- Leo Gura's Personal Experience with Public Speaking: Leo shares that he was initially nervous about speaking in public, specifically during his early days of shooting videos. However, with continued practice, he has managed to overcome his fears and now finds the experience enjoyable.
- Reason for Fear of Public Speaking: The fear is linked to the perceived threat of embarrassment, being judged, and rejected. This stems from the inherent societal pressure for maintaining one's social standing, which can be traced back to our ancestors living in tribal communities.
- Overcoming Fear through Practice: Leo emphasizes that the unease most people feel about public speaking arises from a lack of practice. He promotes facing the social pressures associated with public speaking and practicing often to mitigate the fear.
- Joining Toastmasters: He recommends joining Toastmasters, a worldwide nonprofit organization. In this organization, members meet weekly and deliver speeches of varying topics in a casual, friendly environment, which facilitates a non-threatening practice ground for honing public speaking skills.
- Advantages of Toastmasters: Toastmasters sessions not only help overcome the fear of public speaking but also groom individuals into natural-born leaders, fostering leadership and communication skills.
- Convenience of Toastmasters Locations: The organization has local clubs in cities globally, with multiple clubs in each city making it convenient for anyone interested to find a club that fits their schedule and location. Leo advises joining Toastmasters clubs for around six to twelve months to experience improvement in public speaking skills.
- Toastmasters is all about practice: Toastmasters offers a supportive environment for practicing public speaking. The learning process follows the same script and formula, thus ensuring consistency across different clubs. The aim is to gain regular experience in public speaking to overcome fear and anxiety.
- The fear of public speaking diminishes over time: Fear and anxiety associated with public speaking decrease significantly with experience. After about 10-20 speeches, the fear dissipates by around 95%. While there may still be some anxiety, especially when required to give a speech before a large audience, comfort is found in smaller groups.
- Fear turns into enjoyment: Once the fear dissipates, public speaking becomes considerably more enjoyable. You are able to articulate your thoughts clearly and impact your audience positively which is the ultimate goal of public speaking. You can influence others, share your expertise, inspire, educate, or entertain, among other things.
- Benefits of public speaking: Public speaking offers numerous benefits, including developing leadership and organizational skills, making friends, and enhancing self-confidence and security. It also helps to completely eliminate the fear of public speaking. Leo recommends joining a Toastmasters club for 6-12 months to fully experience these benefits.
- Not a sales pitch for Toastmasters: Even though Leo highly recommends Toastmasters for improving public speaking skills, he emphasizes that this is not a sales pitch. He does not have any affiliation with Toastmasters, apart from attending their meetings weekly to practice his speaking skills.
- Invitation to engage more with Actualized.org: Leo invites viewers to leave comments, share and like his video, and check out his website for more personal development videos. The website covers a range of topics, encouraging visitors to break out of their shell, overcome fears and anxieties, and live a fulfilled life.