Does anyone know the most common fear in adults between the ages of 18 & 50?

I will give you a couple clues; it makes your voice shake, your palms sweaty, your heart race, and sometimes even causes shortness of breath. It’s public speaking! Approximately 75% of adults in America have a fear of giving speeches. Now you know that you are far from alone, you can work on getting past this built up fear. The easy part about this is that the more you practice public speaking, the better you get. We have done some research to create a guide that will help you beat your panic attacks and deliver the speech of the year!

10 Steps to Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking and Deliver a Great Speech

1. KNOW YOUR MATERIAL WELL: Pick a topic you are interested in. Know more about it than you include in your speech. Use humor, personal stories and conversational language – that way you won’t easily forget what to say.

2. PRACTICE ALL DAY LONG: Rehearse out loud with all equipment you plan on using. Revise as necessary. Work to control filler words; Practice, pause and breathe. Practice with a timer and allow time for the unexpected.

3. KNOW THE AUDIENCE: Greet some of the audience members as they arrive. It’s easier to speak to a group of friends than to strangers.

4. KNOW THE ROOM: Arrive early, walk around the speaking area and practice using the microphone and any visual aids.

5. RELAX: Begin by addressing the audience. It buys you time and calms your nerves. Pause, smile and count to three before saying anything. (“One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand. Pause. Begin.) Transform nervous energy into enthusiasm.

6. VISUALIZE YOUR SPEECH DELIVERY: Imagine yourself speaking, your voice loud, clear and confident. Visualize the audience clapping – it will boost your confidence.

7. REALIZE THAT PEOPLE WANT YOU TO SUCCEED: Audiences want you to be interesting, stimulating, informative and entertaining. They’re rooting for you.

8. DO NOT APOLOGIZE: for any nervousness or problem – the audience probably never noticed it.

9. CONCENTRATE ON THE MESSAGE: Focus your attention away from your own anxieties and concentrate on your message and your audience.

10. GAIN EXPERIENCE: Mainly, your speech should represent you — as an authority and as a person. Experience builds confidence, which is the key to effective speaking. A Toastmasters club can provide the experience you need in a safe and friendly environment.

Save this blog post and refer to it when you need to! Hire Up is here to help you accomplish your career goals one blog post at a time. If you are looking for work or to Hire an employee, please give us a call (559)579-1331

Thank you for reading!

No matter how competitive the job market is today, employers will always have some level of competition for acquiring top candidates. A company must understand how to attract the best candidates for its position from among a smaller pool of applicants, as well as how to ensure that the hiring process and candidate strategy results in a successful hire. Here are some strategies from our executive recruiters for effectively competing for job candidates:

Start internally: Make sure your job satisfaction is high and your employee turnover ratio is low, and clear up any outstanding issues with team members or with former candidates. Create an attractive work environment for potential job-seekers to reflect your commitment to the new position. This will present your company in a positive light for prospective candidates.

Build a strong brand: Generating positive media coverage for your company will help create more visibility in the marketplace. Having an updated website with a press room, marketing materials, a blog as well as active social media sites will give a positive impression to the searching candidate. Advertising in relevant local or trade media might be an option for your company too, depending on the type of candidates you need.

Position your company effectively: If your company cannot compete with others that are much larger or better known, use this to your advantage by presenting your company’s advantages, such as the position’s responsibility, company culture, flexible work environment, benefits, community involvement, innovativeness, or leadership and advancement opportunities.

Focus on the candidate experience: There’s nothing like a good first impression. Top candidates will be looking for positive signs that the job is a good fit for them during the interview process. The company or recruiter must build rapport with the candidate from the beginning and ask the right questions to determine whether the person is a right fit for the job, and assess the candidate’s motivation to take the position.

Act quickly: The best job candidates don’t take long to decide on a new position. If you are a smaller company, you might be able to act on a candidate much quicker than a larger one with a more involved hiring process. Either way, work nimbly to keep your hiring process moving along so that you don’t lose any opportunities.

