How Susan Cain overcome a fear of public speaking to give a TED talk that has been viewed more than 20 million times

​I am a huge fan of Tim Ferris podcasts and I was so excited when I found out that he had just interviewed Susan Cain because her TED talk, The Power of Introverts, is one of my all-time favourites.   I am an introvert by nature and so her message resonates with me but I also love her delivery style.
I was thrilled to discover that the first 40 minutes of the podcast interview is about her fear of public speaking! If you have time I highly recommend that you listen for yourself.

My interest grew as  I listened because her experience closely mirrors my own and many of my clients and her approach to tackling her fear was the approach I use at Fear-less Public Speaking.
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The main things I took out of the interview were:

• Susan’s ‘almost lifelong’ fear of public speaking was triggered by a particular event at school
• The incentive to deal with her fear came from having something she cared deeply about and wanted to share
• She signed up for a course that used ‘gradual exposure’ to manage her fear
• She observes that public speaking is a skill that can be learned
• She still feels nervous but the difference is that her nerves are now manageable
• The benefits she has realised are enormous.  

Below I look at each of these points more closely. This article is a little longer than most of my pieces but I was so taken with the interview that I felt it worth summarising most of the content! 

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