Comments on: Anxiety and public speaking: new research

By: Nightmare speaking experience

Nightmare speaking experience — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:00:14 +0000

[...] a positive experience speaking to start to outweigh the unpleasant experience you had. There is scientific evidence that this is worthwhile. Ask your friends for straight [...]

By: Olivia Mitchell

Olivia Mitchell — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 06:44:31 +0000

Hi Brian
I agree with some of your comments and disagree with others. But I’ve had a quick look at your website and I agree with your general approach (it’s what you think that causes you to be nervous). I think trying to encapsulate your approach in three points has made it a little too concise for clarity.
Olivia

By: Brian Clough

Brian Clough — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 04:53:07 +0000

Hi Olivia,

Interesting isn’t it.

A couple of points about applying this research to public speaking.

1. In my 30 years of speaking I can’t think of a single time when I could have gathered together such a nice nodding, smiling audience straight after a ‘bombed’ performance. I just don’t think it’s practical in the real world. The good news is, I don’t think it’s necessary either.

2. The reality is most of us got ‘zapped with the blue square’ years ago! In other words our learned ‘fear’ of public speaking is well and truly in place. It’s too late for most people.

3. My practical experience and my research shows it’s far better and more practical to do 3 things. Unless all 3 are done I think people can only minimize the fear at best, never actually get fully past it. The 3 things are:
a. Understand the ‘fear’. For example understand they’re not afraid of public speaking at all. They’re just afraid.
b. Love public speaking. If you say you ‘hate’ speaking in public, all that means is you’re scared. Men in particular find it much easier to say they ‘hate’ something, rather than ‘I’m afraid’. In this case ‘love’ is a verb. You either dcide to love it or fear it – your call.
c. Practice public speaking. I agree Toastmasters is great. I’m about to start a Year as President of my Club and I can’t wait! On my website there’s a section where people can use the internet to get as much practice as they like.

The whole site is dedicated to helping people get past the ridiculous herd notion that everyone’s afraid of public speaking (and other stupid myths).

Cheers
Brian
No Fear Public Speaking

By: Fred E. Miller

Fred E. Miller — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 11:17:49 +0000

Good points here, Olivia.

Some people bomb, and immediately give up.

It’s one event, but they take it too personally.

An analogy might be baseball. The best ever hitters still never get to first base over 50% of the time!

Get up, dust yourself off, and do it, again!

By: Benjamin Ball

Benjamin Ball — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:14:54 +0000

The other trick I use with clients is to get them to think they are educating the audience rather than presenting to it. This mind set change results in much calmer focused presenters.

By: Olivia Mitchell

Olivia Mitchell — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:24:53 +0000

Hi Beth, I agree, Toastmasters is a great place to learn confidence, Olivia

By: Beth Bridges

Beth Bridges — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:01:20 +0000

A Toastmasters Club is a guaranteed place to find a friendly and helpful audience. http://www.Toastmasters.org

By: Jessica

Jessica — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:32:32 +0000

The ‘get back on the horse’ theory was the first thing I thought of when I read this post! As a child, I experienced first hand just how important that advice is, but had never thought of applying it to the world of public speaking. Very interesting!

By: Olivia Mitchell

Olivia Mitchell — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:40:26 +0000

Good point – I’m a horse rider and I hadn’t even thought of that!

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:31:06 +0000

This shows the wisdom of the old saw that if you were thrown by a horse, you should get right back up. I can attest that fear diminishes greatly when one has done enough speaking to have flopped, survived, and succeeded again.