Hello, and welcome to our course, my name is Jasmine. And this is a fellow anti high. And we will be your guides through this course. We're going to start our course by talking about that dark cloud that hangs over our head when we first think about speaking in public, well, it's our fears about standing up in front of an audience and actually speaking to them. Maybe that's why you subscribe to the course, we won't ask. It's a sobering thought that as many as 75% of people fear speaking in public, that's more than fear, death or heights.

So if you feel apprehensive, you're not on your own. It's going to be useful if we talk about our own experiences, because while we're all proficient public speakers Now, each of us started off as nervous beginners. Ian, how would you like to start? Well, Jasmine right to the store, my biggest fear It was that I'd make a cooler myself in front of other people. I was afraid I'd dry up while I was speaking on the ground, it opened up and swallowed me, me to even the idea of standing up there in front of a lot of people made me feel well, sort of naked. I know now that most people start off feeling like that.

But at the time, it seemed like it was all about me. And I was, I was terrified. I actually felt physically sick, the thought of having to do it, I'd come out in a cold sweat and start to panic if I thought I actually had to get up and speak. It was very much about the fear of rejection, because people are sitting there scrutinizing everything we say and do. I know it's so common, isn't it? I would always try and avoid even going somewhere where I might have to speak up, eventually managed to get over it, though.

So what did you to do? Well, when I when I knew I had to speak in public, my first reaction was panic. But then I thought long and hard about what I should do. And I heard about public speaking courses, but I couldn't face going on one of those because I'd have to do exactly what I was trying to speak in. In front of other people, yeah, of course, never even occurred to me, they might be as scared as me. So what did you do in?

Well, someone I know does speak in public. And they suggested I can find myself to speaking to myself. So speaking to yourself what you mean? It's not stupid as it might seem, what I did was to write something all find a passage in a book and read it aloud when I was alone, then I do the same thing in front of the mirror. How did that feel? Well, I was a bit self conscious at first, but I soon got used to it.

I even started to gesture to myself. And then I carried on with longer and longer passages, until felt happy about what I was doing. And Was that it? No, no, not at all. I then started to do speaking in front of my wife, and eventually, three boyfriends. And that really helped, especially when they gave me some feedback.

So you were sorted after that? Oh, no, no, my speaker friend told me there's all sorts of techniques that you can use to make yourself a good public speaker, but at least to reduce the anxiety and the What about you guy? very much the same as me. And actually, another thing I did though was to speak in front of my webcam on my laptop, then play it back a couple of times so I could see what I was doing. I found that really useful. You didn't fancy doing a public speaking course either them No, no.

For the same reasons as then, what I did do though, was join a local speaking club. There are a lot here in the UK, such as the Association of speakers, clubs, or Toastmasters. And which one did you join? I joined an ASE club, because that was one near me. These clubs are really friendly South hub organizations, they specialize in taking on beginners and bringing along that skills. Oh, that's brilliant.

Thank you for sharing. So what we've got so far is that our fears are mainly due to being afraid of letting ourselves down. But by practicing when we're alone or with friends, we can build up familiarity with standing up and speaking. Do you think that made you good public speakers, not immediately, but once the initial fears were over, and I'd actually started speaking Upon experience, and familiarity, gradually helped to make things easier. Actually, it's a bit like learning to drive, you don't know what you're doing at first, think you'll never get the hang of it. But you get better and better and gain more experience and learn the skills.

And those skills and the techniques are vitally important. And we'll learn a lot about them in the rest of this course. So whether any fears or worries that you had at the very beginning, well, I know we're going to talk about how to deal with an audience later in the course. But I think it's worth mentioning now how worried you can get the audience and how they will react to you. Yes, that was the real worry. Would they be bored?

Would they know more than me? Would they be aggressive? Would they Heckle, I found that if you remember, they're just ordinary people like you and me. It does help scan around the audience while you're speaking and maintain eye contact with each person for a second or two. Then it can feel like you're speaking to a series of individuals at one time, not the crowd. It's a lot more comfortable that way.

But remember, don't stare No, no, no. And then they get scared. There was one occasion that was really scary for me was that that's when my boss was in the audience. I didn't want to let the company down or myself. So how did you cope with that? Well, I just made doubly sure that I prepared.

Wow, I knew my objectives. I made sure I knew what her views were on the subject and what the company policy was. She actually complimented me afterwards. In our brief discussion, we've talked about some of our fears of speaking in public, and how we've been able to overcome them. We want you to know that if you are afraid, you're not on your own, and you can get over your fears just as we did. So, let's recap.

Our biggest fear is making a fool of ourselves in front of others. And that's quite understandable. We've seen that we can gradually overcome our self consciousness by practicing by ourselves, then in front of a mirror or a webcam, and then practicing with one or two people in the room. Don't rush, progress slowly and steadily. As part of this, we're afraid of drying up while we're speaking. We can Get over this one by being well prepared, and well practice.

But we'll see that there are techniques about using notes that can overcome this fear. We often find that the thought of speaking to an audience daunting, treat them as a group of individuals and use eye contact to make it appear as if you're speaking to one person at a time. We're often afraid of letting our company down or upsetting the boss. Our best approach here is be well prepared and well briefed and find out your boss's take on the subject. Remember, that like learning to drive, the more we do it, the better we will become and the more comfortable we will feel. speaking in public, it is not something that comes naturally to most people.

It's a skill that we can learn. And there are lots of techniques that we can use to help us do it very well. In the rest of this course, the three of us will guide you through the techniques of public speaking. Each of the modules will cover a specific skill at a relaxed pace that you'll find easy to take on board. We do suggest that you practice each skill as we go along. But because this course you don't have to do it in public, you'll feel safe in what you're doing.

We all wish that we had a course like this when we first started speaking, and we're sure that you will enjoy doing it. We'll see you on the next module.