Episode #36: Ending Your Speaker Nerves

When we feel fear, our psychological fight or flight response provides energy to our major muscle groups in the chest, arms and legs. This is great energy to tap, in order to bring our belief and our passion to our messages. Speakers who look tired, bored or uninterested, are not going to be persuading anyone of anything, ever. So we should accept that fear is part of the process of public speaking.

I read that Frank Sinatra felt fear every time before he performed. He always worried that the first note would not be there. Once he got going however, he could relax and enjoy the process. That applies to us as well – we have to get that first couple of minutes settled down and then we can relax and enjoy the opportunity to help the audience through providing our message or our valuable information. Fine, but just how do we do that?

Here are some do’s and don’ts.

1. Don’t put unbelievable pressure on yourself by trying to memorise your talk.Do have some key points you can elaborate on though and have them in a logical sequence, that will be easy for an audience to follow.

2. Don’t spend all of your preparation time putting together the slide deck.Do allocate time for rehearsal. The amount of time spent before our speech is the key to success. Incredibly, most people spend no time rehearsing and wonder why presenting is stressful. Ideally, watch yourself on video if possible, if not then use a mirror and record the audio on your phone, so you can review how you sound. Rehearse as you will give it, looking at all parts of the room, gesturing, using voice modulation, inserting pauses etc., while talking to your imaginary listeners.

3. Don’t look down at your notes or laptop screen for too long though. Do look at the people in your audience and make eye contact with individuals, one by one, so you can speak directly to as many people as possible.

Don’t do that though with audience members who are scowling, doubtful, unhappy, angry, negative, cynical or sneering. Do ignore them completely and look for the audience members who are nodding, smiling, agreeing and look either supportive or at least neutral. This will help to maintain your confidence and equilibrium.

4. Don’t be thrown by anything unexpected - the show must go on.So unless it is an emergency and we have to leave the building, keep going no matter what. Tap into your energy and work with it, rather than try and fight it.