As a person who stutters, I really enjoyed the movie “The Kings Speech” It captures beautifully the emotions, the struggles and the embarrassment that a person who stutters goes through when they try and speak. The movie was very close to home for me and at the age of 8 a drama and elocution teacher did put marbles in my mouth and did give me many rhymes which I had to learn and practice over and over again, every day. None of these tricks worked and I continued to stutter right into my adulthood, and even today, although I do public speaking for a living, I still stutter.
One of the big lessons for me in the movie was right at the end in the new Kings first speech to the nation. The King was getting ready to speak into the radio microphone to millions of people in the UK and around the world to other Nations in the Empire. The speech pathologist, played by Geoffrey Rush, said to the King “Just speak to me and speak to me as a friend”.
This advice is very valuable and anyone who is nervous about speaking, has anxiety or fear and finds themselves in front of the biggest crowd in their lives should adopt it. Yes it may be the biggest crowd you have ever spoken in front of, but just speak to one person at a time and think of them all as friends. As you move your eye contact around the room just have a chat with that one person for a moment, and then another person, and then another so you entire speech is simply having a chat with friends, one person at a time.
If you can adopt this attitude and this framework, it will be easier to relax and be more confident as you speak; after all it is just a one on one conversation with a friend, even though there are 100 people in the room who you don’t know.
Next time you have to speak, just imagine that you are speaking to one person, having a casual and honest chat, and that person is a friend.