Heeeeeellllllpppp

CY

hey Dean..

If you have fear of public speaking, I have only one advice for you: practice. LOTS OF IT.

and..

don’t do it alone, invite few friends, and give a speech in front of them.

hope this helps.

CY

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http://deanhunt.com Dean Hunt

CY,

I agree 100%

Only problem is that I have only one month.

I think I will do some online stuff as well, perhaps a webinar or 2. I know it isnt quite the same, but it is all good practice.

Dean

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http://www.artyprints.co.uk Catriona

Hi Dean

The only way to overcome the fear of public speaking is to do it. Lots of preparation is also very neccessary. It also helps if you feel absolutely passionate about the subject and finally you could try to visualise your success daily – see a room full of people that are relaly enjoying your presentation..

Catriona

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http://deanhunt.com Dean Hunt

Catriona,

Agreed.

Time is against me for sure though.

BTW, ArtyPrints.co.uk will be mentioned in my presentation.

Dean

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http://www.elcro.com domagoj

Hey, I heard an advice for public speaking, don’t know if it helps. When you stand in front of your audience, you have to imagine that everyone in the audience is naked. ..they say it helps you relax..

I’m not in english speaking territory, but you sound a bit schottish to me, am I right?

Best of luck on your speach…
Domagoj

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http://insanelyinterested.com Jarkko Laine

Hey Dean, this is my first ever comment here at deanhunt.com (got here through a Twitter message from Michael Dunlop) but my impression is that you’ll do just fine!

Your 3-minute podcast message is so good that you need not worry. You speak in a clear, natural way that doesn’t seem too nervous. You take your time to let the words sink in. Put it short, you’re doing all the right things.

So, my tip is that you just need to make sure you tell yourself that you really know this stuff already!

Good luck!

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http://juhotunkelo.com Juho

Well, doing a live video session with a large enough audience is the closest you can get, I suppose… it’s still not face to face with an audience but the dynamic is similar…

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CY

another tip..

If you find yourself stuck on stage (it may happen), be frank and tell the audience you don’t know what to talk anymore, and then invite questions from them! Suddenly.. you will have a lot to talk about !

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http://www.leeannprice.com Lee Ann Price

I admire you for being so honest and transparent. If you believe you can do this, you can. Google Toastmasters International and find a club near you. Toastmasters is an organization devoted to helping people overcome their fear of public speaking. I’ve been a member for almost two years now and it’s helped me greatly.

One reason that people are afraid is that they aren’t prepared and they’re afraid they’ll forget or flub up while in front of people. So, practice, don’t memorize word for word, you may forget a word while presenting and then your brain won’t know what to say next. But, do write down bullet points and work off them.
Be yourself and tell a story or two during your presentation that make the point you’re trying to make. People love stories and they’re a great way to build rapport.

Be yourself. This is so important..

Talk to one person at a time. Always address the audience as if you are speaking to one person, don’t say you all, say you.

Get right into it at the beginning, don’t waffle around.

Be yourself.

Let go of the outcome. It’s daunting enough to speak in front of a group, but if you are going to sell something as well, that adds pressure to an already charged situation.

Don’t picture the audience naked, that’s a silly urban myth that has been touted as making the speaker relax. It doesn’t work and it could only be distracting.

Be yourself.

I could go on and on, but I’ll stop for now.

Do practice, record yourself either on video or audio and listen to what you’re saying, but don’t be too harsh about what you sound like, just listen to the content.

Be yourself. If you speak in person like you write on this blog, you’ll be great.

Lee Ann
on twitter /leeannprice

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http://www.thediscomfortzone.com Tim Brownson

Swing in via Orlando mate and I’ll sort you out.

You’re gonna get loads of well meaning advice, some useful, some useless.

It really depends on the severity of the problem. We’re talking about social anxiety that effects millions of people. It has various guises and this is the most common one.

If you have a severe case of it you can prep your little socks off, imagine rooms full of naked people and ask as many questions as you like, it wont make much difference, you have to work at an unconscious level.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is there are things that can help. We can chat if you want but there’s one important things to do in the meantime.

Do NOT fight it or rationalize it, that will only make things worse. It’s zero use telling yourself it’s silly. Your unconscious mind will be going “Yeh, yeh, yeh, I’ll decide what’s silly big boy now get back to throwing up”

You will get through this and to the best of my knowledge nobody died from public speaking….yet

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http://deanhunt.com Dean Hunt

Tim,

Would love to speak to you more about this, very interesting.

Do you use Skype?

Drop me an email and we can hopefully have a chat. I am out for most of today, but will get back to you ASAP.

