Fear of speaking in front of an audience? Have fun reading this!

Well, we all know that speaking in front of an audience made of people you've never met before, and who are also going to be your potential followers is something scaring. We have been taking the speech at the dinner table during the parties, we have been through job interviews, but what when you have a hundred people listening to you?

This is what happened to me when I had to present my book at the Author Academy awards in October. From Finland, I had to take the flight to reach Columbus, via Chicago, and this for the Wandering Writer is almost the story of my life, so nothing to see here.

The fear was that I was supposed, as one of the 10 finalists in my genre to talk about my book in.
Another reason to be nervous was that on that occasion nobody could come with me to support me emotionally, so I had to look at the mirror:
"There is no other option, so you do this right, or you do this right!" I said to myself, and it was true, I couldn't come back when I reached that far.
My husband who helped me to prepare my 90 seconds (!) of speech told me something that actually worked. Besides the old trick to imagine the audience and the judges naked, he said that when you are talking in front of five, ten people, the attention is definitely conveyed at you, because the group is so small that you will definitely be the only voice. When the number of the audience increases, then it starts to become just a human mass. Some might listen to you, others will browse on their phone, others will wonder whether it would have been better staying at the bar. But you will not be able to understand who is really listening to you so treat the big audience like a mass.
Well, that is easy to say, but not to do, mainly when "the mass" is anyway looking at me.
I had to go with the flow. I knew I learned my speech, I was confident of my book, a friend of mine borrowed me a great dress, and there was that awesome book of mine. It had to work, and if it didn't, no problem at all, it will be what it has to be.
 I guess that sometimes we just need to forget about performance and think about just enjoying ourselves.
Talking to an audience can be fun if you take it with the right attitude, and that is that there isn't any right or wrong way to say what you have in mind. It is just you taking time to have fun in a way different than your usual ways.
Now, if you think you are going to have fun, it shouldn't be that scary anymore.
Of course, the butterflies will be shaking their wings in the stomach anyway, and the voice might be shaky in the beginning.
But you know what happened after the first sentence?
I looked at the people listening to me, and then I realized that they were all like me, people without any perfection, who were not there to judge but to hear what I had to say.
At that moment I started to feel better, and I really enjoyed.
Of course having 90 seconds to tell about your book, might be challenging, but in the end, who knows your book better than you?
So here I was talking about my ghosts

The speech went great, I had a lot of fun and enjoyed every second. People came to congratulate me, and I also sold a book.
Most important of all I met a lot of new friends, amazing writers and people, which I would have never met had I decided to stay comfortably at home for fear of failing.
I wasn't the winner of the evening, but once again I felt like I won because I gained more confidence in what I do and in the person I am, I will for sure participate to other events, whenever the possibility arises.

So fear of speaking in public? There is only one cure, get out and talk to the audience, but most of all, enjoy every moment.