If you want to build your personal brand business, at some point, you are going to need to tackle public speaking. If you ask people what they are afraid of around 75% will list public speaking! Public speaking is something we’ve been taught is scary, overwhelming and dangerous. We are not taught public speaking confidence.
Public speaking is essential to building a personal business brand. Whether that is through a video-first marketing strategy with live streaming, stories and reels, webinars, speaking on stages, podcast interviews or creating video courses. Even holding group sessions with clients is a form of public speaking.
The good news is public speaking confidence is created, you aren’t born a confident public speaker, you build the belief that you can survive and flourish through delivering one ‘speech’ at a time.
All Nerves
I vividly remember my first ever Facebook Live, and the nerves that gripped me were like being invited onto a stage unprepared and underdressed. Here’s the thing, the anxiety was valid—I had never done a Facebook Live before. I hadn’t survived one. It was exploring new and unknown territory. I had zero confidence because I hadn’t done it before. I sat in my living room, sweating and trying to find the perfect angle with the best light, psyching myself up to hit the “Go Live” button, which probably took around an hour for a live stream that lasted about two minutes!
But here’s the thing—I survived! I gained the tiniest piece of confidence that I could be okay. That a Facebook Live wouldn’t be the end of me. Each live stream became another tiny piece of confidence. Through practice and repetition, the time and effort required to go live lessened. It also prepared me for webinars. Knowing I could talk on live video, knowing I could handle technical glitches, and knowing I wouldn’t be permanently scarred in the process gave me the confidence to step onto the webinar stage.
Public Speaking Challenges 
The problem is when we don’t step through the fear, we don’t face it enough to start building that little reservoir of confidence that it will be okay. And that actually this can be a great way of expressing your ideas and connecting with your audience.
When we don’t face the fear, with love and compassion, we really do miss opportunities and potential clients, people don’t get to hear your message because you say no to podcast interview requests. You don’t fully showcase your expertise because you can’t bring yourself to record a video course. You think you’ll never be able leverage your business form time intensive one-to-one sessions because you couldn’t handle a group call.
So what can help to start building that public speaking confidence reservoir?
Expertise 
Remember that you are AN expert. You know your topic INCREDIBLY well. It’s your speciality subject. Yes there may be other more expert experts out there, but the world has room for more than a single expert. But your ideal people and most of the people in your audience do NOT know as much as you do. In fact, I’d go as far as saying the more experts we have the greater the human race’s understanding of the topic. The more we can develop our understanding. One expert, or even a handful of experts cannot cover an entire topic, every perspective, angle and lived experience. You CAN contribute to that conversation without needing to be in charge, in fact you don’t have to be a full blown leader of a movement, leading 10 people is as important as leading millions. It is all evolution and growth
Interest
If people are listening they are interested. This is particularly true for webinar, if they have given you their email address they think there is something worthy of sharing the space in the inbox and their mental load with you for what you have to say. There is a whole world of distraction out there, so if someone clicks play on your video or signs up to your webinar they ARE interested in what you have to say. They have opted in, leaned in, engaged already. If they aren’t interested there are millions of other podcasts to listen to, social media posts to scroll. This is encouragement to stop doubting, especially when people have moved towards you, when they have taken an action, it’s a vote that they hold what you have to say with a level of importance and interest.
One-of-a-Kind 
I just want to remind you that there is NOTHING like your story. If you believe in your life or soul’s purpose/mission/work then you have been living that purpose since you were born. You have been gathering experiences and stories that have led to where you are now, who you are now, what you believe now, how you help people, the ways you can connected with people. How your purpose is expressed may change over time. But every experience has contributed to your unique view of the world. And your understanding of yourself, others and the world through have all developed through this unique lens.
Not every single story from your life is unique. I’m sure 75% of people who have gone live on facebook were anxious nervous and probably sweaty the first time. But did they all keep going? Did they all graduate to webinars? Did they refuse to do a recorded video when they were 18? And then it turns out they love training and are unflappable on camera? Probably not. It’s not one experience that makes us unique, but the combination and culmination of life. Nobody can express a concept like you can with your experience.
Conclusion 
There’s no escaping the reality that business growth needs leads to make sales and earn income. However, if you lack the confidence to speak publicly about your specialist topic it can feel like a distant dream. One of the tools that could create growth—webinars—remains untouched due to a fear of public speaking.
Your journey doesn’t end at the first webinar. Excitingly it’s just the beginning. With each webinar you host and every presentation you deliver, your confidence will continue to grow. The public speaking confidence you’ve built will serve as the foundation for your ongoing success.
In conclusion, the fear of public speaking need not hold you back, you can unlock your version of a confident and impactful public speaker. If you need a helping hand to achieve that then reach out for a free webinar strategy session where we create a roadmap to your webinar success.