How to say nothing in your next presentation

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Have you sometimes gone along to a presentation -it may be entertaining and enjoyable - but at the end of it, or a few days later, you think to yourself - what did I get out of that presentation? It’s easy to fall into the trap, as a presenter, of saying nothing in a presentation.

What are some of the traps:

1. Stating the obvious

We were once working with a human resources professional for a large organisation preparing a presentation for an HR conference. His draft Key Message was “People are our greatest asset”. Yawn. Find a novel angle or your personal perspective. In his case, his organisation had recently grown from a start-up type business to an established organisation and his Key Message became “We’ve needed different types of people for the different phases of our growth.” That’s much more useful to the audience.

2. Saying too much

Far too many presenters try and say too much in their presentations. As Garr Reynolds has said:

You can go deep or you can go wide, but you can not do both, and frankly you can’t even go that deep or that wide either.

“More is Less” - the more you try and cram into your presentation, the less your audience will remember. This is a lesson I am still learning. I’ve often been seduced by the great presentation fallacy that “If I say it, they will get it”. It’s not so. In order to get it, your audience needs to hear it in words that make sense to them, and they need to be given examples of how it might apply.

Adding support for each point in your presentation takes time. Therefore you need to include less points.

Cut, cut, cut.

3. Only telling stories

Much is made of telling stories in our presentations. But if your presentation is only stories - it’s a meringue presentation - sweet, light and lovely at the time, but no long-lasting substance. I have seen a few professional speakers fall into this trap - they link together a raft of beautifully crafted stories that make us laugh and make us cry…have a great time…but what was the point again?

Stories are there to support the message - so there had better be a message. You may think it’s obvious, but it needs spelling out. Let your audience know what the point is.

4. Ignoring the audience

About a decade ago, a well-known professional speaker and technology writer in New Zealand was giving a presentation to a breakfast meeting of a networking organisation. Her topic according to the program was “E-mail Marketing”. However, she had recently become enamoured of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and that’s what she wanted to talk about. At the beginning of the presentation, she asked members of the audience how many had websites. Out of the hundred or so people, only 4 put up their hand. But despite this signal - she went on to talk about SEO - a topic only of interest to people with websites. The presentation is not about you - it’s about your audience - you are there to serve them.

5. Speaking only at a conceptual level

Some people are very comfortable at a conceptual and abstract level. They love to pepper their speech with conceptual metaphors. But if there’s nothing to tie down the abstract to the concrete, the rest of us won’t get it. Chief executives and senior managers are often guilty of this. They speak in visionary metaphorical language and staff are left thinking “What does that mean for my job?”

Note: This post was inspired by How to say nothing in 500 words (a lesson in writing) by Maki of DoshDosh, which was itself inspired by an article on writing academic compositions written in the 1950s.

9 ways to use space in your presentation

There are many benefits to movement in a presentation:

• It adds energy and variety to your presentation.
• It makes you look more confident - because people who are nervous are generally frozen in one spot.
• And as an added bonus, if you move, you may start to feel more confident. That’s partly because movement will help dissipate the extra adrenalin in your system.

Movement got a bad name because of university lecturers pacing up and down. Audiences are distracted by mindless, repetitive movement. Movement should be interspersed with stillness. That way, they both have more impact.

Incorporate movement in your presentation by planning different positions on the stage (or front of the room) that you’ll present from. In the theatre, this is called “blocking“. Blocking is deciding on the position and movement of the characters as they move through the play. You can block your presentation too. Here are some ideas:

1. State your Key Message from the Power Position

Your Key Message is the core of your talk. Choose one spot where you will stand and state your Key Message. It should be dead centre, and close to the audience.

2. Map your structure on the stage

Using your physical space on the stage to map out your structure. It will help your audience anchor the different parts of your talk. Use these areas when you do a preview near the beginning of your presentation. Then return to that area of the stage for that part of the presentation.

3. Use a stage timeline

Where a story or explanation involves the passage of time, imagine a timeline across the stage and move along it to show the progression of time. Remember to make the past to the audience’s left - not your left.

4. Argue the pros and cons as if you were in a debate

In a debate, the people arguing for each side will stand at different sides of the stage. Although there’s only one of you, you can adopt this strategy. Stand on one side for the pros - and the other side for the cons.

