With Halloween just around the corner, I started to think about some of the things we may find scary - from spiders and snakes to creepy horror movies. But one of the most scary things for many people is the very real fear of standing up and speaking in front of an audience.
Where do you sit on the ‘Scale of Scared’ when it comes to speaking in public? Are you someone who gets a bit nervous about doing a presentation? (If you do that’s pretty normal and can be easily managed with a few simple techniques.) Or are you at the other end of the scale with sleepless nights and a crippling terror that feels like it’s going to suffocate you?
If you’ve been avoiding public speaking due to crushing anxiety, there’s a good chance it may have been holding you back from fulfilling your potential in your career and life in general.
But the great news is that wherever you are on the ‘Scale of Scared’, there are tools and tips that can help you to manage your fear so that you can deliver that presentation with ease, whether it’s a best man speech, a pitch to a new client or a keynote speech to an audience of thousands.
Here are some ideas to help you:
1. Therapies
Various therapies have been proven to have a positive impact on people’s ability to confidently speak in public - hypnosis, psychotherapy, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), emotional freedom technique (EFT or Tapping) and neuro linguistic programming (NLP) to name a few. I often use a combination of NLP exercises and tapping with my one to one coaching clients with great results. Here is some info about tapping . And you may find the technique in this post useful too.
2. Meditation and visualisation
Regular mindfulness exercises and meditation can help to you to feel calmer generally and will definitely help both in the lead up to delivering a pitch or presentation and on the day. Incorporate a visualisation of the event going well: see yourself feeling and looking confident and delivering the material as you planned, include the friendly engaged audience members smiling (even laughing) at the appropriate times, and picture them applauding at the end. Imagine yourself feeling confident and happy with your delivery and celebrating your effort when it’s over. Try to find out details about the room you’ll be presenting in and the size and set up of the audience so you can make your visualisation more accurate.
3. Be prepared
Preparation is crucial for ensuring you do a great job with the delivery of your speech or presentation, and for managing any nerves you may be experiencing. But don’t just think about your content. There are many other elements you can prepare and the more prepared you are the less scary the prospect of speaking to an audience will be. Have you considered how you could prepare mentally, physically, vocally? What about understanding the audience and the environment in which you’ll be speaking? You can read more about preparing each of these areas here.
4. Practice
You can’t get better at public speaking without practising and you don’t want the first time the words come out of you mouth to be in front of the audience you are aiming to impress. So practising is key. Ensure you allow enough time to practice by yourself (stand up and speak it out loud) so you get a sense of the flow. Record it and listen back so you can hear it from an audience perspective and make any necessary changes. When it’s almost ready, rehearse in front of supportive friends, family or colleagues and get some feedback that you can incorporate before you deliver your presentation for real.
5. Breathing
When we feel afraid, we tend to breathe faster and more take more shallow breaths which stimulates that fight or flight mechanism in our bodies, definitely not what you want to be experiencing before speaking in public. Being able to control your breathing is one of the best ways to manage any anxiety you may be feeling. This breathing technique works even better when you take a moment to shut your eyes and notice yourself inhaling and exhaling. Try to slow it down. Then aim to breathe in slowly for a count of 5, hold for 5, exhale slowly for 5 and hold at the bottom for 5 counts. Try this process for around 5 to 10 rounds and it will help to reduce your anxiety, so you feel calm, centred and focused. I also like to imagine breathing in confidence and breathing out doubt – after a few breaths you’ll have breathed out all of your doubt and be feeling cool, composed and confident!
Mel Sherwood is a Presentation Skills and Personal Impact Speaker and Founder of The RED Effect™. She works with ambitious business leaders, teams and individuals who want to express themselves with confidence, credibility and charisma. An Australian based in Scotland, Mel is an award-winning speaker, author and coach and combines over 25 years’ experience in business with a background as an actor, presenter and singer.