Dean

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http://imtrip.com Tom

Dean,

I remember in an email we exchange you already asked about tips on this issue. I told you about making some videos for youtube or other video sites so millions of people could see you, even if this is not something like a “live public speaking” exercise. You answered me it was something you were going to do, so maybe it’s time now, just for exercise.

And as others said I think you have to practice it a lot, maybe if you do it once you’ll see what are your feelings. I also remember a post you made about Psycho Cybernetics, a guy answered you and you publish the post “An Overview of Psycho Cybernetics”, there is a paragraph about public speaking.

There are also many website and videos on youtube giving tips you can just google “public speaking tips”, but I guess you already thought about that.

Maybe if you can have people you know in the audience at different places, it may be easier to have an eye contact with them if you feel difficult to keep an eye contact with people you don’t know.

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http://blog.timothyjschmidt.com Tim Schmidt

Hi Dean,

That is exciting news. It will be great to see you speak at Yanik’s event in Feb. Be sure to talk to Barry’s friend Martin. He is an excellent public speaker and a great public speaking coach as well. I spent a few hours with him at lunch in FL and he really gave me a bunch of good tips.

As one of the previous posts said, practice is key. Plus, you can also give your presentation to your video camera. This is probably the next best thing to a live audience.

Good luck, my friend. I will have a cold Stella in hand for you when you are done on the stage.

Tim

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Matt

I wouldn’t bother with the comedy club or sky dive.

Telling jokes is one thing but it’s a completely different skill to the type of speaking you’ll be doing. The sky dive would be cool, but you can push your boundaries in a related way.

When I have ever spoken I have found that if I start off well the rest becomes a breeze, so I would make sure that you have the first few minutes *really* sorted. I’d say the same for the end too. Obviously prepare for the middle but concentrate on those 2 bits the most.

Also mate, why the negative mindset? You’re f***in’ Dean Hunt and you can do what you want! You’re talking to people who want to listen to you. They want you to do well. You know more than them. You’re talking about a topic you know really, really well.

If you were down the pub you could talk about this stuff all night no trouble. The speaking isn’t the problem – it’s the mental obstacle you’ve got that you don’t like it and it’ll be difficult.

You do like it – it’ll give you a real buzz. And it’s easy too.

Find a couple of friendly faces in the audience, preferably people you know, and speak to them. It’s just a chat between friends.

When you first start remember that adrenaline is your friend. If you’ve got the first 5 mins well prepared you’ll breeze through the shakes and deliver a quality performance.

Go get ‘em, tiger!

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http://BlogBarefoot.com Carrie Wilkerson, The Barefoot Executive

OF COURSE YOU SHOULD…I will be CHEERING YOU ON

front row …one of your biggest fans…

Yanik’s crowd is really relaxed. focus on content, be conversational, integrate your sense of humor, get Perry to help you integrate video in your PPT presentation

Do some teleseminars with zero audience if you have to. You can record them for product…and you can get the flow of points, etc

Carrie Wilkerson
The Barefoot Executive
http://BlogBarefoot.com

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Ellen St. Peter

Hi David,

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Alice

I dunno, after hearing your predicament, the first thing that occurred to me was
1) get a soap box or milk crate or some other such thing to stand on
2) go to your nearest town square or park, hopefully very populated, either with a Bible or a Star Trek manual or Shakespeare Julius Ceasar or Monty Python transcripts, whatever rocks your boat
3) orate with much energy and candour to the world at large, in spite of/or because of others reactions
4) hopefully get someone to film it and post it on YouTube, along with a follow up commentary, how did that make you feel? etc

some of that good ole shock therapy – if you can deliver a speech about a subject which you don’t really care about or feel familiar in or feel ridiculous giving, in uncomfortable physical surroundings, to scores of people who don’t really care about you and would, in fact, rather you shut up, and survive, then I guarantee the other -the opposite – would be a breeze!

I concur with whoever wrote above. Your podcast sounded awesome, you’re awesome, you’ll do fine!