5. Physically reflect the continuum of points of view

Points of view on a topic often exist along a continuum - from one extreme - to middle of the road - and out to the other extreme. Reflect this with where you stand on the stage as you describe each point of view.

6. Give each option it’s own spot

If you’re discussing a range of options, stand in a specific spot for each option as you describe it. When you refer back to an option later in your presentation, go back to that spot.

7. Story time

Have a general area of the stage for story-telling. When you’re telling a light-hearted story, it can be effective to move around as you’re talking. You’ll come across as chatty and conversational.

Where a story involves two or more characters in dialogue, have a specific spot where you deliver the lines of each character. Stay within the storytelling area.

8. Move close for emphasis

If you normally stay a couple of paces back from your audience, you can then exploit closeness for empashis. Moving close to people is powerful. Even intimidating. But you can stand really close to someone, and look elsewhere. You get the powerful effect without intimidation.

9. Dance with your Slides

Adding the display of slides is a complicating factor. To keep as much flexibility as possible, I recommend placing the datashow screen slightly off to the side. If the screen is in the middle, it’s easy to turn into a projectionist instead of a presenter. If it’s to the side, then you can still claim the power position. To avoid stepping into the beam of the datashow, stick some duct tape on the floor as a reminder. (Note: I generally have the screen to my right because I also use a flipchart which I like to have to my left, so that when I turn around to write on the flipchart, I don’t have to move to the other side of it. I’m right-handed - if you’re left-handed, you’d flip this arrangement around).

You’ll also need to be aware of blocking the view of some parts of the audience. With this arrangement if you move slightly back and to the side, it will allow everyone in the audience to see. When they’ve seen the slide, move back closer to the audience, as you’ll lose impact standing further back for a long period of time.

When you want to draw attention to a slide, move back to your datashow screen.

Explain your slides physically. Get in the beam. For a great example of explaining slides physically have a watch of Hans Rosling explaining statistics like you’ve never seen before. You’ll never use a wimpy laser pointer again!

Choose one or two of these ideas to implement to begin with. If possible, rehearse in the room that you’re presenting in, so that you can integrate the movements you want to make. Generally, it’s more natural and conversational to keep talking as you’re moving. But occasionally use the power of silence for more impact.

Using your space will add a new dimension to your presentations.

How to establish your credibility without bragging

It’s hard to pull-off establishing your credentials without sounding like you’re bragging. The public speaking blogosphere is alive with stories of presenters who didn’t quite hit the right note. Lisa Braithwaite says in her blog post on establishing your credentials, they haven’t come to the presentation to hear all about you. Dave Paradi also warns against talking about yourself too much.

It’s like we have a braggart alarm bell. We’ve learnt not to trust people who speak too well of themselves. So how can you avoid setting off the braggart alarm bells of your audience while still establishing your authority to speak on the topic?

The secret is to make it look as if it’s not you doing the bragging.

1. Have someone else introduce you

In Yes: 50 secrets from the art of persuasion, Cialdini and his co-authors say:

Arranging for someone else to describe your expertise and credentials to the audience will do wonders to convince them that they should listen to what you have to say, while also avoiding the damage that blatant self-promotion can cause.

Prepare this introduction yourself

Having someone else introduce you, doesn’t mean you leave them to it - very few people prepare properly for introducing a speaker. And there’s also a risk that your introducer says something which is at odds with the message you want to send in your presentation. I have a good friend who speaks across UK, Australia and New Zealand on Values Education in schools. She has a Christian background but strongly believes in Values Education being non-religious in nature. Before one particular presentation, her introducer dwelt on her Christian “credentials”. The audience peppered her with questions about the relationship between her Christian beliefs and values education throughout the presentation.

Tailor your introduction to the presentation

The audience doesn’t want to hear a generic resume. They want to hear:

• Why this topic? How is this topic of benefit to them
• Why you? What special skills/expertise have you got which makes you qualified to speak to them on this topic
• Why now? Why is it important to hear from you at this time.

For more ideas on preparing an introduction check out Taking charge of your introduction from Denise Graveline.

