When I'm conducting a presentation skills workshop, I typically start off the same way I go around the room, whether it's one on one or group of people. And I just ask people, where are you comfortable speaking? Where are you uncomfortable? But one day I was in Delhi, India conducting a training with a Member of Parliament. So I said, MP, where are you comfortable? Where are you uncomfortable?
To teach a. I'm very comfortable speaking upon small crowds. I get really nervous and uncomfortable speaking to large crowds. And I said, MP, everyone says that that just means you're completely normal. All of my clients with a few exceptions, say that they're uncomfortable speaking to large crowds. He said yes to you. I'm very comfortable speaking to small crowds of 2000 people but I get nervous when I'm speaking to large crowds of say, 100,000 people.
I say Well, Mr. Gandhi That part is not completely normal. But the basic principles are the same. If you can speak to 2000 people comfortably, I can teach you how to speak to 100,000. So, the point is all of this is relative. Why do I tell this story? It's because I find everyone in the world has some threshold where they're comfortable speaking, and then they're uncomfortable.
For some people, if you're talking to one friend sitting down, you're comfortable. If you have to stand up in front of two people, you're uncomfortable. Some people are comfortable sitting in a conference room talking to 10 colleagues, but they have to stand and there's 20. Now they're uncomfortable. Now, in this particular case, this gentleman is used to speak from a very famous family and attracted huge, huge, huge crowds. anytime he showed up in the community, so there could literally be 100,000 people in a field waiting to hear him speak well, it's only natural to be nervous about Not that.
But how you prepare is exactly the same as how you prepare for speaking to 20 people, or even two people. So why do I tell that story? I do it because I want people to realize they're like anybody else. They're like famous people, successful people. Everyone is nervous about speaking to large crowds. It's just a matter of perspective, the idea that someone would think speaking to 2000 people is a small crowd is kind of an eye opener to some people.
And I just want people to realize that we're all in this together. Everyone's nervous about something. And it's just about perspective. If you change your perspective, if you tell yourself 200 people's a large audience or a small audience that will kind of become that for you. And the key is, learn basic principles, practice. Know how to come across your best Regardless of how big the audience is, and then it really won't matter.