7 STRATEGIES TO OVERCOME FEAR AND BECOME A PASSIONATE AND INFLUENTIAL SPEAKER

Table of Contents

Introduction.. 3

Strategy 1: Preparation.. 4

Strategy 2: Arranging your Speech.. 7

Strategy 3: Rehearsal and Role Play. 10

Strategy 4: Evaluate and Know your Audience. 14

Strategy 5: Tap your Energy. 17

Strategy 6: Conquering Your Fear. 21

Strategy 7: Mistakes to Avoid.. 24

Introduction

If you’re afraid of public speaking, you’re not alone. Surveys show that people rank their fear of getting in front of a group and talking more than they fear death.

All human relationships are built upon effective language in speaking. Doors and opportunities open for people who know their way with words and who can speak well. Oral presentations are similar to any other human interaction with the scale being much, much larger. These kinds of events also have an effect on the relationships on a more intimate level.

A lot of people have a lot of anxiety when they only think of speaking in public. There is really no need for that, and you can combat this easily. This kind of performance has been a part of our history for many centuries and it is held in pretty high regard by many.

Some people are excited by the possible challenge offered by public speaking while others don’t even want to hear or think about having to give a speech. A lot of people have a lot of interest in getting over the fear of public speaking. Public speaking is among the most frightening things most people don’t want to go through. The fear of public speaking takes the top spot, followed by a fear of death.

Even though speaking in front of an audience may be overwhelming, it is possible for a lot of people to overcome this fear. It is necessary to understand public speaking in order to be successful in overcoming this fear.

This book is all about describing public speaking so that you could understand and control your fears to a greater extent. After reading this book, you will be equipped with strategies that will make it more than possible for you to deliver a quality speech no matter if a speech is over video or on a stage during a special occasion.

This book will sharpen your skills as well as grow your public speaking speech and help you overcome the fear that comes with it.

Congratulations and Best of Luck!!!

Strategy 1: Preparation

Preparation plays a big part in how well your presentation, speech or interview goes. In my experience, there is a direct link between nerves and lack of preparation. The more prepared you are, the less strain you put on yourself and consequently the less anxious you feel.

Let’s assume you are the sort of person who is very likely to prepare. Buying and reading a book takes a bit of effort, as does researching which book to buy. The word “research” is very important here. It applies to whatever subject you are preparing to discuss.

In other words, know your topic. Understand what you are speaking about inside out. You are then less likely to be “caught off guard” and feel like an impostor during your speech. In turn, this will reduce your nervousness.

If you are the sort of person who tries to “wing it” then I suggest you stop leaving it to chance, do the ground work and give yourself a real shot at being a good public speaker.

To script or not to script: That is the question.

I usually get asked: should I use a script? A script is when the speaker writes out word for word what they are going to say. In acting, unless we are using improvisation or devising techniques, an actor always has a script. You may be surprised to learn then, that my advice to 99% of my clients is AVOID SCRIPTS in public speaking. And here are a few reasons why.

When someone asks you to deliver a speech or a presentation, they want you to talk to them. Not read to them. Otherwise they would say “Could you do a reading at the next seminar?” Or better still, they would simply ask you to email the document to all the attendees of the event to save people from leaving their desks. Public speaking is about Speaking. Not Reading. You want to talk to people, engage with them and let them feel part of your presentation.

When you have a script, your energy and voice tend to go down towards that script. You look up for the sake of creating the illusion of eye contact, not because you are speaking to people but because you were told to look up every three seconds by your school teacher when you were 7 years old.

Unless you are an amazing story-teller and can speak words from a page as though they were not written at all, your presentation is already far less interesting for the listener. In fact, this is exactly what they become, a listener. Not an audience. As a performer (which you are when you speak in public), you want an audience. A live interaction of energies that can give you a boost when you see people are interested. Maybe they laugh at your joke or cry when you need to hit home on a sad reality. Unless you are at a professional actor’s standard, reading rarely induces the same genuine reaction.

Having a script also means there is no room for any deviation, even when your circumstance demands one, such as having a lively audience and wishing you could interact more. Or the opposite may occur, when your audience is not responsive and it’s very difficult to improvise if the script isn’t working. You could lose your place at any moment and experience that gaping silence while you try to find your place again.

Overall, having a script and preparing to use it, means you have to stick with it, come what may.

There are so many words in a script and usually lots of pages to get through. When you are reading, there is a tendency to get to the end. To finish it. Imagine you are fluttering through the pages while all those faces are looking at you. Your nerves will likely be on a higher scale than normal. Your heart rate increases, your speech quickens and even though you took your time when you practiced it at home, suddenly you feel under pressure to rush through your presentation.

We can attribute this to three common factors.

1. You want to get this over with as quickly as possible because you hate speaking in public
2. You are not seeing a response from your audience and you fear that you are boring them or that they think you don’t deserve to be there
3. You are nervous and have limited control over your tempo, voice or brain functions

Although the last point can still happen without a script, in my experience, it’s much more likely to happen with a script. Even with this knowledge, I can understand the thoughts and fears that may be going through your head right now. What if I forget what I am talking about? What if all those faces put me off?

I’ve heard many reasons for not binning-the-script in my time and I assure you, while you may think your script is your “safety net” … it’s still a net. It restricts you, entangles you and makes it almost impossible for you to be a free-flowing public speaker.

So, what’s the best way to prepare to ensure you will remember what to say?

In my opinion, the best way to prepare for your presentation or speaking event is to gather together all your relevant facts and exactly what you would like to cover. Then use bullet points on cue cards.

For example, let’s say you want to talk about your experience with public speaking and how you got over your fear.

You may start by recalling your worst experience, then follow on with what you did training wise (maybe you read this book, enrolled onto a course, etc). Then you discuss how you eventually overcame your fear, before your summaries, leaving your audience with something memorable to think about.

I would recommend you use three small index cards. These are great because if you are nervous, they won’t shake like A4 paper. On each card, write a heading and up to three bullet points.

