Writing blogs and articles and books makes me happy. I don't spend as much time as I'd like doing it, but the thoughts and words are constantly swirling about in my brain. Sometimes I do stop everything and just write. Especially in the early morning hours when anything seems possible.

I have always wanted to be called a writer, yet this is not my profession. I own a training company and I do write manuals and the like for our courses. But I thought when I was very young that I would be known as a writer. Didn't happen except for two business books about public speaking and a few ghost writing assignments.

I've been thinking about why people really hate public speaking.  I have spent an entire career helping business people overcome this fear  through my company, Confidence Builders.

 Basically, there is one question that comes out every time we do speaker training. Here it is: "What if they ask me a question and I can't answer it?"  Looking stupid is what makes people the most afraid. Of course, no one wants to feel humiliated in front of an audience, but not knowing the answer to a question would not paralyze a speaker if he or she did one thing and only one thng: PREPARE!

It's amazing to me that participants in our seminars admit that they do not spend much time in preparation for a presentation doing such simple things as rehearsing and timing the speech.. No wonder they feel afraid. . Having just an overall idea of what you want to speak about and relying on your work experience alone is a recipe for disaster. So, the reason I think  people hate public speaking is that they've never experienced the joy to be found in giving a great speech. That will never happen without a mountain of preparation!

This is the kind of thing I love to think about and write about. My passionate goal in life is to help as many people as I can to learn how to overcome the fear of public speakikng. I consider that my true calling.