Speak With Confidence and Charisma

Business speeches- Wedding speeches- Best man speeches Committee meetings- -Club meetings- Local council meetings

Fear of public speaking is said to be one of the world’s most common fears. Those who suffer from it actually experience physical symptoms from a racing heart to sweaty palms and a shaking voice and limbs. As with any fear, the best way to overcome it is to face it. However, this can be a traumatic experience, so we offer a helping hand. We focus predominantly on delivery, as we want our clients to have a reason for being so confident- we want you to become really effective public speakers. We want you to have your audience hanging on the edge of their seats in awe of your speaking prowess.

There are two types of speaker; the one who experiences symptoms of fear and can’t get out of the room quickly enough (let’s call this person ‘the fawn’), and the one who feels that they are only ready to step up on to the podium once their heart starts racing (we’ll call this person ‘the tiger’). The fawn claims that along with these sensations comes an inability to think rational thoughts, whilst the tiger claims that they become all the more focused and ‘ready to perform’.

My objective is to make you all like the tiger.

The theory

Fear is a biological reaction, which dates back to the days of pre-historic man and the instinct of ‘fight or flight’. The racing heartbeat, sweaty palms, and dry mouth saved him from many life threatening situations. I think you will all agree that our bodies seem to be over reacting when they respond to a public speaking engagement as though it were a life threatening situation! However, I realise that for most of you simply reminding yourself of this won’t solve the problem. So, for those of you who aren’t laughing at yourselves and jumping up on to the nearest stage… here is a little reassurance.

In order to achieve this we recognise that you also need to overcome your fears, so we provide you with daily exercises to improve your confidence and to help rationalise a fear that is, in reality, completely irrational.

We use the following techniques to help clients overcome their fears and become effective speakers:

• Confidence building exercises
• Breathing and relaxation (including muscle tension reducing techniques)
• Critique of speeches
• Aid in preparing and executing an effective speech
• Voice projection exercises
• Exercises to increase range*

*so that you can add more variety to your speech rather than speaking on one level.

We often use poetry to help clients develop the natural quality of their voice, whilst improving their rhythm and adding more variety to their delivery. The most important things here are pause, pitch, pace, emphasis and tone.