For example:

Bad Experience

– Big work conference, trying to impress boss

– Used a script, kept stumbling over lines, no-one laughed at jokes

– Felt embarrassed

Training

– Researched who could help me

– Read this book

– Gained the skills I needed and realized I could do this

Good Result

– Next event I had more confidence, no script

– Looked at audience, interacted more, stayed calm

– Brilliant feedback, boss impressed

During your rehearsal, it’s likely that as you start to build the structure of your speech, certain words will come to mean more to you and they will trigger the response automatically. For example, in the cards above, after just 3 weeks of preparation and rehearsal, the title “GOOD RESULT” may be all you need to start talking about the success of the next event, where you had more confidence, no script, received great feedback and impressed your boss. Therefore “GOOD RESULT” becomes your cue word or trigger response, meaning you won’t need the rest of your notes on the day.

You may also find you have more cards/notes than you really need, especially in the initial stages of your preparation. It’s important that you resist the temptation to expand every bullet point with a paragraph of information. Keep it short and to the point. Be ruthless. Do you really need a card entitled “INTRODUCTION” with a bullet point saying “My name is….” or “My job is….”?

You are not likely to forget your own name or simple things about yourself or a topic you know very well.

If you overload the cards with unnecessary information and even sentences, it will likely hinder your presentation because it becomes more like a script again.

The beginning of your presentation is a great place to make sure you are engaging with the audience. It’s the part where most of what you say you will know very well and don’t need to mention in your cards. Such as “My name is…”, “Today I’m going to talk to you about…”.

If you write this information down, you will start your speech with a strong focus on your cards and not on your audience. If you focus on your audience first (by omitting this obvious information from your cards) you have already built an interaction with them at the very beginning, that makes your talk easier in the long run. This is the same for your conclusion. You want to look at your audience, talk to them, engage with them. After all, they are there for you, not your notes.

Strategy 2: Arranging your Speech

Start A Speech

Both the start and end of a talk are important foundations, so it’s worth getting good at these ‘bookends. The most reliable way to start is to state your title and give an overview of your chunks.  The ‘overview’ satisfies your listeners’ questions; As simple as this sounds, it’s a powerful way to start. It includes an overview which satisfies 2 questions in the mind of your audience:

• Where is this talk going? and;
• Is it relevant to me?

The overview sets the scene and helps the audience feel comfortable and curious about your content. Think about a distinctive person in your audience. Their concentration is full of to-do lists as well as daydreams, and you walk on stage. They’ve been in boring presentations in the past and wonder if yours will be interesting. They look at you… thinking how considerable attention to give. The overview ensures you start with clarity and certainty.

We know that all anxiety is caused by uncertainty, but we haven’t yet focused that idea on the audience. When your listeners are uncertain about where your presentation is going, or whether you’ll be covering things of interest to them, they feel a little uncomfortable – uncertain. Yet when you make it clear where you’re headed, and they can see your talk will be relevant, they feel strangely satisfied. When you put them into this comfortable state at the start of a speech, it activates their minds and makes them feel better about you as a speaker.

An optional introduction

The overview is simple and reliable, but short. An introduction is one way to add ‘flavor’ to your presentation. It can include any creative idea, such as those listed later in this section. For example, a story, quote, metaphor, top and tail, provocative question, etc.

The top row of the speech Structure diagram includes:

• Scene setting,
• Creative opening & closing and
• Personal view.

1. Scene setting

The scene setting part of your introduction can be used to cover things like: the situation that led to this talk, your role, your company’s credentials or ‘housekeeping issues’ like where the coffee is, when you’ll break, if there is a handout, etc.

This is also the time for the awesome “Just before we get started…” tactic. This technique can transform a cold or hostile environment into a relaxed and welcoming one. When you walk out as the speaker, the silence in the room, and all the eyes focused on you, can seem empty, cheerless and a little daunting. If you don’t do anything to address this energy void, it may take a long time for the room to warm up on its own.

A lot of speakers mistake this common, understandable starting energy as a difficult audience. They walk out and think, ‘Oh god…this is a tough room!’ But, if you take on what you perceive as ‘the negative mood of the room’, you set it in stone. You might think, ‘They’re all serious here, so I’ll be serious too’. And you just hope somehow it will change.

But why would it?

As soon as the audience sees that you’re serious, uncomfortable or formal, they think ‘Ok, that’s the style of this talk’ and follow it as well. It becomes a self-reinforcing loop between speaker and audience.

But you don’t have to fall into this trap. Think of it this way: there is no existing ‘mood of the room’, because they are all waiting for you to define it!

The beautiful thing is that you, as the speaker, have much more power and control to reset the mood of the room than you realize. So, even if it’s a cold room, you walk in and say very casually… ‘Just before we get started…’ And everybody relaxes. The pressure of the start dissolves, and we are in conversation mode. Here are some examples:

Just before we get started, I want to ask you a question, tell me… (and then ask them a question)

Or…

Just before we get started, let me give you some background on why we’re all together in this room today… (and then give them the background)

Or…

Just before we get started, we’re talking about a project update today, but let’s look at why this project is happening in the first place… (and then explain).

You can use this technique to ease into a presentation, get your pace right, ensure your breathing is comfortable and adjust to the room.

2. Creative Opening (top and tail)

You can use an introduction to pique interest or paint a picture with a story, chart, dramatic statement or provocative question. For example:

“We will never run out of oil.”

“Half of what you know about health is wrong.”

“Imagine living 100 years ago…”

You can be as dramatic as you feel is appropriate, but make sure your creativity is linked to the message you want them to remember. There’s no point in having them remember your inventive opening, then forget your message. The best way to link your creative opening with your message is to think in terms of a ‘top and tail’.

A ‘top and tail’ means starting your speech (the top) with a statement or idea, and then ending the speech with the same statement or idea (the tail) by linking it to your final message.

For example, start by holding up a document titled ‘Peak Oil’, (which states that the world is running out of oil) and say ‘Today I’ll explain why we will never run out of oil’. Then go through your presentation showing the new oil discoveries. At the end you hold the document up again as you state your message that we’ll never run out of oil, supported by your key points. (You could even rip the document up at the end if you like the drama of it).

