To attract high-paying clients and succeed in life, the number one strategy is to leverage public speaking to get there. While being able to speak well in public is important, most people are fearful of public speaking and something fear more than death. So what is it about public speaking we near to fear. Do we really fear it more than death? Does this sound right?
So why the stress? Public speaking triggers the amygdala in your brain (which is where the flight or fight mode is triggered). When you’re in a flight or fight mode, your body switches to the stress and anxiety kicks in.
What can we do about it? Here are 10 tips to help you get started and start speaking without anxiety. There are so many ideas and techniques out there that I could add to this post but I found ones that I think would be most helpful. Some are for those who have been speaking for a bit and others are for beginners. I try to explain all the things that I talk about for those that are new. Stay warm and good luck!
1. Learn How to Put Your Body at Ease
Have you heard of putting your body in certain positions can help you keep a calm state?
If you haven’t then here’s it is. You can use various relaxing techniques to reduce the increase in physiological activity. These techniques that the body produces automatically when facing fear. Learn to relax when thinking about it. Is it the speaking you are fearful of? Is it facing the public you are concerned about? Gradually expose yourself to speaking by filming yourself or give yourself gradual comfort challenges. What I mean is to speak to small groups and gradually grow the group size so you feel more and more comfortable. You will gradually get used to the speaking and also the audience and it will become natural and you will be at ease.
2. Remove the Limiting Belief and Eliminate Anxiety
It is important to face your fear head-on. Why are you not good at public speaking? Is it just your limiting belief? How do you determine you are not good? How are others better? Are these just your imagination and without evidence. Are you lying to yourself? Beliefs cause behaviors. Write down these beliefs and challenge them one by one. Work on them and eliminate these beliefs if there is no evidence of them. And if you really think you are “not good” at something then add a “yet” to the end of the statement and add an action sentence after it. For example, I am not good at Public Speaking Yet but I can use resources online to help me overcome this and be a great speaker. Remember, Beliefs cause behaviors. So eliminate those limiting beliefs and your anxiety will go away.
3. Pose like Superwoman or Superman
Have you heard of power poses can help you increase confidence and reduce anxiety? Studies have shown with a group of participants that those who put themselves through a power pose for 2 minutes prior to coming out more confident and less anxious. Why don’t you try this out the next time you are about to go to a meeting. I don’t mean pose during your meeting or interview. I mean doing it before your event. I have included a link to examples of power poses. This is a Ted Talk from Amy Cuddy – Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are
4. Try not to perform but rather get your idea through
Instead of thinking of it as a performance, think of your next speaking engagement as communicating an idea to your audience that will benefit them. Think about your audience is a benefiting and interested in your idea. You are just a neighbor tell a group other health-conscious and food-loving neighbors a new cafe you found down the road that sells healthy and delicious food at an affordable price. Think about that. You are just telling a group of like-minded people something they are interested in and also will benefit from. Having this mindset will put you at ease and help reduce your anxiety levels.
5. Seek Opportunites to Speak More People
To build confidence and reduce anxiety try to practice speaking more. Whether you’re an introvert or someone who chats a lot, why do you create opportunities to speak more? Keep practicing and write down things that went well and didn’t go as well. Look at it as experiments that you are intentionally having with an aim get more comfortable with public speaking and learn from each experience
6. Track your speaking events and implement a learning log
Break down your previous speaking events into sub-components. Whether it’s from a team meeting update or your local toastmasters
Write down what you did well and not so well. Don’t just say… It was a disaster.
· What part of it didn’t go well.
· Was it my body language?
· Was it the content?
· Was I not engaging enough?
· Did I forget my content?
· Was my topic too broad?
· Did the audience feel bored?
· Next to each one of these categories (or other questions) assesses yourself.
· Did I do well?
· Can I do better?
· Can I improve even though I do well?
7. Practice and Prepare
Once you’ve written your speech, keep practicing. You can practice with a friend, practice looking in the mirror or another good idea is to film yourself. Ask your friend for some constructive feedback. If you are filming yourself, find out what needs improving and not. Make sure you leave plenty of time to practice ahead of time. By mastering the material, it will reduce your anxiety levels.
8. Don’t aim for perfection
Beware of trying to make your speech perfect. This will increase anxiety and pressure. It’s ok to not be perfect. Just know your material, plan, and practice. If you are aiming for perfection and when you are on stage you forget a point here or there, there is a higher chance of getting in trouble. It’s a good idea to tell a story at the beginning of the speech. A story helps to stimulate curiosity and engages the audience. Having humor will put the audience at ease and also yourself.
9. Dress to Impress Your Audience
Dress appropriately. Make a good impression. Make an effort to dress and groom yourself well. The key point is people form first impressions within the first few seconds and those impressions influence their judgment. This is called the Halo Effect – humans make split seconds of first impressions. Appearance is important. Being dress up will form a better impression on your audience. They will be more forgiving if your speech hits a few speed humps.
10. Visualize Your Success.
Prior to your speech (and away from the stage), close your eyes and picture yourself delivering your talk with confidence and enthusiasm. Conduct a visualization exercise either just before the speech or a few days prior. By conducting visualization for success, it helps to condition your brain through the speech without being there. There’s a lot of studies where visualization triggers parts of your brain to believe that you’ve actually done the exercise. So what do I visualize?
- What does the room look like?
- What do the people look like?
- How do you look?
Visualize a confident, well dress you would know the content well and are able to deliver your idea to the audience. Picture your successful presentation in detail and walk through your whole speech in the presentation.
Final Thoughts…
Remember that its only a speech and its not the end of the world. There is no need to have fear and anxiety. You will not die after the speech. Any mistake is recoverable and can be a lesson learned. Think of the entire exercise as a learning opportunity from your perspective and also a learning opportunity from the audience’s perspective. They are there to learn from what you have to share. Share your idea or message as if you were sharing it with an interested group of neighbors. Know your content, practice and visualize your success!