Will more confident speeches and presentations change your life? — Yes! Here's the secret to overcoming fear of public speaking.
The goal of all your speeches and presentations should be to change your audience members' lives for the better. But it's a goal that includes you as well. If you have speech anxiety, part of your speaking in public should always be about changing your own life for the better.
Why? Because speech anxiety not only diminishes your pleasure in presenting to others. It may also have delayed your professional advancement, and without doubt it has disturbed your peace of mind. It may, in fact, have been a nagging worry for years, one that you’ve finally decided to conquer once and for all. Good for you!
If it's anticipatory anxiety that keeps you up nights or makes you anxious days or weeks in advance, here's an easy 5-minute exercise that shows you how to calm your nerves before speaking. And here's how breathing can help you control your fear, even while speaking!
A Performance-Based Approach to Fear of Speaking
Stage fright presents itself most dramatically during a speaker's performance, of course. In some cases, it seems to arise suddenly. Some of the clients I coach at The Genard Method are senior executives who’ve been speaking in public comfortably for decades. Yet they suddenly lose their self-confidence in a short period.
At TGM, I don’t take clients back to their childhoods to learn why they’re anxious about speaking in public. Instead, I identify how their reluctance to speak is manifesting itself now, in the present. Once I have that information, I can work on reducing their fears and building their self-confidence along with their speaking skills. You'll find the complete approach in my book Fearless Speaking, named in 2019 as "One Of The 100 Best Confidence Books Of All Time."
Again, overcoming this serious form of social anxiety is something that will change your life, so why wait? Your new understanding and confidence will open up new opportunities for you and show you the enjoyment you’ve been missing.
Want more on being a highly successful presenter? Download my Free ebook, High-Impact Speaking: The Leader's Guide to Presenting With Integrity and Influence.
Ready to Beat Speaking Fear? — It's Time for Action!
The best way to overcome stage fright—and to reach your speaking goals—is to learn a few techniques from the theater. Actors are the world’s best speakers in front of audiences, despite the fact that many of them suffer from speaking anxiety just like the general population. The difference between them and everyone else is that stage acting teaches them the most efficient ways for overcoming their fear.
You don’t need to suddenly become an actor to benefit from these techniques yourself. In fact, I use the time-tested tools and techniques of the theater with people from all walks of life because I know they produce results. I recognized this truth years ago when I began working with business executives and other professionals. After all, effective performance is the core of all good speaking—whether it’s in a theater, a boardroom, a meeting, or at the conference you’ll attending next month. Understanding that is key to knowing how to speak for leadership.
Another thing that actors understand is that talking about performance is helpful only in the beginning phases of rehearsal. After that it’s time for action. And that's the secret to knowing how to reliably overcome your fear of public speaking.
That’s why at each stage of helping people cope with their speech fear at TGM, I include actionable exercises to help reduce apprehension while boosting that client’s skills and confidence. (You'll find these same exercises in Fearless Speaking.) Some of these exercises are designed to change thinking patterns (a process known as “cognitive restructuring”). Others are based in emotional response. Still others feature positive visualization; while another group concern themselves with staying focused and present for audiences.
Whichever exercises we’re working with, however, my approach always includes dealing with the body’s response to stage fright. That’s because fear of public speaking nearly always produces a predictable physical reaction.
But here’s the great news about the speaking jitters you experience: this level of mental and physical activation is perfectly natural and even beneficial. Without those butterflies in the stomach, you might become too laid-back and bland, without any of the edge or energy that makes you exciting as a speaker. It’s only when the balance tips too far toward anxiety that the normal level of nervousness that otherwise helps you, morphs into debilitating fear.
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Gary Genard is an actor, author, and expert in public speaking and overcoming speaking fear. His company, The Genard Method offers live 1:1 Zoom executive coaching and corporate group training worldwide. He was named for nine consecutive years as One of the World’s Top 30 Communication Professionals, and also named as One of America's Top 5 Speech Coaches. He is the author of the Amazon Best-Sellers How to Give a Speech and Speak for Leadership: An Executive Speech Coach's Secrets for Developing Leadership Presence. His book, Fearless Speaking, was named in 2019 as "One of the 100 Best Confidence Books of All Time." " He is also the author of the Dr. William Scarlet Mysteries. Contact Gary here.
Photo credit: Yaakov Levin on unsplash.com
