Easy, Painless Cure for Public Speaking Fear

I just gave a webinar to help financial advisors grow their practice. I feel I did a good job. I felt comfortable and confident during the whole time.

But I remember the days when talking to a group terrified me. My knees shook. My stomach threatened to reject my lunch. I couldn’t look anybody in the eye. It was pretty bad.

All that changed when I discovered a technique to literally erase my fears.

Let me tell you how to use this amazing technique. I use it in my work as a business coach for financial advisors.

Public speaking can propel you toward success. Is public speaking important to you for advancing your advisor practice, but you dread doing it? You and your friends give all kinds of logical arguments that there’s nothing to really be afraid of. Still, when you get up in front audience you tremble, stutter and breakout in flop sweat. Your stomach isn’t too happy either.

You may be one of the many who avoid public speaking at all costs. Or, you may be one of the brave few who press on anyhow. If you do, you will eventually get over it. Meanwhile it’s pure torture.

Did you know you don’t have to suffer?

I know of a powerful mental reconditioning technique that can wipe away your fear painlessly.

Here’s how to be rid of the fear of public speaking once and for all.

The first step is to prepare your mind. Think of all the reasons why you must be rid of this fear. What will you gain when you became a confident and effective public speaker? What will you lose if you don’t? Write these reasons down. Give yourself enough reasons until you are convinced you must get rid of that fear and become a confidence public speaker.

Next, think of those times when you’re feeling totally confident, calm and in control — enjoying yourself. See it in your mind’s eye bigger than life and in vivid Technicolor. Hear what your voice sounded like, loud and clear. Assume a confident posture; head held high, erect and breathing deeply from the diaphragm. When the feeling of confidence is at its peak, gently clench your right fist. Squeezing your right fist is your positive Triggers. (You could use something else besides the right fist, but we will not go into that now.)

Now unclench your right fist and take a few relaxing breaths. Now test your Triggers. Each time you clench your right fist, notice how you instantly go into that confident state.

Now think about giving a public talk. Let yourself become as anxious as you can. When the anxiety is at its strongest, lightly clench your left fist. You have created your negative Trigger.

Now, relax your negative Trigger, take a relaxing breath, and then fire your positive Trigger by gently clenching your right fist. Make a mental note of how strong your feeling of confidence is. Now unclench your right fist.
Next, again fire your negative Trigger with your left fist. Notice how strong is the unreasonable fear. Which feel stronger?

Your positive Trigger must be stronger than your negative Trigger. If it is not, build up your positive Triggers by thinking of additional positive situations as you clench your right fist. Build it into a very powerful Trigger so it is much stronger than your fear of public speaking.

Next, fire both Triggers at the same time. Let all those emotions, both positive and negative swirl in your mind for a few seconds until they become integrated. Notice that now, when you think about giving a public talk, you feel confident instead of anxious

Now, Imagine yourself giving great public talks feeling powerful and confident today, tomorrow and all the days to come. Then go out and make a speech in real life.

Do this double Triggering process at home the day before you are to give a talk, repeat the process the day of the talk. You can also simply reinforce your feelings of confidence just before and during your talk by gently clenching your right fist anytime you need it.

There you have it. This process is simple and powerful. Although, it’ll put you into a positive state of mind, it will not make you a skillful speaker. I highly recommend you join Toastmasters International or some other group to hone your speaking skills. You can find many clubs near you by searching the web.

A big block to achieving your full potential and being a big a success are unreasonable fears. Unreasonable fears keep you stuck in your comfort zone. An unreasonable fear can be obvious. You can tremble, stutter, and have flop sweat. Unreasonable fears can also be more subtle. You can simply be reluctant to do something, like speak up during a meeting.

Unreasonable fears defeat you. ”Don’t give a talk to that group of important prospects.” “Don’t introduce yourself to that stranger at a networking event.” “Don’t upset your employee by confronting his poor behavior.” These are just some of the fears that obviously block your way to success.

You can use this fast and easy Triggers method to erase any unreasonable fear that is blocking your way to greater success. Find more details about this process in my book, TRIGGERS: A New Approach to Self-Motivation, published by Prentice Hall.