Your ‘top and tail’ might simply start with a quote that relates to your message. At the end, you recall that quote and link it to your message.

3. Personal view

If you have a strong opinion about the topic, or think it’s especially important, tell them so at the start. Sharing your emotions can have great impact. A personal view might include your reason for speaking, your excitement or your disappointment. For example:

“Before we get into the details, I’d like to recognize how hard the team has worked on this proposal. I’m really proud and excited with what we’ve come up with. So let’s have a look at it…”

So, the introduction can include the options listed above, or others that you cherry-pick from the next section. Use your own judgement, however a shorter introduction is usually better than a long one.

TO END A SPEECH

The end of your talk is automatically a focal point for your listeners. The point in time where you say your last words, is the most favorable time to embed a message. However, it’s incredible how numerous presenters seem amazed by the ending of their own talk! Have you noticed this? The last slide comes up and then the presenter says,

“Oh, um, I guess that’s it. So… any questions?”

This is your big ending?! Certainly not the way to gain credibility and clarity at the end of your talk. The end of your presentation is your golden moment to leverage all the words you’ve said up to that point.

A weak finishing diminishes your credibility. Why? When the audience doesn’t get the structure they crave, your ideas seem a little weaker, less important, less memorable, less complete. And because you’re the speaker who delivered this unsatisfying combination, you don’t appear to have as much authority. There are a few options in the way you end, so it’s helpful to think of the end as having 2 stages:

• Your wrap-up.
• Your final message.

Your wrap-up

A wrap-up can include a recap of your main points. This might be as simple as repeating ‘bottom line points’ from the end of each chunk. It’s not required, but might flow well leading up to your message, especially for long talks. Test it out loud to find out.

Your wrap-up can also be a setup for your big ending, like Steve Jobs’ Stanford Speech where he told a story that put his final message in context. The wrap-up might be where you tie up your ‘top and tail’, referring back to a point you mentioned at the start so you can then link it to your message.

Your final message

And now it‘s time! Time for your final message. So, face the audience. You can indicate to your audience that you know it’s the end, by taking a breath. Or pausing. Or saying something like, ‘To wrap up,’ ‘In conclusion’ or ‘Here’s what to do next’. This sets their mind up for your memorable statement.

Your Message Statement now has a uniting power. It coalesces all your information into a satisfying, recallable, transferable summary. The ending message helps the audience see the logical flow of your information and it ties your presentation up with a bow

Strategy 3: Rehearsal and Role Play

People with intense fear of public speaking or performing have usually had the terrifying experience of a panic attack before or during a speaking or performing event. A panic attack is a period of intense fear or discomfort in which at least four of the following symptoms have developed abruptly and reached a peak within ten minutes. Let’s talk about Brain Freeze.

You know how it starts. Your heart pounds in your chest. Your hands get clammy. Your stomach folds into itself. You start to sweat. Your breaths become shorter. Your voice is weak or trembling. Your mouth is dry. Your knees are shaking. Your face flushes red. Everyone is staring at you. Suddenly you stop thinking about yourself and focus on them.

The audience.

They see you are nervous. They know you have forgotten what you were going to say. Maybe they think you can’t do your job properly. Maybe you can’t do your job properly. Maybe you don’t deserve to be there… maybe they will know you are false…. Maybe…. maybe….and then…

Brain Freeze.

It’s amazing how many people prepare well for a presentation and then still get Brain Freeze when it comes to the delivery.

It’s one of the most common problems I see as a public speaking coach. Speakers have researched their topic, put their slides together, gone over the slides a million times in front of the computer, editing as they practise until they are happy. Then they turn up on the day of the event, stick in their USB, look up at the audience and BOOM!

The reality of the situation suddenly hits them. People, faces, eyes. Silence. Waiting for you to speak, to lead, to teach or to fail.

I know how horrible this feels and how terrifying it can be. But let’s begin by explaining why this happens.

When you prepare your presentation in front of your computer, your brain is situation learning your talk.

Situated Learning is a theory developed by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger in the early 1990s which suggests that learners are more likely to learn by actively participating in the real activities of the learning experience. Learning is therefore relative to the learning environment.

In other words, if you learn your presentation in front of your computer without considering the bigger picture such as the venue, the audience, whether you will be standing in front of a podium or walking around the space, your learning experience will be very limited.

When it comes to presenting your talk in front of your audience, you are attempting to transfer your learned talk to a completely different situation. You are expecting your brain to automatically transfer this talk from the learned experience of sitting in front of a computer by yourself, to standing up and performing in front of a large audience in what might be an auditorium, lecture hall, etc. The two situations are very different. Your brain has learned to produce this talk exactly as you have been practising. In front of your computer, talking to yourself and your screen. Not presenting to many people in a large room.

And so your brain freezes as it attempts to rewire itself under vast amounts of pressure. For some people, the brain does manage this… eventually. That is why the beginning of your talk can often be your lowest point and your most nerve-wracking. If after a few minutes into your talk you seem to “click” into the rhythm of things and you begin to relax, then you will know this is your brain adjusting your talk to the new setting.

Luckily, this type of Brain Freeze is purely down to Rehearsal (or lack thereof) and it’s easy to fix.

Rehearsal in not sitting in front of your computer. Rehearsal is practising your piece on your feet, doing exactly what you would do on the day (or as close as you can to replicate the environment and situation). Most of this will be using your imagination. Visualising the room, the projector, the screen, the lectern, the podium, the audience, the faces, the eyes. Practise your speech the way you want to deliver it on the day. Then when you finally get to present, your body – and more importantly your brain – will be ready.

Think about an actor. He doesn’t just learn his lines, turn up on stage and go for it. He spends many days, weeks and months rehearsing the scene, the situation, the character and the pace and tone of delivery. These are all key to his performance. And he can only achieve this through proper rehearsal. Even in the beginning stages, while the actor learns his lines in the privacy of his own home, he is very much aware that he will eventually be performing this on stage or on set, with other actors. That knowledge is always there for him.

For public speakers, we almost have a harder job because we rarely get to practise in the space we will perform beforehand. So we’ve got to start getting our brain and body ready from the outset. After we prepare our presentation, we have to start rehearsing as soon as we can.

