Many people fear public speaking. But in many cases, the fear is not actually about speaking. It is about judgment.

People imagine forgetting what to say, looking awkward, sounding foolish, or failing in public. At the center of much speaking fear is the habit of looking inward too much.

A useful shift happens when the speaker stops centering themselves and starts centering the people they are speaking to.

If you can see that it is not really about you, and instead focus on the people your message can help, the fear begins to weaken. In that moment, you stop seeing yourself as the event and begin seeing yourself as a vessel carrying value.

The speaker becomes like a sound system. People do not praise the speaker simply because sound came out. What they value is the message that came through.

Fear becomes smaller when service becomes bigger.