Having to give a speech in front of an audience can cause some people to shake, sweat, get sick, or freeze in terror. The root of this fear is simple: It's scary because it's unfamiliar to anyone who doesn't regularly perform to a crowd.
"I always tell members after they give their first speech, 'That's the hardest speech you'll ever give,'" says Joshua Rinaldi, the former president of New York Toastmasters, Manhattan's largest chapter in the Toastmasters International network of over 14,000 public speaking clubs around the world.
