Here’s how you can overcome your fear of public speaking in 2 weeks–not years! These 11 steps incorporate the POWER and principles of neuroscience to move you from fear to confidence at warp speed!
Jill Trischman-Marks took the position as Executive Director of the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont because she believes in this non-profit heart, mind. and soul. She took this position knowing that 30% of her daily activities would be doing what she most feared- presentations. She knew that she had to find a way to make this part of her job “not terrifying and not terrible.” She’s one of many clients who moved from fear to confidence in weeks, and you can too!
Here’s how she felt the first time she gave a presentation without fear.
Do you fear public speaking? This fear isn’t ‘just uncomfortable’; it’s pure torture! If you fear do, you understand these anxiety sensations all too well. As the time draws closer for you to speak, your:
- heart begins to pound
- stomach churns
- breathing becomes shallow
- thoughts are scattered and fleeting when you most need them (!)
- hands shake
- voice quivers
- mouth is dry as the Sahara Desert
- and skin turns pale or flushed.
Imagine instead that as the time drew closer and closer for you to speak, you feel completely calm. You feel confident. You want to speak and share your insight and information with your team. This total transformation can be you!
Here are the 11 steps that’ll move you from fear to confidence in warp speed.
Are you a busy professional who prefers listening to reading? Listen to this podcast when it’s convenient!
Step 1
Prepare. This sounds really obvious, right? Believe me; it’s not! You wouldn’t believe the number of clients who do not prepare, probably over 35%!
Some take the ostrich approach, thinking, “I hate public speaking, and if I think about it, it’s only going to totally freak me out!” Don’t do this. Even if it’s a 5-minute status update at your weekly meetings, always prepare.
Step 2
Only use bullet points. When you fear public speaking, you are far more comfortable reading, and reading is extremely limiting because when you read to your audience, your voice tends to be flat and monotoned. When your voice is flat and monotoned, your audience checks out! They’re bored! They get out their phones, catch up on the latest, check in with work, and text their friends. In other words, they’re doing anything and everything but listening to you!
Bullet points allow your natural speaking voice, passion for the project, and personality to come through. You are far more likely to capture their attention and keep it using bullet points! So, always only use bullet points; don’t read.
Step 3
Use nervousness to energize. I guarantee you the best of the best of speakers; Tony Robbins and those alike feel some level of nervousness. You can use this nervousness to your advantage to energize your speaking voice in presentations because the last thing you want is to sound like that dull professor who used to put you to sleep. Use nervousness to energize!
Step 4
Focus on the message and not yourself. Some public speaking coaches talk about your performance. I hate this! It reminds me of a play where you’re not being yourself at all and playing a different character entirely.
Remember, it’s not about you; it’s about something much bigger. “What do you mean, you ask?”
Let’s use Jill as an example; when she was focused on HERself, HER fear, HER anxiety, it stopped her ability, in her words, to do “anything but enunciate the words and get the information out.” This is reading to your audience, and that’s what she used to do. Now, forgetting about herself, she’s able to focus on something much bigger, and that’s the non-profit she so loves.
This shift changes everything!
Now when Jill speaks, all of her passion shines through in her messaging, and this makes it not just better for her, it’s also more enjoyable for the listeners.
Steps 5, 6, and 7 harnesses the POWER neuroscience.
Step 5
Practice speaking out loud, not in your mind. Practicing out loud takes it from an idea to a tangible product. Practicing out loud allows you to control everything in your presentation; voice, volume, vocal fluctuation, emphasis, pace, and pause.
We’re going to create new ‘trails’ in your brain so that you can go on autopilot. What does this mean? Think about learning any new skill. When you first learned how to ride a bike, you had to think of absolutely everything! “How fast do I pedal? How does anyone sit on this seat? How does anyone do this anyway?”
Once you’ve learned and practiced enough, something magical happens. Your brain goes into autopilot, and you jump on the bike and go! No thought is required.
