Blog
How to Translate “Essential Self” into French?
My book, Essential Speaking: The 7-Step Guide to Finding Your Real Voice, is being translated into French by Brendan Flanagan who is practicing the 7 Steps to Essential Speaking with a peer group. He wondered about the phrase “essential self” and asked if I had invented it. I told him that I did not invent […]
Be Engaging When You Speak and Look at People
How Conventional Public Speaking Training Misses the Point Conventional public speaking training tells people who are afraid of audiences to look at a spot on the back of the wall and avoid the listeners. The problem with this technique is that the wall isn’t interested in your message and it won’t give you a response. […]
Public Speaking Anxiety: Fear of Being Yourself
The 7-Steps to Essential Speaking all begin with “Be” (Be Silent, Be Present, Be Aware, Be Attuned, Be Positive, Be Connected, Be Yourself). Notice that there is no focus on what you say. I believe that at the core of public speaking anxiety is the fear of being yourself in front of others. This is […]
Reduce Stage Fright: Talk Only to One Person at a Time
Public Speaking is a Series of One-to-One Conversations Approach public speaking as more of a “me-to-you” discussion rather than a full-blown broadcast, suggests G.I. Taylor in the Fear of Speaking blog. I agree with the idea of seeing yourself talking to one person at a time when you are in front of groups. When you […]
The Most Important Rule in Public Speaking: Be Yourself
“Most important rule… be yourself!” FastUpFront Blog in their article, “5 Essential Public Speaking Tips for Non-Public Speakers,” wrote about this number one rule. But how do people discover who they are? As a psychologist, I believe you need safe learning environments to explore and develop yourself. So much of our social training growing up […]
The 7 Steps to Being a Fearless Speaker
We are all public speakers. Whether you are giving a presentation at work, sharing your opinion at a meeting, or talking to someone one-on-one, you are expressing yourself. The question is, do you feel comfortable and confident being who you are? These 7 steps help you focus on what really matters in any communication—your authentic […]
From Fear to Authenticity
After one of our recent trainings on Relational Presence, a seminar that focuses on overcoming the fear of public speaking, one of the participants watched his video and reported witnessing his transformation from fear to authenticity. “I remember going to see the film ‘Bambi’ as a kid, and I remember that scene when he gets […]
Public Speaking Anxiety: An Exercise for Eliminating Uhms and Ahs
Ums and Ahs are Fillers That Point to Public Speaking Anxiety Did you know that ums and ahs are fillers that point to an underlying public speaking anxiety? Once you are aware of this fact, you start to listen more carefully to speakers. You might notice that when...
Ums and Ahs: How the Fear of Public Speaking Shows Up
The Unconscious Habit Much of what is written about fillers such as uhms and ahs states that they are an unconscious habit. The sounds, words, and phrases that fill up the silences are for the most part not even recognized by people as they speak. Unconscious means...
How Authentic Speaking can Heal Negative Patterns
What is Authentic Speaking? A workshop participant who attended Leadership Presence: How to Inspire Groups to Action wrote this note to me and my training partner, Lee Glickstein, founder of Speaking Circles International. "I want to say a huge thank you for...