Even Warren Buffet Had Anxiety of Public Speaking
Early in Buffet´s career he was forced to give presentations and speak in front of people twice his age teaching investment strategies. He practiced these skills over and over again.Today and people hang on every word Warren says. In fact, Warren Buffett´s wisdom is some of the most sought after investing advice in the world
1) The Key to Successful Public Speaking: Choose a Subject that is important to you and help others
This will help reduce your fear of public speaking. However, it might not be possible for every event that you need to speak at but don’t worry in the article we will share with you several effective tips guaranteed to reduce your fear and anxiety of public speaking.
Let’s say for example you have to give an important sales presentation. You need to identify and present the key benefits that will impact your audience or client. These keypoints should be well researched by you or your team, not guess work they should address to audiences specific problems or questions.
How to pick a subject that you passionately care about:
- The subject has had a significant impact on you
- You want to share the message with others
- You know and feel others would benefit from your knowledge
- You can speak about it from your core
When you speak about something you deeply care about you will be more comfortable and feel more confident in your element.
2) Organize Your Presentation
Imagine you’ve organized all of your thoughts and materials and you now feel much more calm and relaxed. you find after clearing and organizing your thoughts greatly reduced anxiety and fear of public speaking. Why? Because now you are able to focus even better. The result is giving a great presentation.
3) You need to Practice And Prepare a lot
Unfortunately,There’s no shortcut for practicing and preparing for your presentation. Sit down and write a script, an outline of your key points, but don’t memorize word for word or worse read the script word-for-word.
Another thing I do to prepare my presentation is to research all the data and facts I can, so that I can answer any potential questions and back it up with data and research. In the past I have had some tough audiences in fortune 500 companies and I learnt to do this to reduce my anxiety and stress.
4) How to Eliminate Fear Of Rejection
“What if they hate my presentation? What if they boo me off stage?” One of the things I teach my students is to eliminate the mental chatter this really helps remove the fears of rejection.
Imagine you’re there to help the audience and you then focus on helping them. Remember the audience is there for a reason,that reason is to learn something by listening to your expertise on the subject. For more about overcoming your fear of public speaking contact me. 😀
5) Practice In The Mirror
Practice your presentation in front of the mirror as if you were speaking directly in front of the audience. If you really want to be really charismatic then work on your:
- Your facial expressions
- Your body movements
- Your hand gestures
- Your body language
- Do you appear warm and open to the audience?
When you are giving a presentation and speak you show calm demeanor and gentle expressions , your audience will welcome you more.
6) Video Record Yourself and Improve
Video record your presentation on your phone or on a video recorder. Practice while Recording yourself giving the presentation from start to finish. Then watch it, and make notes on how you can improve.
Many people do not like watching themselves on video let alone listening to the sound of their voice. it is important that you get a custom to your voice and speaking style. Learn to improve wherever you can.
7) Breathing
Your breathing will affect the resonance of your voice. When you focus on relaxing your breathing your voice will have more resonance. Practice breathing calmly and focus on getting into a rhythm. Even though this is a public speaking exercise, breath-work will help improve clarity and reduce stress in all areas of your life.
8) You need to be willing to Pay the Price
A great example of this is Les Brown, he worked like a maniac throughout his life, even during tough economic times he slept in his office but because he kept going and kept working he eventually succeeded and as a result became one of the highest paid speakers in the world!
You need to make a decision now that you want to learn to deliver outstanding presentations and you need to be willing to pay any price and any amount of time to achieve your goal.
I have worked with people who I have jumped to the ahead of the pack in their careers by overcoming their anxiety and fear of public speaking. You will discover the more you practice, the more you will improve, the easier it’ll get, the more fun it will be and your business or profession will sky rocket.
Many times, I´ve seen people get significant promotions simply because they were really good orator and because the boss not nearly as good kept them in the company. In fact, they often received salary increase and advancement. Why? Because they were more valuable to the company due to the talent they developed. Being a good public is a highly marketable skill in the professional world.
9) Practice and then Some More . . .
When someone asks me how he can build effective communication skills and improve his public speaking, I quote to him the words of Elbert Hubbard, who said, “The only way to learn to speak is to speak and speak, and speak and speak, and speak and speak and speak.”
10) Deliver Your Speech To someone you trust
There are plenty of people you can practice on. Be sure to tell the person to be completely honest with you in their critique.
Examples of people you can practice on:
- Your Partner
- Your friends
- Your parents
- Your pet
Practising in front of another person, this will help feel more comfortable and give you experience. You should receive feedback from them, though I wouldnt expect so from your cat. Whatever questions they have about your presentation, it is likely that people in the audience will have similar questions.
11) Public Speaking Classes
You could join a club like toastmasters or find a group on meetup. There are many groups that you can join to learn the art of public speaking. Finding an experienced coach or mentor can help you get over the fear of public speaking, presentations. I have some techniques that I have used with clients and had awesome results.
12) PowerPoint the double edged sword
Powerpoint can be your best friend. It can help keep you on track, keeps people engaged, and a good visual tool that gives the audience a means to grab main points and take notes.
However, DO NOT put mini-text which no one can see, multi paragraphs and 100´s of other details and numbers that no one can understand all on one slide. Believe me I have trained and coached 1000´s and I´ve seen this time and time again. I was coaching a large petroleum firm in Europe for a M&A with a private equity. And the CFO amongst others of this multinational were all trying to include as much financial data as possible on each slide.