When it’s your turn

Plunge straight into your presentation. Beware of falling into the trap of saying “Well, as the chairperson said my name is Olivia Mitchell, and I’m from a company called Effective Speaking.” Doh!

2. Provide attendees with a written profile

If there’s no-one to introduce you, write a profile detailing your experience and qualifications to be talking on this topic. Ensure the attendees have it ahead of time. Write it in the third person, rather than the first person. For example “Olivia has been teaching presentation skills for ten years” as opposed to “I’ve been teaching presentation skills for ten years”.

It’s a subtle distinction which makes a big difference. Here’s a description of a research study led by Jeffrey Pfeffer, and reported in Yes:

…participants were asked to imagine themselves in the role of senior editor for a book publisher, facing the task of dealing with an experienced and successful author. They were asked to read excerpts from a negotiation for a sizeable book advance. One group read excerpts touting the author’s accomplishments spoken by the author’s agent, whereas a second group read identical comments made by the author himself.  The data  verified our hypothesis: participants rated the author more favourable on nearly every scale - especially likeability - when the author’s agent sang his praises as compared to when the author tooted his own horn.

Even though we know intellectually that personal profiles written in the third person were probably written by the person themselves - it doesn’t set off our braggart alarm bell.

3. Tell a story

Tell a short personal story which serves both as an introduction to your topic and subtly signals your expertise in the area. When I’m introducing myself at the start of our introductory presentation skills course for nervous beginners, I tell the participants about the time I was enveloped with fear giving the first important presentation of my career. They can relate to this and can see that I have managed to overcome that fear. But I don’t come across as bragging. That’s because the information about my credentials is incidental to the main story and so slips through the back door into the audiences’ minds without setting off their braggart alarm bell.

So there’s three ways of establishing your credibility without being a braggart. It doesn’t matter that they audience may intellectually realise that you’ve written all the material, emotionally they’re fooled.

Are there other ways that you’ve pulled off this trick - let us know in the comments.

Review of the 3 books of the Presentation Revolution

There are three books which have ushered in and defined the PowerPoint Revolution. If you can only buy one, which one should you buy? Here’s my analysis of the three books and my recommendation.

Cliff Atkinson was the pioneer with Beyond Bullet Points. The Beyond Bullets approach is an entire system for creating a presentation with the support of non-bullet PowerPoint slides. It’s published by Microsoft and is a hybrid between a software how-to book and a presentation book. I find the system too limiting and constraining. Note: I have the 2005 edition of BBP - there is a 2007 edition which may be improved.

Garr Reynolds came next with Presentation Zen, based on his blog of the same name. His book is imbued with the philosophy of simplicity. If Cliff’s book is methodical, Garr’s is philosopical. The book attempts to cover most aspects of giving a presentation from planning the content, to designing the slides to the delivery itself. However, the strength of the book is the section on slide design. Garr made us non-designers aware of the importance of design in PowerPoint presentations. The discussion on the planning and delivery of a presentation is at a high conceptual level. There are useful insights for presenters with some experience but the lack of practical guidance could be frustrating for a beginner.

Then came Nancy Duarte with Slide:ology. Slide:ology is the most beautiful of the books. It is also the most focused. Nancy concentrates almost exclusively on slide design (there is an out-of-place section on audience analysis).

Here’s a table which summarises the strength and differences between the three books:

	Beyond Bullets	Presentation Zen	Slide:ology
The case for the PP Revolution	Appendix discusses Mayer’s research insofar as it applies to the approach described in the book	Develops the case for a new approach to PowerPoint presentations	Short discussion on using slides for visual communication
Content Planning	Template for planning a presentation. Too detailed and constraining.	Applies Zen principles to art of planning content	Short discussion on audience analysis. That’s all.
Slide design principles	Presents one method of constructing a slide with no discussion of principles.	Excellent discussion at a conceptual level	Excellent discussion and gives detailed guidance - a non-designer’s guide to slide design
Slide design inspiration	None	Many terrific examples to inspire you. Examples tend to be from educational-type presentations. Lots of examples of charts, but very few of diagrams.	Huge number of examples from real corporate presentations including makeover of charts and diagrams.
Delivery	Traditional advice on delivery	Applies Zen principles to presentation delivery	None

So which one would I buy? I would no longer recommend Beyond Bullet Points. Not when you can see what’s possible with slide design in Presentation Zen and Slide:ology.

