Stage fright and fear of public speaking are legendary - but to elevate it to the level of a phobia really just adds gasoline to the fire and causes undue harm to those who wish to conquer that fear and be able to do public speaking with confidence.

Here are a few tips to help you get over those jitters about doing public speaking:

DON'T SWEAT ANY QUESTION, EVER!
What if you've tried the "polite methods" of handling someone who's trying to hijack your seminar, but they keep on interrupting - and just won't shut up? Now you're going to have to resort to "more drastic measures" and shut this person down completely. But, how do you do that without turning your group against you? Here's how: address your group and say, "Ladies and gentlemen, I still have a wealth of information to share with you, so let's take a vote: raise your hand if you came here to listen to him/her (no one will raise their hand) and how many came here to hear what I came here to share with you? The group will side with you and they'll be VERY glad you shut the disruptive person down!

HOW TO NEVER LOSE CONTROL OF YOUR AUDIENCE:
When you start your Seminar talk, it's absolutely imperative that you take control right away. Why is that so important? If you don't take control right away, right up front, someone else probably will. I'm not talking about a desperate grab for power here, I'm talking about setting the ground rules and establishing that no one other than YOU is in charge and control. How to you do that? I've got literally dozens of ways, but here's a few of my favorites: 1. Establish your policy on whether you will or won't be taking questions during your talk, 2. Make them do something specific, like write down their goals or introduce themselves to another person in the room, 3. Have them agree to some specific ground rule like "if you need to have a conversation with someone during my talk, please take it outside". By setting ground rules or having them engage in specific actions you outline, you'll never run the risk of losing control of your own seminar!

A PROVEN METHOD TO MITIGATE THOSE BUTTERFLIES IN YOUR STOMACH:
Want yet another good strategy to mitigate any pre-talk jitters? If you've taken any of my workshops and trainings, you know that I help people to conquer stage fright and eliminate fear of public speaking. People manage to "create" stage fright in a number of ways, but a very common way is to look out over an audience, and feel the eyes of a bunch of staring strangers burning a hole in them. Yikes! Who wouldn't feel uncomfortable with all those eyes burning holes in them?! Here's how to prevent that from ever happening to you: arrive early before your talk, and make time to walk around and meet some of the audience members. Introduce yourself as the speaker, thank them for coming, ask them some targeted questions about what they're hoping to hear about. Be genuinely friendly & curious, and it will feel good to talk to these people. Then, when you're "on stage", be sure to make eye contact with 'your new friends" consistently. Heck, if it's a small group, you may even be able to meet everyone before you start your talk. Meeting people and being friendly before you start your talk means these people are not strangers boring holes in you, they're your new friends!

More ways to conquer public speaking phobias once and for all

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