PUBLIC SPEAKING TIPS FOR ANXIETY
PUBLIC SPEAKING TIPS FOR ANXIETY (That Almost No One Talks About)
By Reesa Woolf, PhD — Fear Elimination Expert
Most public speaking advice repeats the same tips: practice more, picture the audience naked, join a club, breathe deeply, pretend you're confident.
None of these will fix your public speaking anxiety!
Why do none of these will fix your public speaking fear? Because public speaking anxiety isn’t a confidence problem — it’s a BRAIN PROGRAMMING ERROR. And brain programming errors can be rewired.
What really will help you?
As a 25 year expert on eliminating fear for introverts, engineers, technical professionals, and executives, here are my SIMPLE and FAST WORKING TIPS:
1. Stop Practicing So Much!
· The goal is not to say each sentence perfectly.
· The goal is to explain each idea, not repeat exact words.
Most people practice over and over because they’re terrified of messing up.
Over rehearsing to memorize tells your brain, “This must be dangerous—otherwise why would we practice it so much?”
You are increasing your own anxiety.
Do this instead:
· Practice one Main Point for 5 minutes.
· Include the key ideas and allow the rest of each sentence to vary.
* This is teaching your brain that you can be trusted to explain each idea (as you normally do at work).
2. Your Fear Is a Misfiring Survival System
· Your brain treats a conference room like a lion’s den!
· It’s not your personality. It’s your faulty survival algorithm.
Do this instead:
Say this phrase (my cognitive reprogramming method):
“This is not danger. This is me helping people.”
Your brain calms immediately when it has the correct label.
3. If you can easily speak to one person and to small groups, deliver your presentation as if you are speaking to them by looking only at a small group at a time.
Stay there for 5 seconds and move to another small group.
MORE PUBLIC SPEAKING TIPS TO COME,
Reesa Woolf, PhD
Executive’s and Business Owner’s Public Speaking Coach