Our brains are malleable. That stupid saying, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” is complete bunk. Every time you learn something new, a new neuro connection is created in your brain. BTW- if you didn’t know this fact, a new connection was created in you, the reader’s brain!
Initially, it’s going to be a tiny trail—faint, barely descendable bent blades of grass. However, the more times you travel this trail, the more recognizable it becomes, and that’s when the magic of autopilot takes over.
Step 6
Visualization. Visualization is a powerful tool used by many successful athletes and business icons alike– Michael Phelps, the 23 time Gold medalist in swimming, and Lindsey Vonn, one of the most successful female skiers in history. Oprah Winfrey and Jim Carrey state visualizing what they wanted to achieve made it a reality.
So, before you practice speaking out loud, visualize. Picture the venue.
Are you on a stage? Who is introducing you? If it’s your weekly video conference meeting, picture the members of your team. See the video format.
Visualization also applies after you’ve practiced out loud. After speaking out loud, feel a sense of accomplishment. Know that people wanted and needed to hear what you had to say and appreciate your sharing your insight and information. Fell a sense of a job well done.
Always visualize before and after practicing out loud.
Step 7
Practice multiple times in a row.
Think of learning any new skill. If you’re a skier or boarder, imagine packing everything up, driving up to the slopes, and taking one run or two runs, and leaving. You’d never make any progress!
The POWER of practicing multiple times in a row is evident in the outcome of a client I worked with named Michael Huynh. Michael is the CEO and Founder of Macadons and Pinks Ice Cream and produces the world’s best macarons– you know, those colorful, super delicious, yummy cookies that are the rave and all over the place. He had a pivotal, potentially game-changing opportunity in two short weeks that could change the trajectory of his company; this opportunity was to present to the buyers of Kroger, the largest grocery chain in America with 2,757 stores and revenues north of 122 billion last year.
He was in a contest through the University of Washington named Ascend, and 200 or more food founders were all competing for this opportunity. From the hundreds, it will be narrowed down to the top 30 and then down to the top 6. These six will have won the ability to present to the buyers of Kroger. Think for a moment of those odds, those crazy astronomical odds. Six will win, and 200 are competing– 6/200 equals a success probability of .03, and add to that fear of public speaking and presentations.
I had Michael practice his four-minute presentation six times in a row twice a day. Now come one, that’s only 24 minutes, and round it up to 30. One hour a day with stakes this high, it’s well worth it! We met three times a week for two weeks in preparation for this contest.
Initially, every time I worked with Michael, he’d always do the same thing, he’s started, and then he says, “wait, wait, wait, wait, let me start over.”
No matter how many times I said, “Michael! Please just keep going!” He always did this. We met three days later after giving him this assignment, and he never did this again! More than that, he kept revising his presentation, and it was becoming better and better and stronger!
What was the outcome, you ask? Michael made the top 30, and then he made the top 6; He defied all odds and went on to win! He beat 194 competitors and won!
This shows the POWER of repetition and the power of these steps.
Step 8
The harder you work, the more quickly you’ll improve.
Holy smokes was this point ever brought home to me by Jill. She’s the hardest working client I’ve ever had without an upcoming, potentially game-changing presentation. She was determined to get to the other side of fear. When 30% of your daily activities are presentations, you want to conquer this fear as quickly as possible!
Jill accomplished so much more than ‘just’ conquering this fear!
She initially feels enormous relief that this tremendous burden has been lifted. Before, she’d feel anxiety before and during every presentation; this caused her to feel drained afterward, and she’d have to recharge. Now, presentations energize, fulfill, and pump her up!
She feels freedom. No longer focused on fear, she’s able to allow all of her love and passion for her organization to shine through in her messaging, and this makes it not just better for Jill but also better for her listeners. Her newfound skillset and confidence have directly resulted in quantifiable, tangible benefits to her non-profit.
She’s empowered. This newfound skill set and confidence have extended beyond presentations and into other areas of leadership. She’s skillfully navigating new realms.
What’s on the other side of fear? Everything that you want!
