Being Speechless Can Block Your Success

Establishing communication with audience is rather tricky but it can be achieved with practice.

- Mala Ashok

Have you ever been in a situation where you were asked to make a speech and you timidly backed out with a feeble excuse? If the answer is “yes,” don’t worry because you are in very good company.

Psychologists have found that most people have the “fear of public speaking.” This fear comes only second to “fear of death.” That is indeed a powerful statistic. Yet, every day people all over the world are making speeches powerful, inspirational speeches that motivate listeners or cause the speakers to reap rich rewards.

So, can you be one of these people? Yes! Anybody can become a good speaker. Steve Rohr a communication expert has written a book titled, Scared Speechless: 9 ways to Overcome Your Fears and Captivate Your Audience. According to Rohr, great speakers are born not made. So if you’re giving yourself negative messages saying “I’m just not good at it,” you need to stop right now.

Most of us have read scores of articles and maybe even books with what is touted as valuable advice. The most common one of this group is to imagine your audience in their underwear. No! No! No! Please get out of that mode. Not only is this kind of creepy it puts distance between you and your audience.

Your goal is to engage your audience and the speech is actually where you are sharing a moment with them. Tens of hundreds of people in underwear are not going to facilitate this process.

Audience as friend