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Confessions of a Public Speaker Demystifies Your Fear of Public Speaking

Getting up on stage, taking a microphone, and facing an expectant audience scares the crap out of most mere mortals. But rock star public speakers from Al Gore to Tony Robbins inspire and inform thousands of people with their talks--and charge $30,000 an hour to do so. Scott Berkun's new book, Confessions of a Public Speaker, explains why, how, and what goes on before and after a great speech.

"Good public speaking is based on good private thinking," Berkun writes in Confessions, where he recalls years of his own successes and failures traveling the country giving presentations. Preparation is the key to reducing your anxiety about public speaking, Berkun says, as is the awareness that humans are literally wired to fear the situation.

Our brains, for all their wonders, identify the following four things as being very bad for survival:

• Standing alone
• In open territory with no place to hide
• Without a weapon
• In front of a large crowd of creatures staring at you

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