If you want a philosophical discussion of simplicity in the art of presentation together with wonderful inspiration for designing better slides, go for Presentation Zen. But after I’d read Presentation Zen, I felt like I wanted a “A non-designer’s guide to slide design” to help me put into practice the principles and the inspiration that I had from Garr’s book. I could copy the ideas behind some of Garr’s ideas, but I felt like I didn’t have enough grounding in the basics to create my own designs.

Nancy’s book fulfills that need. So if you want the non-designer’s guide to PowerPoint slide design, together with visual inspiration, then Slide:ology is the book for you.

Quiz: Are you a winger or a stickler?

Is finding the right balance between structure and spontaneity a problem for you? Here’s a quiz:

1. How much preparation do you do before a presentation?

a. I think through the basic ideas in my head and jot down a few keywords.
b. I plan carefully the main message I want to get across and then structure supporting points.
c. I plan everything I want to say and write down how I’ll say it.

2. What are you most concerned about when you’re delivering your presentation?

a. I must be natural and genuinely engage with the audience.
b. Yes, I want to be natural and engaging but also I want to stay on track.
c. I must remember everything I want to say and get it right.

3. What’s the most likely problem you might have when you’re delivering your presentation?

a. Well, I might waffle and go a little off track at times.
b. I’m not perfect but generally it goes pretty well.
c. I come across as rather stiff and artificial. I might end up reading my presentation to the audience.

Mostly As - you’re a winger
Mostly Bs - you’ve got it sorted
Mostly Cs - you’re a stickler

If you’re a winger - what could help you keep more on track? If you’re a stickler what could help you be more natural and engaging?

Two types of presentation content

Think of having two types of content in your presentation:

1. The bones of your presentation - this is the framework of your presentation. It holds your presentation together. It includes your Key Message and your main points.
2. The flesh of your presentation. This includes the stories, anecdotes, metaphors and other supporting material.

If you’re a winger

Focus on planning the bones of your presentation - this will ensure your presentation hangs together with a solid structure rather than being just an entertaining ramble. You can still be at your engaging and spontaneous best during the supporting material.

If you’re a stickler

Let go about getting the supporting material just right. It won’t be fatal if you forget to tell an anecdote or leave out a detail. You’ll be more engaging and natural. To help you let go,  put critical information in a handout.

15 baby steps to overcoming the fear of public speaking

In the three previous posts (Overcome your fear,  No perfect presentation, Seven thinking sins) I have talked about the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) approach to overcoming the fear of public speaking. I’ve focused on the cognitive principles on the basis that if you’re reading this blog, you’re probably doing presentations (the behavioral part of CBT). But maybe you know somebody who gets so nervous at even the idea of presenting that they avoid it whenever they can. This post will look at what they can do to help themselves, using the behavioral principles of CBT. On the assumption you’ll forward this link to them, I’ll now start talking directly to them.

Here’s the important thing about the behavioral approach. It’s not about just going out and doing it. You need to take a gradual approach. In psychology this is called systematic desensitization.

Imagine if you were frightened of birds. A therapist working with you would gradually expose you to a bird. They might start by showing you a small picture of a bird and keep it far away from you. You’d be nervous at first, but gradually you’d realise no harm was going to come to you and your symptoms of fear (heart beating, sweating) would die down. Then the therapist would bring the picture closer and wait again till your symptons faded. The therapist would then repeat the process with other pictures, then a feather, then a stuffed bird, then a bird in a cage, and finally a live bird flying free. So the process is slow, graduated and systematic.

To apply the same process to public speaking, start by making yourself a list of behaviors related to presenting - but which don’t involve an actual presentation - until the very last behavior on the list. The behaviors will involve speaking to one person or several, and some should include making requests which are likely to be turned down. This is important, because often one of our fears around public speaking is the fear of being disapproved of or rejected.