The purpose of rehearsal is not just to avoid Brain Freeze. It’s a very important part of your preparation stage. In fact the structure of your piece is likely to change based on what you learn and feel during the rehearsal process.

For example, you may find that during your rehearsal you keep stumbling over the same slide (no matter how many times you go over it). Normally this indicates there is an issue with the flow of your piece, which is usually down to problems with the structure. Realising this stumble is a sign that something isn’t right. And it allows you to recognise the issue, investigate and change it. If you hadn’t rehearsed, you may have missed the issue and got tongue-tied during your delivery on the actual day of the event.

Therefore, rehearsal also improves the structure of your presentation as well as your delivery of it.

It’s important to mention that the flow of your talk will also change as you begin to improvise around the topics (rather than reading them directly from a script). Each time you rehearse you will be saying the same thing slightly differently, which builds more connections in your brain thus enhancing your brain’s ability to retrieve stored information on the day.

As you may already know, the brain is made up of billions of neurons which are nerve cells that communicate with each other by sending chemical messages and signals. As you learn something new, such as your presentation topic, your neurons send and receive information about the presentation. As you practise, or in our case rehearse, your neural pathways become more and more efficient as they wire together and connections between them strengthen. Consequently, they take less time to signal to each other and communicate.

While you rehearse, you are building and strengthening the neurological pathways more and more around your topic, giving you better, easier and quicker access to your knowledge base. You will not only become better at speaking about your topic and presentation, but you will also become quicker when thinking about it too.

This improves both your understanding of your talk, your delivery and your confidence. You’ll be acquiring knowledge faster and with much more ease every time you rehearse.

Rehearsal also helps you with the Question and Answer session at the end of your presentation. Being put on the spot and unable to prepare for every question asked can be a very stressful part of any presentation. Yet, if you have rehearsed and effortlessly wired all these neuron connections, you and your brain will be very familiar with speaking about the topic in many different ways and retrieving the information you need using different brain connections and neurological pathways. When using a script, you don’t get this extra training as you are only going over your topic one way.

And the extra benefits of rehearsal don’t stop there.

As you rehearse your presentation and speak about your topic in many different ways, you are also building your improvisational skills, an actor’s most useful tool.

Improvisation is what we do when we create something spontaneously, normally with very little preparation. It’s a skill actors and public speakers need as they are constantly put on the spot, having to come up with ideas, answers or explanations that they haven’t necessarily prepared for. By developing improvisation skills, speakers become more confident in their ability to “trust themselves” and “just go for it”.

Role-Play

As I’m sure you will now realise, the skills of an actor and performer are very useful for public speakers. You rarely get an actor who finds it difficult to speak in public. Yes, some actors may feel nervous but their training kicks in and they get on with it. Actors either have a natural talent for being on stage and film or they learn their craft. Either way, all performers benefit from skill development and training their mind, body and voice.

And that’s what public speaking is. A performance. It’s all about stepping into the role of something or someone for a short time to get the job done.

We have many roles in life. The role of the father or mother. The role of the daughter or son. The role of the professional manager versus the role of the chilled-out husband as he lounges on the sofa watching TV on his day off. We all have roles and costumes we step into throughout the day and throughout our life.

Even new speakers who come to me and say, “I just want to be myself up there”. That is great but what part of themselves is it better to be?

People spend their whole lives wondering who they are and what their purpose is. Motivational speakers, philosophers and spiritual leaders makes millions from helping people to find themselves or their purpose in life.

Actors see many different purposes and many different roles. And that’s what makes them happy. The idea of role-play is very important in public speaking. It’s something all actors know! And we apply this each time we have to speak in public or perform. New speakers can often misunderstand the concept of role-play and acting, discounting their value, perhaps believing it to mean they are being false or telling lies.

I’m finding more and more people don’t want to fake it until they make it. They want to be sincere and genuine.

And while this is very possible if you are presenting, you must remember you are still on stage, and you are still performing. Being able to step into a role will help you deliver a stronger presentation and also ensure you retain your integrity, reduce your vulnerability, and make it easier to step back into another role after your event. For example, returning to your family at night after a huge, successful day, without losing perspective on the most important things in your life (i.e. those you love).

When you are presenting, going for an interview, or giving a speech at a wedding, it’s always going to be you. You just want a specific part of you to step into. The part that’s going to sell your product or get you that job offer. Not the part that lazes around on a Sunday afternoon.

I understand people want to be sincere. I do too. So I don’t ask clients to “fake it until you make it.” I say: “Imagine until you become.”

Like an actor, you need to know your character, know your role, use your imagination, step into that role and become that role! Perform it. Do your job. Then drop your role and come back to your real life. To those you love, or places you feel strong and at home in. Knowing when to drop the role and relax is just as important as getting into it. As most actors know, they can’t sustain their character for long periods, as it’s not healthy. If you are choosing to play the Successful Motivational Speaker, that’s going to take up a lot of your energy. So know when to call upon your role and know when to let it rest.

If you are reading this and still have doubt in your ability to perform, or successfully carry out a role, just imagine you are a confident public speaker. Perceive and expect this. Then one day you will be presenting and you will realise you no longer need to imagine. Perhaps you’ll no longer question why you are there or wonder if anyone knows you don’t “belong” (the impostor syndrome). In fact, very often speakers like you become many years before they even realise it.

How do we step into roles? Even if you are not an actor, you can do this. Let’s look back to Chapter Five: Emotions, when you were given an occupation or stereotypical character. You were playing around and seeing how situations and characters felt, based on your own perceptions. Perhaps some helped you feel confident, while others made you uncomfortable. As speakers, we must select the correct role that we wish to step into, to best achieve our objective.

Grab a pen and paper and let’s go through a few steps. This exercise can be done almost anywhere (as long as you don’t have to communicate with anyone). It will take up to 5 minutes.

Think of an event, presentation, meeting or situation you have coming up that relates to public speaking.

What is your objective? An example for a presentation might be: “I want to sell my product” or for a team meeting: “I want to deliver my report with clarity and authority”.