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Ellen St. Peter

Hi Dave, You already sound great because of your honesty. All that said here are some tips that I know from my studies on why people are inhibited to sing or be creative in any way. The picturing people are naked I’ve heard, but that always made me more nervous so my mentor told me to picture they are just a bunch of cabbages. Then write down a brief outline of what you want to say, or might wish to communicate to your audience. It’s not a crime to have a few notes if you are a speaker. You can not look at them unless you have too and explain that you don’t want to leave out any vital information for your audience. Mike Rounds here in the USA wrote books on being a great speaker and you can buy his things on line. He also says the idea of asking for your audience to give you any questions if you are for the moment spacing out or need time to relax, compose yourself, refocus etc. Do deep relaxation breathing before and during your time when you are speaking. Don’t worry excessively that you have to be PERFECT all the time. The best speakers understand that this perfect is boring. Being natural which is not always cookie cutter perfect is best. That is why when you are talking on this you sound great because you are just talking not to impress you are perfect, but a real person. You can jump out of a fleet of planes but each time you get in front of an audience you will still feel butterflies of energy sparking that is just the nature of the beast. Although the more you do this activity the smoothier it goes because the new wears off. If someone asks you a question that you are not sure how to respond to or go blank on then say this, “I’d like to give you a deeper answer so after this is over will you please come and talk to me about that so I can give you a fuller answer than time permits right now.” That way when they come up afterwards (if they even do) you will be speaking on a more one or smaller group level and have time to ponder what to say easier. If you have a rude person blurting out at you in the audience at you, look directly, calmly at them and say, “I know you have a lot to say so how about you and I have a conversation just the two of us afterwards at a more appropiate time. That way they feel validated and are clearly told when to talk outloud to you. If you want more thoughts let me know. Trust me you have a great personality and that translates to being a great speaker. Best Wishes, Kyleellen

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http://www.mlm10weekchallenge.com Gavin Mountford

Hey Dean,

Nice one, well done for putting yourself out there, you sound exactly like me. I’ve got a few speeches lined up. One of which includes my wedding in october, lol.

Might be worth doing a few presentations in front of your friends, family and business partners to get some practice.

You could also look for some meetup groups in London, or where ever you are living at present. http://www.meetup.com/

There are a few courses you can go on, to improve your presentation skills. Just google public speaking courses in your area.

I’ve booked a few courses I’m going on soon also, to practice a few speeches.

You could also approach your local toastmasters and ask them if they could recommend anyone who could help you get a local gig.

Just a few ideas anyway. I know there are opportunities out there, and it’s getting past that initial fear!

Good luck and keep us informed as to how it goes!

Cheers
Gavin

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http://www.ernestoverdugo.com Ernesto Verdugo

Dean, my best advice after almost 15 years of being a Public Speaker is to imagina that you are speaking to a single individual or a small group.

Practice your material on a casual conversation with other people but don’t let them know that you are practicing stuff with them.

And most importantly use your “British Charm” you’re a great guy to talk with and also quite funny so that will always help

Pitty I will not be able to be in D.C. This year as I am becoming a Daddy again as you saw my Wife in Dubai, But I will love to hear afterwards about your great success in UG5

Take care and let me know when your “secrets” video product is out!

Ernesto

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http://www.maynem.co.uk Mark Mayne

alright mate,

I think you should do open mic night at the Frog and Bucket in Manchester. Would be awesome. One of Sam’s friends does it there on occassion.

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http://chesterton.id.au/blog/ chesterton

I would have thought bungee jumping would be scarier than sky diving for overcoming a fear of heights.

I dare you to bungee jump.

i double dog dare you.

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http://www.Twitter.com/Martin_OBrien Martin OBrien

Hi,

It’s all a matter of personal perspective. I’m a homebody so, to me, a world traveler such as yourself already does the bravest thing there is: go to foreign lands.

The bravest thing I did recently was leave my first Tweet. Don’t laugh. It was tough for me. Now Twitter can’t shut me up. (hey, you laughed)

Last for a quick insight into how the stand-up pros do it, read Judy Carter’s Stand-Up Comedy the Book.

Main thing is have a flippin’ blast while you are up there. You deserve it.

Martin OBrien

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Dare

Hey Dean, haven’t you checked Demonic Confidence? Seriously. If you can approach chicks on the street for 21 days then speaking in front of an marketing is a BREEZE.

Advice like “Imagine you speak in front of an audience” targets your CONSCIOUS MIND…and fear of public speaking is UNCONSCIOUS THING.

Be yourself is also a myth that’s been present in the dating industry as well…well if you want be yourself…shy speaking in front of an audience…the thing is to be your BEST SELF.

Put me in front of a million audience if you like to make an ordinary speech I will make it without problems because I DON’T REALLY CARE WHAT THEY’LL THINK…and that seems to be your main problem that unconscious “I do care what others think” belief.

Also Demonic Confidence is not the only thing that can help you…there are numerous programs for approaching women I may find them if you like.

