The Participation Blog

Glossophobia is Not the Fear of Lip Gloss

Public speaking (glossophobia) is a source of high anxiety for most people – it’s our biggest social fear. So, when people are thrown into scary situations, they’ll typically hide in their more comfortable ‘expert’ zone and end up sounding like a robot reciting technical data. That, of course, sounds incomprehensible or condescending to the audience and everybody goes away unhappier than when they arrived. Let’s see if this helps.

As you become less terrified, here are some thoughts that you can add to your repertoire.

Sometimes, if you’re delivering the same basic message to various audiences over and over again, it can feel like it’s getting stale or you’re falling into a rut. Remember that in spite of you having said it a dozen or more times, your audience is probably hearing it for the first time. I like these tips.

Here are a few more ideas based on research.