Build Self Esteem Tips

Everyone hears about being nervous when speaking, and when you overcome it, you become confident and very successful. What you don’t hear from successful speakers is about the journey itself. For example, when I started in the field of speaking, I was a corporate employee. As a project engineer, I had to develop concepts and designs to solve problems within the plant. I was good at this and yet my career progress was slow because I simply couldn’t speak well, and I needed to present my proposals to obtain funding. I would become nervous, tongue tied and confused.

Well I studied, practised and used everything that I write about in my book and then some 12 months later, I had to give a speech on behalf of my company. Now this was a seriously major important speech for the company and me. If I didn’t do a brilliant job, my career would finish, the company would suffer and I reckon I would have been out of a job. That would mean, a massive change in lifestyle for my family, changing schools, changing houses and even putting my food supply at risk. So as I walked to the Podium this time I could feel this huge pressure bearing down on me. And do you know? I was confident, created humour and had them laughing, created pathos so they could feel sad, lifted them with excitement, spoke a very clear message, had them in the palm of my hand and when I finished ,they stood up to applaud. Pretty good eh? Oh yes, I got promoted and realised that day, that being a great public speaker helps you make more money, no matter what your job is.

So what made the difference?

What transformed me from bumbling idiot to charismatic speaker? And could anybody do the same? Clearly, the answer is yes, if they went through all the stuff they I had. Why am I qualified to say this? Because it is based upon my learnings, my studies, my experiments, good and bad, and most importantly, on my real life, in the fire, under the hammer, experience. And then I even wrote my own book on how to overcome the Fear of Public Speaking!