We call these behaviors Must-busters - because they are about showing you that your “musts” are not true. If you have a strong fear of public speaking, you probably have some strong musts, like:

“I must not make a fool of myself”

“I must not humiliate myself”

“I must always be approved of by anyone I talk to”

So here are some examples of Must-buster behaviors:

1. Initiate a one-on-one conversation with your manager about something inconsequential
2. Speak up in a small meeting at work (2 or 3 people)
3. Ring a wrong number on purpose and say “I’m sorry, I seem to have dialled the  wrong number.”
4. Ask for change in a shop
5. Initiate a one-on-one conversation with your manager asking for feedback on your performance
6. Ask for change in a shop which has a sign “No change given”
7. Initiate a one-on-one conversation that you’ve been putting off
8. Speak up in a slightly larger meeting at work
9. Go to a networking event with a friend
10. Initiate a one-on-one conversation with your manager to explain an idea that you have about how processes could be improved at work
11. Go to a networking event with a friend and initiate a conversation with one person you don’t know
12. Go to a networking event without a friend and initiate a conversation with one person you don’t know
13. Go to a Toastmasters meeting (without speaking).
14. Joining a Toastmaster club
15. Enrol on a public speaking or presentation skills course
16. And finally, giving your first speech at Toastmasters or giving a short presentation at your next team meeting at work.

These are just examples to inspire you. Make yourself your own list because we’re all different in terms of what we find most frightening. Once you’ve made yourself the list, rate each behavior according to how hard you think it will be for you. Then put the list in order, starting with the easiest behaviors though to the hardest.

Commit yourself to a schedule to complete these behaviors, it could be one a day, or one a week. Expect to feel fear as you approach these tasks. Part of the learning is that you can handle feeling the symptoms of fear. It’s helpful to share what you’re planning with a friend, so that they can both support you and keep you accountable.

It is possible to overcome the fear of public speaking (note: it won’t go away altogether!). Overcoming this barrier and being able to speak up when you want to will make a difference to your career and to your personal life. Go well.

The Seven Thinking Sins of Public Speaking

In the previous post in this series There’s no such thing as a perfect presentation, I looked at how to analyse your thinking and change “musts” or demands” into “goals” and so reduce the pressure you put on yourself.

Over the years we’ve worked with hundreds of people to help them reduce their nervousness. So we’re familiar with the common thinking patterns that people have around presenting. Here are the Top 10 Thinking Sins that contribute to the fear of public speaking.

1. My presentation must go perfectly

Truth: There is no such thing as a perfect presentation. And neither is it a laudable goal. Audiences prefer authentic to polished, they prefer conversational to slick. It’s normal to stumble over a word or forget for a moment what you want to say next. Your audience will forgive you.

Solution: Your goal is to forge a connection with your audience. Focus on that, not the perfection of your speech. Accept that you’ll make some mistakes - that’s human.

2. I must be interesting and engaging

Truth: It’s a tall order to say that you must be interesting and engaging at all times. Sometimes people in an audience do drift off into their own thoughts for a moment. Or maybe they’re exhanusted from being up all night with a teething baby. It’s not about you.

Solution: Your goal is to be interesting and engaging. Focus on the people in the audience who are connecting with you - they are energy chargers. The people who aren’t paying attention to you are energy suckers. Looking at them will demoralize you and your energy will drop. Or you’ll get so obsessed in trying to get their attention that you’ll become too zany.

3. I must not forget anything

Truth: You’re the only one that knows exactly what you’re going to say. Your audience probably won’t even notice.

Solution: Your goal is to remember to say the key points in your presentation. Have notes and take the time to look at them. If you know that you find looking at notes difficult in a presentation, practice. Practice with people in front of you. Here’s how to look at your notes. Stop talking, look at your notes, know what you’re going to say next, look up, find someone to talk to - look at them and start talking.

If it’s really important put it in a handout. That way it’s not a disaster if you forget a key point.

4. I must know more about the topic than anyone in the audience

Truth: No you don’t. This is a recipe for over-researching and stress. There will often be people in the audience who are more knowledgeable in the audience than you.

Solution: Your job as a presenter is not to know more than anyone else, but to communicate and explain what you do know with your own perspective. See this post on presenting with experts in the audience for more ideas.

