Getting over the Fear of Public Speaking, by Tim Wade Motivational Speaker

Getting over the Fear of Public Speaking, by Tim Wade Motivational Speaker

Apparently the fear of public speaking ranks higher than the fear of dying. Perhaps that's because those fearing public speaking actually fear dying on stage and then living with the shame of it forever. I'm Tim Wade, a professional motivational speaker, Singapore -based, global clients. And I remember my worst ever speech.

Overcoming the fear of public speaking - Tim Wade Motivational Speaker Singapore - before a speech in Japan in 2011
Pensively pre-speech ... in Japan, 29 Jan 2011 - Tim Wade


The worst speech I ever gave

It was at boarding school in Melbourne, Australia, when I had to give a farewell speech for one of the house tutors. I didn’t know him at all... and I did less research about him than those who oppose climate change.
My speech consisted of only the following words: “Tonight we farewell Mr White who, as we all know, has a motorbike.” And I took about 8 minutes saying that in various different ways before deciding to sit down.



My walk back to my seat after my motivational speech - Tim Wade

"It’s amazing that Tim Wade ever spoke publicly again let alone becoming the best and most humble motivational speaker in Singapore, Asia, and quite frankly: the world." - Tim Wade, motivational speaker Singapore, motivating himself in the third person... humbly.



My humility looks like this.

Success in professional speaking and overcoming fear requires a few things

Things like:
  • Courage to speak, even if that scares you... do it enough and it'll scare you less. The fear of public speaking is often born from a low frequency of recent public speeches. Speak more.
  • Some talent in something relevant to the audience or an interesting perspective in something relevant to the audience... craft your speech so that its relevant to the audience... and ask the organisers what the audience needs. Knowing that means you have some certainty. It's useful because uncertainty about what the audience wants breeds that fear of public speaking.
  • A selective memory to forget your Mr White speeches until you become even more awesome. You can re-remember them later when writing blog posts. That failure you had is just a future funny story being born.



Click the love heart and love it nearly as much as I do...

Have a Mindset of Victory

  • Self-confidence that you can do it (check out the confidence coach, Dion Jensen and my Skhit program on confidence), because the truth is, you can do it. You might be exaggerating the identity impact of a failure experience and letting it become a present-day obstacle rather than a past experience of a younger less experienced version of yourself. You're the better person now. Develop your mindset of victory (it's my main motivational keynote by the way), and it's about developing your relationship with yourself AND your relationship with others by being a Seeker, a Leader, a Developer and a Giver. So get your old self out of your way. So many people are allowing themselves to be imprisoned by their younger, less experienced, less knowledgeable, less wise version of themselves. How? One way is to have a laugh at the silliness of the fear.
  • Humour to poke fun at yourself, to be entertaining, and to have fun (ok really check out my Skhit series of videos (I play lots of idiotic superheroes and hilarious characters in this series of sales and soft skills training videos)... because it's hard to fear something that you see the funny side of.
  • A desire to share something helpful with an audience who would benefit from you continuing to do that ... this is about recognizing your purpose for delivering your message. It's to change minds, increase action, aid in a decision, move people, shift people, grow people, help people ...

Stage time and associations

  • Clients who hire you are important ... especially if you want to be a professional speaker... (you can hire me here at timwade.com) ... and if you're happy to just be rid of the fear and you're not looking at making a living from speaking on stages, then find opportunities to speak more often in safe spaces - like joining Toastmasters. If you do want to do this as a business, join a professional speaking association. I joined Asia Professional Speakers Singapore, then joined its Executive Committee, then became President in 2010-2011, and developed and run its Speakers Academy. These associations help you develop your speaking business and hang out with some pretty amazing people.

Reinvent, and re-channel your fear of public speaking

  • Reinvention every few years (check out Paul Dunn and ask him about his Reinvent keynote... an amazing man doing amazing things) - my point about reinvention, is that while you're speaking to help people shift and grow and do, you need to learn and develop and shift as well...
  • Some nerves before you go on stage ... because they mean you care, they remind you to pray, they can be turned into stage energy for great presence... just keep focused on giving your value to the audience, your speech is for them

Success in anything is rarely a straight line.

It squiggly. So keep squiggling forward with your public speaking, forget past stuff-ups, reinvent, do good, and share your message with an audience who need to hear it. And any fear of public speaking will diminish to irrelevance, because your cause is greater than the obstacle.
Speak up, speak out, speak often. Have your say.



keep squiggling forward to success - Tim Wade, motivational speaker Singapore

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