Glossophobia – reducing speech anxiety

According to research, humans are only born with two fears: falling and loud noises. Yet by the time we reach adulthood, it’s considered perfectly normal to suffer from glossophobia – the fear of public speaking or anxiety about speaking in general. In 2013, The National Institute of Mental Health reported that as many as 74% of people suffer from glossophobia.

I firmly believe that everyone has the right to overcome their fear of public speaking, not just to learn new skills to mask their fear but to eliminate it totally. I’ve built my presentation skills coaching business around this belief, and I love seeing my clients achieving their full potential at work, at home and within the community.

Mind-set + skill set = confident and competent presenter

The more I applied my Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) skills to the field of presenting, the more it became obvious that for those with any sort of fear of public speaking, the problem was not just a lack of skills. The fear wasn’t as a result of not knowing how to stand or what say, for example. A huge amount of the fear was in the mind.

I decided to work with clients on both the mind-set and the skill set for the corporate market. Some mind-set assistance already existed in the world of ‘personal development’ (life coach, hypnotist or therapist), but these practices often teach people how to manage their fears rather than overcome them. Some skill set solutions existed too, through traditional skills-based public speaking courses. But some very nervous speakers would be too nervous to even attend such a course! Nothing I could see out there tied the two critical elements together.

This is why I developed my Public Speaking Monkeys approach, which uses NLP techniques to work on mind-set and skill set combined. I talk to my clients about the “Public Speaking Monkeys” those doubting voices in your mind that might say “You’re Stupid” or “You’re going to forget what to say”. Once the monkeys are tamed, delegates have a more positive mindset and are able to learn advanced presentation skills techniques quickly and take on board constructive feedback easily. That’s how they become such strong presenters in such a short time frame – sometimes within days.

My results speak for themselves

I’ve worked with both quivering wrecks and outwardly “confident looking” professionals to help them transform into confident and competent presenters. I know you might not beleive me and that’s why, and that’s why we offer a no-quibble money back guarantee with all corporate one-to-one programmes. That’s right – if someone wasn’t happy with the results, I’d give them their money back.

Simply Amazing Training offers professional presentation skills and public speaking training courses for individuals and companies. Have a look around the website, or call me today on 0330 223 4392 for an informal chat to discuss your requirements.