“The ability to communicate effectively and persuasively will determine how successful you will be in your life.” These were the very words I was told when I was a freshman in College. The person who said these words to me was an old well-meaning gentleman who was extraordinarily successful. And he said this to me after seeing me hesitantly and anxiously get up to introduce myself at a first-year student orientation.

I knew in my heart of hearts that he was absolutely right.

While I dreadfully waited for my turn to introduce myself that day, I looked at the other students around me and they all seemed excited about being there. They looked like they couldn’t wait to speak to the world. One by one they got up and introduced themselves and they did so in the most interesting and creative ways I had ever seen, and some even used humor in their introductions! I couldn’t believe how good they were.

When my turn came, I stood up; visibly shaken, and I opened my mouth to speak… but the words barely came out. I struggled to say my name, my major, and what I liked to do for fun. In fact, I stuttered all over the place and even slurred some words. Within seconds I was done and I went back to my seat.

For the next few minutes, I sat there trying to remember what I had said. But I apparently was so nervous that I had blacked out during my introduction. I couldn’t remember anything.

It was the most humiliating experience of my life.

And so for the rest of my freshman year, I avoided all public speaking events, including events where I would’ve had to introduce myself. I also struggled to say much in my classes even though I had a lot of ideas I wanted to share. I simply passed up each and every opportunity. I always said to myself, “I’ll say something the next time around.” And, as you may have guessed, I didn’t speak my mind on those times either.

It wasn’t until the Spring of my sophomore year that I decided to face this paralyzing fear. I found the courage in Les Brown’s quote, “Are you going through it or growing through it?,” and at the time I was going through it. But I had enough. I was ready to grow. What further fueled this desire was a conversation I had with my best friend. We were taking the same class at the time, and after a long conversation about life and philosophy, he said: “Hey man, you’re pretty good at this stuff, you should say what’s on your mind.in class tomorrow.” Right then and there, it occurred to me.

“What if I force myself to say just one thing in every single class?” I thought. “That should work.”

And that’s what I started to do.

I later found out that the late Zig Ziglar had expressed this life-changing principle in his popular audio tapes, “If you do the things you ought to do–when you ought to do them–the day will come when you can do the things you want to do–when you want to do them.” And I went all in.

Starting out wasn’t easy. I made a lot of mistakes. Sometimes I said the wrong things, other times I said the right things at the wrong time, but I kept going…

Four Unconventional Public Speaking Tips

Tip #1. Do what’s Necessary. For the next few years of my life, I immersed myself in the public speaking world. I took acting classes. I took improv comedy classes. I attended several toastmaster clubs (public speaking clubs) including a TV toastmasters and I was getting a lot better. Later on, I found this training to be immensely helpful in my college teaching skills. In fact, I received extremely high scores on my student assessments reports, sometimes, surpassing those of veteran professors.

In this regard, public speaking is a skill you get better at through practice, but also through discovery. In one of my acting classes, I learned a technique that have changed the way I approach my speaking. We began each acting class with a physical warm-up. One of the main exercises required us to move our bodies in expressive and exaggerated ways and to make a dramatic sound that matched our gestures. For example, one could jump like a frog and make a froggie sound, or move in circles and yell tornado, or anything else that involved dramatic and exaggerated movement.

The amazing thing about this exercise is that it took the nervous energy out of my system within minutes. And I started thinking, what if I could use some of those warmups for my public speaking engagements. So, before my speeches, I would take a private moment (usually in my car in the parking lot), and I would recite the introduction of my speech as loudly and as obnoxiously as I can using the strongest and most expressive hand and arm gestures I have. And I can’t even begin to tell you the difference that made to my energy levels and my speaking voice. For more on acting techniques and how they can help you boost your self-confidence, see this article.

I later discovered that Tony Robbins used this very strategy to get ready for his seminars. He makes, what he calls, a power-move and says the following with power and passion: “I command my subconscious mind to direct me in helping as many people as possible today, by giving me the strength, the emotional persuasion, the humor, the brevity; whatever it takes to get them to change their lives now!”

Give this technique a try. It’s truly an amazing way to get ready for a speech and to be different than the rest of the speakers.

Now, just like there are things you need to do before going to your presentation, there are things you can also do at the start of your presentation that will further help you direct your nervous energy intelligently.

Tip #3. Release Your Nervous Energy Early. As soon as you’ve shaken the host’s hand, start your speech with a strong voice. I personally start with thanking the host, the audience for being there, and I express my gratitude to them. I say all these things with a strong and present voice. I make sure not to hold to the podium if I have to speak behind one since that tends to feed nervous energy. The mind subconsciously processes holding to the podium as a protection move and that tends to perpetuate nervous energy. So use your hands and arms to express that gratitude. On the other hand, if you don’t have to stand behind a podium, then use the space to your advantage. Don’t just stand there. Walk across the stage, but make sure to walk with a sense of purpose. This will transform your nervous energy into a positive one.

Tip # 4. Find Your Voice. After practicing my speeches over and over again, I finally found my speaking voice. What an amazing discovery that was. Prior to that, my voice had no personality. I was boring. Heck, I even bored myself sometimes. But finally, things started to come together. I stopped feeling conscious about myself… and my voice began to take shape. The only way to find your voice is to practice, practice and practice until you give birth to it.

Tip # 5. Try to Practice Virtually. Don’t you feel sometimes that if you could only go back and give that speech again, you would do a much, much better job? Yes. Me too. Now you can take advantage of technology to practice. Use Google hangouts, Skype, or any other application that can get you to speak to someone live, and ask them to evaluate you. Recent research shows that practicing with a virtual audience was effective in reducing public speaking anxiety. Another study corroborated these findings and showed decreases on all self-report measures of public-speaking anxiety. Give it a try.

I hope these techniques will help you overcome your fear of public speaking. Please remember that becoming a good speaker is not hard even if you suffer from debilitating anxiety. There’s a way out. Focus on the message you want to give and have some fun. For more coaching tips, please contact me.