By the time this article is published, I will have spoken in front of an audience for an extended period of time 4 times. 4 times where I have a chance of messing up, theoretically embarrassing myself in front my peers, who, from that point on, will see me as a person who is unable to handle speaking in front of others.

I say theoretically embarrassing because it's an excellent crossover to why I'm so comfortable talking in front of people. To put it simply: it takes a lot to make me embarrassed. I have a lot of confidence, and really, that's the key to speaking in front of people. It's saying to yourself: "Hey, what these people think doesn't matter. I'm just going to speak my mind with a sense of conviction." If you look like you're embarrassed, people will get the sense that you're not that confident in what you're saying, then you become less believable.

If you find that you're often doubting yourself, start talking about something you're sure about. My personality is somewhat magical in the sense that I can fake passion about literally any topic. If you find that you can't do that, try putting yourself in the shoes of someone you know who would actually care about the topic. If you can imagine yourself doing it, then you're already halfway there. Take it a step further and do it.

Here's a crazy story about how having confidence and adjusting the way you carry yourself really affects how people recieve you:

I was at a journalism convention in Dallas, and a few thousand students were just scattered around a hotel lobby (it was quite a nice hotel), when one of my friends overheard a group sitting on the floor 20 feet away from us. He heard them say that they were from a high school in California that would've been his rival high school if he hadn't moved. Of course, I immediately pushed him to go say hi, but of course, like most people, he was too shy to approach them.

So I volunteered to go for him, and he made a deal- if I could just walk over and sit myself down in their little circle for 2 minutes and talk to them, he would give me $5. When I walked over there, I just sat down and started introducing myself, and of course explaining what I was doing there. I smiled, laughed, cracked a few jokes, and talked about news writing with them. Long story short, I won the bet, made a few friends, and saw them again later that night.

See where confidence can get you? If you approach people with a confident attitude,know what you're talking about, and you're not afraid to be seen as weird, you can basically talk in front of whoever you want to! Of course, you don't have to go out into the world tomorrow and force yourself to make awkward small talk. *cringe* Get comfortable talking to other people, then move on to larger audiences. Don't worry if you mess up- the world that you exist in is the that one you perceive.