Speaking with confidence is a lot easier than you think. Yes, really! Speaking with flair and flamboyance may take a little practice, but standing up in front of an audience feeling poised and sure of yourself is remarkably easy when you know the Four Principles of Practical Positive Speaking.
When your boss says to you, "You've got to give a speech next week," does your heart sink to the floor? When your department manager says, "I'm counting on your talk next Tuesday to get our new project off with a bang," do you want to run for the hills or sink into a rather large hole and not come up until Wednesday?
You know what everybody says: If you aren't speaking in public, you're missing out on one of the best marketing tools for yourself and your business. If you're not out there letting people see and hear the real you, up close and personal, you're probably leaving a pile of sales on the table and won't you be sorry at the end of the year when you calculate your bottom line?
I was diagnosed with colon cancer in the Fall of 2004. It was a huge surprise because there were no previous symptoms in my family of cancer of any kind. My sister's was an even nastier surprise. She was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2002, much worse than mine, and while her prognosis for survival was 18 months, we were lucky enough to have her with us for three more years. But by the end of 2005, she was gone and I was an official Survivor.
If you're ever tempted to 'wing it' when you're asked to give a speech... don't! No matter how well you know your subject, you still have to meet the requirements of the audience, the people who invited you, and most importantly, your particular reason for speaking in the first place. Even if you've given the speech before, there are variables every time that make it vital that you remember the Six P's of Successful Public Speaking.
How often have you said to yourself, "I'm not afraid of speaking in public, I'm just afraid I'll make a mistake!" Or "I can't speak as well as so-and-so, so I don't even want to try." Or "They'll think I'm a bad speaker, and then they'll think I'm a bad (lawyer, consultant, accountant), too."