Hundreds of people stare at you from the sea of angry red audience chairs … 

Your throat goes dry. 
Your voice shakes. 
Your back sweats. 
Your legs tremble. 
Your words fall on deaf ears. 

And then you wake up. 

Whew!

If that’s your public speaking nightmare, you are not alone. 

In fact, even Jerry Seinfeld could relate!

“According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number TWO. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.”
― Jerry Seinfeld

Because it’s people’s number one fear, most people avoid public speaking until they’re actually out on the stage. 

By then, it’s too late.

Even people who don’t think they’re avoiding it are often avoiding it. 

What do I mean?

They avoid it by procrastinating. 

They avoid it by spending hours on end shopping for the perfect outfit.

They avoid it by doing anything but practicing. 

You can’t learn to throw a football from reading a book and you can’t get ready to inspire a crowd by staring at your Powerpoint from the safety of your office chair.

(Sitting in that office chair staring at that Powerpoint doesn’t count as practicing.)

Practicing for live events like sports, theatre, and speaking means getting up on your feet and … doing … that … thing.

Actors in the theater rehearse standing up on their feet. 

They don’t sit down and look at a script and then just stand up on opening night and expect to be comfortable and creative and alive. 

If they did that, their bodies would betray them – just like it does a procrastinating speaker. 

Steph Curry doesn’t just watch videotape of the last game that he played before he goes into the next game. In between the two, he goes out and he practices up on his feet an infinite number of possible shots that he might have to take, which is why his body shows up for him in the game itself. 

The same is true for speakers. 

If you get up on your feet and practice as if you were already on that stage, your body will remember that experience, and it will show up for you in the live speech. 

Because of that embodied practice experience, you’re more likely to feel alive, creative, connected, and engaged when you give the talk itself.

In other words:

Practice. Makes. Powerful. 

(Not perfect.) 

Join me for the next Soulful Speaking Open Mic. You can practice in a safe, supportive space that’s held with care. 

I’d love to see you there!

With passion & love,
Lauri