Public Speaking IS Scary

A few years ago, in one of my Never Sound Unprepared Again, Speaking Impromptu workshops, one of the topics that was introduced to speak on was “childhood.” One of my attendees remembered her favorite childhood book and did her one-minute impromptu speech on it. It captured everyone’s attention and we, as a group, began to reminisce about the books that impacted us as children.

The book that most influenced me as a child was, Some Things are Scary, by Florence Parry Heide, Illustrations by Robert Osborn. What I remember most about the book is how the illustrations made me laugh and laugh. The laughing comforted me, because what the artist and author did so well was to clearly demonstrate the small, unknown situations that are scary when you are a kid.

Things that you didn’t even speak about but made you tremble with fear, like:

Those times when you read a sign that said, “Warning,” and that is the only part you understood.

Or playing hide and seek while waiting to jump out and say, “Boo!” to someone, that was scary.

My all-time favorite entry in the book is this one, “Having to talk to strange grown-ups…is scary.”

It was this illustration that I remembered most and then became obsessed with finding after that workshop session. My attendee, now friend, found the original publication and sent it to me as a gift about a year after the class. (Yes, I cried.)  I had bought the new and updated version (the link above) which is fantastic, but it didn’t have the same emotional kick that Robert Osborn’s did back when it was published in 1969.

Reading Some Things Are Scary made me feel normal and less afraid of those situations. Unconsciously, I suppose, because the book didn’t offer suggestions as to how to get over these scary situations. It just showed them in their full glory so we could identify with them. Get some perspective. Not feel so alone. I mean, if your secret fear is illustrated in a book, it must not be so scary?

All I know is that I absolutely have been preoccupied with what scares us since I was 5 and it is what compels me to help people face their biggest (or littlest) fears.

Laughing, in my opinion, may be the way to attack back.

In my attempt to produce an homage to my favorite childhood book, I created a series: Public Speaking is Scary, that I’ll be sharing via my newsletter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. I’d love to hear if there are particular scenarios that are scary for you.