Can Public Speaking be Effortless?

Stress is a natural response to presenting, especially if you do not speak in public regularly or have found it overwhelming in the past. But the act of speaking does not need to be difficult.

It is easy to overegg public speaking in your mind. There is so much to think about, and the fact you don’t do it every day means you feel rusty, even if you have delivered great presentations in the past.

But how do we go from finding public speaking stressful to making it effortless?

There are four pieces of the puzzle:

Calming your mind: A common problem most speakers face is having a racing mind. The list of things to think about is endless. How you manage everything going on will determine whether your speaking performance is effortless or not. A calm mind when speaking means being able to focus on just two things:

• What you are saying
• Your connection with the audience.

If you can do this, and slow down your delivery you might just be able to make speaking effortless.

Removing pressure: If you can practice in social settings with a structured conversation, nobody else knows you are practicing your public speaking skills. This means there is no failure, there is no feedback and there is nothing that can go wrong…