Brian Tracy (speaker) presents a short motivational talk on overcoming the fear of public speaking. He cites a striking statistic—"according to the Guinness Book of Records" 54% of adults fear public speaking more than death—then emphasizes that speaking skills are learnable through practice, repetition, and systematic desensitization (Toastmasters-style). He normalizes stage fright ("butterflies are natural"), reframes the audience as supportive, and urges viewers to decide to practice and improve their presentation skills; closes with a prompt to comment and subscribe.
Questions this video answers
54% (attributed in the talk to the Guinness Book of Records)
Chapters
Hello, I'm Brian Tracy and I want to share with you some ideas on how to overcome your fear of public speaking. Now, according to the Guinness Book of Records, did you know that 54% of adults rate the fear of public speaking higher than the fear of death? Your ability to speak effectively in every business or social situation can have an extraordinary effect on your life. It can bring you to the attention of people who can help you and open doors for you. It can get you better jobs and get you promoted faster. Most of all, your ability to give effective presentations both to small and large groups will increase your own feeling of self esteem, self respect and personal pride. When you know that you can influence and persuade others in a variety of ways, you'll have a tremendous sense of personal power and accomplishment. You'll feel like the master of any situation. And the best news of all is that these skills are learnable with practice and repetition. And because they're learnable, it means there's no limit on how good you can become. Now, the starting point of overcoming your fears or nervousness in public speaking is to realize that when you stand up to speak, everyone in the audience wants you to succeed. They're all pulling for you. Sometimes I say very much like going to a movie. Have you ever gone to a movie hoping that it would be a bad movie and a waste of time? Of course not. You're hoping that it will be a good movie. To put it another way, we when you stand up to speak, you start with an A. You already have a top grade. Your job is merely to keep your A in the course of your remarks. Now, Toastmaster's process of teaching, which is quite wonderful, uses what psychologists call systematic desensitization. By standing up and speaking over and over again, you eventually lose all your sensitivity. You eventually lose all most of your fear and trepidation. There is nothing that is more helpful in developing confidence than repetition. Stage fright is normal and natural, even for professionals who appeared on the stage thousands of times. There is nothing wrong with having butterflies in your stomach. Your goal is to get them to fly in formation for you to be in control rather than your fears. So make a decision right now that you're going to learn to speak well before a group and practice your presentation skills consistently. It could be one of the most important decisions you ever made in assuring long term success in your career. Thanks for watching. How will you overcome your fear of public speaking? Or if you've already overcome this fear, how did you do it? Please share in the comments below and if you'd like to see more videos like this, please subscribe to my YouTube channel.