What is your perception of this event right now? If it’s negative, then change it into something positive. Examples might be: “I expect it to go well” or “I expect to deliver my presentation with confidence and clarity” or “I will speak with confidence and engage my team”.

What are your emotions regarding this event? If there is anything negative, be aware and then try to change them into positive emotions like you did in Chapter 5. Examples may be: “I feel confident, calm and prepared” or “I feel excited at the challenge”.

Now think about what role would best serve you to help achieve your objective.

For example: “A confident public speaker, knowledgeable about my topic and ready to do this” or “A successful entrepreneur and motivational speaker” or “A knowledgeable, passionate and confident team player and leader who is open and assertive”.

After you’ve considered the best role, then think about what uniform you would wear to suit this role? Examples may be smart Jeans, smart belt, smart shirt, shiny shoes, slick hair and a trim beard. Or normal work clothes, hair tied back, red lipstick, red nails and a cute black leather case.

The procedure you have just carried out is invaluable when you start preparing for your speaking event. You will automatically design your talk around achieving your objective.

With practice, the way you approach your presentation may start to deviate from this basic structure and that is fine. Experimenting means we can learn what works and what doesn’t for us, as individual speakers. Make sure you do the above exercise before you start any preparation, to you give yourself the best possible start.

Now let’s try stepping into the role using a practice exercise I call, The Line Technique.

You’ll need a bit of space and you’ll want to be alone for about 5 minutes.

Stand up and look down at your feet. Imagine there is a line in front of you. Where you are now represents the present moment. Over the line represents where you want to be, who you want to be, what role you wish to step into, and how you want to feel.

Be aware of what the line looks like to you? What colour is it? What width? What depth? Does it have height? Or is dug into the ground?

Recall the role you want to step into. Or use my go-to affirmation: “I’m a confident public speaker, knowledgeable about my topic and ready to do this!”

Be aware of where you are right now, and where you want to be….

And now CROSS THE LINE! STEP UP to this new role!

Walk around and see how you feel.

This is a great exercise to help you get into your role. You can use The Line Technique throughout the day. In fact, the more you practise crossing the line and stepping up into your role, the easier it will become. You can do it in public too and no-one will know. For example, if you are at work and feel a bit down, pull your shoulders back, imagine you are feeling confident, open and happy, cross the line and see what happens!

Strategy 4: Evaluate and Know your Audience

Is Your Audience Against You?

Although, from your point of view, you may fear that your audience has come to your event to judge you and notice everything you do wrong, in reality, these people are, for the most part, on your side. They have given their time, and often their money, to hear what you have to say. They want you to succeed.

You may fear that you’re going to disappoint them. However, unless they’ve been dragged to the event by a friend or a spouse, they are interested in your topic. They’ve gone through the trouble of leaving the comfort of their homes because something about you and your topic intrigues them.

Therefore, when you give your speech, don’t start by telling the people in the audience how nervous you are. If you’re looking for sympathy or support, this is not the place to get it. Just as your organizers are not there to bolster you emotionally, in the same way, your audience is not there to shore up your fears.

Remember, you’re not there to get something from your audience. You’re there to give something to your audience—to educate, inform, and entertain them. In fact, your audience doesn’t mind if you’re a bit nervous as long as you give them your know-how, your experience, and/or your view of life.

Leave the critics behind. I discovered that I needed to reform some unreasonable expectations about my audience. As time went by, and I gave more speeches, I began to realize that when I looked at the people in my audience, I expected that they were criticizing me.  I had to realize that these harsh, critical people were not in my audience. Believe me, they aren’t! They were in my mind. I was my own worst critic! I had an inner critic that was paralyzing my ability to feel comfortable when speaking in front of a group. Maybe you, too, can relate to this kind of fear that comes from self-recrimination.

When I first realized that I approached my audiences as if the people were holding big sticks, I said to myself: Yes, everybody does have a dark side, and the people in my audience do have a side of them that they may want them to lash out at someone and criticize someone. However, the people in my audience haven’t brought their dark side to my speech. They brought their light side!

The more I spoke in public, the more I discovered that the people in my audiences had come to hear me with the expectation of getting something positive out of my talk. Otherwise, they would have stayed home. After all, they were giving me their time and also, very often, their money. They wanted me to succeed. In other words, they brought with them the side of them that was hopeful and enthusiastic.

Therefore, on the first page of my notes, I now draw many “happy faces” (a circle containing two eyes and a smile). In that way, as I begin, I am reminded that my audience did not bring their big sticks with them today. They brought their happy faces. For me, this makes a big difference. In fact, it makes a huge difference. As a result, I start out with a more secure and welcoming frame of mind.

Use your audience to feel more comfortable. Now that you’ve discovered that the people in your audience are on your side, you’ll often find that a number of the people in your audience will be looking back at you with shining eyes and welcoming smiles as you speak.

Often, the people who are most enthusiastic about me and my topic choose to sit close to me in the seats at the front of the lecture hall. Their faces smile up at me. Their heads nod in agreement with the points I make.

Although it’s important to look around at everyone in your audience as you speak—at the people on the right, the left, and at the back—I find it helpful to come back to those sweet faces that are especially enjoying my talk whenever I have a discouraging moment or falter during my speech. They’re usually still smiling up at me. It’s almost as if they’ve taken it upon themselves to show their support.

They aren’t always right at the front. But, once you find those shining beacons, you’ll find it helpful to come back to their smiling faces for a moment before continuing to connect with the rest of the people in your audience.

How your audience sees you. You see your audience as a mass of people sitting on chairs in front of you. However, each of the people in your audience sees only you. They hear your speech one person at a time. In fact, they listen to what you’re saying as if you’re saying it specifically to them. For you, it’s a challenging mass-exposure experience. For them, it’s a personal experience.

It will help to quell your apprehension if you think in terms of a one-on-one relationship with each of the people in the audience. Prepare your speech as if you will be sharing information that will better the life of that one person.

