Travel and Tourist

by Wendi McNeill

What is one thing that upsets speakers the most? One would be not finding enough pay based speaking engagements. The frustration builds, you become discouraged and it gets to the point where you want to give up and go back to your old full time job. This can be quite frustrating and I totally understand because today many associations and organizations want their speakers to come in and speak for free, they feel their compensation of exposure is enough, I don’t agree but can’t change that because speakers continue to do them and the associations and organizations will continue not to pay. So, we must learn to leverage the free engagements that you do while building a stronger platform and seeking out the fee based events. Don’t get me wrong there are plenty of fee based engagements out there but we all know they are precious gems.

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Summer is a great time to line up fall speaking gigs.

Public speaking is a great way to generate new business. However, it’s not a time for a sales pitch. If you’re able to share your inside secrets about your expertise in an organized fashion, with a confident and vibrant tone, you’ll indirectly sell yourself and your products.

WHO TO PITCH
Summer is a great time to pitch your speaking services to professional organizations that begin their new membership calendar year or “season” in September. Keep in mind most professional organizations hold fewer meetings in the summer, since members are off gallivanting in the sunshine. However, organizations also survey their members during the summer about educational topics they’d like to hear about come the fall.

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Copyright (c) 2009 The College Of Public Speaking

‘The Speaker’, BBC2′s reality show, aimed at finding Britain’s best school student speaker ‘The best young speaker in Britain’, hits the airwaves in April 2009.

With Jo Brand heading its judging panel, and involving other celebrities such as Alastair Campbell and Earl Spencer, this series will undoubtedly raise the profile of public speaking nationwide – amongst young people and more generally.

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Are you one of those women entrepreneurs who fears public speaking more than death? And yet you have heard that speaking is THE best way to market and sell service businesses. What if you could take what you do well with clients one-to-one and more confidently reach more people, with less effort, in less time with increased sales? Learn 3 key areas and 3 tips to save you time on content, delivery and structure, and marketing.

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Nobody has ever died from stage fright or speaking in public, but I have heard more than once at parties or other social gatherings when people find out what I do,  “I would rather die than speak in front of a group”! For many of us, just the thought of speaking in front of people is scary, and oh so uncomfortable! We’d just rather not put ourselves through that kind of anxiety.

Have you ever had any of these symptoms before or while speaking to a group? Dry mouth, tight throat, clammy or shaky hands, queasy stomach, quickened heart rate, weak knees, a sense of dread?  Can you think of more? You’re not alone. In fact, many of the most successful performers and public speakers in the world get stage fright, so you are in good company. I have my own theories of why the phenomenon is so universal. I believe that very few of us got much, if any encouragement to express our authentic selves when we were growing up. If we spoke our minds, voiced our opinions, shared our beliefs, were verbal about or let our feelings show, we were subject to ridicule, criticism and for some, even more severe forms of silencing. Consequently, we feel very vulnerable when we are put (or we put ourselves) on the spot to be watched and listened to by people who may judge or even reject us.

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Fear of public speaking is one of the Top Ten Fears that people have. The technical term is Glossophobia. In some lists it is number two after the fear of flying, though more often than not people will state they fear public speaking more than death.  Now that is saying something!

So what is it that makes people fear public speaking so much?  In many cases it is the fear of the unknown – it is something they don’t do very often so they don’t know what to expect.  It is often a fear of making a fool of oneself – they lack confidence and feel that people won’t want to listen to them.  There is the fear that they will forget what they are going to say – that they will be there in the spotlight mouth open and nothing coming out.

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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?

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