Much like math, most people think you have it or not when it comes to public speaking. Like a personal performance specialist which helps clients overcome public speaking anxiety, performance anxiety, and trauma, I know that’s not true.
My clinical work often involves preparing anxious individuals for presentations, presentations and live television. I’ve also coached several TEDx speakers – a client I treated for stage fright became a United Nations Ambassador.
Here are my top ten tips for succeeding in a field even more in demand by journalists: from Tiktok and video explainers to conference moderation, public speaking is another string to your bow worth honing. Let’s start:
1. Understand your nerves
A few nerves are understandable, but you need to make sure your nerves don’t completely destroy your ability to speak coherently. When your nervous system senses danger (real or imagined), it goes into fight, flight, or even freeze mode. These emergency modes are perfect when you are in physical danger; not so much when you’re on TV reviewing the papers. It can cause your rational brain to get less blood and sometimes even go completely offline to the point where you can stumble over your words, look like a rabbit in the headlights, and have your brain frozen.
2. Calm your nerves
While you’re waiting to go live, on stage or on air, make eye contact and smile at the people around you: the interviewer, tech support, and the audience whenever possible. Ideally, chat with them if you can. This will help your nervous system get out of emergency mode and back into a safe mode called social engagement. This will help restore some sense of security to your system.
3. Move your neck
It’s a trick that speaks directly to the very old part of your brain. If you move your neck from side to side and look around you are telling your brain “there are no predators here”. Try this before it’s your turn to speak. It really works.
4. Preparation is key
Plan and rehearse what you want to say. Don’t underestimate the importance of this. Even on a comment slot, you’ll feel much more confident if you have a plan for what you want to say. Ideally, you want to refine your intro, so you can start speaking with confidence, as well as your ending, so you have something to aim for and make sure you don’t “wander off.” It will also help the nerves and ensure that you are less likely to go completely empty. Very few people can speak well without preparation, and even these people are much better when they prepare.
5. Reframe accountability
Sometimes it can be quite paralyzing to think of everything you want to say and the anxiety of conveying all that information can put unnecessary pressure on the speaker and the situation, which is heightened when you’re dealing with broadcast interviews. 2 to 3 minutes. A really good way to think about it is to reframe responsibility from “I’m the absolute expert here” to “I contribute to the debate”. You are not obliged to give a definitive opinion on the subject. There will be other opportunities.
6. Criticism comes with the territory
After your presentation or appearance, you may be subject to vicious criticism and even trolling. This is a huge problem for journalists, especially women and marginalized groups. You have to recognize that this is a possibility and it can add to the nerves. It is certainly worrying but it would be a shame to be silenced by the threat. Do what you can to protect yourself (such as using an app like block party) then go make your voice heard.
7. Autopsy
The post-mortem is a key part of any speaking opportunity. Once you’ve done your homework, you may be very reluctant to listen to yourself or look back, but you can’t improve if you refuse to do so. You can learn valuable lessons and you might even be pleasantly surprised. Many customers tell me, “When I watched the recording, it wasn’t as bad as I feared.”
8. Hating the sound of your own voice is normal.
There are psychological and physiological reasons why people hate the sound of their own voice. Psychologically, inner criticism and any lack of self-acceptance will manifest when you hear a recording. Physiologically, why does it sound so much worse? When you hear your voice as you speak, it is amplified and filtered through the bony structure of your skull. In a recording, however, your voice resonates less than the one in your head.
9. Your inner critic is trying to protect you.
“Don’t make a fool of yourself”, “No one wants to hear what you have to say.” “You’re too stupid to be on stage”. It may seem like it’s all about you. Depending on your history of trauma, your inner critic may be the voice of a bully at school, a critical parent, or a teacher you have internalized. He often wants to keep you small and safe. Try to find a way to have a dialogue with your inner critic. Say “thank you so much for trying to protect me. But I’ll take care of it from here.”
10. Ask your friends for help
Finally, you don’t have to do it alone. Get help from a colleague, friend or mentor to help you prepare and then with the autopsy. Let them encourage you to keep looking for new speaking opportunities and, above all, to have fun!
Olivia James is a Harley Street Performance Specialist which helps clients overcome public speaking anxiety, performance anxiety, and trauma.
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