What is the best way to combat the fear of giving a speech in front of large audiences?

Question

In particular, I have a fear of messing up and a fear of possibly getting booed.

Answer 1

Focus on what your saying, sell it, try to get people excited about, but to do this you must find a way to relax (Breathing exercises, self-accupressure).
For starters, you must be 100% right in what you are saying, or at least believe you are. If you are full of crap people will smell it.
So come prepared, and then treat the audience as if they were close family and friends.

Answer 2

Practice! The best way to get over a fear is to approach it, and the best way to get over a public speaking fear is to practice speaking in front of a groups. Practice speeches in front of you friends (that you trust), and small things like giving toast at dinners could help. There are certain organizations that are made to help people practice public speaking and writing speeches. (see below) because the more you do it, the better you'll be at it, and fear it less. Almost every college or universities have a public speaking or communication class so you can get in good practice of writing and giving speeches that you could take. You might also want to listen to your own lectures (record them) so you can listen to what you sound like,and how your speech comes off. Humans naturally use the word "Um" while thinking to fill the silence, so it might help you get over that as well (excessive use of the word makes you sound uneducated in that subject, and bore the audience)

Just remember you're not alone. A LOT of people have this fear, and have a hard time getting over it. You might always be nervous, but being confident in the speech your giving (and taking a few deep breaths) will help battle this. Practice, practice, practice (even at worse in front of a mirror) and soon you'll be able to give great speeches with ease! Good luck!

Answer 3

Practice. I know its not revolutionary or anything, but it works. If your speech is written out already, say it as many times as you possibly can, by yourself, in front of a mirror, in front of anybody who will listen, say it out loud as you walk down the street. If you don't have it written out, improvise it a thousand times. Try to get to the point where the words come out naturally, you don't even feel like you are giving a speech. When the moment comes to actually give it, what I try to do is find individual faces in the crowd when possible and speak to them. Finally, when you do make a mistake, and no matter how much you practice or how relaxed you get to be you will, just smile and start the sentence again, I've never had an audience boo because I stumbled over a word.

Answer 4

Step one Practice the speech
Step two Practice the speech in front of a smaller audience
Step three Practice your speech while using gestures, moving a bit, looking at the audience from left to right and right to left.

If you mess up. Stop your speech, take a deep breath or sip water and then continue with the speech starting from the last good sentence you spoke. In source ill list a book that you can pick up that is great for helping people learn how to speak publicly.

Answer 5

I have spoke in front of audiences before and I can tell you this. Know your subject really well. If you get nervous, just look at everyone above their heads instead of making direct eye contact. Humour always works well. It loosens things up right away and you can tell if you have a serious crowd right off the bat. Last thing. People are just like you. They came for a reason and that was to hear what you had to share with them. Hope this helps you out. Break a leg!

Answer 6

prepare and practice first and for most will reduce these fears
next it always helped me to overcome such fears to play the what if game,
what if you do mess up?
you refocus, and pick up where you left off.
What if they do boo you?
Will this be the end of the world, after all it is just a moment in time and after the moment passes it will just be a memory, no permanent damage.

Answer 7

Picture everyone in their underwear. It will be very interesting and you'll probably be a little grossed out but it will get your mind off your nervousness! Don't laugh! I speak in public a lot and this is what I do when I start feeling afraid. It always works! It gets a lot easier the more you speak, though.

Answer 8

practice your speech until you are comfortable and you know the information. the more prepared u are, the more comfortable you will be. also practice saying your speech in front of the mirror, or to some close friends/family. all u need is a little cofidence.

Answer 9

once uve written ur speech, practice it until u have it almost memorized. Then think of ways to spice it up a bit. Ex. varried voice volumes, hand signals, posters, etc. Then perform it in front of a group who u know will upport u, and ask for their feedbak. Then keep practicing in front of a irror, nd try to tell urself that as long as u no wat ur talking about, nothing bad will happen.

Answer 10

Be passionate for your topic as if you were talking to your best friend and see only your best friend sitting in the audience.