More people are afraid of public speaking than they are of death.

There is something about getting up in front of a group of people that cripples, freezes and terrifies even the most confident and educated.

Many are in fear of being scrutinized by their peers, their customers, or their co-workers. "What if I say the wrong thing? What if I forget to mention something important? What if someone asks a question that I can't answer?” There is only one elixir…Preparation.

Fear is a direct result of ill-preparedness so rehearse often and you'll do better than you imagine. If you are consumed with worry about how you'll probably forget your content, stumble through your thoughts, forget key points and stutter, you most certainly will…exactly as you rehearsed it in your mind over and over again because you worried so much about it. However, if you mentally envision how effectively you will capture and hold the attention of your audience leaving them begging for more, you certainly will. It's all in where you place your focus.

There is a famous saying that goes a little like this… If you want to be great, first you need to be good. If you want to be good, first you need to be bad and to be bad, first you need to try. Once you try, you're on your way!

HOW AND WHERE DO I TRY?

Great question! The first thing you need to do is to get yourself to www.toastmasters.org and join a local Toastmasters club in your area. The cost, ahem, I mean investment to join for one year is less than it costs to top off the tank in your SUV and the meetings last about as long as three episodes of Seinfeld. Every couple weeks or so you'll have an opportunity to present in front of a group of people just like you; people interested in becoming better presenters. At the end of your 5-7 minute speeches you'll receive encouraging compliments with a dose of constructive criticism to work on for your next speech. Ask someone to record you on camera and you'll be blown away by how much you improve after just a few speeches.

In fact, consider joining several clubs…the memberships are cheap and you'll get that much more floor time in front of different audiences.

Here's another great idea - Many cities have those bars/pubs that have open mike nights where you can get up in front of an audience of 3 to 50 or more and try stand-up comedy. Be not afraid - not too many people in these places can stand up and be funny at the same time so don't worry about being funny. I've learned that the funny comes naturally, when you least expect it. All it takes is for you to put 3 jokes together and turn it into a 6 minute story line. It's simple when you think about it, and the more you do it, the more you'll want to go back and do it again.

Now, if you wanna get nuts, let's get nuts…join an improv class at any improv theatre in your area. You may need to travel some distance (if you live in the middle of corn fields and general stores that sell feed, Old Spice cologne and farm-fresh-eggs under the same roof) but you'll have a blast and you'll learn a lot.

ROCK-STAR PRESENTATION SKILLS

So what makes a great speaker? Preparation, gestures, preparation, vocal variety, preparation, movement around the room, preparation (get the picture?), sincere eye contact, pregnant pauses between thoughts, interactivity, repeating key phrases to emphasize main points, asking for volunteers to help you make your point, dressing/presenting yourself appropriately for your audience, being mentally prepared for the unexpected and the most important of all, a sense of humor. If you can make 'em laugh, they're all yours. Oh, I almost forgot - preparation!

Don't be afraid to let your personality be on full display during your presentations. People can fall asleep with their eyes wide open when speakers are perfectly proper and poised in their gray suit and red tie with their wingtips nailed to the floor behind a podium. This may be a great stance for an oil painting but not for a speech!

Think of it this way - a good speaker motivates, inspires, educates and challenges their audience to take action. A great speaker also knows how to entertain.

POWER POINT = POWER NAP

If you can, stay away from power point at all costs unless you need to display photos or graphics to drive a point home. If you can, a better option would be to include those photos or graphics in your handouts for your audience to take with them when they leave. DON”T have dozens of pages with bullet points to help you through your speech unless you have a good supply of Ritalin with you to pass out. Props are good and so are large, blank flip-charts for you to jot key messages on. There's nothing that would turn my a face an authentic shade of fire-engine-red than to know my audience is watching me navigate through my Windows XP desktop trying to figure out how to get my power point to work while everyone is staring at my lame desktop image. People come to see and listen to you, not an enlarged image of a computer screen projected on a large slab of drywall.

Well, I hope this helps. Find yourself a Toastmasters club and best of luck to you!