5 Public Speaking Tips To Overcome Stage Fear | Speak Confidently & Reduce Nervousness

Public speaking is an art that can be mastered by anyone, if they practice certain skills. In this Skillopedia Video, you will learn some useful public speaking tips to overcome, nervousness, stage fear, speech anxiety and speak more confidently in front of an audience. Learn how not to be nervous and speak with confidence. Either you are presenting to a small group in your office, college OR a large audience in an auditorium. There are certain rules of engagement great public speakers follow, that’s what you would learn today.

Your life skills coach Michelle, herself had been a victim of stage fear and public speaking anxiety. Watch carefully as she shares her journey, how she successfully overcame this common fear of public speaking that almost everyone has.

Complete Video Transcript : –

So today I have decided to speak about a phobia that most people struggle with, and that’s “Glossophobia”. Do you know what that means? That is the name for the most dreaded fear of public speaking. Not just you but many people including me, have been victims to stage fright or at least most of us have been super nervous before facing an audience, what do you think? Okay, because you’ve clicked on this video, I’m pretty sure that you know how badly Glossophobia can affect your performance. But do you know that you are not lone in this, that’s right. Like I said earlier, I’ve been a victim to stage fear and I have frozen before an audience and that itself is a great fear of public speaking in me that the first time I shot a video on Skillopedia for you, I felt that I would not be able to complete it. Apart from me there are famous actors such as, Nicole Kidman, Politicians like Abraham Lincoln and even leaders of the Nation like Gandhiji who dreaded speaking before an audience. So this means that you are not alone, right? So basically this is an evidence that even famous people or successful people, battle with Glossophobia. So based on personal experiences there are some tried and tested techniques that can help you overcome the fear of speaking in public. My name is Michelle and you are watching Skillopedia, the place to learn skills for the real world. SO today let’s take a few steps together to overcome Glossophobia. For this, you need to concentrate on your breathing, because that has the capacity to calm you down. So when you are too nervous and you have excessive adrenaline rushing through you veins, that is what leads you to breathe you rapidly, and breathing rapidly as you know causes anxiety which causes your performance to go really bad. So the technique is, that you should start focusing on your breathing to stay calm before your performance. I would suggest that you start your speech, before you start your speech, you breathe in and breathe out at least 10 times. This will help you slow down your adrenaline rush, reduce your heart rate, reduce anxiety and calm you down and I think this technique is quite doable, it’s quite easy, you don’t need any equipment for this, you just need to breathe in, breathe out and relax your mind. Apart from breathing in and breathing out, three’s another thing that you can do to calm yourself which is, you should start imagining a positive outcome of your speech as you do this you get into the right and confident frame of mind about your speech that you are going to deliver. So step: 1 is, reduce anxiety, increase confidence. I’m going to share with you a golden strategy to overcome Glossophobia. I’m sure that there are many experts who would vouch for this strategy and that is the most powerful tool for good speeches, “pausing”, that’s right. Not only will this help you create an impact, but it will also help you master your anxiety, that is generated during the speech. Because when you speak at a graduate pace, when you are slow, you are gradual, this means that you get time to think, right? This is the secret that I have used for many years and as you can see that when I speak, I often pause, that’s right. In order to create an impact, and I want to give you the time to absorb the information that I’m giving, otherwise it will be an information overload, and you will lose the connect with me. And obviously, pausing helps me collect my own thoughts. So pausing is helpful, in every way, it’s a win-win situation for you and also for your audience. Now this is an art that you can learn with practice, so let’s practice it now, okay? You can see a piece of text on the screen right here, I would like you read this, just as it is, pause the video, take about 30 seconds to read this and then play the video again, here you go… Well I hope you were able to use 30 seconds to read out this text. Did you feel that something was missing over there? That you were not absolutely right in your pace, maybe you were going a bit too fast, you did not know where to pause… Well you’re absolutely right. What was missing in this text, can you tell me? It was the punctuation. There were no full stops and there were no commas, that’s why when you are reading the text, you sounded so dull and drab as you were missing all the pauses because of punctuation was absent throughout the text. So, now what do we understand? We understand that it is important that you should use punctuations while preparing your script and pauses while you’re speaking. Now we have the same text on the screen right here but this time with the punctuation marks and I’m going to read it with the punctuations, pausing for a shorter duration at the commas and I’ll pause for a longer duration for full stops. So basically you have