Business Fit Magazine March 2019 Issue 1 | Page 16

Business
Conquer the Public Speaking Fear
#1: Being Judged
(or The Ridiculous Fear of Being Judged)
Minue Yoshida
I’ve been a Public Speaker for many years now,
when I have a microphone in my hand and
hundreds of people in the audience, is when I feel I
am at my best. I really like the stress that inundates
our bodies when we have to get on stage, the
butterflies in the stomach when we have the
spotlight, the pounding of our chest with our hearts
ready to leave our bodies the seconds before we
have to speak, when everyone is silent…just waiting
for us to start.
Would you believe it if I told you that I am
naturally shy and that if you run a battery of
psychological tests, I will end up being “an
introvert”?
You better believe it! It’s all true.
And I want on record the fact that I am
not pretending anything when I am on the
platform. I am NOT being someone else, I do
not have “the impostor syndrome”. Oh, and
that saying I’ve heard so many times “fake it
till you make it” is something I strongly advice
my clients NEVER to do. I exchange it for “keep
working on it, until you make it”, because then
it’s real.
I am a Public Speaking Coach. I became one
because my friends saw the change in me and
gave me the idea that I could teach others
how I made it. The people around me saw my
transformation, when it wasn’t clear to me. And
I decided to share with the world everything
I’ve learned, to become a confident public
speaker, because I am completely convinced
that everyone can do it. Nobody is born with
“greatness in public speaking” in their genes!
It’s all about a set of skills that you learn,
practice, master and then enjoy.
Yes, it seems easy, but it is not. Do you know
that people have mentioned before that they’d
rather have root canal than to speak in public?
Oh wait, I have another one! There are polls
that indicate that people would rather die
than speak in public (source: psychologytoday.
com). Also, in a study conducted in the
USA in 2014, Public Speaking occupied the
number one fear among Americans. (source:
TheWashingtonPost.com).
When I ask people in my workshops “why are
you afraid?” and we dig deep into it, there is
always something they share: the fear of being
judged.
However, being judged itself has no meaning
or connotation. We all judge, all the time! We
do that as humans. Our parents judge us when
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we were growing up, our partners are judging
us all the time, I am judging the driver behind
me, and I bet you are judging me now.
Judging itself is something we do as humans,
because we can only perceive the world
through our lenses and filters. We can only
give meaning through our perception and
the interpretation we allocate to words,
actions, and experiences. So, if we are afraid
of something that we are doing anyway, and
It’s all about a set
of skills that you
learn, practice,
master and then
enjoy.
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