Make a fool of yourself to reduce stage fright and be a more engaging speaker

At the New Media Atlanta conference this year, Chris Brogan was the last keynote of the day. He’d watched all day as the backchannel drowned in snark:

After watching speaker after speaker get slammed via the Backnoise application, I was terrified, because I’d be the last speaker on the stage. They’d said nearly nothing nice about anyone, and I read almost every word with that “don’t look away and things are going to go bad” feeling in my belly.

He could have chosen to play safe. Instead he started his keynote presentation with a rap song: [Read more]

The truth about visualization for public speaking success

Many people think that this type of visualization can help you not only speak better but also help reduce your fear of public speaking.

It may make you feel good at the time, but the scientific evidence doesn’t support the belief that it will help you achieve your best performance or reduce your fear of public speaking.

[Read more]

How to survive watching yourself on video

Do you hate the idea of watching yourself on video? Most people do. But on our courses it’s one of our most powerful tools for helping people to reduce their fear of public speaking. Watching yourself give a presentation can give you a tremendous confidence boost.

That’s because the way that you come across is often better than the way you imagine you come across. That’s because you can feel your nervousness, but the audience can only see it or hear it. Mike Bogle from the TechTicker blog writes:

In listening to the recording I was actually amazed how relaxed I sounded relative to the whirlwind of anxiety that was actually going on inside my head.

[Read more]

How to use your fear of public speaking to be a better speaker

It’s normal to get nervous about public speaking.

When you stand up in front of people and open your mouth, you’re making yourself vulnerable. Public speaking involves risk. So aiming for zero fear is unrealistic.

I still get nervous when I have to present in unfamiliar situations. I’m very used to presenting to small groups of people on a course. That’s my comfort zone. But take me outside of that familiar situation, and I’ll get nervous.

If I were to get upset about being nervous, I would make it worse. I don’t fight my nerves, I use them.

[Read more]

Review of the top 10 methods to overcome fear of public speaking #1

There’s a ton of internet advice on how to overcome the fear of public speaking. Much of the advice is of the “what worked for me” kind. Or the advice is the first stage of trying to sell you a a hypnosis CD. So how do you decide what advice to follow? In this post series, I’ll be reviewing the 10 most recommended methods. Here’s the list (not in any particular order):

1. Affirmations
2. Visualization
3. Hypnosis
4. Relaxation techniques
5. Neuro-Linguistic Programming
6. The Lefkoe method
7. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
8. Medication
9. Just do it
10. Toastmasters

If you think there are others that I should be looking at, let me know. My aim is to look for evidence of effectiveness on a more than anecdotal basis. In this post, I’ll start with affirmations and visualization. [Read more]

Mice show that you can overcome fear of public speaking

If you get nervous about speaking in public, the recently published results from a scientific experiment on mice, should give you some hope. The experiment showed that mice that had been trained to feel calm, coped better with stressful situations.

The mice were trained to associate a specific sound with safety. They were then subjected to a stressful event – a mouse swimming pool that they could not escape from. The mice would eventually give up swimming as if they had given up hope. But when the “safe” sound was made, the mice started swimming again.

The lead researcher, Eric Kandel said: [Read more]

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.

[Read more]

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 Seven Thinking Sins that contribute to the fear of public speaking.

1. My presentation must go perfectly

[Read more]

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.

[Read more]

The four secrets to speaking with experts in the room

Many people who are otherwise confident presenters get nervous when they know that other experts will be in the audience. They think that when they’re the presenter they should know more about the topic than anyone else.

Some presenters focus so much on the other experts, that the presentation goes over the heads of everyone else in the audience.

Here are the secrets to speaking to an audience – with experts in the room. [Read more]