to listen to me carefully and then try it yourself, but pausing at the right place for the right amount of time. So let’s begin, “Public speaking anxiety is something that has affected all of us, to some extent. In fact, I believe that Mark Twain was right when he said, there are two types of speakers: those who are nervous, and those who a liars.” Well I completely with what Mr. Twain has said and I hope that this time you actually were able to notice the impact that pausing correctly can create on your talk. So this means you must use the powerful tool of pausing in order to create an impact through your speech. There is one technique that has worked very well for me, and that is ‘giving my speech to another person’. There are actually many people around you that you can give your speech to, you can do it with your husband or your wife, with your friend, with your parents, with your sister, your brother, your dog… not that one actually, but all the other, right? You can deliver your speech to them and the best part is, speaking in front of another person, will help you relax and on top of that it will give you experience, in the sense that if the people listening to you have any questions about your speech, it is a high possibility that the audience will also have the similar questions to ask you and you will be better prepared for the final presentation. So this means that you will be better prepared for any anticipated questions or problems that might occur when you are delivering your speech. Also when you practice your speech with another person, remember to tell them to critic your performance on a scale, as in tell you of the good, and the areas to improve so that you can receive a constructive feedback from them and work on it. So this is going to allow you to improve your final performance and this is the tip that has worked a lot for me. So remember to rehearse in front of another person. Now for the third advice, I’m going to give you another checklist and this time for practicing in front of the mirror, oh hang on, I’m assuming that you already know that you should do the practice in front of the mirror or record yourself on your cellphone to improve your delivery. Well this is a mandatory step to create an impact with your speech. So when you are going to rehearse in front of the mirror, you should pay attention to a few factors, the first is your facial expressions, if your expressions don’t support your words, it seems that your speech is memorized. You have just learned it by heart and you are reading it up, that’s it. So make sure that you’re expressive, not just with your words, but also with your face, and when it comes to facial expressions, a smile is mandatory, it should be there throughout your speech. Not just to appear confident but also to calm your nerves. It’s actually scientifically proven that smiling reduces anxiety, so you should be careful of your facial expressions and be sure to smile. When you are practicing in front of the mirror, you should look at your gestures, I mean your body movements, the way you move your hands, are you flinging them with no purpose? Are you slouching while speaking? Are your shoulders to stiff and unnatural? Well, you should try to avoid such body language, because that affects your performance negatively. So be careful of your body language as well, apart from facial expressions. Don’t just pick up any topic to talk on, yes, that’s very, very crucial, don’t just pick up any topic. So I remember the time when I froze on stage and the main reason behind it, was that I have to speak on Social Media, Which was not the topic close to my heart, because I’m not a person who uses social media regularly and I had to speak about the negative impact of Social Media on people’s lives and how it is making people’s life better, and so on and on. I ran out of ideas, I was looking for words and there was a huge crowd waiting for me to continue, I know that you can resonate with me here. That was a very nerve wrecking moment for me. So based on my own experience, I would suggest that you should pick a subject that you really care about. Well I have a checklist for you that will help you decide whether you want to speak on the topic or no. So before you decide your topic, ask yourself three questions, the first one is, “does this subject have an impact on me?” Second should be, “Do I want to share on this topic with other people?” Third, “Will people really benefit from my knowledge of this topic?” So these are the three questions that you should answer before you decide to speak on a topic. So now you have a checklist for making a decision about the topic that you are going to speak on, because this decision will have a great impact on how your speech goes. It’s quite simple, if you feel for a topic, you will definitely be in your element, so remember to choose your topic carefully. So let’s now review the five strategies to overcome Glossophobia, to begin with you should know that you are not alone, okay? There are other people who’ve been victim and who are victim to stage fright. Second, you must learn to relax, breathe in, breathe out ten times before you start speaking, imagine a positive outcome, after that choose the topic carefully and the fourth tip is practice in front of the mirror paying careful attention to your facial expressions and also to your body language. And lastly rehearse your speech in front of someone, and don’t forget to add the magical pauses that will take your speech to the next level. So thank you so much for staying tuned with me in this whole session on Skillopedia, the place to learn skills for the real world.