Practical Tips
Fight, Flight, or Freeze: Why Your Body Panics When You Stand Up to Speak
One of the most reassuring things I can tell clients is that nothing about their fear is unusual. Their bodies are doing exactly what they were designed to do. In evolutionary terms, the fight, flight, or freeze response kept us alive. The difficulty is that...
Nine Ways to Calm Your Nerves by Connecting With Your Audience (and Imagining Your Audience Naked Is Not One of Them!)
Presenting to an audience can feel unnatural. Most people don’t like being in the spotlight. It is tempting to become less noticeable by hiding behind a PowerPoint presentation. But that is an unhelpful strategy. We need to do the opposite because connecting with the audience...
How Finding Something Important to Say Can Boost Your Confidence
While researching this topic, I came across a comment in an online forum. “I put on my first parent seminar this week. I was so terrified I almost cancelled! But I got over myself because I know parents are a bit desperate about how to...
Stop Trying to Conquer Your Fear of Public Speaking
Body language expert Mark Bowden tells a memorable story in his book Winning Body Language. A man came to him, desperate for help because he broke out in hives every time he presented. He was understandably distressed and wanted the symptoms to stop. Instead of...