has a fear of speaking is not imaginary. What is imaginary is the danger that the speaker believes lurks in the room. There is no real danger – at least nothing that the speaker couldn’t be trained to handle.

The second type of cause is faulty beliefs. The person who has a fear of speaking may believe that they are incapable or not good enough. These beliefs can often be traced back to situations in their past where their parents treated them in ways that made them doubt themselves and feel incapable. For example, imagine the impact on a young child who repeatedly hears, “What’s the matter with you?” or “How many times have I told you?” Coupled with a “yelling” tone of voice, these messages can lead to beliefs that shape a child’s self-esteem and impact the choices they make when trying to cope with life’s challenges. Consider the impact that a belief of “I’m not good enough” could have on a speaker as he faces a hostile audience. Certainly, fear and anxiety are easy to understand in light of these kinds of beliefs.

The third type of cause is competence. In many cases the difference between an average and an exceptional speaker is training. Effective speaking, while a “gift” and an art for some, comes down to learning, experience and feedback for most. Learning to buiild and deliver a compelling presentation requires instruction, guidance and time. It’s only natural that less experienced speakers will feel more anxious than accomplished speakers.

Certainly these three types of causes may occur in any combination. An inexperienced speaker who has irrational fears and faulty beliefs is going to have much more trouble in front of people than a speaker who suffers from only one of the three conditions.

But there is hope. Any of these causal conditions can be changed – and if not totally, at least to some degree. Here’s how.

Phobias can be managed through certain forms of therapy and medication. One approach that has been effective for many people with a fear of speaking is called Virtual Reality Training. Using this method, the individual is exposed to the feared situation over and again in the absence of any real danger. To manage the fear of speaking, the person faces, talks to and gives presentations to a virtual audience. The trained practitioner controls the reactions of the virtual audience using specialized computer software. With repeated exposure, the fear and anxiety diminish helping the person face real audiences with more comfort and confidence. For more information about this type of treatment, contact me at greatspeakers@aol.com.

When faulty beliefs are the cause, the beliefs can be targeted and essentially replaced with new and more healthy beliefs. This approach is based on the notion that beliefs are just that – beliefs. You can’t see them, you can’t feel them, and you can’t show them to anyone else. They exist only in your head. The objective is to get them out of your head so they don’t bother you anymore and then to replace them with healthy beliefs that are based in reality. This approach is now available through a self-study DVD program and has been validated as effective through university research. For more information, contact me at greatspeakers@aol.com.

Fear of speaking that stems from inexperience is relatively easy to overcome simply by learning how to speak effectively. There are many options including classroom training, public seminars and corporate programs. A new option is now available that enables learners to develop their speaking skills through self-study. It is a multi-media program (making use of speech instrumentation, CDs, DVDs, and a professional library)  that allows learners to systematically measure and develop their presentation skills in the privacy of their own home or office. For more information about this learning method, visit www.pstoolkit.com.

Speaking effectively is critical to connecting with people, to professional development and to building and sustaining fulfilling relationships. When fear of speaking gets in the way, personal and professional success can be tragically compromised.  This article has provided a basis for understanding the causes of this fear and some choices that are readily available to help just about anyone speak with comfort and confidence.

Dr. Robert Portnoy is a licensed speech pathologist. He has helped hundreds of people overcome their fear of speaking and learn to speak effectively. Dr. Portnoy is the founder and president of Great Speakers Training Company (www.greatspeakers.org) and the developer of The Presentation Skills ToolkitTM  – www.pstoolkit.com.

If you are new to public speaking, you may find it hard to find public speaking jobs. Speaking careers are the sought after type of careers people want to get into, because of all the money that can be made. Plus, you get to travel around the world.

Public speaking careers cover a wide territory. You may want to focus on one type of public speaking career, instead of spreading yourself too thin. When you start out looking for public speaking positions, there may be many public speaking opportunities available. You have to decide what direction you want to lean toward. There are three key ways where you can secure public speaking jobs.

Are you interested in how to become a motivational speaker and pursue this type of career? If so, you must learn the art of public speaking, but by using motivation as the key attribute. This is the main way in becoming a motivational speaker. Once you have learned the true way to deliver a motivational speech, you can actively pursue this as your career path.

