WHAT would you do if you were faced with a public audience and your job depended on your wise words to them? 
How would you react? Does the thought make you go all dry-mouthed and shaking with nerves?
Well, although a university student and not in the job dependency stakes, just yet, Amy was faced with this problem and has decided to tackle it.
She has been speaking to Naked Leader founder David Taylor in a series of wonderful videos, aimed at dispersing all those fears of public speaking which have manifested themselves in Amy’s thought process.
How did David tackle the issue? He took Amy back to the person she really is, not the one who is worried and anxious. The Amy who has the talent and belief to stand in front of a crowd and deliver a powerful speech.
In fact David introduced Amy to her (virtual) anxious other half and made sure they were reconciled and realised that actually, none of us are made up of just one thing and it’s okay to be a lot of things.
David simply brought the real Amy to the surface – the real Amy that deep down she always had been, always is and always will be.
She is a successful singer, and involved in her studies, and yet her discomfort at public speaking was something she needed to overcome.
So how does she view what’s needed when standing up and presenting? “Moving about, being confident, moving hands and being enthusiastic about it,” she said. “Speaking clearly, not stuttering, smiling, and making jokes with the audience even, looking like you are supposed to be up there.”
She added: “I thought it was just large groups, and but recently there were two people in a room at university and it still didn’t work out right. I get really nervous and can’t get out what I want to say, especially if it’s planned, it just goes out of my head.
“I tense up, because it’s something I don’t like and I think about it. One of those two people just got up and walked out. It was a very negative reaction.”
David told Amy why she doesn’t like presenting. ‘Because you choose to not like it,’ he said.
He has explained that reality and managed to help Amy overcome her fears by telling her: “You return to yourself and you say, ‘it doesn’t matter how I feel, or what goes on because whatever I face is fine – it’s always ok. Except, of course, when it’s not. And that’s ok as well’
And the outcome?
Over to David: “Amy opened a Princes Trust Young Ambassadors event, just 3 days – yes, just 3 days after our televised session. She is brave – one of the bravest people I have ever met -ultimately she did this herself, and I am so proud of her.”