I think there are a lot of misunderstandings about who is and isn’t a public speaker. I see the phrase “corporate spokesperson” thrown out so much, I’m beginning to believe that people think all public speaking that comes out of an organization is just from one guy who never really gets involved in the actual business, and just acts as the designated “talking guy” who says what people want to hear.



But that falls far from the truth.



There’s a whole lot of fantastic public speakers whose job titles are much greater than just “spokesperson.” Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King Jr. and the majority of any stage and screen actor you can think of is or was capable of captivating an audience through speech. If you plan on doing great things in your career, there will almost certainly come a time where you’ll have to tell people about it.



Public speaking is present in all fields and requires people who have the self-confidence to deliver a presentation to hundreds of strangers about the good you or your organization is doing. Thus, I recommend going ahead and dealing with any internal anxieties now. Even if it means going out of your way for a public speaking class, I can definitely vouch for its worth. You may think you’re safe from it in engineering or science or whatever other non-humanities discipline you’re in, but there’s no guarantee.



I hesitated to name this column “everyone should take a public speaking class,” though. Some may never actually need it, and about 10 percent of the student body probably, according to public speaking coach Nick Morgan, have some level of public speaking anxiety that will prevent them from even considering this kind of class. But there will come a time in many people’s careers when they’ll need to stand up and give a presentation to a crowd, whether that be a conference room of about ten or an auditorium of hundreds.



Therefore, if you can, taking a public speaking class would really help you in your career, and in your personal comfort during presentations. You can’t really nail it by just practicing for a bit in your bathroom mirror; taking a class here can teach you all about tactics like body language, the various appeals and the most common pitfalls in speech.



I know that, for many people, a public speaking class seems like a really scary and uncomfortable idea. I’ll admit public speaking used to terrify me as well when I was younger, and even now, there’s still a small part of that fear remaining. My hands still shake a fair amount, and there’s still that little bit of hesitation in my voice. But confronting that fear through avenues in high school like theatre and clubs helped get rid of a lot of that anxiety early on, and my current classes help me further conquer it.



That’s my same thought process in recommending that it’s wise for you to take a public speaking class. I’ve done a lot more public speaking in college than I thought I would, and I’m sure my future holds even more. If you tackle the problem now, it will certainly prove to be worth it in the future.



Trust me, despite all my experiences with public speaking in high school and college, including a public speaking class here at NC State, I understand that I may be asking a lot. But I’m glad that I’m still using the opportunities presented here to keep getting better, because I’m certain that I will be speaking in front of a crowd plenty of times in my planned career field, and I think you would be glad too. It’s about learning now to avoid later consequences, and quelling any current fears will help you in the long run.