Speaker 1: If I forced you to give a presentation in front of an audience, how confident would you be in your speaking abilities? Would you come across as nervous and unprepared? Would you be able to keep eye contact with the audience, maybe keep them engaged? The fear of public speaking is known as glossophobia, which is the number one fear in the world. Most people would literally rather die than speak in front of an audience, which is crazy to think about. But why is this the case? Fear is a part of our brains that is hard-coded to be sensitive to the judgment of our peers. We're always looking around our environment and trying to draw conclusions based on what other people think of us. So it's really the judgment that is our greatest fear. We don't want to put ourselves in a position to get judged. In general, this has been good for our survival, but there's a negative side to this, and that negative side is that we can become paralyzed by our fear of this judgment. And that'll keep us from doing a lot of great things if we don't take control of it. Today, I'll be covering with you the five secrets of public speaking that I've used to not only land on hundreds of stages, but give killer presentations every single time. Let's dive right in. The first tip, speak with a ridiculous amount of conviction. When you are giving a speech, always remember that at that moment, you are the number one authority in the room. Because of this, people will almost always accept whatever it is you are saying, as long as you say it with enough conviction. You have to say it like you mean it. Because generally, most people will not fact check you. For example, here is a 20 second speech about balloons. Balloons were invented by Danish chemist and polymer scientist Sigmund Verbalon, who spent his entire academic career working on a solution for medical purposes. But in 1642, he actually created the world's first balloon on accident out of a cow intestine. Mesmerized by this new procedure, he decided to drop the medical purposes altogether and he started selling them to retail stores for the purposes of entertainment and decoration. And now all these years later, you wonder where the first rubber balloon came from. It actually came from Denmark. The truth is, I have no idea who invented balloons, what country they are from, what they studied. I didn't know any of that. Never in a million years will anybody in the audience actually fact check what you are saying, as long as you are able to say it with a strong amount of conviction. Just keep that in mind next time you're giving a speech and you're worried about people analyzing what it is that you're saying. Because the truth is, they're just following you as you guide them through the discussion. The second tip, structure your speech. I've seen tons and tons of people rack their heads about, how am I going to organize my speech? How am I going to structure my speech so that it's easy for people to follow along? And the answer will just blow your mind because I'm about to give you the simplest framework for giving speeches that knocks it out of the park every single time. Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them. First, start off by telling them what can you expect in the speech. Second, tell them the important stuff. Stick to the meat and potatoes and try not to go off on tangents. And then finally, wrap up the presentation by telling them the main points of what you want them to walk away with. This simple framework has helped me eliminate any confusion in all of my speeches, which leads me to the next point. Number three, use simple language to break down complex ideas. I see tons of people trying to fill up their speeches with corporate words. You know, the type of thing that you'd see on someone's resume or their LinkedIn profile.

Speaker 2: I exhibited proficiency in rear-facing applications of fabric environments.

Speaker 1: Really what you meant to say was, I spent the whole day sitting on my butt on the couch. See how you can spice it up and make it sound very nice, very complicated, but you don't have to do that. You don't have to intellectually flex on people. In fact, it's actually more intelligent to break down very complex processes using simple words and simple explanations. Don't force your audience to try to break down what you're saying and pay attention to you at the same time. They can only ever do one at a time, and I would 100% bet that they would much rather just listen to you instead of trying to understand what you're saying. Tip number four, look at people in the audience. This should be an obvious one, but to tackle your stage fright, try looking at one person at a time when you give your speech. And this is even better if you know some people that are in the crowd that you can just fall back on and smile at throughout your presentation. You want to refrain from sticking to one point on the stage and not looking around because that's going to kind of take away the connection of the speech. So next time you're giving a presentation, next time you get up there, try to identify a few corners or points in the audience where you will look at in order to make everyone in the audience feel like you're speaking to them. If you want your audience to feel like you're speaking to them, look at them. Tip number five, look confident. The more confident that you look when you're giving your speech, the more likely it is that your audience will take in what you have to say and settle into it. But it can be very hard to get rid of those butterflies. Remember what we said in the beginning of the video about our fear of judgment? Well, here's the kicker. People are not judging you nearly as much as you think they are. Let me give you an example. When you're up there and you're giving a speech, even if the speech is absolutely terrible, most people are not going to hold that against you for the rest of their lives. They're not. In fact, they're more than likely going to forget about it within the hour. People are more than likely at any given moment during a speech thinking about what am I going to have when I get home for dinner?

Speaker 2: Well, I'm going to have to go to the store first and I'm going to have to go buy eggs and milk because we ran out of that because my wife eats 80 eggs a day.

Speaker 1: That's what they're thinking about. They're not really going to hold the small inconsistencies in your speech against you. If they do remember anything, it's going to be the strongest points in your speech that you make apparent to them. Just remember, nobody is judging you and nobody is thinking about you as much as you think they are. So hopefully these tips will help you be just a little bit more confident in the next presentation that you give. You can click the link in the description to schedule a one on one call with me or join our free group where I teach people how to do killer presentations and elevate their public speaking skills. Just remember that your voice is a superpower, so it would be a waste not to use it. I'll see you in the next video. Feel free to drop any suggestions in the comments below.