Advice for public-speaking anxiety

oldfort
Sun, 20 Feb 2011 09:54:36 +0000

I could definitely relate to your daughter. I used to literally get shakes whenever I had to speak in front of people, even when it’s just a handful of them. I didn’t have any problem if I was just participating in a discussion, but if I had to do a whole presentation by myself, I was very uncomfortable.

In my case, English wasn’t my first language, and most people I was speaking in front of were experts in my field, so I was afraid to make a fool of myself. When I came to term with the fact that I had to give presentations in order to advance in my career, I started to study some of my favorite speakers in my field. I also assumed it came naturally for those speakers, but I found out most of them were as nervous about speaking in public. It made me feel more comfortable that I was not alone.

I never took any public speaking class. I would just spend a lot of time privately rehearsing what I would say. With each presentation I just became more comfortable. I even do presentations over the phone now (without video), that’s hard because you can’t see how your audience is reacting to your presentation.

This last Fri I had to speak in front of 200 people, and I felt like hyperventilating, I asked for a clip on mike so my hand wouldn’t shake while holding on to a mike. After I cracked few jokes in the beginning, it eased a lot of tension, and I talked for 2 hours. People later told me that they enjoyed it and wanted me to do it more often (I thought to myself - no, I don’t think so).

I don’t have any good advice because I did it by brute force (just do it). I just want to say that your daughter is not alone in her fear. At the same time, it is important to be able to do public speaking. My girls went to private school with small classes, and they are required to give presentations in most of their classes. There maybe some experts on this forum who could give some good advice.