It seems kind of funny to me that once you wrote a post of something like “beat the fear of public speaking by picking up women” and now I see that you haven’t even take a single bit of action on that area ;/

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amy

haha, i’d totally forgotten what you sounded like.
public speaking really does suck, i don’t think there’s anyone who doesn’t get at least a little bit nervous before they do it. it’s just something you gotta practice i guess.

do the comedy night thing!
and the aeroplane thing! haha

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http://www.connexted.com/blog/ Craig Dewe

Just work “mr girly pants” into your presentation as much as possible and you’ll be fine…

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http://www.docjaksonsplace.com Doc Jakson

Simple advice Dean:

Be authentic

Be enthusiastic

And you’ll do well

all the best,
Doc

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http://www.4urworld.com Teresa Caldwell

I think you did an awesome job on your podcast. That is a start. Of course you didn’t have a room full of people watching you. I saw the Youtube video you did where you were doing your impression of Gary Vaynerchuk, you did a great job. I know how you feel, I have a fear of speaking, in fact I turned down being interviewed on a podcast by Ian Fernando from http://www.ianfernando.com, about heading up the mentor program with Affiliate Summit. I just didn’t want to screw up or say something stupid or embarrass myself, when in fact if I would have done the podcast, it might have brought more traffic to my site and well “You just never know”.
Honestly you do an awesome job and your accent will have everyone mesmerized anyway, Us Americans love a British Accent.
You have a great knowledge and are confident in what you know, you will be fine. I don’t think you should jump out of an airplane, or anything risky like that, we want you to live to be overcome your fear of speaking. lol.

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Dare

Man your voice is great and everything just for people that say things like…be yourself, be enthusiastic be warned that many of them don’t know what they talked about. It’s the same think like talking to an extremely shy guy who never talked to women…be yourself, be enthusiastic (not that you are extremely shy or something). It simply doesn’t work.

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http://www.correctmindforweightloss.com David Maleney

5 pints of beer will sort out the anxiety.
You might fluff a few words, but you won’t care.

It always worked for Dean Martin

On a more serious note. Just find a pitch in a shopping mall or park and make your speech!

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http://deanhunt.com Dean Hunt

Thanks for all the comments guys. Much appreciated.

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http://renegadeconservatoryguy.co.uk/ Renegade Conservatory Guy

Hi Dean

If I was you I’d just tell Yanik you’re not feeling too well, and let Barry step in.

RCG

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http://www.andybrown.org/blog Andy Brown

Hi Dean,

I did my first talk a few months ago at the UK Gold Event and my one take away was I should have filmed myself over and over again beforehand. This way I would have perfected the timing and created a movie for me to memorise. You could essentially have the movie on your iPod to play over and over again in the days leading up to the presentation.

My presentation became more of a brain dump and though I know if I had to perform it a number of times it would naturally become slicker the secret to getting it right first time is in being able to have already seen yourself present it.

I imagine you won’t necessarily be nervous because you are confident about your topic but more the occasion might just freeze your thinking in so much you can lose track of the next slide.

If there is some way you can keep a track of the time this will give you confidence.

If you want to chat on the phone just let me know.

All the best.

Cheers

Andy

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http://www.wanderingsalsero.net art williams

Hi Dean:

I’ve got a couple of ideas to share with you:

#1 Take advantage of the convenience and simplicity of recordings (e.g. podcasts) to practice. Just like the one you did here.

#2 Mentally focus on what you’re saying even to the exclusion of really looking at your audience. Appear to be looking at them (because your eyes, face and body are oriented that way) but mentally try to capture the feeling of talking to yourself or another individual. And……don’t worry about being too structured.

You know that they say that ‘people want to know that your care more than they care about what you know’, right? Well, in the case of a seminar such as you’re going to obviously the people want some content. They’re going to evaluate you on that level consciously. But subconsciously they’re also going to evaluate you emotionally….i.e. were you ‘natural’, did you really seem like you knew what you were talking about, were you believable, were you excited about the subject(or you could use the currently popular ‘passionate’).

Point there is that if they ‘like’ you….you’ve earned your money and (AND) you’ve got a good referral and your(YOUR) business will grow.

That’s sorta a summary. But here’s a link to a recording I made for you saying basically the same thing. Hope it’s some benefit to you.

http://www.audioacrobat.com/play/W5HM88Ts

Best regards,
Art Williams
the WanderingSalsero
http://www.wanderingsalsero.net

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Dare

Listening to recordings would be nice because it targets your subconscious>>>hey if he can do that naturally than I can.

Maybe the ‘inner game tapping’ technique will help too (just google it)…I recently had a fear of going into bed (it was irrational fear that if I go to bed and fall asleep I’ll die) and tried to use these conscious targeting stuff (like: I can do it, there is no need to fear). 5 days passed and nothing. I put myself down even more. I recently (since yesterday) tried with inner game tapping and the feeling is really gone. And and the thoughts are almost gone too.

