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Re: Public Speaking
when I was in the Coast Guard (back in the last millenia) we had to stand 4 hour radio watches, handling distress calls on the marine radio and making regular mariner notice broadcasts.
Some of the guys were very self-conscious and got easily flustered and tongue tied. An older radioman told me a little trick.
The reason you get self conscious is: when you are speaking you are representing yourself. Who's voice is that? Yours! Who looks like a fool if you screw up? You do!
the trick is: pretend you are someone else. Don't be you, pretend you are an actor doing a character - pretend you are Batman, or Gilligan, or Andy Taylor, or any other TV or movie character, who just happens to be reading the weather report on the radio to thousands of people, or talking to a room full of people about robotics, or whatever it is you are talking about.
by doing this, it removes your ego one step from whats going on. If you screw up, its not you that goofed, it was the character
it also throws an element of fun into what you are doing - no one else knows that in your mind you 'are batman' - so it takes the pressure off, and you enjoy yourself - its like your playing a game or a joke on the audience, and they don't know it.
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