Table of Contents
Practice makes perfect, right? On the flip side of the coin, avoiding something means you get worse at it and further away from ever achieving it. So if you are giving in to a fear of public speaking, every time you don’t step up to the mic or stand up in front of a room, you are proving to yourself that you can never be a presenter.
When you do public speaking courses you get something different: proof that you can be a presenter and stand up and deliver your message to the masses, even with no preparation!
When you start to successfully practice being a presenter you get called out on your B.S (Belief Systems) that you don’t have what it takes. Everyone has the ability to be an incredible presenter. It doesn’t matter if you are an introvert, a stutterer, a blusher or if you failed English in high school.
When you put time and practice towards achieving excellence as a presenter, no matter what capacity you’d like to present in, you get better and better at presenting.
Maybe you’ve had a lifetime of public speaking avoidance practice, which probably means your fear of public speaking is bigger than the stage you don’t want to stand on. That might not be enough to completely drown out that other part of you though, that part that’s causing internal conflict.
Maybe a part of you wants to achieve something significant from public speaking. It’s something unique to you, maybe it’s about promoting your business, telling people about a great experience, giving hope and support to people going through difficulties or spreading the word on something you are really passionate about. It might just be that you love talking to people, you love being centre of attention (if you weren’t so afraid/ashamed/shy) you would love to present. All these feeling are natural. These feelings of wanting to speak in public are part of our intrinsic human desire, our unconscious need to have significance.
If you are in a state of, ‘I’d like to but I can’t’, you probably feel that getting over your fear of public speaking will unlock a world of possibility for you. It can be frustrating trying to win a war against yourself, because if you remove the barrier that is keeping you stuck and you create an opportunity to achieve everything you have ever dreamed of, then what? You would actually have the tools available to achieve your dream!
Taking a course in public speaking is a really easy way to learn tools and techniques that give your mind proof that this is possible, achievable and desirable to get up and have your say.
Fear is just a thought. Any thought can be transformed into something else. Each of us has the power to change, control and choose all our thoughts. If you think your thoughts are making your decisions for you, well, that’s a thought you can change too.
In Sydney you have access to a world-class public speaking course called Influence Now, that has taken people who were literally shaking from fear and turned them into presenters who book out events and receive standing ovations!
Rather than just giving outdated theories like ‘picture the audience naked,’ this course works with your unconscious mind to inspire and develop your public speaking skills. When it comes to overriding your negative psychology around public speaking, Influence Now, and its base in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) has you covered.
Your brain is active all the time, running on programs and patterns we’ve installed previously, like the start-up RUN system on our computer – that’s NLP.
The reason our internal programs are invisible to our everyday thinking is because they are natural and automatic.
We start running these programs really early, as tiny babies we look for patterns, things that ‘make sense’ to us or bring symmetry to our lives. New studies are even able to show that our learning and development actually starts before birth, with unborn children learning language skills from their mother in the last 10 weeks of development!
Because we start recognising patterns and creating sequences so early, we are mostly unaware that we have them, and that we rely on them to make decisions for us constantly throughout our day.
Our unconscious mind makes decisions, stores information, and builds a ‘proof of life’ database without any permission or checks at the conscious level. We can go our whole lives and not be aware that we are creating and implementing our own personal rules and living them out over and over.
Somewhere in all that we have created a rule about public speaking. It could be that we have a program that says:
Public speaking = Rejection = Death = Worst day ever
Public speaking = Being wrong = No right to say anything = Worst day ever
Public speaking = Being exposed = Tortured life = Worst day ever
Public speaking = Being embarrassed = Death = Worst day ever
Public speaking = Power = Hurting people = Worst day ever
Public speaking = Humiliation = Hide forever in shame = Worst day ever
If we are running these negatives in our subconscious mind we become immobile, demotivated and unable to think rationally about the benefits of public speaking.
That’s the thing with fear. We have these concepts of ‘worst-case scenario’ running behind the scenes that have us convinced public speaking will kill us. When we stop and think about the actual worst-case scenarios, (the local ones I mean, not the tsunami/earthquake/tornado in the room that destroys everyone kind of scenario) you can start to unfreeze and get some mobility back.
Real life worst-case scenario: You make a mistake and get better next time.
Studying NLP is simple, especially when so much of what we need to learn has already been well tested and researched. It’s simply a matter of paying attention to your thoughts, patterns and behaviours and asking specifically designed questions to uncover how they got there and what purpose they serve. Once you bring your awareness to your personal patterns and ways of communication you uncover some incredible gaps, flaws and inconsistencies in your programming. Some of it is completely illogical, in our mind though, we think we have it covered.
Changing our programming is really fast, because we are using systems and tools our brain naturally uses and is familiar is, the only difference is we get to choose systems and patterns that actually work. Like:
Public speaking = Public awareness = more action = better life
Public speaking = Greater reach = more clients = better life
Public speaking = Better communication skills = better relationships = better life
Public speaking = Increased self confidence = more choices = better life
The reason why public speaking courses improve public speaking ability is because you can practice! You practice in a safe and supportive environment and get valuable feedback that will help fine tune your presenting ability and have you looking like a star out there.
The longer you put off not doing it, the easier it will be to never do it.
The way forward is to face your fear, (see that it’s a little fear, not a big one) and step right up to it.
NLP is cutting edge training for any area of life, however, it works incredibly well for overcoming a fear of public speaking. It’s something I work hard at and have developed the course specifically for because it’s close to my heart. I was terrified, like, utterly terrified and really well practised at avoiding public speaking. I turned that around using NLP and presenting is my most valued skill. I love seeing people walk into my classroom quivering and uncertain and leave at the end full of confidence and certainty.
When you come to Influence Now you will get the most up to date course material and strategies, as we take you step by step into your inner power (that part of you that wants the significance of presenting).
While other courses might sit you down and give you death by PowerPoint with theory after theory, we have you taking action, not just on building your presentation, but about building your self-confidence, tapping into your passion and using that passion to inspire and drive you.
The confidence you develop in Influence Now is totally unshakable. Even if the stage collapses (which has actually happened to me) you will continue your presentation as if nothing happened, totally in control.
When we practice fear and get really good at it, we can sometimes feel like we are living in that shadow, as if the fear we have is making our choices and living our lives. Stepping back into your power proves to your brain that it’s possible for you to call the shots. Once you conquer one fear it is easy to replicate the process, create a new pattern and knock out any unwanted fears that might be holding you back from living the life you are destined to live.
When you have mastered the art of presenting you become a genuine leader and an authority in your field. You can share your knowledge and skills with thousands, even millions of people and use that reach to deliver a message, influence people or create unlimited income.
I would love to take the stage with you at Influence Now, see you there.
Matt Catling