{"id":1407,"date":"2019-07-02T13:28:41","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T11:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spectacularspeaking.com\/?p=1407"},"modified":"2019-07-06T17:34:08","modified_gmt":"2019-07-06T15:34:08","slug":"the-public-speaking-fear-grid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spectacularspeaking.com\/2019\/07\/02\/the-public-speaking-fear-grid\/","title":{"rendered":"The Public Speaking Fear Grid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s no secret that many people are afraid of public speaking. As Jerry Seinfeld<\/a> has said, \u201cAccording to most studies, people\u2019s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two! This means, to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you\u2019re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even those who are not afraid of public speaking get nervous from time to time. Just remember the words of Mark Twain<\/a>: \u201cThere are two types of speakers: those that are nervous and those that are liars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being nervous is completely natural. I am always a bit nervous whenever I have to speak in public. The adrenalin is flowing and I want to do a good job. But after years of practice, I am able to channel that nervous energy in a constructive way and the audience doesn\u2019t see the nervousness. I relish the opportunity to speak at every occasion because it is another chance to pass a message to people and it is another chance for me to improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public speaking fear is personal<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Having worked with thousands of people over the years, I have noticed an interesting phenomenon. While there are those who are extremely nervous in any speaking situation, more often than not, people tell me that they are only really nervous in certain specific situations. And those situations are usually based on two criteria: the number of people in the audience and how well the speaker knows those people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have set out different possibilities in the grid below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"2<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The vertical axis on the left measures the number of people in the audience. It starts with one person\u2014because it\u2019s not public speaking if there is nobody in the audience\u2014and goes to 1,000. The number 1,000 is purely arbitrary; it could have been 5,000. I just wanted a number that indisputably represents a large audience. The more important factor is orange line \u201ca\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Orange line \u201ca\u201d represents the number beyond which a \u201csmall\u201d audience become a \u201clarge\u201d audience for a speaker. It is entirely subjective. For some, an audience of 25 is a large audience; for others, an audience is not large unless there are at least 75 people. There is no single number and there is no wrong number; it depends on the speaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The horizontal axis represents how well the speaker knows the audience. At the extreme left, are people we know the best: family; friends; colleagues. At the extreme right are complete strangers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blue line \u201cb\u201d represents the dividing point between an audience that the speaker knows and an audience that the speaker doesn\u2019t know. It cannot be pinpointed like orange line \u201ca\u201d because it is not easily quantified. A speaker might know the audience a little, but not well. He might know some of the people, but not all of them. Again, it is entirely subjective. In general, I think of blue line \u201cb\u201d as the dividing point between an audience where I know the majority of the people and an audience where the majority of people are strangers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, we have the following \u201cspeaking quadrants\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n