Standing on the stage to speak for many people is like standing inside the forest at midnight.

It feels interested but also full of fear inside.

The moment when you come on the stage, you can start feeling nausea, your mouth becomes dry, your hands are sweaty and the heart rate increased rapidly while you look down to the audience and see a lot of people are staying there, waiting to hear from you.

These are just a few symptoms of fearing public speaking that people normally face.

And if you also face the same feeling before, when you stand on stage, this is totally normal. Because there is around 75% of the global population also faces the same problem as you have, and me too.

So you are not alone in this journey.

I still remember just 5 years ago, whenever I stand on the stage, I always feel nervous and sweaty a lot (this is also the reason why I normally keep in my hand the tissues all the time).

Although it’s a great feeling when you can stand on the stage and make many people listen to what you talk, it’s also not a comfortable one when your hand is always full of sweaty and you have shortness of breath because of nervousness.

And this is the reason why I try to grow my skill in public speaking continuously in the last 5 years when I have more opportunities to stand on the stage to speak as MC, public speakers in my schools,…

After years to experience many methods to develop public speaking skills. I figured out that there are 4 very important lessons that I keep applying and introducing for many of my friends to speak on the stage effectively.

And believe that it will be very helpful for sharing with my readers on medium too.

The more you practice your speech, the more confidence you have.

All the success comes after hard work and good preparation. And nobody can just come to the stage for the first time and talk fluently.

This is a big lesson I learned from my mentor, who is a famous public speaker and MC at my University. A man who leads all the big events in my University and many events in the city — a very talented MC.

For him, he always practices self-talk at least 10 times for any events he will be MC or talk as a keynote speaker before the event happen. And the bigger events he has joined in, the more practice times he will do.

I recognize this because he is not only my mentor but also my roommate in the dorm. So the image he talks in front of the mirror or to the wall is so familiar to me.

He used to teach me that

You don’t need to have the best voice to stand on the stage, what you need is just more practice than others.

Like the way I self-talk with mirror and wall so many times before I make the real speech or MC, I can self-learning a lot about my tones, body language, and face gestures.

So it helps me to adjust my body and voice effectively to give the best speech as I can do.

If I don’t self-practice a lot like this, I will face a lot of minors and even big mistakes on the stages if this is the first time I talk about this topic.

Let always remember “No one is perfect, but the more practice, the closer to perfect you are”.

This is a great lesson from him that I have always kept in my mind for years. Even now, when I don’t live in the same dorm with him anymore, whenever I prepare for a speech or be an MC on the stage, his lesson always appears in my head.

2. Let focus on one person and talk to him/her when you are on the stage

Instead of looking into the crown and don’t have any focus that makes you feel more nervous and worry when you see under the audience seats are hundreds of people, let choose one specific audience to focus on.

And make your conversation on the stage with many audiences to be your face-to-face conversation with only one person.

This technique takes me nearly a year to recognize.

Before, when I stand on the stage to speak, I always look around and don’t focus on anyone.

So when I have time to watch back videos that recorded my speech, it looks like my eyes tried to look for someone instead of giving a great speech to my audience. And actually, it happens will all the “beginner” who just start to speak on the stage a couple of times.

The reason behind this technique is to make yourself to be more focused on one subject and turn your “big conversation” with many people to be a “single conversation” with only one person.

It helps a lot in changing your facial gestures, body language, and your voice.

Because now, your mind treats your speech as a normal conversation with your friends.

Pro tip:

If you talk on a big stage, let change your focus to one of your audience every few minutes to make sure you pay attention to all sides of guests.

Because if you just look at one audience on the left side, the people on the right side will think your story doesn’t really relate to them or you don’t really want to share with them.

So keep balance when looking at both sides is the golden key to keep the connection and make your conversation to be more personalized.

3. Overcome the fear of public speaking by: Let your body move with your tone

Use body language when you talk. Don’t use too much, but also not too little.

As standing on many stages to make speeches as well as having a chance to see many amateurs to professional people do public speaking. I recognize that body language is one of the most important parts of any speech.

And it can make the speech to be greater or can destroy the performance, all depends on the way how this person controls their body language.

The masters in public speaking, when talking, they use body language to follow their tones.

It means that if they speak fast and want to emphasize their words, their body language will be strong and direct. And if they want to make people feel calm and have emotional moments, they use the tone down more often and less body language while focusing on facial gestures.

This is flexibility in combination between the tones and body language to create the best effect for the speech.

While the amateur people normally overuse their body language during their speech and make the audiences feel confused and dizzy when the speaker moved hands and body a lot.

Or some amateurs use too little body language, while their tone always keeps average and the hands always put in the pocket when talking. It makes the audiences feel sleepy when listening to these amateur speakers.

4. The more time you stand on the stage, the better public speaking skill you will have

Let every chance to stay on the stage to be your opportunity to practice your public speaking skill.

All the success comes after hard work and being good in public speaking is also not an exception.

If you really want to be good on the stage, you need to practice this as the way you practice your muscles in Gym.

And as you only can have bigger muscles and a healthier body if you keep workout daily and maintain exercise as your habit. It is the same for public speaking, the more time you practice and stand on the stage, the more fluently you will be.

And don’t care too much about the size of your stage if it is just a small one in your home where you speak in front of several of your family members or a big stage where have hundreds of people.

What you really need to care about is knowing that you are having the priority to talk with others, and what you really want to do is make the best speech to your audiences.

This is how I think all the time when I have a chance to be MC or public speaker in the events I join in.

Sometimes, the event is so “tiny” — It is just a family reunion where I am the MC for my family with around 10 people. But I still keep in mind the reason why I stand on the stage rather than thinking about how big this stage is.

And if I have any chance to be MC or stand on the stage, I will take this as my opportunity to grow my public speaking skill.

This is also the reason that helps me to be noticed and choose to be MC in many big events in my schools and community where I stand in front of hundreds of people to speak.

You never know when your big opportunity will come, so just keep going to collect all the small opportunity firstly.

Take away for overcoming the fear of public speaking:

These are the 4 biggest lessons I learned during the last 5 years about the way how can make better public speeches and stop the afraid of public speaking that I have for many years ago.

1. Practice self-talk before making your real speech

2. Let focus on one person and talk to him/her when you are on the stage

3. Let your body move with your tone

4. The more time you stand on the stage, the better public speaking skill you will have

All of them will be fitted with you to help you achieve better public speaking skills or maybe just a few of them.

But I believe that even if you just can get one of them, it still can create a massive change in the way you approach public speaking and reduce your fear in this skill.

And as you stand in the forest in the night time, now I give you the torch and the way how you use it depends on you.

Let make your public speaking skill to be your proud, not your fear anymore.

If you want to read more about public speaking skills, let check this blog “5 Public Speaking Tips To Be A Better Public Speaker”.