Have you ever spoken in front of a large group.

Oh yes. I remember in high school having to make oral reports. I actually failed a class because I wouldn't get up and give the report. Unfortunately it counted for quite a bit of the grade and I failed. In later years I was a Cub Scout leader. What they didn't tell me when I signed up was that I had to take my turn leading all the dens and their parents in a meeting. I was so shook up I forgot the words to the Cub Scout pledge. I was so embarrassed.
 
Routinely. I taught high school, and my variety band performed in front of crowds of thousands of people. No problem. I also addressed the Texas House subcommittees as I pushed tattoo and body piercing legislation through, that I wrote up. As an ordained minister, I've done scores of weddings, complete with sermons. No biggie.
 
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I never had a problem speaking as part of a large group if we were all seated and I believed in what I was speaking about, knew my material cold, etc...

I have serious problems speaking in front of a group when I'm standing on stage at a podium with all eyes on me.

Thankfully since I've retired nobody cares what I think or has any interest in what I have to say.
 
Never had a real problem with it, as long as I felt secure in the subject matter. Once, after the sudden death of a dear friend and colleague, his family asked me to speak at his funeral. That was very hard, not because of the crowd, but because I was so terribly sad about his death and I was afraid I would break down and blubber.
 
Yeah, comes easy…unfortunately

Seminars at various companies

I did my best to make whatever dry subject, like maintaining inventory in a JIT environment, into something humorous, but yet stay on point

Musta worked, I kept getting invited

My last gigs were funerals
Got asked to be a sorta guest speaker, after the first one I did turned into a laugh track
Turns out, sad folks are an easy crowd
I felt sorta bad after that first one, it bein’ my sister’s funeral and all,
but afterward folks came to me and expressed how much they enjoyed the merriment after trying to withstand all the sorrow

And impromptu stuff….like fancy get-togethers

Guess folks like to laugh in any scenario

back in the 265 lb days;
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In my senior yr in high school,took a public speaking course which was required.
I was a shy person back then,the course did help me,I felt more comfortable talking in front of people
The only time I had to speak in front of a group was at my church daycare facility where I was receiving an award
It helped that I knew most of the people in the room,my hand was shaking but got through it
 
Like Butterfly, I'm comfortable as long as I know my subject matter and am prepared. The WORST is having to teach a class or make a presentation while not feeling well. That requires a lot of self control.

:awman:
 
Public speaking doesn't faze me.

I am sometimes chosen as a Speaker in one of the 12 step groups in Nashville. (one of my sons is an addict, 4+ years sober just for today after 15+ years in active addiction) I also speak routinely at my own Naranon group which I attend weekly. Not as big a crowd (30 and upwards) but there are many people there who simply won't talk in front of the group which is why we have a gathering afterwards for some one-on-one sharing.

I homeschooled my kids, and created my own home schooling co-op because there was none in my area at that times. It evolved into hundreds of folks, and we'd have twice yearly "conventions" and I always spoke at these, as I was the founder.
 
C'est Moi said:
Yes, with some frequency when I was working. Corporations are big on "presentations". :rolleyes: I always dreaded/hated it, though.
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Oh yeah. I remember those. When I worked for the Florida DOT I was on the other side of many of them. We had a process for awarding contracts to consultants. First we would advertise the contract and interested firms would submit letters of interest. From those we would develop what was called a long list. And then these firms would submit written proposals. We'd take those and winnow it down to a short list and then these remaining firms would put on presentations which we referred to as "Dog and Pony Shows". We really loved those. It was like " Oh crap, I have to watch Dog and Pony Shows all afternoon". The sad part about it was in most cases the word had already come down to us schmucks from on high well as to which firm was going to get the contract. This whole process was just there to create the illusion that these contracts were being awarded by a fair and unbiased competitive process instead of to the firms with the best political connections. Once in a while we were told to throw a bone to one of the outsiders to make it look good.

 
I regularly do business presentations to fairly
large groups of people.

I also address Patient groups at a hospital,
plus the occasional address to young student
Doctors.

Speaking is not so bad, after the first one,
the people listening are more nervous than
I am especially at the patients groups.

Mike.
 
Oddly enough I do well public speaking, singing or playing in front of an audience as long as it predetermined. If I know what I’m going to say or sing then I practice until I’m super comfortable then I give it all I have.
Whats very unusually about this is that I have social phobia and truly dislike being around crowds so it doesn’t actually make sense.

Its been stated that some people would rather die than public speak and I find that so comforting. ( not in a sadistic way ) It empowers me. I think about all the outrageously crazy things I’ve experienced and it puts it all into perspective as being “ no biggie.”
 
I never troubled me - school plays, presentations at work, playing bass in an R&B band etc.. Guess I'm a bit of an extrovert. My elder daughter is a senior university lecturer and speaks at international conferences. She apparently is very good at 'off the cuff' presentations.
 

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