Have a strong referral network: When top performers are ready to make a move, they will often put feelers in the marketplace among their close inner circle of friends, former co-workers or recruiters they trust. Make sure your network includes a few, quality recruiters so that the passive job candidate will consider your company before going into the active search phase. Staffing agencies can also help you screen and interview candidates, present the company in an objective, positive light, help you negotiate more effectively, and keep the search process moving forward.

With some of these strategies in place, your company will no longer be talking about “the one who got away.” Hire Up Staffing would be happy to assist your firm in attracting and hiring the best talent for your executive, accounting or other jobs, as well as streamlining your recruiting procedure to make sure you have your pick of the top candidates.

New employee orientation is your company’s best opportunity to set up a strong foundation for your new hire, building a solid relationship with their new position within the business. When an orientation goes well, the new employee feels a connection with the company and strives to accomplish their goals in order to ensure a strong, long term future there. Many employers set out with the best of intentions, but end up with a poor orientation by committing these 5 mistakes.

1. Videos – Sticking your new hire in a closed room to watch an orientation video should be avoided, especially if the video is long and boring. You want them experiencing things first hand and getting a feel for the corporate culture, not nodding off in front of the TV.

2. Being Unprepared – Nothing will make a new employee feel unwelcome like their employer being unprepared for them. Make sure they have everything they need and that it’s their own, not piggybacking off another employee. Give them a desk, chair, phone, email address, and whatever else will make them feel like a significant part of the team.

3. Being Overwhelming – Consider their first day like the first day at a new school. Not only do you have to learn about the school, you have to learn about the teachers and students, where everything is, etc. A new employees first day should be a gentle exposure to the important parts of their job. Think about putting together a handbook with all of the technical, boring, or detailed parts of their new job, and ask them to read on their own time

4. Lectures – In case I didn’t cover the “long and boring” mistake when we talked about videos, leave out any lectures on the first day. They can be long and boring, and also be overwhelming, so though they may have their place, save them for the right time.

5. Rushing – You may be the busiest person in the world, but you still need to be the one to greet your new employee and show them the ropes if you have time. You don’t want to rush this part because the whole idea is to make them feel welcome and like an important part of the team. If you just don’t have the time, be sure to greet them and introduce them to another employee who will show them around on their first day.

An orientation can makes or break a new hires perception of your business, so make sure you take it seriously. It can make all the difference!

1. It’s Important To Be Honest – One of the biggest turn offs to a hiring manager is to come across an area of the resume where the truth has been stretched or you misrepresent yourself. Don’t lie, we want to hire the real you!

2. Don’t Be Pushy – You can ruin your chances of a second interview by being too aggressive. We like you to be enthusiastic and good enthusiasm will go a long way, but don’t go overboard. Don’t do things like drop off a resume if you’ve been asked to apply on line and don’t call more than one time in 3 weeks to check up on your status.

3. You Can’t Pick Your References – You may only want us to call the references you list but more often than not we will be calling previous employers and other people that don’t make that list.

4. The Little Things Count – So many applicants put on a good show during the interview, and drop the ball in the small details before and afterwards. Don’t be nice to the manager and rude to the receptionist, and don’t send in an immaculate resume and check up on it with sloppily written emails. Hiring managers notice the small stuff, so make a point to have every part of the process be as professional as possible.

5. Stand Out With A Great Cover Letter – Even if your resume doesn’t wow the manager, you may still be able to stand out from the crowd with a well written, engaging cover letter that has been custom made for the position you’re applying for.

6. Candidates Without References Are Scary – Here’s the honest truth, if we are given 2 candidates to choose from that are equally qualified for the job, if one doesn’t have references they most likely will lose out on the job. Even if your previous employer doesn’t give references, come up with someone to vouch for you.

7. Don’t Count On A Job Offer – No matter how and interview goes, don’t expected to be offered the job. No matter how many encouraging things a manager may saying during the interview, the job isn’t yours until you are officially hired.

8. Personality Is The Key – This can be said about a lot of things, but personality is the key to making a good impression in an interview, just like it is when meeting a first date or a potential client. You have to be fun, friendly, kind, and professional, but we also want to know who you are as an individual and what makes you unique. You may be all of these great things, but we need to make sure you fit in with the existing employees and the clients we service.