“Glossophobia” is defined as the fear of public speaking, or speaking in public. Mentor Mishari Al Mufarreh took on this session to teach the protégés how to combat the fear of public speaking. Mentor Mishari also explained the importance of body language, voice, and tone when speaking in public.
Videos were shown to the protégés on what makes a good and terrible public speaker. Even presidents, sometimes, can be bad at public speaking. Mentor Mishari focused on the following structure when giving a good speech:
- What: Start by telling a joke to break the ice with the audience then introduce yourself and your topic.
- Why: Explain why you have chosen to speak about this topic.
- What: Talk about the details of your topic.
- How: End your speech with how the audience can help and end your topic.
The protégés were divided into groups of 3 to practice their public speaking skills. Within each group, each member had to talk about a random topic to practice using speech structure (what, why, what, how). One member from each team would act as the speaker, the other would be the audience, and the other would obverse the speaker and the audience’s reaction. The observer would then give back their feedback to the speaker.
After the group exercise, each protégé was called onto the stage to give a speech. The protégés seemed to be more confident and capable of tackling any topic that was given.