Advice for public-speaking anxiety

jmmom
Sun, 20 Feb 2011 13:50:20 +0000

Agree with all that Toastmasters, a public speaking or communications class are what is in order. I was in debating in high school, so that was my equivalent.

People here are saying it’s “practice practice practice” and I don’t disagree. But it is more of a “realize you can live through it” for some people. Live through it once and you’ll be stronger the next time.

Couple of strategies once you’re prepping or actually up there in front of the mic:


Think less, as you prepare, about what you want to say and more about what they want to know. Knowing your audience and their perspective will help you create a speech that will be well received. You’ll start getting positive feedback almost immediately, which will help a lot. Which brings me to:
Pick a known empathetic person (your mother, lol; your friend; whomever*) in the audience and focus on him/her. You’ll see the positive feedback (nodding, smiling) and feel more comfortable. Speak - in a sense - to that one person. Yes, look around some so you don’t look robotic (you will then find more interested faces)… but come back to that face or those faces frequently.
*if it is a roomful of strangers, you will almost always see someone in a close-in row who is reacting positively - use that person
Realize that even those of us who do NOT fear public speaking still have physical symptoms right before - butterflies, stomach turmoil… I’ve heard some people even throw up right before, although they are comfortable public speakers. You are not alone.