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Yes, welcome to the biz communication show, I’m your host Bill Lampton the biz communication guy, today, we’re going to look at five keys to controlling your stage fright. Whether you are an aspiring manager, you’re not one yet. Or whether you’re going to become a manager, or someone in the C suite level you’re going to be making in your career, many presentations to groups, some within your workplace, and others elsewhere civic clubs, conferences, conventions, and so on. Has it crossed your mind that shoo, you might not want to do these things because of the extremes stage fright that you feel? You have lots of company. When I was teaching Speech Communication at the University of Georgia, one of the very first sessions I had with the students, every term in that basic class was how to you how do you handle your stage fright. Because, believe me, every one of those freshmen and upperclassmen, they were terrified of having to speak to their classmates justice, sometimes you’re terrified about having to speak to your professional colleagues are, in some cases, even to strangers. So these five keys are some that I started sharing a long time ago. And they’ve been very helpful to me, in my own professional life as a professional speaker, a seminar leader, a communication coach and consultant. Every time I face a group, I have the challenge of stage fright as well. So for the five tips, the first one is notice this number one, that I use the word control your stage fright. I didn’t say get rid of it. I didn’t say cure it, you can go online and you’ll find a lot of promise is from other consultants, and coaches who will say I can cure your stage fright, I can help you get rid of it. But that’s not what I’m after. In fact, the book that I wrote is 25 ways to control your stage fright. Why do I say that? Because stage fright, in many ways, is our friend. It’s our adrenaline. It keeps us up for the occasion. Now, just think for example, if you went to a major sporting event, a college or professional football game, NBA game, Major League Baseball game, and the minute you got there, you just felt everything was still and dull. The the participants looked like they were yawning and not involved. Now we really want to see activity and people slapping each other on the back and encouraging each other. So stage fright has the advantage and that it revs us up for the occasion. You see, you don’t want your audience to wander as as this speaker got a pulse? Are they still breathing? Animation is a very important part of speaking. And do I still have stage fright after decades of teaching it studying it? Yes, I do. And I would worry if I didn’t. Often on the biz communication show, I will have a guest that I interview. And I will go ahead and admit that there are times when I’m introducing the guest that I’m holding over here the introduction that I will read. I look down and my hand is shaking. Does that bother me? Not especially because I know I’m really into it. I’m up for it. I’m ready for it. So number one, don’t think that getting rid of or abolishing your stage fright is the is the goal. It isn’t. The key is to control it. And we’re talking now about how to do that. So, the next key I would give in addition to number one, you’re going to control your stage fright, not trying to get rid of it. So number two,
I want you to change your view about audiences. You Yes, change your view about audiences what? What are we afraid of? When we have stage fright? We are afraid of what the audience will think of us the impression we will make what what are they saying to each other afterwards? What will they tell other people? We are, are afraid of audiences, I assure you, from decades of dealing with audiences, I can assure you that audiences are not your critics are mine. Audiences are our cheerleaders. How do you mean that bill, our cheerleaders, they want us to succeed. Why? Because you have been in situations where a speaker did not succeed. And that’s every bit as uncomfortable for the audience, as it is for the presenter. So realize that the audience, these people, they’re not your critics, they’re your cheerleaders. And they’re not looking for a perfect performance. That’s not what they want. They want a real person sharing vital ideas with All right, number three, and my five keys to controlling your stage fright. Number three, is you’ve got a secret. I’ve got a secret. When you speak, Oh, really? What is that? The secret is that you? And only you know what you are intending to say? You and only you know what you meant to say? How many times have you gone home from some type of presentation you gave and you think oh my gosh, I left this out or I left that out. Or I said this wrong. Or I said that wrong. You’re the only one who knows. That’s a great comfort, it’s a tremendous comfort to know that you have the keys, you got the secret. And if you make a mistake, if you omit something, nobody knows that. But you. The next step I’m going to give you as one which I’m I know is is quite obvious but sometimes overlooked. And that is prepare thoroughly. Some of those students I taught as freshmen at the University of Georgia had a right to be scared they hadn’t, hadn’t prepared. Let’s don’t put ourselves in that position. Let’s prepare for our presentation. Here’s a phrase I’d like to leave with you the more presentation ahead of time. And of course, preparation is ahead of time, the more preparation, the less perspiration. My methods of preparation are very different from that of many traditional speech coaches and teachers. And I can talk about that another time. I certainly don’t believe in repeated repeated repeated rehearsals that can make the content dulled to you even before you present it. And then it’ll be though to the audience, but use moderate sensible preparation, know your topic, and then go in there and speak it to your audience. Alright, the fifth key that I will give you is this one. Get your audience involved in the presentation. You see, monologue is just us talking the entire 20 or 30 minutes or whatever dialogue is when we get others participating. There are all kinds of ways that you can do this. My method as a professional speaker for many years has been that when I’m hired to be a keynote speaker at a conference or convention, I asked the meeting planner to give me the names and the email addresses of at least four of their key people that I can have a conversation with ahead of time.
And it’s it’s up to the person once I email them whether we have our conversation is by email or by telephone But I asked them some questions about the topic that we’re going to going to be covering. I will say to them at the end of that conversation, is it okay if I quote you directly? And they say, yes. Okay, I did that for quite a few years. And then one day, I thought, hey, let’s really get them involved. So instead of just quoting them, I would say, the way you present this is so authentic. I would love for you to do that with the group, would you be willing for me to call on you during the presentation? They say yes. And as you can guess, when they speak, when they participate, that gets others to participate as well. So there are meaningful ways to get people involved in small group discussion and question and answer many speakers Hold q&a to the end of the presentation, but you don’t have to do that. It can be there at the start. I appreciate very much for being with me today on the biz communication show, either by video or podcast. And I would like to point out to you that I’ve written a book on this topic, as I mentioned earlier, 25 ways to control your stage fright, and the subtitle to that 25 ways to control your stage fright, and become a more confident speaker. These five tips are in that book, and they’re 20 more. The book is available on Amazon. It’s a very small, brief book, only 25 pages. But that’s all it took for me to give you the 25 tips that can help you become a confident speaker 25 keys I’ve given you five of them. It’s moderately priced, I believe it’s $8 on Kindle and $10 as a paperback, encourage you to get that far further study of this topic. And then I invite you to go to my website. Biz communication, I’m known as the biz communication guy, because that’s what I do. And so I invite you to go to my website biz bi Z logically, biz communication guy.com. There, you’ll find my services for corporations and leaders, and also my contact information. And as part of my contact information, you’ll find my phone call number 678-316-4300. Again, 678-316-4300. I invite you to give me a call for a up to a half an hour, no cost, no obligation conversation about your communication challenges and problems. And we can talk about how I can help you resolve them. Again, I’m grateful for those of you who joined me today on the biz communication show. And I wish you well as you control your stage fright and become a highly confident speaker.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