5. I must be able to answer every question

Truth: Oh-oh! More over-researching and stress. You’re not expected to know the answer to every question that an audience member might ask.

Solution: Become comfortable with saying “I don’t know.” We’re trained from a young age to automatically answer questions and it can be very difficult to say “I dont know.” In your rehearsals, have colleagues pepper you with questions and practice not answering the question. Experiment with different ways of saying “I don’t know”. Expert witnesses in court cases will often say: “That’s outside the scope of my expertise.”

What about questions you should know the answer to. But that knowledge deserts you when you need it most. Think through how you’ll handle this. For example, you could say in a self-deprecating way “I should know the answer to that - but it’s not coming to mind right now - I’ll get back to you as soon as my memory returns!”

6. I must not show any sign of nerves

Truth: Just about everybody can relate to having some nervousness about public speaking - so most people in your audience will feel empathy. As long as you have done your preparation and have useful well-organised content that meets their needs, they will forgive your nervousness.

And it may be that your nervousness doesn’t even show. You can feel your heart about to beat out of your chest and you can feel the sweat trickling down your sides. The audience can’t.

Solution: Accept that you will have some nervousness and that it may show. That is not the end of the world. You can still deliver your presentation. Many very experienced presenters and other professional performers (actors, singers) get nervous. They still go out there and perform. Being nervous is part and parcel of presenting and public speaking. Experienced presenters have learnt how to manage their nerves. You can learn to manage your nerves by using the principles of cognitive behavioral therapy.

6. It will be a disaster if I can’t get the datashow to work

Truth: No it won’t. Speeches and presentations can exist without visuals. We’re often told stories of conferences when the technology stopped working and the presentation without Powerpoint was the best presentation of the conference.

Solution: Take reasonable steps to ensure that the technology will work. Arrive in plenty of time to set everything up. Have your slideshow on a flash drive so you can use someone else’s laptop if necessary. Don’t store your flash drive in your laptop bag. That way if your laptop bag gets stolen, you’ll still have your flash drive.

If your slides are absolutely essential to your presentation (eg: screenshots of the software you’re demonstrating) print out a hard copy, so that you can distribute them as handouts for your audience to look at during your presentation.

If you can’t use slides at all, think through how you’ll deliver your presentation without them - flipchart, whiteboard, nothing? It’s quite possible to deliver a presentation without visuals.

7. My mind will go blank, I’ll go red and I’ll die of humiliation

Truth: You can handle this - you’ve probably handled far worse things in your life and you won’t die. Mind blanks can happen in the stress of a presentation.

Solution: Accept that it’s possible that a mind blank might happen and prepare for it. Have a set of notes that you can refer to, or arrange for a colleague in the audience to prompt you from a script.

Rehearse dealing with a mind blank. Do this in front of 1 or 2 friends. Start delivering your presentation, then pretend that your mind has gone blank. Stop, look down at your notes, take a breath, find where you are and what you want to say next, look up again and find someone to talk to - and start speaking again.

Get feedback from your friends on how long it took, and how it looked. To you it may well feel like an age, but it was probably just a few seconds. And your audience can see what you were doing and will be quite happy to wait till you are ready again. Practice this routine several times until it becomes a comfortable habit. Now if it does happen in a presentation, you’ll have your Plan B ready for action.

Paradoxically, because you’re now prepared for a mind blank and know that you can deal with it, it’s less likely to happen.

Conclusion

None of the things that you think at the time are disasters, truly are disasters. Stuff happens in presentations. Mentally accept that stuff happens and mentally prepare for when stuff happens. If you’ve got a “thinking sin” that I haven’t discussed here, that you’d like some help with, post it in the comments. I’ll reply with some ideas.

There’s no such thing as the perfect presentation

Do you demand presentation perfection? It might be stopping you from performing at your best. This graph shows that having a high expectation for your performance will lead to improved

performance - up to a point. But when you continue to demand more of yourself, beyond the peak of the curve - your nerves get out of hand and your performance plummets.

In my post on overcoming the fear of public speaking I suggested using principles from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help reduce your nervousness.

CBT is based on the theory that your thoughts influence your emotions, which in turn influence your behavior.