Indeed, I find it especially helpful to arrive early, not only to develop a relationship with my organizer, but also to greet people who will make up my audience. I may walk over, introduce myself, shake a person’s hand, ask him or her where they’re from, or in some other way start a short conversation. By doing so, I not only assure myself that the members of my audience are nice and friendly people, but I also bond with a number of them.

During my talk, the warm, supportive faces of the people I’ve reached out to smile up at me. In addition, during my speech, I can refer to something helpful or interesting about the town I learned from someone I just met. This information helps to create a bond of support with more people in my audience.

By greeting some of the people in your audience ahead of time, you will feel as if you’re one of them rather than an outsider. In addition, you’ll experience firsthand that they relate to you one person at a time.

Throw perfection out the window. One of the biggest drawbacks as far as speaking in public without fear has to do with expecting perfection. Perhaps it started in elementary school. Many peoples’ first experiences of public speaking came from having to give a presentation in school where they were graded on their performance.

I assure you; your teacher is not in your audience. Of, if by chance, your grade-school teacher has come to the event, I assure you that he or she has not come to evaluate your performance. He or she has come to support you.

Your purpose is not to get an “A” or even a passing mark, for that matter. Your purpose is to do one or two of the following: inform, educate, demonstrate, entertain, inspire, motivate, or amuse your audience. Notice that I said “one or two.” You don’t have to be all things to all people.

Furthermore, it is unreasonable to expect perfection while speaking in public when you don’t expect perfection in other areas of your life. For example, the other day, I was washing dishes by hand and knocked one of the plates, chipping it. I realized that even though I’ve been doing dishes since I was a child, and I wash dishes every day, I’m still not perfect at it. I make mistakes. However, I don’t expect perfection of myself when doing dishes. So, I chipped a plate. Big deal. It happens.

In my opinion, one of the main issues that lead to stage fright is the unreasonable expectation that you’re going to be perfect. If you can’t be perfect washing dishes, which most people have been done every day since childhood, is it a reasonable expectation that you’ll be perfect talking in public when you’ve been doing that for much less time? Of course not. Plus, you don’t practice public speaking every day. It’s absolutely unreasonable to expect perfection. Even if you spoke in public every day, like a teacher or tour guide, it would still be irrational to expect perfection.

Something is going to go wrong—maybe something little like you discover your notes aren’t arranged in proper sequence, maybe something big like the PowerPoint projector doesn’t work. Your voice might catch. You might suddenly forget what you’re going to say. You may, in spite of yourself, laugh in that nervous, silly way you promised yourself you wouldn’t. Fortunately, only one or two things usually go wrong.

However, every once in a while, you may get one of those true great adventures in a speaker’s career when just about everything that can go wrong does.

Strategy 5: Tap your Energy

Energy exists. Actors work with it every single day. It’s our stage presence. For speakers it’s your star quality. The life force and power behind how you deliver your speech that will make people turn their heads, notice and engage with you.

As performers and speakers, we must learn to control our energy so that we can call upon it when we need it and become better at what we do.

Let’s practise tapping into it right now. You can do this anywhere; it takes about 5 minutes.

Stand up with your feet hip distance apart or wider. Shake your whole body. Swing your arms, bend your knees, shake your feet and hands. Give your whole body a big shake out for at least a minute. Rub the palms of your hands together vigorously for 1-2 minutes. Now part your hands about 10 cm apart. Be aware of any tingling or other sensations you may experience. Pull your hands wider apart, then bring them close together but not touching. Widen and shorten the space between your palms in a pulsing movement.

Do you feel anything? Tingles? Changes in temperature? A magnetic pull in the space between your palms?

This is a simple example of how to feel your energy! If you don’t feel anything, you need more practice. It might take a few days to build on this.

I always recommend practising several times a day until you start feeling more activity in the space between your palms. This is you raising your energy and gaining more control over it.

Good awareness and control over your energy is an important skill to master. We can use different forms of energy to succeed in different situations. For example, speaking to one person requires a very different energy than when speaking to 100 people. It’s not necessarily about adjusting the volume of your voice (as you would probably have a mic if you are delivering a talk to 100 people). It’s about adjusting your energetic projection. Making things bigger internally, so you can project it externally and reach more people. Think of an actor on stage compared to an actor in a film. A theatre actor often uses more energy and bigger movements than a film actor, who normally strives for fewer gestures and more “eye” acting. As a speaker, you are very likely to be involved much more in a theatre type set up, in front of a large, live audience with whom you need to interact; therefore, you need more energy.

However, if you have too much energy you could become hyperactive, which can be a disaster for speakers. Examples of this include speaking too quickly, over-thinking and being unable to formulate your ideas into effective sentences. A speaker with too much energy can appear manic and nervous, making their audience feel uncomfortable. To control this, you need to practise your breath work and slow things down. Meditation in the run up to your event will really help.

Likewise, if you don’t have enough energy, your presentation could be boring. Perhaps your voice becomes a monotone or you include very little interaction or engagement with the audience. There are things you can do to gain more energy without stimulants like coffee or sugar, which are actually counterproductive to your speaking. Coupled with nerves, these stimulants can send you into overdrive and hyperactivity.

Since we all have moments of tiredness though, here are some great High Energy practices. You’ll need somewhere with a bit of space and privacy. This will last about 5 minutes.

Spend 20 seconds doing the following exercises and notice how you feel emotionally and physically.

First of all, clap your hands and smile. Now jump up and down on the spot. Now raise your arms above your head on an in-breath and lower them down on the out-breath. Finally, stand with your feet hip distant apart with a straight spine and neck. Imagine the soles of your feet are roots, that go through the floor, through the ground, right into the fiery core of the earth. Now take some of that fire back up, through the soles of your feet, right into your belly.

Did any of these make you feel more energised? Which actions did you like? Which ones could you use in future to give yourself more energy?

All these are great exercises that actors use to warm up or just to give them an energetic boost before they go on stage.

You may have heard of Power Poses, made famous by Amy Cudder, the American social psychologist in her 2012 TED talk on Body Language. She states that adopting certain poses can cause positive or negative hormonal and behavioural changes. For example, taking on a “superhero” pose makes people feel more empowered.

