As a career coach, I've had to learn how to overcome
a big personal fear of mine.
The fear public speaking just in order
to be successful in my industry.
So in this video, we'll discuss the causes and symptoms
of the fear of public speaking and I'll share four strategies
that I personally use to overcome my fear
and help me present ideas clearly and confidently.
Make sure to stick around to the end, where I'll give you
some advice for how to course correct
when you're speaking and feeling anxiety creeping in.
Let's dive in by analyzing how anxiety shows itself
in your physical appearance and your speech.
Now, if you're like me, you might
have found yourself exhibiting one or more of these behaviors
while you've been speaking in the past.
Rushing.
This is the one that I'm personally
affected by the most.
And it's often really bothersome because you can actually hear
yourself speaking too fast.
And that can increase your anxiety even more.
In some of the more extreme cases,
speaking too quickly can interrupt your breathing
patterns causing the sensation of being unable to breathe
leading you to panic.
Monotone voice.
So it's possible to over-prepare and memorize
your speech word for word.
Now, when you do this, it can lead you
to speaking in a flat voice because you're more focused
on what you're saying, not necessarily how
you're saying it.
Avoiding eye contact.
Sometimes in an effort just to get
through the process of speaking publicly,
we avoid or ignore the audience.
And what seems like an honest attempt to ease anxiety,
we lose our connection with the audience.
We can become less engaging.
Fidgeting or trembling.
Creating movement during your speech
is a great tool to engage the audience.
But when you're nervous, your movements
may make the audience feel uneasy.
Your fear may actually cause you to shuffle your cue cards,
target at your clothing, or piece frequently
across the stage.
It may also cause your hands or your body to tremble.
Blanking out.
So this happens to the best of us.
Sometimes even when you've thoroughly
practiced and prepared, you might
find yourself searching for the right word
to get you through just to your next thought.
Or maybe you went off script a bit
and have trouble finding your way back.
OK.
All that was heavy I know.
But now, that the ways that the fear
can impact your speech behavior, we
can discuss four strategies for prevention.
Strategy number 1.
Focus on your topic.
When you're speaking, it's because you have something
to share.
This may seem overly simplified.
But it's easy to fixate on the way
that we present things or the fears
about what's going to happen next when we really just need
to focus on sharing our message.
If we can shift our attention off of ourselves and off
of our audience, and instead focus
on what it is we need to communicate,
and why it's valuable, it can prevent us from spinning out.
So get interested in what you have to say
and then saying it as clearly as possible.
Of course, in order to focus on your message,
we need to prepare.
Luckily, there's no limit to how prepared
you can be for your next public speaking event.
You can cultivate your confidence on the subject
that you need to speak about.
In my opinion, this is one of the most effective strategies.
When you present on a topic you're both knowledgeable in
and very interested in, you're able to accomplish two things.
Speak confidently on the topic and share your enthusiasm
with the audience.
When you speak about something deeply,
your interest will spill over into your audience accreting
interest and rapport.
And when the topic well, you give yourself a safety net.
It's easier to get back on track when you're speaking
and recognize that you're going off script.
If you start to blink and forget what you're saying,
just ask yourself this question.
What are the most important points I need to get across?
If you're presenting, identify the top three
to five main points and discuss them.
You might have a visual aid like a slide show
that can help get you back on track.
But if you're speaking in a meeting,
just focus on sharing the single most important takeaway.
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Strategy number 2.
Know your audience.
This strategy is especially effective for overcoming
the fear of judgment.
It's commentary about how what we have to say
is going to be received by the audience.
You might ask yourself, what if they don't agree with me,
or what if I say something wrong?
Your thoughts about yourself are likely way
worse than the audience's thoughts of you.
If you're concerned about how what you have to say
is going to be received, consider your audience.
Think about what type of information
they would find valuable and what
their expectations could be.
If you're sharing ideas in a meeting,
people often aren't expecting a drawn out presentation.
Your time might be limited, so they may expect you just
to stick to the essentials.
If you're making a formal presentation,
the audience may expect a slide show,
and they want to walk away feeling like they've
learned new information.
If you're speaking with a technical group of people,
provide data and use visuals to keep
your presentation engaging.
In general, the larger the audience, the more formal
you should be.
Sitting down and using conversational language
when speaking to a group of 10 people
is often really appropriate.
More importantly, remind yourself
that the audience is likely rooting for you to succeed.
You and the audience are in this experience together.
They want to learn from you and your perspective,
so you can lean on them for support.
And like we talked about at the beginning of the video,
overpreparing can lead you to placing an emphasis
on saying the speech verbatim.
It can lead to sounding and enthusiastic about the topic,
even if you're just attempting to stick to the script.
And just the audience will mirror your behavior.
For instance, if you include inflections in your voice,
and display excitement, and what you're speaking about,
the audience will probably be more excited and engaged.
And this will reduce your anxiety
as you build rapport with the audience.
And you might actually begin to enjoy presenting.
It's important to start off on the right foot with an audience
by introducing yourself well.
If you'd like more tips on that, check out
this video I made on how to create the perfect elevator
pitch.
Speaking to large audiences can seem daunting at first.
If you have to give a speech at a wedding
or present to a large group, it could
feel like you're going from 0 to 60 miles per hour.
And this leads us to our next strategy for overcoming
the fear of public speaking.
Start small.
It might be hard to believe.
But if you can speak to a small group of people,
chances are you can speak to a large group of people too.
So start to build confidence in smaller groups first.
