TJ Walker argues that people who claim to fear public speaking are often just avoiding the work. He breaks down the actual process: brainstorm content, pick your top five points, then practice on video until you get it right.
Chapters
Are you genuinely afraid of public speaking? Do you fear public speaking? Or are you just lying to the world and yourself? Folks, as part of my homework and way to help you, I look at maybe a hundred different articles circulating everywhere on the web that relate to public speaking every day. Because presumably you don't want to do that. And I try to pick and choose the best to highlight for you. One of the things I'm struck by is just every day There are another 10 articles about fear of public speaking. How to get over your fear of public speaking. And they always cite the poll saying fear is the number one or that public speaking is the number one fear people have, and the Jerry Seinfeld quote. And it just got me thinking. This is a bit ridiculous. Folks, I want to challenge you on your bs, because I think that's what most of you are doing. You're not fearful of public speaking. You're just lazy. Now, hear me out. It's nothing to do with the fact that, oh, I'm a public speaker and I like the limelight and I'm out. None of that. Public speaking is a basic skill that anyone can accomplish. Any. If you have the ability to have a conversation with one person. Think of it this way. If you came to my house and you were an expert on garage cleaning and my garage is a mess, and I've told you I want to clean up my garage, I think you'd probably say, okay, we're here, tj, we've got our work clothes on. First thing we're going to do is we're going to take everything in your garage outside, put it on the driveway, and then we'll figure out, what have we used in the last year? What have we not used? The stuff we haven't used we are going to give to charity or throw in the trash. I think that's probably the approach that most experts on garage organization would take. Now, if I said to you, if you're the expert I've hired, yeah, I'm just not going to because I'm afraid of cleaning my garage. I think I'd rather just sit inside and watch a football game. Question. Would you believe me? Would you believe I'm literally fearful of cleaning my garage? Or would you say, well, TJ's just lazy. I asked him to do something. Absolutely anybody in the world who has full power of their arms and legs and doesn't have a medical condition can in fact remove things from their garage, put it in the driveway, ask themselves, have I used this in the last year and start making Two stacks. Anyone can do that. Requires no skill, requires no innate talents. It's just a basic task that takes some time. So when I tell you I'm afraid of cleaning my garage, I think you would call me on my bs. I think you would say, well, TJ you are a liar and you're lazy and you just want to watch a football game. Fine. Don't kid yourself. You'd be absolutely right. Because I don't like cleaning garages. Not because I don't have the talent, but because I'm lazy. Well, that is exactly how I feel about so many people who claim to be fearful of public speaking and yet have never done the basic equivalent of taking an hour and putting things out in the driveway and sorting it. You fear public speaking. The answer is very simple. Brainstorm. And the idea is you want to communicate with that audience. Narrow it down to the top five. Practice on video. Nothing fancy. Just hold out your cell phone, watch it, keep doing it again and again and again until you like what you see. Maybe it takes two takes. Maybe it takes 103 takes. It really shouldn't take more than a couple of hours, less time than it would take for me to clean my garage. If you actually practice, watch yourself on video until you like what you see. Guess what? It becomes virtually impossible to be fearful of public speaking because you already know you look your best. So this might not apply to you, but it probably does apply to colleagues you work with, family members, associates. Don't let them lie to you and to themselves, saying that they fear public speaking. They don't. They're just lazy. Sorry if that seems harsh, but I think if you came to my house and I refused to take stuff out of my garage, you wouldn't say, oh, it's okay to be fearful. I understand. Meditate. Visualize your audience, your garage getting clean. No, he'd say, stop being lazy and just do the job. Just do the basic work. That's what you need to do, and that's what your colleagues need to do if they want to get over their fear of public speaking. If you have a question about public speaking, please post it right here, whether you're watching this on YouTube or Facebook or any other platform or on my blog, and I'll answer them. If you have other questions about public speaking, post those, too, and I will answer those in a video. Also, if you would like a free online presentation training course on how to be a better presenter, conquer your fears, and all the other issues, go to my website, mediatrainingworldwide.com and sign up for the free online presentation training course today. Thanks.