Around 2014, I had lots of clients come and ask me about this ‘new thing’. Yet the concept has been around for a very long time. In the performing arts, we often move the shape of our bodies to shift our energy, change our emotions and flow through scenes. Michael Chekhov, a great pioneer in the acting world, came up with the idea of the Psychological Gesture in the 1900s. This is where the actor uses a series of collective movements or just one solid body position (like a live sculpture) to sum up the thoughts and feelings inside the character, including their desires and objectives. This helps connect the actor to the character.

For example, a character who is feeling depressed, lost and scared may have a psychological gesture of a person sitting on the floor, with their knees drawn into their chest and their head hanging down. A character who is full of confidence and positivity might have a psychological gesture of a person with a tall, proud stance, with their back upright, their chest sticking out, arms open and their head held high. When the actor has to play either character, he will adopt their psychological gesture and connect with them immediately.

I use a similar technique with public speakers, which I call Energy Poses.

In public speaking, what we want is not just to change our body language but to tap into the right energy so our body, mind and voice manifest the most appropriate form for us. It does it naturally!

Remember the power of role-play and selecting the right role to achieve our objective? After we know what role to step into, we can then form an Energy Pose to sum up the psychology behind this role. For example, if we adopt an Energy Pose that sums up ‘Positive, confident, assured, prepared and happy’, we can reap the benefits. Adopting the psychology of the body position (and what it means to us as an individual) gives us so much more identity than just standing like a superhero in the superhero power pose. This is because we have created a pose, we have taken charge and we know what it means to connect with this Energy Pose.

One of my go-to Energy Poses for public speakers is as follows.

Stand in a neutral position, feet hip-distance apart, straight spine and neck. Relax your knees so they are slightly bent. Reach up to the sky with your arms. Feel the energy from the Earth in the soles of your feet and also the energy from the sky in the tips of your fingers. Feel your own energy inside your body, and in one big movement push your arms out to the side, so you are in a T-shape. Imagine your energy stretching beyond your hands so it touches the wall, then goes through the wall and beyond the room you are in.

Spend the next few minutes experimenting. Think of a role you wish to step into. Then try to come up with your own Energy Pose. What position makes you feel good in the role? Feel free to put on some uplifting music or use anything that empowers you to look inward and then express it outward!

Be aware of how you feel.

Do you feel stronger? More confident? More Powerful? Is this something you can use to make you feel like a confident Public Speaker, knowledgeable about your topic and ready to engage?

If so, you can use this as your energy pose! If not, keep working on it. You could also look at yoga poses to help you, such as Warrior 1, 2 or 3.

Remember: energy exists. Actors and performers use it every day you can feel them as they enter a room. You can learn to do this by practicing to build and raise your energy through the above exercises.

You can also apply the Energy Pose you just learned or created when you prepare for your presentation. This will ensure your mind and body are ready to adopt the correct energy to help you achieve your objective. Practice your chosen pose before you rehearse your talk to form a trigger for your energy activation. When you warm up in the morning of your presentation, give your energy pose more effort than usual so it lasts the whole day. If you get a toilet break or a chance to re-do it before your talk, take it! And as you walk up to your performing space, use the Line Technique, cross the line, pull your shoulders back, and make a commitment to do the best you can.

Strategy 6: Conquering Your Fear

You are going to benefit at the start of your speech if you free yourself from 2 mistaken beliefs:

• Successful speakers are born, not made; it is hopeless to attempt being one if you were not blessed with God-given capability.
• For the majority of people, fear and anxiety are inconceivable to get rid of; it is worthless even to attempt.

Let’s have a look at each of these incorrect assumptions.

Are Excellent Speakers Born and Not Made?

You do not really believe this, or you would not be holding this book. Everybody is born a baby, and babies can’t speak. The “born speaker” misconception is an alibi for not trying. Individuals who believe it just wish to save their faces from the disgrace speech mistake might bring. It is a truth that practice makes perfect.

A speaker is one who talks to others for a reason. When you were 2 or 3 years of age and initially said, “Mommy, I want a glass of water,” you were delivering a speech. In fact, you have actually been making speeches from the time you were able to talk.

You can end up being a great speaker if you have these tools:

1. A voice.
2. Standard language construction: i.e., working vocabulary and grammar.
3. Something to say.
4. A desire to share your ideas with others.

You have actually been utilizing these tools for many years. You have actually been saying something to others a number of times every day, and under these conditions, you call it “conversation.” The conversation is speaking to a few. Public speaking is, basically, speaking with a bigger group.

Your audience is simply a group of people. You can talk quickly with a couple of people. So simply think of public speaking as speaking with people all at the same time – or speaking with the group as to a single person.

Can You Overcome Fear?

There are 3 options to assist you to minimize fear and make it work for you rather than against you:

1. Accept it as nature’s way of helping you.  

You do not have to be frightened of fear once you admit it as nature’s way of shielding you and assisting you. Acknowledge it. Do not condemn yourself for having it. All of us feel fear. Whether your fear comes from the idea of standing alone on your own on stage before numerous individuals, and even from the idea of getting upstage to speak, remember that you are reacting ordinarily.

Professional athletes are nervous prior to a crucial competition; artists shiver prior to a concert; entertainers experience stage fright. Skilled speakers never ever eliminate apprehension prior to speaking, nor do they wish to. A knowledgeable star once stated: “I used to have butterflies in my stomach each time I stood in front of an audience. Now that I understand how to make them work for me, they fly in formation.”

Psychologists tell us that fear is not an actual obstacle. We feel uncomfortable or useless since we believe fear is wrong. It is not fear itself yet your sensation about it that dissatisfies you. As quickly as you understand this and acknowledge it, you are on your road to self-mastery.

Fear is nature’s method of making you ready for danger, genuine or imagined. When you deal with a brand-new situation, or when many folks are viewing you, and you do not wish to mess up, nature does something terrific to assist you if you acknowledge the assistance instead of being dissatisfied with it. Nature brings in adrenaline in your bloodstream. It accelerates your pulse and your reactions. It increases your blood pressure to make you more alert. It supplies you with the additional energy you require to do your finest. Without anxiety, there would be no additional effort. Recognize fear as a buddy. Acknowledge it and utilize it properly.