And this should be normal, because as you probably know, we as human beings usually form a belief on emotional basics and then rationalize.

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http://www.DerrickSiu.com Derrick Siu

Hey Dean,

Just found your site, surfin’ the web. and thought I could offer some help with your dilemma . (I was at Yanik’s seminar a couple of years ago myself

My background is in personal development speaking / and Presenting to Camera (Do corporate videos, tv commercials etc in Australia).

Anyways. would be easiest to share my info by chatting, so if you want just email me, and we can hook up a time on skpe or phone,

Cheers,

Derrick

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http://theconfidenceguyonline.com/blog Steve Errey – The Confidence Guy

Perfectly normal to be scared s**tless Dean, but what a cracking opportunity!

As Tim B says, you will be nervous and it will be scary, and that’s okay. In no way is that the same thing as screwing up or looking silly, so part of it is to separate the nerves and anxiety from the connection with screwing up.

Personally, I get as nervous as a tiny nun at a penguin shoot whenever I do public speaking, but I have a couple of anchors setup that remind me what I’m like when I’m at my best and how well I’m able to relate to people on an individual level. That’s enough to make it okay, and once I’m up there you can’t get me down.

Take a look at your local BRE group or Toastmasters group, and holler if I can help out (I’m in London).

Failing that, there’s always karaoke…

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Dare

Cool that guys here are offering help and having public speaking communities where they encourage each other in London, wish there was such a thing here in my country.

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http://www.askmrvideo.com Perry Lawrence

Dean, having met you in person, seen you in action, watched you work your magic and seen the results first hand of your teaching, I am confident you will be well received – with open arms – like the polish chick in West Sussex.

Seriously Dean, you are an exceptional teacher as you already know. The nerves thing is beaten into submission by focusing on sharing the content one on one as you did with Martin. Your BIGGEST fans (you know who we are) will be in the front row eager to hear what you are teaching.

Can’t WAIT!!!

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http://www.thesykesgrp.com Ed Sykes

Dean, here is a great free resource to assist you with your public speaking challenge, http://tinyurl.com/7fkt5c

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http://www.bluejprojects.com Joanne

A Piano Player’s 7-steps to win against stage fright

1) Face the whirlpool that is stage fright – target it, plan ways to avoid it, and create tools to get out. Here are 4.

2) Tool #1 “Do That Thing” – put a deliberate pause, gesture, sip of water, breath (something visible or invisible) at a point in your presentation. Pre-plan, and do it. This breaks the grip of the whirlpool. Create as many as you need.

3) Tool #2 = “A Practiced Mindset” — Develop a feel for the mindset you want on stage. Practice living in it. Give it a name. When you are about to go onstage, sit and get quiet, and recall this state of mind deliberately. Even a morsel of it is better than none. It will grow over time.

4) Tool #3 “Offstage Karma” — Don’t sit with people who inflame your nervous feelings. Get centered before you go out. Figure out what action this means to you. (Once I had to tell someone sitting next to me to stop talking to me.)

5) Tool #4 “Melt the snowball” – When you break into a cold sweat, etc., do not grab on to the event mentally (replace “oh my god my hands are shaking with “oh, here come the jitters; soon they’ll go.” Replace them with Lifeline #1.

6) Don’t give up. It may not “just disappear”. It will gradually go away. Celebrate good moments in an event. Those are your gold coins.

7) Be patient. It’s like investing that penny in your business. Every day, your investment grows more and more powerful, and soon your focused mind will dominate.

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http://www.solidfoundations.co.uk Dionne Jude

Hi Dean

I’m a motivational speaker and use to have problems when speaking. I have overcome them now, here is what assisted me…

1. SPEAKING IN PUBLIC IS NOT THE PROBLEM – If you can talk to one person, you can talk to many. Discover what lies behind your fear of speaking in public – fear of messing up/exposure, not being good enough, rejection etc. Breakthrough your personal barriers and overcome what is restricting you.

2. ASSUME EVERYONE LIKES YOU – we feel comfortable with people we like and who we believe like us. Act as if your audience love you and express your ‘love’ through providing them with what they have come to hear and learn.

3. GET YOUR EGO OUT OF THE WAY – You have a solution to their problems or challenges – put your ego aside. You are not as important as your message.

4. WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY IS IMPORTANT SO… speak slowly, vary your tone, pitch, pace etc.

5. LEARN FROM THE BEST – I watched loads of videos in order to model some of the best speakers in the world. This is an exercise in creating your own style, rather than comparing or competing which can damage your self esteem.

Hope this is useful. Happy to give you some more guidance if needed.

Regards

Dionne

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Heeeeeellllllpppp

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