Any speaker, who works to become a motivational speaker, may find many jobs in this area. It seems that a motivational speaking career is where speakers are heading. It is apparently a huge market.  One key way to secure public speaking jobs is by developing your public speaking skills and stay with a tightly focused career. This will be the way you can prepare for a wide variety of public speaking assignments.

If you looked at all the different public speaking opportunities and you wonder how to be a motivational speaker, or how to pursue a motivational speaking career, there is a way to break into this field. The second key way to secure a public speaking job is by talking to those who are already motivational speakers. They can give you first hand knowledge as to what skills you will need, and how to go about applying for the public speaking jobs. And for the third way to secure a public speaking job is to only pick jobs where you will get paid to speak. You don’t care so much for those free ones, unless you are so new to public speaking, and you don’t have any clients yet, that you need to have at least one or two under your belt.

If you do not want to go for motivational speaking, you can always look toward inspirational speaking. This is also a career choice that can bring you many rewards. The key here is to know what speaking career path you want to follow and go after it. Get the training you need to pursue that choice and you’ll be on your way to making a ton of cash.

http://www.GetSpeakingJobs.com is where you can find over 100+ hours of downloadable audio and video lessons that will show you how to make $100,000 to $1,000,000 dollars PER YEAR as a professional speaker. James Malinchak, the author of this article can be your online business coach and mentor. Simply visit http://www.GetSpeakingJobs.com to get started today with several FREE professional speaking audio recordings.

**Attn Ezine editors/Site owners**

Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site as long as you leave all links in place. You may not modify the content and must include our resource box as listed above. You may sign up as an affiliate at BigMoneySpeaker.com and insert your affiliate links.

Let’s put 7 of the most commonly taught methods of handling stage fright and fear of public speaking under the microscope for examination and give each an effectiveness rating from low to high:

#1: Realize that “it’s okay to be nervous”:

This is worth trying, but this only works for a small percentage of people, usually best for cerebral types. Give this a try and see if giving yourself permission to be nervous makes a difference for you. Effectiveness rating: low.

#2: Have burning passion:

Traditional advice from public speaking organizations typically start with the question “what are you passionate about?” and suggest speaking about that. Focusing strongly on your passion may cause your fear of public speaking to evaporate. What’s your burning passion? Can you connect that with doing public speaking? Effectiveness rating: medium high.

#3: Focus on your faith:

If you have strong faith, that can make fear of public speaking seem trivial, insignificant and even nonexistent. Strong faith can cause fear of public speaking to transform into a strong desire to help others. Effectiveness rating: medium high.

#4: Deep breathing:

Deep breathing works but not if you’re already talking. Once you’re up there and speaking, deep breathing isn’t going to do you much good since people expect you to be speaking and not doing breathing exercises. Do your deep breathing before you get up to speak. Effectiveness rating: low.

#5: Knowing that your audience wants you to succeed:

This works for a certain segment of the population, usually people who use reason and logic to guide their behaviors. If you hold the belief steady in your mind that your audience wants you to be great, do you find that your nervousness and fear of public speaking goes away? Give it a try and if it doesn’t work, there are plenty more techniques you can try. Effectiveness rating: low.

#6: Turn your nervousness into excitement:

On the surface, this is great advice because often the only real difference between the bodily sensations we feel when we experience excitement or fear of pubic speaking is just the label we put on it. Change the label from fear to excitement, and voila! – No more fear. Warning: many public speaking trainings encourage use of this technique – just be careful that you don’t come across as too energetic. Being excited is great, just don’t overdo it. Effectiveness rating: medium.

#7: Practice & preparation:

Practicing ahead of time can make a huge reduction in your fear of public speaking. Practice while you focus on memories of times when you’ve been extremely confident so that you form a solid link between feeling confident and making a presentation. Frankly, this is best done in a public speaking training where you can get expert guidance and feedback, and build up a solid base of confidence that will last a lifetime. Effectiveness rating: high.

Summary:

There are many, many techniques to mitigate or eliminate fear of public speaking. Don’t give up just because one or two techniques didn’t work for you. The rewards of public speaking are with the effort! To accelerate & shortcut your success, get expert public speaking training.

For more public speaking training articles visit http://www.bestpublicspeakingtraining.com