Here are 5 tried and tested ways to overcome your stage fright and nervousness! And yes, I get nervous all the time. The question is how well you cover it up or leverage it to make your speech even more impactful!

1. Thoroughly Prepare

Go through your materials as many times as possible, until you are comfortable with them. Write your speech ahead of time and give yourself a lot of time to rehearse. If possible, rehearse as if you are giving the actual presentation. In other words, incorporate your props (if any), staging (how you move, where you position) and delivery (body gestures, eye contact) into your rehearsal. Because the more you practice, the more comfortable you will be. And the more comfortable you are, the more confident you will be. Simple logic.

2. It’s all about stage time!

The more often you speak, the better you become. It is that simple. When you speak frequently, you begin to know what to expect. You become more proficient in preparing and giving your speech. Given more speaking opportunities, you will inevitably open up more room for growth. That’s why you get better!

One of my idols in the speaking industry, Jim Key, warned us (members of Toastmasters) against speaking too often with the same group of people. Although it is a good way to improve, you can benefit more by speaking to other group of audiences. It allows you to build up confidence and competency in handling diverse audiences. Besides, you don’t always have the luxury of speaking to the same group of people all the time, do you?

I will like to add that speaking to new groups of people keeps you at the edge. It drives faster improvements. Instead of becoming complacent and at ease, you will always be vigilant. You will find ways to get better because you are not sure what your new audience expects of you. And interestingly, the more you speak to unfamiliar faces, the easier it becomes! So speak frequently to as many groups of people as possible!

3. Battle nervousness at its roots

This is a very important step and I suggest you spend some time on it. Let me start by sharing with you the root of my nervousness. I am afraid that I cannot live up to my audience expectations and I feel pressurized to be as good as I was last year. The irony of success eh? It does not matter if there is any truth in it because in my world, it is reality. And it weighs a ton on my shoulders.

Great. So now that I have uncovered the root of my nervousness, what do I do next?
Simply accept it! And it goes away!! Allow me to explain.

When you accept the root of your nervousness, you have given yourself the power to transcend it. Once you know why you are nervous and acknowledge it, you automatically stop struggling. Your vision clears out and you begin to see how you can take tangible actions to reduce your nervousness. Isn’t this much more effective than feeling nervous?

Let me give you an example. A lot of people are nervous because they are afraid to fail. I’m definitely one of them. And it is normal. Question is how do you react to your nervousness? Some people chose to drown themselves in the whirlpool of nervousness and as you can guess, it is a point of no return. However if you acknowledge that nervousness and stop giving power to this emotion, you now have a choice to do something about it. In this case, you can start enquiring deeper into your definition of failure. How would you know if you fail?

I forget my lines.

My client refuses to sign my contract.

The audience laughs at me

Frankly it could be anything. But at the very least, you have now something tangible to work on. For example, you can work on shortening your script or rehearse more so that you won’t forget your lines. You can review your presentation and see if there is any information you need to add to be more persuasive. Not so helpless anymore right?

On top of accepting the cause of my nervousness, you may also want to revisit and re-experience your motivation for speaking (assuming there is). Because if you have no motivation to speak, why bother in the first place?

I still remember being extremely nervous about giving a speech at my graduation. However, after being present to the motivation of my speech, I became more relaxed.

I relate the graduation speech as my way of expressing gratitude towards my batch mates. So no matter how sucky it will be, it comes from the heart and I mean every single word that I say. So how bad can the speech be?

In addition, this is also a golden opportunity to improve my public speaking skills! So even if the speech flopped, I am going to learn something valuable. And from my experience, I will get better. So what’s there to lose?

4. Visualize yourself as a superstar!

Now to the fun part! All you need is imagination. Picture in your mind all the positive things that will happen before, during and after your speech. Don’t hold back. Use your five senses. What do you see? What do you hear? What can you touch? What can you smell? What can you feel? Keep adding positive images into your picture. And play the scene over and over again, until you are convinced that you are indeed a superstar!

Lastly…

5. Do NOT envision your audience in their underwear!

Been there, done that. Trust me, it doesn’t help a micro bit. And worse, it will only make you feel more nervous! Seriously, how can you even concentrate on delivering your speech to a group of naked people??!!

So there you go, five suggestions in total for curbing your nervousness. Public speaking should not be feared. Embrace it and enjoy the thrill. For starters, make the butterflies in your stomach fly in formation!