The following is an excerpt from Chapter
One of the book Fearless Presentations published by The Leader's Institute. You
can purchase the entire book
from our website
by clicking here.
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| Public Speaking Fear & Anxiety |
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When I was in college, I had an internship
with a large oil and gas company. While I
was working there, I felt like I really impressed
the people around me with my work ethic,
determination, resourcefulness, and productivity.
Many of the projects that I worked on were
finished weeks and even months ahead of schedule
to everyone's surprise.
But at the end of the internship,
I, along
with a half-dozen other interns,
was asked
to give a presentation to the
executive committee
who created the intern program.
In this meeting
were not only my boss, but my
boss’s boss,
three vice-presidents, all of
my intern peers,
and various observers.
In the beginning, I didn’t think
much of
this presentation, but as the
day moved closer
and closer, I began to get more
and more
nervous. I was the youngest person
ever to
be accepted to this program—just
19 years-old.
The next youngest intern was
23 and was in
her second year of law school.
So, I felt
a little out-classed to say the
least.
My boss told me that this would
be a great
opportunity to shine. He said
that if I could
just get across to this group
how productive
I had been to the company, then
I would have
no problem getting a generous
permanent offer
from the company upon graduation.
That just
made me even more nervous.
I wrote, memorized, and practiced
my speech
over and over. I had a flawless
delivery.
I realized that I needed a few
visuals, so
I created a couple of black and
white cut-outs
of topics I’d be covering.
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