To learn how to create an impactful presentation here: 16 Tips to Create a Great
13) 100 Words For Every Word
According to Dale Carnegie, “You Should Know 100 Words For Every Word That You Plan to present” If that doesn’t give you confidence when delivering a presentation, I don’t know what will! 🙂
Basically the idea is that in order to transmit the energy of confidence to the audience you really should be an expert on the subject. If you try to bluff your way through, maybe only one but of some the members in the audience will detect that you really an expert or worse you don’t know what you´re talking about! 
Which brings me to another point, you’ll often hear people say “fake till you make it”. Perfection isn’t the goal because no one is perfect. But you know you need sound and be competent while giving the presentation. If you start to waffle on-and-on about a topic, the audience will start wondering what´s the point you are trying to make. They´ll quickly start to shut you down and tune you out.
There’s nothing wrong with giving something a go but you need to be prepared. No one and I mean no one becomes successful by luck. They might get lucky once but that was it luck, and only once. 😉
14) Don’t focus on the audience reactions but focus on helping others!
This is a keypoint to keep in mind, several years ago I was interviewed in a magazine and the interviewers asked me the number one thing to overcome Fear of speaking in public. Focus on delivering your material and how that material will benefit the audience the best possible way. Lastly, don’t focus on the audience reactions but focus on helping others!
15) Reframe and Relax Fear Of Public Speaking
I am sure you’ve heard this before, but if I ask you NOT to imagine a blue elephant, the first thing you´ll do is imagine a blue elephant. That’s my point, if you try NOT to focus on anxiety, that is nearly impossible for you. You´ll be drawn right to the fear like a magnet! So you need to reframe your mind by focusing on the positives of the presentation and all benefits that the participants will receive by listening to you Look at #20 for a cool technique used by the pros that might help you to relax . ..
16) Don’t Sensitive Audience Reactions
Whether you see someone in the audience on their phone or yawning there will always be people who are bored or tired. None of these observations have anything to do with you personally and who knows maybe the guy didn´t sleep or his wife´s about to have a baby!
Here’s a great question for you? How do you know when you´ve done a good job? There are 2 methods people get feedback from their environment. What that means to you is that rather than be overy reactive to the audience, be internally focused for feedback. For more info on this contact us.
17) Avoid Pitfall of Talking Too Fast
Another pitfall to avoid is speaking too fast because if you talk too fast you will breathe less. So? Panicked people take short quick breathes. Talking fast during a presentation messes-up your breathing patterns which creates feeling shortness of breath, which in turn will make you feel panicked and fearful. Practice slowing down when you speak, and you will be more calm and relaxed.
Here´s a great exercise:
Don’t believe, not sure? The fast way to change your mental state is to change your physiology according to Tony Robbins and lots of supporting research. Right now try and start taking slow deep breaths and how do you feel? Now try and take short shallow quick breaths, how do you feel? I’m sure you’ll notice the difference in your physiology. Or drink a bunch of alcohol and tell me your mental state doesn’t change! 🙂
18) How to Make Your Nervous Energy Work For You
Learning to channel your nervous energy into positive energy is a cool trick. When you feel nervous you release a hormone called adrenaline. You can use this excess capacity of energy impassion presentation and your public speaking event.
19) Practice mental rehearsal 5 Minutes A Day
Hey it works for professional athletes like tiger woods, olympians, actors and dancers. I´ve seen it help my students and helps me when presenting in front of larger audiences. It helps clear your head of internal chatter that leads to negative thoughts.
In an article in Forbes, Dan Harris, co-anchor of Nightline and Good Morning America discussed his public speaking anxiety and how meditating for 5 minutes a day helped him to eradicate negative thoughts from his mind.
If you’re interested in learning a mental rehearsal practice it´s a kind of meditation, John English published a very helpful article and video for beginners.
Be sure to check out How to Mental Rehersal can help you reach your Goals for step by step instructions and a free guide.
20) Exercise Before the Presentation
Remember, physiology has a direct impact on your emotions and feelings. Exercising or even walking before a presentation will get your blood circulating , pump more oxygen to your brain, get those endorphins and dopamine release. So go for a jog or take a walk before your presentation.
21) Sip Water That’s Warm Or Room Temperature
Another trick I learned was to sip on warm water while talking. It keeps my throat from getting dry. Some people recommend putting a little himalayian salt and lemon in your water.
Avoid sugary drinks because they make your blood sugar crash and your energy level will crash resulting in a lifeless presentation that no one wants to listen to a zombie!
22) How to Improve Your Next Speech
Practice makes perfect. There are always 3 speeches you and I make, the one you practiced, the one you deliver and the one you wish you had delivered!
If your presentation is on video watch and take notes see how you can improve it
- How did you do?
- What could you improved?
- Did you seem stiff or make any weird facial expressions?
- If you used a PowerPoint, did it help?
- Did you maintain a stable rhythm?
- How often did you “um” and “ah” ?
Keep your notes, keep practising and gradually your fear of public speaking will dwindle.
By the way: There are 2 types of public speakers: those who feel a bit nervous and those who lie! 🙂 The big difference between an inexperienced and seasoned public speaker is that the experienced public speaker knows how to channel their nervous energy and because of lots and lots of practise.
Have You Overcome Your Fear Of Public Speaking ?
You will find that if you implement the techniques and tips I have shared with you in this article, that your anxiety and fear of public speaking will dissipate immensely.
The one of the principal component of overcoming your fear of public speaking is making sure you are prepared and confident with the material you are going to present and the second part might be mental and emotional preparation which I can help you achieve. Contact me
Good Luck and Always Success
John
