Book excerpt: Why does your mouth suddenly go dry, your throat tighten, your face get hot, and your knees buckle when you have to address a group of people? The old story goes that more people are afraid of public speaking than they are of death. So people at a funeral would prefer to be the person in the casket than the person delivering the eulogy! Shut up and speak means that you must stop dwelling on how difficult or frightening public speaking is. Shut up and speak means that you can't become a better public speaker simply by studying communications theory or relying on public speaking folk wisdom. This book gives you the guidance to "shut up" by tuning out all of the interference that doesn't help you become a better public speaker and to "speak" by throwing yourself whole-heartedly into speech-making.