Forge Guide to Public Speaking
It’s Okay to Suck at Public Speaking
It’s the waterskiing of human speech
This story is part of How to Get Better at Public Speaking, the Forge guide to talking in front of a crowd.
I’ve made a career of helping people overcome anxieties related to human communication, especially at work. In the pages of Esquire, GQ, Men’s Health, Entrepreneur, and a book (and now, here at Forge, where I’m executive editor), I’ve offered guidance on job interviews, keeping your cool, and engaging in small talk at a networking event. But nothing I’ve written has resonated more than advice about delivering the most nerve-rattling form of human communication of all: a speech.
Whether it’s a presentation, a talk, or a wedding toast, stringing together words in front of a sea of faces is terrifying for a lot of people. Millions of people. Probably even you. And me. Definitely me. I hate public speaking.
It’s scary because you might screw it up and be humiliated in front of your audience, whether that’s 10 people or 10,000. It’s scary because, let’s face it, it’s contrived, artificial, and weird. And the big reason: It’s scary because most of us don’t do it enough to get comfortable with it. Practice makes a huge difference.
