My first post on this blog was about my fear of public speaking and how I desperately wanted to overcome it. And last night I did it! I made my maiden speech at Cambridge Speakers Club. And it went really well, it went brilliantly in fact, and today I feel 10ft tall.
Entitled “Looking Forward Not Back” (and no apologies for its similarity to Labour’s election slogan last year), it lasted 5 mins 8 secs – and I did not use notes.
I practised and practised my ice breaker, which described my speaking fear and an embarrassing failure; there have been a couple of other similarly terrifying moments too. Those who saw me speak previously with a trembling voice, shaking from top to toe, drying up and wishing the ground would open up and swallow me, would not have recognised me last night.
I believe the hypnotherapy I had with my client Mark Newey who runs Winning Minds greatly contributed towards my surge in confidence. I was a totally different poised person yesterday and I firmly believe that his therapy helped, it gave me the confidence to believe in myself.
I know I am not alone with my fear, Paul McKenna’s book on confidence says it is the biggest fear people have. Mark also uses similar techniques to Paul McKenna to help people overcome this.
However, the therapy will not work alone, it is not like waving a magic want, you still have to work at it to succeed; preparation and practise are essential key elements, as well as benefitting from the excellent support from members within the Toastmasters organisation.
I amazed myself and other members last night, who had previously seen me stutter and stammer my way through the evening. Because I am so proud of how I performed, I want to share some of the written comments that were passed on to me afterwards:
“You were brilliant; clear and very pleasant speaking voice; beautifully crafted speech and good body language.”
“Well done!! An excellent speech, fantastic delivery, structure, content, confidence and I look forward to more.”
For others who experience the same difficulty with public speaking, I cannot recommend Toastmasters highly enough, the people in my group are all really interesting and good fun too, but most of all, very supportive and kind. I am now looking forward to preparing my next speech; there are 10 included in the manual and I have to meet different expectations with each one.
Before I left home last night, I was given some advice by my very confident 13-year-old son, he told me that if I felt nervous, I should imagine the audience sitting there topless and this would make me laug; I really don’t know what company he keeps. Fortunately, I didn’t need to take his advice – this time!
Congratulations! I can recommend reading “Working the Room” by Nick Morgan if you want to improve your speaking. By the time I finished it I was itching to have some reason to give a speech 🙂
congrats. I hate public speaking too. Has I won at the local elections I was planning on having hypnotherapy. It’s weird because I don’t generally have a problem with talking out loud to people, I’ve been a tour guide. It as nervous at first but after you’ve said the same thing 15 times already it becomes very easy.
Well done Ellee! Told you!
Well done – go you.
Congratulations Ellee, it was a great speech. As your husband, I know how difficult you have found it to stand up in front of an audience and deliver a speech. You have certainly overcome your fears and the maiden speech you gave at Cambridge Toastmasters was excellent!
It was well constructed, well delivered and you certainly came across with confidence. Compared to how you were a couple of months ago, this is a complete transformation. Keep it up and well done !! Stephen.
Adrian, thanks for the book recommendation, I have a birthday coming up and will request a copy. Why don’t you join our group as you live nearby?
Dizzy, well done you too and yes, I would definitely recommend hypnotherapy, as well as joining a structured supportive group like Toastmasters if you plan to enter politics on a public platform.
Liz, thanks for listening to my practise run yesterday and being supportive. Your turn next!
Croydonion, yes, I want to go on and on and on now…
And Stephen, if I can do this, you can do salsa, no more excuses now….
Ellee, what a great acheivement. I am really envious but unlike you don’t feel the time is right for me to be as brave.
Maybe i’ll try Salsa instead….!
See you tomorrow, Liz
Ellee
Many congrats! It sounds as though your speech was a roaring success, with the bonus that you can perhaps put your fears behind you for the future and relax about your next speech. I’m also a Paul McKenna fan – his approach may seem a little cheesy to the cynical but it really works.
Congrats – glad it went well. So you have 10 more speeches to give? What happens after you have done them?
Ellee, you communicate so well on a one-to-one and in writing, there’s no way you were going to be anything but great once you dealt with the fear! And you’re quite right…YOU made the change, as the therapist, all I did was guide your Unconscious Mind to make a change you were really motivtaed to make. Well done you!
Good for you, Ellee. Now just do it as much as possible and before long you’ll not even bat an eye-lid before holding forth!
Congrats, again…
Antony
Antony, when you complete the 10 speeches, you become a Competent Toastmaster, and I believe there is another manual for them to complete, a smaller version.
There are also public speaking competitions and events too for the most confident.
Well done Ellee – it was a great speech well delivered and fantastic content. Im sure your Greek side will take over from your English side. As Henry Miller says in The Colussus of Maroussi “A Greek has no walls around him he gives and takes without stint”
You are putting me to shames first a timekeeper and now completed your ice breaker.
Fantastic Ellee and very well done. I’ve had to go through many pain barriers to speak in public when introducing some high profile speakers over the years. The three things to remember are Practice, Practice, and Practice. Sounds like you delivered a superb speech. You’ve certainly scaled many heights recently and will about to reach the top very soon – if you havn’t already done so!
[…] I still feel nervous when making my speech, but am becoming more confident and have improved considerably since my ice breaking speech. My personal challenge is to ad lib more rather than writing a speech and learning it off by heart. […]