At home, in meetings, or in small group discussions
are great places to start practicing public speaking.
These environments allow you to start
adjusting to voicing your opinion
and adding to conversations with a group of people
that you're comfortable with.
You can start a conversation at your dinner table.
Give your family or friends a one minute overview
of something good that happened to you today.
Talk about what happened and why it was important to you.
In school or at work, give yourself
a goal to add one meaningful comment
in class or in a meeting.
As you do this, make eye contact with the audience.
Avoid looking away or down at your computer.
Practice in a mirror.
I know it sounds silly.
But watching yourself talk allows
you to see how you're presenting information verbally
and nonverbally.
You're able to pay attention to your body language,
where you're looking.
And if you're using any distracting hand gestures.
This leads me to strategy for and I bet you can guess it.
Practice.
Practicing is an excellent way to overcome your fear public
speaking because it can alleviate the fear of appearing
nervous and unprepared.
Start by writing down your main ideas
on a note card in bullet point format.
Have a new card where you don't have every word of your speech
written.
It's OK to write everything down at first.
I actually really do this myself.
But I really want you to practice by sticking
to using only bullet points.
You don't want to rely on the note cards.
You just want to have them in case
you need to get back on track.
So we just talked about practicing
in front of family, friends, or even in front of a mirror.
Rehearse what you want to say as many times as necessary
until the words are flowing freely.
During your rehearsal, try to avoid common filler
words such as uh and uhm or any specific words or phrases
that you recognize you fall back on.
If you're preparing for a presentation, time yourself.
Use your watch or your phone to make sure
that you're staying within the target time frame.
Practice your pace.
We talked about rushing as an effect.
So make efforts to deliberately slow your speech.
The audience will understand you better when you slow down
and use efficient parsing.
This allows them to process the information
and it allows you to gather your thoughts for what
you'd like to say next.
Practice speaking in the direction of different points
of the room.
Making eye contact the audience allows you to connect with them
on a human level.
When you speak to a crowd, you want
to engage the whole audience.
To get comfortable with the movement, go to an empty room
or you can even stand in front of a mirror.
Start by facing forward and then turn your head to the left
or to the right to find a different focal point
on the wall about where your audience is eye-level would be.
From there, adjust your gaze to different focal points
on the wall.
Speak to each for a few moments at a time,
and then take your gaze to another part of the room.
Your motion should be fluid.
But this will allow you to start building
the habit of making eye contact with people
in different parts of the room to engage the whole audience.
Watching videos of proficient speakers can also help.
Consider watching motivational speakers, or even
your favorite YouTube channel, and watch
how information is presented.
This type of observation can give you
tips for how to improve.
But I highly recommend practicing
by speaking out loud.
I've mentioned this before and I think it's
really worth mentioning again.
But there is such a thing as over practicing.
The goal is to be able to feel comfortable
that your main points.
Part of overcoming your fear can be
recognizing that you're prepared, confident,
and capable.
So what happens when you're ready to speak?
You've practiced, you feel prepared.
You might even be speaking when you find yourself slipping back
into behaviors that you'd like to avoid.
Blanking out, rushing, being monotone.
What do you do when you catch the anxiety creeping back in?
So I actually remember a time I find myself presenting my team
strategy to my company of about 200 people.
I had written my five-minute speech,
practice it the night before, and even the morning
of the presentation.
I had been working on my team strategy for weeks.
And I felt confident about what I was about to present.
And then I got up in front of everybody.
And I suddenly felt overwhelmed by the gravity
of the situation.
As I started my presentation, I could
feel myself talking too fast, and I could hear
the tremor in my own voice.
So I stopped.
I smiled at the audience.
And I said, excuse me.
And then I took a deep breath.
To get back on track, I said, as I
was saying I paid attention to my speech rate
and I refocused on the core message I needed to share.
I reassured myself by finding the people
that I support me and cheer me on in the audience.
As I met their eyes across the room,
they smiled and they nodded their head in agreement
with what I had to say.
And that support really helped me to relax.
So let's break that down.
To course correct, take a moment.
You can verbally ask for one or you can just stop and take
one for yourself.
Take a deep breath.
It may feel like an eternity to you.
But it really is it.
Silence is OK.
Smile to signal to the audience that you're OK.
They might not even notice that you're feeling overwhelmed.
But a smile works to remain engaged and connected
with them.
Internally acknowledge how your anxiety is affecting you
and practice one of the strategies
we covered to remedy it.
Pick up where you left off by saying as I was saying,
we're just simply move on.
Refocus on the core idea you need to share.
Make eye contact with the people in the audience that support
you to continue to relax.
For more tips on how to improve your communication
in the workplace, be sure to check out this video right
here.
Let's recap.
To overcome the fear of public speaking, recognize the way
the anxiety affects you.
Do you rush, fidget?
Do you find yourself speaking all in the same tone
or blinking out?
Then practice one of these strategies.
Identify the key takeaways you want
the audience to leave with.
Plan to meet the expectations of the audience,
start practicing with a small group first,
and watch how you communicate verbally and nonverbally.
If anxiety creeps up on you, give yourself
a moment to reset.
Take a deep breath, smile, and stay the course.
If you found this helpful, please hit the like button down
below.
Subscribe to our channel right here.
And for more tips on interviewing,
I recommend checking out the playlist that you're
going to find right here.
Or even watch your video on how to improve your communication
in the workplace.
I hope you found this information helpful,
and they were able to see that even though this fear is common
and sometimes overwhelming, it is manageable,
and you can become an engaging public speaker.