Jill brings home the point more than anyone that the harder you work, the more quickly you’ll improve.
Step 9
Record yourself; This will allow you to observe how others see and hear you. The purpose of this exercise is not to be overly self-critical, and so don’t! Most people don’t like to view themselves on a recording or to hear the sound. Zoom and Google Meet are free video conferencing venues that are popular and highly user-friendly.
First, notice your physical presence. Do you seem energetic? Are you friendly and approachable?
Next, notice your vocal idiosyncrasies. Are you speaking ridiculously fast? Do you have a lot of filler words such as “and, um, so, and like?”
Record yourself several times, and each time set a goal. Continue to improve by meeting those goals and developing new goals.
Step 10
Notice your thoughts.
Whenever your thoughts go to, “I’m the world’s worst speaker!” “No one wants to hear what I have to say.” “I’m going to fail!” Stop! Stop those thoughts dead in their tracks and replace them with positive affirmations, which resonates with you. Mine has been now, and over the years, “I speak with confidence, clarity, and conviction.” I know that this is a bit boring for some, so use whatever works for you. Here are some of my clients’ power statements— “I crushed it!” “I’m an incredibly talented VP!” “I AM KING.” Admittedly, the last one cracks me up!
So, notice your thoughts, stop negative ones dead in their tracks and replace them with positive affirmations and ‘power statements’ that work for you.
Step 11
Practice with a professional. Practicing with a professional will allow you to finally conquer this fear!
What have you tried to be rid of this fear? Here’s what some of my clients have tried, pretty much anything and everything: books, articles, online advice forums (Reddit), support groups, therapy. One of my clients went to a cognitive-behavioral therapist for a year and a half. It didn’t help at all! Finally, some of my clients, in utter desperation, went to their doctors for tranquilizers. While the tranquilizers took a slight edge off of the anxiety, temporarily, it didn’t solve the problem at all!
Here’s the thing about fear, if you let it continue to grow, it can spiral out of control. It goes from “I can’t do it! I can’t speak!” to” I’m going to crash and burn!” to “I’m GOING TO LOSE MY JOB!”
I’m not saying that you will be the next Tony Robbins, professional speaker extraordinaire, in two weeks. No, I’m not claiming that at all, but you will move from fear to confidence, and here’s what I mean.
There are approximately six levels of fear in public speaking:
Level 6– Most or all of ‘fight or flight.’ You’d rather call in sick and lose credibility than give a presentation.
Level 5– High levels of anxiety. You’ll give a presentation because you have to, but speaking is the worst part of your job.
Level 4- Anxiety is reduced by 50%, and your confidence is growing, but you still don’t like speaking.
Level 3– You are confident that you can successfully give a presentation. Anxiety is reduced by 90% and only present at the beginning, maybe the first 20-60 seconds, and then disappears. You still don’t enjoy it.
Level 2– “Hey, I kind of like this!” You have begun to enjoy speaking, and it energizes you!
Level 1– “I LOVE IT!” Public speaking energizes and fulfills you!
Jill moved from a level 5 to a level 2! Michael moved from a level 6 to a level 2 and is now a panelist and speaks all the time. Many, many more clients had these results! This week, I worked with a woman named Kathy out of Oklahoma who went from a 5 to a level 2.
There is no magic carpet ride that will transport you from a level 5 to a level 3. This program requires work! One hour of work every single day for two weeks. Additionally, we meet 2-3 times each week. I modify all of the steps I gave you previous to step 11 for maximum impact, and each time we meet, I give you a new assignment.
What's on the other side of fear?
Everything that you want!
Freedom, fun, success, joy, opportunities, and possibility!
Think about it like this, when you’re quiet in meetings, FEAR is winning. It’s silencing you. It’s stopping your ability to grow and thrive.
Imagine a new you who spoke with absolute confidence and crystal clarity.
What would change in your career?
What would change in your life?
If you’re ready to finally conquer this fear, I hope that you’ll reach out because two weeks from today, you could have a newfound skill set and confidence that you did not think was possible!
