Churchill and His Fear of Public Speaking

Everyone has suffered from the fear, the knots in the belly, the sweats and the shakes before standing up and speaking in public.

It has been estimated (somewhere, I’m sure!) that 75% of all people experience some degree of anxiety/nervousness when it comes to public speaking. (Maybe the other 25% should too – it could save us from so many dull speeches!)

This crippling fear of speaking in public has a fancy name. I just call it being normal!

According to Wikipedia, it’s called Glossophobia and is simply defined as:

“Glossophobia or speech anxiety is the fear of public speaking.”

University research from Tennessee Knoxville describes it as

“generally the feeling of nervousness, dread and concern along with a feeling of severe discomfort”.

Symptoms include: shaking, sweating, butterflies in the stomach, dry mouth, and rapid heartbeats.

No wonder so many of us have suffered from it? Public speaking is scary, the fear of being judged, of messing up, of looking stupid, of stagefright  – ‘what if I forget my words…’ etc. If it’s really important, when we have skin in the game… it just gets worse!

No matter how long someone’s been speaking in public, no matter how many speeches they’ve made or audiences addressed, even the best get nervous and suffer from public speaking fear. I had drinks with a famous comedian a few years back – he told me that he still throws up before each show! It’s nerves and it’s normal.

Even some of the most celebrated orators from history have suffered.

Winston Churchill Fluffed his First Speech

Winston Churchill, arguably Britain’s best public speaker, known for his rousing ‘fight them on the beaches’ speeches suffered in the beginning.

The story goes that, once – he stood up in the House of Commons as a newbie MP and froze solid for three whole minutes. All he could muster was a handful of stuttered words before he returned to his seat in despair and covered his head with his hands! No video or nasty social media then! Phew!

If Churchill suffered from speaking anxiety and ended up crashing and burning, you can bet your bottom dollar (£) that every speaker does from time to time.

After his humiliation, Churchill spent years practising his delivery.

Writing and re-writing his speeches. Obsessively picking on word choices, always on the hunt for shorter words which delivered more punch. Maybe his failure made him put in the work that turned into a legend.

Which meant that, by the time he became Prime Minister, he had public speaking as a skill nailed down.

Why? Because he refused to wing it. After his disaster in the House, he vowed never to let it happen again. His future success came from intense preparation.

He overcame his Glossophobia, his fear of public speaking – and if you suffer from it, you can too. (Let’s never hear this awful word again!) 

Beat Your Fear of Public Speaking

Would you like to find out how a speaker coach could help you nail down public speaking as a skill?

Whether you’ve got a speech or pitch lined up, or just want to get over your fear in general – speaker coaching may be able to help you.

I’ve coached hundreds of speakers, including those from the famous TED MED brand.

If you wanted to learn more about how speaker coaching could help you, head to my speaker coaching page.