Here’s an example of a typical thought you might have:

Notice the word “must” in there. “Must” implies an absolute demand which cannot be broken. The things we must have in life are air, water, food and shelter. If we’re about to lose one of those - it’s potentially a life or death situation - and your body will react with the fight or flight syndrome.

So when you say “must” to yourself you’re signalling to your brain to activate the fight or flight response. That causes adrenalin and cortisol to be released into your body. Your heart pumps blood round your body faster, your muscles get ready for action, your digestive system shuts down. When you get nervous before speaking does your heart beat faster, are your hands shaky, do you get butterflies in your stomach? Those symptoms are a result of the activation of the fight of flight response.

So using the word “Must” contributes to your nervousness. And it’s not true that your presentation must go perfectly - it’s not a matter of life and death.

This thought is neither true or empowering.

Having demolished the old must-based thought, the next step is to replace it with a new, more empowering thought.

I’m not advocating positve thinking. I don’t suggest you say to yourself “The presentation will go perfectly. The audience will hang on my every word and give me a standing ovation”. The problem with the positive thinking approach is that the other half of your brain will then join in and say “Yeah Right!” (Note: If positive thinking works for you that’s great - keep doing what works. But for many people it doesn’t work.)

The new thought must be rational and believable. For example:

This thought lowers the demands you’re making of yourself. It turns the “must” into a goal. It acknowledges the reality that speaking does often involves some stumbles. It still has you aiming for your best performance and makes it more likely that you will achieve it.

In the next post, I’ll look at other “must” thoughts you might have about public speaking and presenting and how you can challenge and replace them with more useful and empowering thoughts.

Overcome your fear of public speaking the proven way

Advice on overcoming the fear of public speaking is easy to come by.

You may have been told, “Just go out there and do it, take every opportunity you can to speak”. But you still get nervous. Here’s a story from someone who has suffered through just going out and doing it:

At one point in my life I was a teacher. I did fine with students, but when it came to parent-teacher conferences, I would dread the experience (the “exposure”) weeks and weeks ahead of time. The anticipatory anxiety and fear was so strong that it gripped at my stomach and made me feel like it was bloody and raw. Over the course of nine years, I was required to go through thirty-three weeks of parent-teacher conferences. I was exposed to one of my greatest fears, and the repetition and further exposure to this fear did not cause me to lose my anxiety and feel more comfortable. Instead, I faced my fears and my fears became even stronger.

Maybe you know that as well as going out there and doing it you need to “think positively” - so you’ve practiced affirmations and visualized your success. If it works for you that’s great. But for many people, positive thinking is not the answer.

Use proven psychological strategies

I believe that we should approach overcoming the fear of public speaking with the same approaches that have been proven to work for other anxiety issues.

That’s because the fear of speaking is on a continuum with severe anxiety. The continuum has a huge range. From slight nervousness before you get up to speak. To loss of sleep for weeks before your presentation. And for some, it’s so debilitating that they avoid public speaking altogether.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is the recognised treatment for severe anxiety. The Social Anxiety Network says:

Meanwhile, in study after study, cognitive – behavioral therapy began to prove to be the therapy of choice for many mental health care problems, including depression and the anxiety disorders. In fact, large-scale, long-range (i.e., longitudinal) studies over the past decade have consistently shown cognitive – behavioral therapy to be the only therapy that can be dependably relied upon to help people overcome clinical anxiety disorders.

The National Institute of Mental Health is the largest scientific organization in the world dedicated to research focused on the understanding, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders. It says:

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is very useful in treating anxiety disorders. The cognitive part helps people change the thinking patterns that support their fears, and the behavioral part helps people change the way they react to anxiety-provoking situations.

So if you get nervous before giving a presentation, use the principles from CBT which are proven to work.

What does this mean?

CBT involves both a behavioral approach and a thinking (cognitive) approach.

Maybe you go out there and present frequently, but you still get nervous. That’s because just going out there and doing it (the behavioral part of CBT) is not necessarily enough on it’s own. You have to change the way you think as well.

In the next post, I’ll look at the common thinking patterns that many of us have about presenting - and which contribute to making you feel nervous. I’ll look at how to replace those thinking patterns with rational and empowering thoughts.