By Rich Strack

You are standing in front of 100 people in the school’s auditorium. You’ve just been presented the school’s Volunteer Parent of the Year Award. Taken by surprise, you have no notes prepared for an acceptance speech. You feel the sweat on the palms of you hands. You reach down and rub them against your pants. You look out at the crowd who stares back, waiting patiently for you to speak.

You tap your finger on the microphone and it makes that shrieking noise. Everyone grabs their ears for a second and then returns weak smiles to your gaze.

With a dry mouth, you take a deep swallow and say, “I am so humiliated by receiving this award.”

A collective gasp comes from the audience.

You freeze with fright. That’s right, you said, “humiliated” when you meant to say “humbled.” All you can do now is smile and correct yourself. You do. Everyone laughs. They laugh again, louder this time. You laugh uncomfortably with them. You just made a public fool of yourself with one wrong word, and your mistake will be told in stories for a long time to come by everyone who is there.

I witnessed the above event many years ago as a member of that audience and I just told you the story. I didn’t laugh with the crowd. I felt so bad for the man standing behind the microphone you would have thought that I had made the mistake.

Twenty-seven million Americans have a terrible fear of public speaking. Studies prove that speaking effectively before a small group or a large audience not only improves self-esteem, standing in the spotlight increases chances for new job opportunities and promotions. An effective public speaker sells himself or herself, too.

But how do you get past the anxiety and nervousness to make a good speech? Even though I spoke publicly in front of high school classes for many years, I still felt those stomach butterflies each time I stood in front of them. I’ve spoken at awards ceremonies, parent workshops, weddings and I’ve done too many eulogies. I’m not good at speaking off the top of my head, so I always have prepared written notes and I have tried not looking down so much because an important part of public speaking is maintaining eye contact with the audience.

I was once told that to chase away any pre-speech anxiety, you should imagine that everyone in the audience is naked. Immediately, I thought I’m never doing that. I’d never stop laughing or staring and be able to focus on my speech.

The best advice given to me was to make eye contact with a person on the left, in the middle and on the right. Then reverse eye contact to different individuals. When you look directly at one person at a time, you feel like you are talking to just him or to just her. If you concentrate on looking at individuals, you won’t be overwhelmed that you’re speaking to a sizable crowd.

What do you do with your hands? Make gestures when you are emphasizing a specific point, but don’t rock the boat. Stand firm, but look comfortable even if you don’t feel at ease.

Comedian George Jessel said, “The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public.”

My favorite writer, Mark Twain wrote, “There are two types of speakers: Those who get nervous and those who are liars.”

Many artists and writers have difficulty speaking in front of audiences because they live in private fantasy worlds.

We think that entertainers and singers have no problems performing in front of crowds, but that’s not the case with Barbra Streisand. During a concert in 1967, she forgot the lyrics to one of her songs and walked off the stage. She stayed away from live performances for three years, and even today she relies on teleprompters to show her the words to her songs because she still has terrible stage fright.

When told that according to research, many people are more afraid of public speaking than they are of death, comedian Jerry Seinfeld said, “That means if you go to a funeral, you’d rather be the one in the casket than the one doing the eulogy.”

My three favorite speeches of all time are Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream,” and Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount.

God only knows if his son was nervous and filled with anxiety before he spoke on the mountain that day.

Rich Strack can be reached at katehep11@gmail.com.