Speaking Anxiety

Questions?

Reprise

• inc.com/ss/jeff-haden/20-public-speaking-tips-best-ted-talks
• briantracy.com/blog/public-speaking/27-useful-tips-to-overcome-your-fear-of-public-speaking/
• anxietycoach.com/fear-of-public-speaking.html
• ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22156935
• overcomingbias.com/2009/04/choke-to-submit.html
• presentation-guru.com/the-science-of-calming-down-an-anxious-presenter/
• Speakers Roundtable. Secrets of the Speaking Masters. Executive Books. 1995.

• You're probably afraid of embarrassment.
• Learn to trust your audience.
• Condition yourself to be less afraid.
• Prepare and PRACTICE!

Biotips

Natataek at English Wikivoyage [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

• Consume protein beforehand.
• Don't eat sugar.
• Caffeine doesn't work. Sleep instead.
• Burn cortisol.

Hemingway

“In order to write well, you must know 10 words about the subject for every word that you write. Otherwise, the reader will know that this is not true writing.”

Be Prepared

pinterest.com/pin/349451252307577152/

• Make two backup plans
• Establish a routine.
• Don't prep in front of the audience.
• PRACTICE!

Film Yourself

• The next phase of visualization.
• Also helpful for catching errors.

Visualization

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• Imagine someone giving amazing speeches.
• Imagine yourself doing that.
• Feel the emotion that goes with giving a great speech.

What to Do Instead

Falling Between Two Stools:

Examples

• Connect with the audience
• Give the audience time to understand your message.
• Collect your thoughts if you need to.
• You are giving a speech, not surviving it.

Falling Between Two Stools

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• Trying to hide fear.
• Hurrying through it.
• Avoiding pauses.
• Avoiding contact with audience.
• Trying to "get it over with."

• If you try to give a speech and survive it, you will end up doing neither.
• Behaviors designed to get the speech over with make it worse.

Catastrophization

• Reassure yourself nothing bad will happen.
• Replace "Worst Thing in the World" with actual consequences.
• Don't read too much into the audience.

Epictetus

“What really frightens and dismays us is not external events themselves, but the way in which we think about them. It is not things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance.”

Why Are People Afraid?

• The consequences for being a bad speaker used to be much worse.
• Fearing embarrassment used to be more rational.

What Are You Afraid Of?

Embarrassment, most likely.

Speaking Anxiety