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R.I.P. Public Speaking Fears! – Part 2

Written by Bernie

Bernie Frazier, SPHR is the Founder and President of CAREERCompass, LLC, a speaking and career coaching firm in St. Louis, MO. She also spent almost 25 years recruiting talent to six organizations across four industries and led the talent acquisition function for four of those organizations, including one global team.

In my last post, I shared how extremely afraid many people are when it comes to public speaking, yet those who want career advancement are often called to speak to groups and audiences.

If you missed my first post on this, and just thinking about speaking before an audience terrifies you, click on the link to get my first four tips to help you overcome your fears to deliver an amazing talk: https://careercompassllc.com/r-i-p-public-speaking-fears-part-1/.

Now, let’s build on that list. Below are the next four tips that can take pressure off when you have to speak before an audience:

  1. Make the audience human. One of the things that can psych a person out when speaking is being overly concerned about who’s in the audience. Whether it’s the head of the organization or your team, all of them are still people. And, the fact that you are the one up speaking must mean you know more than they do. Take a deep breath, relax, and just DO YOU. The more you allow you to be yourself, the better you’ll do. You know the material (better than they do!) so just share what you need to share. You got this!
  1. Don’t be concerned with a laugh or yawn. I used to get freaked out during a talk if someone laughed or yawned, thinking they were directing to me and my presentation. Here’s what I learned – you may have said something that reminded them of a funny moment; they may have only gotten three hours of sleep last night because a child was ill; someone may have slipped them a funny note which made them laugh. In 99% of the instances when someone laughs or yawns, it has nothing to do with you or your presentation.
  1. If you stumble keep it moving. If you tell your audience you’re going to share three points with them and only share one, yes, they’ll notice. Tip: if you share exactly how many points you’ll make, create some sort of mechanism to remind you of how many you’ve covered. If your audience doesn’t know what you’re going to cover, remember that – YOUR AUDIENCE DOESN’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO COVER. So, if you miss a good point you wanted to make, no one knows you missed it but you. Keep it moving and continue being great.
  1. Be yourself. When I first began speaking, there were 2-3 people I really wanted to emulate because I thought they were fabulous speakers. Raise your hand if know I figured out really quickly that I couldn’t do what THEY do like them. Once I realized this, I gave up trying to sound, move, and share like others and decided I was just going to be myself. Guess what? It worked! I’m a career coach, but I’ve literally had people ask me to coach them on speaking. I told them I couldn’t because I merely get on stage and do me. That’s it. That’s the secret – DO YOU.

I hope at this point, you’re breathing a sigh of relief because you now realize you’ve put waaaay too much pressure on yourself. From now on, turn the pressure valve down on yourself, get up on stage, and have fun.

Stay tuned for my final four tips in my next post!

Until next time….