Lee Glickstein - Be Heard Now!: End Your Fear of Public Speaking Forever

A hardcover edition of this book was published in 1998 by Broadway Books.

BE HEARD NOW ! Copyright 1998 by Lee Glickstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information, address Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc., 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036. Broadway Books titles may be purchased for business or promotional use or for special sales. For information, please write to: Special Markets Department, Random House, Inc., 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036.

BROADWAY BOOKS and its logo, a letter B bisected on the diagonal, are trademarks of Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

Speaking Circles and its logo is a registered trademark of Lee Glickstein and may not be used without his express written permission.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as:

Glickstein, Lee.

Be heard now!: tap into your inner speaker and communicate with ease / by Lee Glickstein

p. cm.

eISBN: 978-0-7679-9900-7

1. Public speaking. I. Title.

PN4121.G56 1998

808.51dc21

98-24252

v3.1_r1

For Morris Glickstein,
Grandfather of Speaking Circles,
and the man who made this work
both necessary and possible.

Heartfelt thanks to Carol Costello and Grant Flint for their vital help in preparing the manuscript.

Appendices

One day I found the magic key. After suffering from a terrible fear of public speaking for forty-eight years, I reversed it in myselftransformed the energy of fear into magnetism.

And I found a way to coach others to dramatically turn their fear of public speaking aroundto instantly convert a history of stage fright into a natural sense of stage right.

At the heart of such fears is a performance-oriented approach to speaking to groups. We feel we must perform. Not be ourselves. We must put on an act, an exhibition, something for the stage.

When we shift from performance to relationship-oriented speaking, relating one-to-one, friendly, personal, real, speaking conversationally to each one in the audience, a miracle happensthe fear is gone! We never again have to be afraid in front of groups.

Whatever your level of education, speaking experience, or lack of it, when you move fully into relationship-orientation with your audiencespeaking to them personally, one by oneyou become a born-again speaker with infinite resources.

Whether you are a professional speaker dedicated to realizing your highest potential, an occasional speaker, or a non-speaker with debilitating stage fright, this book will show you easily how to drop false stage techniques, worries, and unnatural obstacles. It will instead put you in touch with your infinitely creative source, your Inner Speaker, the real you, the warm, human, natural you, the one who has waited so long to speak.

Even if you dont plan to speak in public, but suffer a debilitating shyness in groups or with individuals, this book addresses the core of your dilemma, and the ideas here apply to you.

Be Heard Now! puts to rest the conventional wisdom that only those born with a silver tongueor nerves of steelcan speak with golden results. For beginner and experienced speaker alike, it will help you access your deepest creativity and find a new sense of purpose in the worldyour Inner Speaker knows the higher calling of your heart and soul.

Here you will learn things that no traditional speaking class tries to teach. Relationship-orientation to groups cannot be taught by technique, but it can be caught by a deep awareness of the realities presented.

You will soon understand exactly why speaking out is a problem for most people. And you will see your way clear to tapping into your Inner Speakerwhich has remained as fresh and fertile as the day you locked it away.

The reality is that you were a born speaker. You goo-gooed and gah-gahed with the best of them. You expressed yourself effortlessly and creatively in play and painuntil you were told by people you trusted that you didnt know how to speak.

This book will help you discover your authentic truth. Believe it or not, this truth, simply expressed to a group, results in uniquely eloquent style, just-right content, and poignant, humorous storytelling. Even your deepest and most valid fears cannot stop this wonderful process from happening if you apply the ideas and guidelines that follow.

If you are weary of thinking big and feeling small, if you agree with writer and speaker Marianne Williamson that Theres nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people wont feel insecure around you, come join me in the great adventure of speaking with ease.