How to Overcome Stage Fright

Your palms are sweaty, your heart is beating in your ears, you are hyperventilating…

WHAT ON EARTH IS WRONG WITH YOU???
Are you in a horror movie? Or does it just feel like you are?
What is the scariest thing? Scarier than the monster hiding under your bed?
That’s right…….

PUBLIC SPEAKING 😱

According to the National Institute of Mental Health reports that public speaking anxiety, or glossophobia, affects about 73% of the population.

73 Percent… wow.. Amazing that there is actually a topic that so many people can agree on…

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Stage fright is a vampire. Just like Dracula sucks the blood from his victims, stage fright will suck all the confidence out of your body. The underlying fear of the stage fright is judgment or negative evaluation by others. This is type of anxiety is very common and shared amongst presenters, the fear of being judged by others or not feeling valued amongst your community is a valid and real subconscious feeling if you are a self-reflected person.

Having stage fright affects many people but that does not stop us from having to present clearly and effectively. Hi&Lo has a few tricks to help you combat your fear of speaking and presenting. Let’s imagine ourselves to be the protagonist in a horror film. Let’s reimagine ourselves as the one that needs fight the monster.

In a tense situation, just like in a Horror Movie, your Body wants to run, functions differently, because your nervous system is detecting danger. And just like in the Horror Movie, you have the option of fight or flight. If you are shortly before the presentation and you notice that your anxiety wants to take over, get yourself to breath, count to three and exhale as hard as you can, just like a long silent scream.

Once the flight impulse is calmed a little, we must get in touch with the thing that scares us. Our audience. As your character progresses, we understand that whatever is haunting us, we have no other option but facing it and asking ourselves what it might want from us. In this case, it wants information. And, just a clue: The fact that you are the one standing on stage should give you the confidence that you know at least 50% more on the topic than the people in the audience. Now we should pretend to sum up all our strength and arm ourselves with the shield of information and the sword of effective communication.

Let’s go!

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Now it’s time to act! To successfully execute your presentation you have to equip yourself with the following weapons: Nonverbal cues, using your voice effectively, and engaging your audience.

NONVERBAL CUES: Nonverbal cues include gestures, body language, eye contact and tone of voice. So, actions do in fact speak louder than words and the thing that scares you perceives you as a strong individual. Before your performance, we recommend a 5-minute Superhero Pose to get your body aligned to your task.

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USING YOUR VOICE EFFECTIVELY: Public speaking does not come natural to most people, in fact most people have a fear and must learn the skill. Using clear and concise language, speaking loudly and clearly, slowing down for important points of your presentation, using a pause, and avoiding monotone speech, projecting your voice, and avoiding filler words such as uhm, are great ways to start enhancing your skill of public speaking. This is all a matter of practice. There is actually a world wide organization called the toastmasters where you can go and practice speeches and receive a good training in a protected environment: www.toastmasters.org

ENGAGING YOUR AUDIENCE: To engage your audience you must understand your audience and use language that tailors to them, “read” your audience and their nonverbal cues, use paraphrasing to confirm your understanding, use questions to encourage interaction from your audience.

Recommended book

We found a book, we like to recommend. Rule The Room: A Unique, Practical and Comprehensive Guide to Making a Successful Presentation by Jason Teteak:

All of these weapons can help you SLAY your dragon but will not take away being afraid of him. The best way to do that is just to imagine he’s naked 😉 JK! (Well, actually this tactic has been used for many years but we find that thought scarier than the monsters)

The adrenaline rush of facing the monster is the heroes journey. Just like it is your journey, to find your bravery, your skills, to understand that YOU are the presenter and that you have the information an audience wants. So, you are the hero in this situation – stage fright or not.

Every great horror movie always has a sequel, but that’s OK because the hero has gained experience and has become smarter and faster.

So this Halloween season may be scary but stage fright doesn’t have to be! If you want more tips, tricks and presentation insights, follow us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram (@hilo_agency) or LinkedIn.