2. Evaluate Your Fear.

Your next step in mastering fear is easy and effortless. Evaluate your kind of fear. Fear is a tool for safety. What are you protecting? You are stressed over your self-esteem. There are three dangers that are associated with self-esteem in public speaking:

• Self-Fear- fear of choking up or not pleasing your self-esteem.
• Audience Fear- fear they might tease or make fun of you.
• Fear of your material– fear you have absolutely nothing reasonable to say or you are not properly prepared.

Fear of yourself and fear of your audience are quite linked. It is possible to be pleasing yourself while falling short of fulfilling your audience. Going for audience approval is typically a much better alternative since, if you are successful, you are, in fact, additionally pleasing yourself.

However, in aspiring to please your audience, you should never ever jeopardize your message. Often you might need to deliver a message to individuals you understand are especially opposed to it. This requires guts. Do not fear to disagree. Excellent speakers have actually done so and have actually happily strolled off the stage effectively. Sincere beliefs equip a speaker and deliver force to the speech.

3. Utilize what you have learned.

You now understand that fear, nature’s ace in the hole, can really assist you to be successful. You found you were not actually scared of fear yet of yourself, your audience, and your material. Now, utilize your knowledge. Here’s how:

1. Conceal your negative feelings from others. If you do not have confidence, conceal it. Letting the audience know it will not assist you in any way. Never ever discuss it. This is going to simply make you feel even worse. Act with confidence. It is going to rub off on you. You are going to look the way you feel. Ever heard of the frightened young boy who walked past the cemetery one night? As long as he walked delicately and whistled happily, he was all right. However, when he walked quicker, he might not decline the temptation to run; and when he ran, fear took over. Do not give up just calm down and relaxed as you relish your talk and your audience.

1. Examine your condition fairly. Think about the reasons why you were called to speak. Among other possible speakers, you were picked. Whoever asked you had confidence in you, or you would not have actually been selected.

You are considered a skilled, great speaker. And you understand your subject. You understand more about it than your listeners do.

Your assessment exposes that you are prepared to do well and that you have the advantage over your listeners. When you accept this, your self-confidence is going to show to your audience. It is going to make them believe in you and in your speech.

1. Examine your audience fairly. They want you to do well. Listeners suffer together with a speaker who is having trouble delivering, and they do not take pleasure in suffering. Consider your audience instead of yourself. Win their interest, and you are going to be more confident, and everyone is going to be happy.

Another way of putting this: Concentrate on an excellent message and speech delivery. You are going to make the audience delighted with this, and you are going to be successful in your objective. Do the first well, and the second is going to follow.

1. Evaluate your material fairly. Fear of speech material is the simplest to overcome, given that the answer is easy: knowledge and preparation. Knowledge and preparation eliminate fear, however, on their own, they do not instantly guarantee the delivery of an effective speech.

An excellent start is when you acknowledge you do not have to be scared– of yourself, your audience, or your material. And as you be successful in making speeches, you are going to quickly say, “I can do it since I have done it so many times.”

9 Fundamental Steps in Preparing Your Speech

1. Select your subject.
2. Identify your specific purpose.
3. Determine your speech objective/s.
4. Examine your audience.
5. Plan and arrange your main points.
6. 6 Arrange your introduction and conclusion.
7. Prepare an outline.
8. Prepare your visual aids successfully.
9. Rehearse your speech.

Strategy 7: Mistakes to Avoid

After years of coaching speakers, I have developed a very simple and workable checklist of what to avoid when preparing, organizing, and delivering speeches and presentations of any kind to ensure that my students do not make these mistakes. If you use this checklist, you’ll be well on your way to mastering public speaking. Here they are—eight public speaking blunders to avoid:

1. Unknown Audience

Before preparing your presentation, get to know your audience. Gather enough information on who is attending that you know you are addressing the needs and interests of your audience in your speech. What do they like or dislike, agree with or disagree with? What do they want to know?

2. Vague Objective

Make sure you have a clear understanding of why you are giving this particular presentation. There are key, distinct purposes to consider in preparing any speech or presentation, and you must define these before you start planning—they will dictate how you organize and deliver your words. So, before you start preparing and organizing, write down exactly what your objective is. This will ensure that your content is aligned consistently throughout your speech, from beginning to end.

3. Unknown Outcome/Product

What is the end product you want your speech to result in? What is your call to action? Every speech must exact some type of commitment from your audience, and that commitment is yours to plan for and aim to get. Is it to make appointments to come see you? To visit your website? To purchase your book, video, or other materials after your speech? Decide what your product is before you start preparing and organizing your presentation.

4. Lack of Flow/Sequence

Your speech must be sequenced properly so that it flows smoothly and clearly from start to finish. Your first priority in presenting is ensuring that you are understood clearly. A well-organized speech that will convey your message without distracting your audience or confusing them along the way is your goal.

5. Information Overload

Work with what is really important in your speech. Create concisely structured (not wordy) sentences, and do not add fillers just to occupy time. Edit, edit, edit.

6. Insufficient Support

Substantiate the points you are making with information or examples that clearly add to the validity or believability of the points you make. Your audience’s demand is, Prove it! Without sufficient support, your important points will not receive the acceptance from your audience that you need and want.

7. Monotonous Delivery

Vary your tone, pitch, emphasis, pace, and volume so you don’t subject your audience to vocal monotony. Time your presentation and pace yourself when you practice, being aware of the speed with which you make your delivery, so that you make sure you’re slowing down to emphasize points or perhaps speeding up when speaking with emotion. Refine your speech vocally until it sounds conversational and natural. (We’ll go into this concept in greater depth in part II.)

8. Disconnect from Audience or Message

There are three key connections involved in public speaking that, if violated, leave your audience disassociated from and uninvolved with your purpose or products. These are: 1) speaker connected to message; 2) speaker connected to audience; and 3) message connected to audience. If you are not connected to both your message and your audience, you won’t be able to connect your message to your audience, either.