7 Steps To Fearless Speaking

Lilyan Wilder - Book Review

7 Steps To Fearless Public Speaking is written by Lilyan Wilder, a well known public speaking trainer in the USA.

Near the start of the book Lilyan Wilder emphasises that the book is not a quick fix solution. Rather it presents a method based on her extensive experience of classroom and private teaching.

In particular 7 Steps To Fearless Public Speaking provides a number of exercises to practice - either on your own, or even better in a group. At the end of each chapter there are clear instructions as to what you need to practice.

The 7 Steps to practice are:

1 - Experience Your Voice
2 - Get A Response & Structure Your Thoughts
3 - Establish A Dialogue
4 - Tap Your Creativity
5 - Learn To Persuade
6 - Achieve Your Higher Objective
7 - Give The Gift Of Your Conviction

Clearly this approach is not going to suit you if you are looking for a few quick tips to get you through an upcoming talk you have to give. In fact, Lilyan Wilder is quite clear that this is not a book about performance mechanics - like imagining your audience are all naked.

No, this approach is more about working over a period of time to replace your initial fear with "a deeper more meaningful involvement with your message".

So when you go to Amazon.com and look at readers' comments on 7 Steps To Fearless Speaking you get some interesting comments.

For example, one reader who was looking for a book on stage fright gave the book just 1 star . This reader didn't want to be a good speaker. They simply wanted to 'survive' making a speech.

Another reader, who rated the book as 5 stars says that 7 Steps is helpful for speakers who want to improve the way they connect with their audience.

My own view is that this is a useful book if you want a structured approach to becoming a much more effective speaker over time. It also has the strength of being based on extensive classroom experience.

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