3 practical tips against nervousness and fear of speaking
Werner suffers. He walks up and down. His lips move silently. He frantically recites the beginning of the presentation, which he is about to give. In front of 150 global company representatives, including the CEO. Werner no longer feels nausea and his legs at all. His head feels like cotton wool.
He can't think of a single word of his opening statement. Werner is of strong Stage fright shaken. And that's not a nice state of affairs at all. Briefly emerging from the fog of his fear of speaking, Werner remembers what he once learned in voice training regarding the merciless stranglehold of stage fright.
He takes a deep breath, collects himself and hesitantly but firmly determines, starts a short warm-up for voice and body language. He makes faces, lets out sibilances and makes loud "brrrrr ....". After 30 seconds of this preparation, he feels ready and enters the meeting room.
Sovereign in performance despite stage fright
Werner walks into the middle of the stage with pudding legs. There he "roots" himself and thus comes a little more into his center. He knows that this posture, with supposed roots downwards, will immediately provide a fuller and clearer voice. Despite stage fright.
Before he speaks, however, he makes intensive eye contact with his audience. This is also the best way to ensure the silence that his speech deserves. Only when Werner has the total attention of his listeners does he start talking. And it works again this time.
Their body language point of view is audible
Werner speaks his first sentence very confidently, despite still slightly shaking legs. However, and this is the main thing, this trembling is not audible in his voice! The warm-up exercises against stage fright have worked. Werner is now much more relaxed and the emptiness in his brain is slowly clearing.
For even more safety, he now takes the "surf stand". Both feet are firmly on the ground, the knees not fully extended: He now imagines standing on a surfboard or a swaying boat, loosening his knees a little and letting the resulting stability flow into his voice. At the same time, he straightens his back and allows the feeling of appearing "sublime". He lets go of his shoulders and his arms fall.
Avoid empty phrases – reduce stage fright
If you do without a boring sequence of phrases – especially at the beginning of a presentation – and instead start with an unexpected, curious statement, you will get the first positive reactions from your audience. These manifest themselves through nods of approval, interested raising of heads, murmurs of approval.
This immediately gives the speaker more confidence and thus supports the quality and professionalism of the speech that follows. Werner is aware of this and starts with a question that supposedly has nothing to do with the topic of the presentation. His listeners are now glued to his lips. They want to know what follows now. Werner feels more confident than ever at this point, he has now really arrived in his presentation and leads his audience confidently through the individual stages.
Mastering the beginning with clever tips
Werner is a prime example of how quickly stage fright can be defeated if speakers follow a few simple basic rules. And then this unnecessary fever gives way to something completely different, namely the joy of speaking.
Try it out!
You
Arno Fischbacher
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Read also:
- How to get your stage fright under control (1)
- How to get your stage fright under control (2)
- Perform confidently – but how?
- Learn rhetoric – why garland sets are particularly annoying in lectures!
- Interrupting frequent speakers elegantly and effectively
The author:
Arno Fischbacher is a business voice coach and rhetoric expert, speaker and author. He prepares executives and employees of the top companies in Germany and Austria for negotiations, presentations and media appearances. Fischbacher is the author of several books, past president of the German Speakers Association (GSA) Austria, chairman of the European Network of Voice Experts, stimme.at.
If you would like to learn more about specific training opportunities with Arno Fischbacher, make an appointment here free information talk.
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