Public Speaking Nervousness: 8 Tips to Manage Your Anxiety

It may have been the worst piece of advice I have ever been given in my life! Let me take you back to early on in my career where I was asked to give a big presentation. Not having any experience at public speaking, I was scared as hell!  I was definitely dealing with a severe case of public speaking nervousness!

After telling a friend of my predicament, he gave me some advice on how to handle it.

I should NOT have listened to his advice, as you will see later!

Where the hell was Chris Anderson when I needed him?!?!?!

“Who is Chris Anderson?”, you ask. Well, he just so happens to be the head honcho of TED, which is a non-profit organization known for the famous idea-based TED Talks they curate, as well as an annual conference they put on.

In his book, TED Talks: The Official Guide to Public Speaking, Chris and his colleagues have dissected TED Talks over the years to identify tools and insights that can be used to empower people to be better public speakers. While most of the examples they give come from TED Talks, the advice they give is applicable to all types of public speaking from university lectures to toasts to sales presentations.

One Section of the Book Deals Specifically…

…with overcoming public speaking nervousness.  According to Anderson, “Fear triggers our ancient fight or flight response. Your body is coiled up chemically, ready to strike or flee. This is measurable physically by a huge rise in adrenaline coursing through your bloodstream.” ¹

The problem with adrenaline is that too much of it can dry up your mouth and tighten your throat. Its function is to turbocharge your muscles, but if you aren’t using them it can make them twitch. This usually manifests itself in the form of the shaking you get with an extreme case of the nerves.

Is it possible to use all that adrenaline to our advantage when public speaking? The answer is most definitely…yes and we will look at some tips in a hot minute! But before we get to some tips, lets first review how…

Monica Lewinsky Overcame Her Nerves in Her TED Talk

Prior to her TED talk, she was a bundle of nerves, to put it lightly. Seventeen years prior she had been through a well-publicized and very humiliating public ordeal that we have all heard about. Now she was trying hard to come back to a more visible life in the spotlight to salvage her narrative.  The stakes could not have been higher, and she obviously did not want to blow the opportunity (yes, pun intended, sorry I couldn’t resist!) to tell her story.

In his book, Anderson describes a few interesting techniques that she used to turn her fear around:

(1)  Every time her mind wandered off, she brought it back to the purpose of her speech. In fact, she used a couple mantras that she would focus on when her mind wandered. One was ‘THIS MATTERS’, which she scrawled across the top of her speech to remind her of the purpose and importance of her speech. The other was ‘I’VE GOT THIS’, to give herself an extra boost of confidence.

(2)  She also went through a pre-speech routine that consisted of breathing exercises, chanting, warm-up exercises with her speaking coach, visualization, going for a walk, making sure to laugh and doing some power posing – amongst others!

(3)  Whenever she was faced with self-doubt, she focused on the message she wanted to deliver instead of focusing on herself as the messenger.

Clearly, those techniques worked, she killed her TED talk and received not only a standing ovation but also got over a million views within a few days, as well as great online reviews!

Of course, all of the techniques that worked for Monica may not work for you. The point is that if someone who was a nervous wreck bound with crippling fear could turn into a calm, confident speaker with tremendous stage presence, you can too!

You just need to find what works for you. On that note, let’s review Anderson’s…

8 Tips for Dealing with Public Speaking Nervousness

(1)  Leverage your fear!

Practice makes perfect. So, Anderson recommends using your fear as motivation to practice and prepare as many times as you need to. The more you practice, the more comfortable you will get and the less fearful you will be. Plus, your speech will be that much better! Make sure you say your speech out loud!

(2)  Breathe

Before you go up on stage, one of the most important things you can do to neutralize the adrenaline rush is to simply breathe. Just breathe deeply, meditation style and let the calm accompany the oxygen infusion you are receiving. He also recommends doing some type of physical exercise like pushups to burn off the extra adrenaline. That is, only if you are off-stage as it may be distracting and weird if you are in the crowd and start doing pushups!

(3)  Hydrate

As I said earlier, the rush of adrenaline can dry out your mouth. So, it is a good idea to not only make sure you are properly hydrated but to drink some water 5 minutes before your presentation. Anderson recommends drinking 1/3 of a bottle of water. This is unless you have a UTI and need to pee very frequently.

(4)  Eat something

You may not have much of an appetite when you are nervous, but the problem is that an empty stomach may make your anxiety worse. Having something to eat an hour before can help prevent this from happening.

(5)  Embrace your vulnerability

Everyone has been where you are, and they embrace speakers who are nervous. As Anderson says, “If you flub or stutter a little in your opening remarks, it’s fine to say, “Oops, sorry, a little nervous here.” Or “As you can see, I don’t do a lot of public speaking. But this one mattered too much to turn down.” “Your listeners will begin rooting for you even more.” ¹

(6)  Look for friends

Find 3 or 4 familiar or sympathetic faces in the crowd and give the talk to them moving from one to another in turn. When the crowd sees you connecting, their faces will show it, which will give you the calm and confidence you need.

(7)  Have a Plan B

If you think things may go sideways and are worried about that, have some backup plans ready. For example, if you are scared of forgetting what to say, have some notes or a script handy.

(8)  Focus on the purpose of your talk

Remember, it’s not about you, it’s about the audience and conveying to them the idea you are passionate about. Like Monica wrote at the top of her speech, “THIS MATTERS”. Anderson believes this to be the most important tip of the 8 and says: “Your job is to be there in service of that idea, to offer it as a gift. If you can hold that in mind as you walk onto the stage, you’ll find it liberating.” ¹

One Piece of Advice You DO NOT Want to Heed

Is the one I spoke about earlier that a friend gave me back in the day on how to handle public speaking nervousness.

His advice?

“Just picture everyone in the audience naked.”

“Got it”, I said.

So, I got out there and got ready to give my speech, extremely nervous, and recalled his advice. “Ok picture them all naked.” I said to myself.

I proceeded to look around and picture everyone in the audience in their birthday suits.

Unfortunately, it did not have the effect that was intended.

In fact, it made things worse for a couple of reasons:

(1)  I felt kinda creepy, almost like a public speaking voyeur.

(2)  To say the audience was not full of Pamela Anderson or Brad Pitt types would be an understatement.

I understand the idea behind his advice – to make it seem like the audience is as vulnerable as you are.

However, instead of it calming me down, it made me feel like a creeper and even worse – the horrible visual of picturing some of the people in the audience naked made me feel nauseous!

Feeling creepy, nauseous and anxious for a presentation is not one I would wish on anyone. Lesson learned!

So, on that note, I’d highly recommend Anderson’s advice over my friend’s!

Until next time, break a leg and as always…PYMFP!
–Rick

Use It or Lose It

To mitigate public speaking nervousness, try these 8 tips:

(1)  Leverage your fear to be prepared.
(2)  Breathe.
(3)  Hydrate.
(4)  Eat something.
(5)  Embrace your vulnerability.
(6)  Look for friends.
(7)  Have a Plan B.
(8)  Focus on the purpose of your talk.

When to Use It:

When trying to overcome public speaking nervousness.

What Do You Think?

Have you ever experienced public speaking nervousness? Do you have any other tips than the tips above on how to handle public speaking nervousness? Please share in the comments below!

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References

1 TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking