May 9, 2024
You’ve probably tried to speak in public a few times before. Maybe your heart started racing, maybe you had difficulties breathing, or maybe you even forgot what you wanted to say. You’ve tried a few different strategies, but nothing’s really worked.
It sucks, right?
I know the struggle you might be going through right now. Speaking in front of an audience was the single thing that I was most afraid of.
I hated it because I was just not good at it.
Until I discovered the exercises I’m about to share.
In this public speaking training, I’m gonna give you the two exercises that I do every single time before a presentation to let go of stress and the three mindset shifts that helped me to finally feel good about speaking in public.
They are the same exercises I used to prepare for my TED talk and that I’ve taught in my workshops with companies like Google, Oracle, Visa, Salesforce, Metlife, EON, and many, many more.
Let’s go!
In the 1970s, Dr. Peter Levine analyzed animals in the wild to understand how they respond to trauma and stress. As part of that, he looked at how antelopes would be affected after being chased by a lion. He expected that these massively stressful events would have a negative impact on the antelopes. That they would exhibit some nervous behavior, restlessness, or trauma.
If any of us were chased by a lion, we’d probably never leave our house again.
But that is not what happened with the antelopes. Here’s what happened.
The antelope started shaking and shivering.
After shaking, they just went back to their herd and continued grazing, relaxed as if nothing had happened.
How was that possible?
Dr. Levine found that animals in the wild have a coping mechanism to let go of a traumatic event. The moment the danger is gone, they shiver and shake their entire body to naturally release the stress from their bodies.
We as humans, what do we do when we experience stress?
We just suck it up. We keep the stress in our body.
So, how can you let go of that stress?
In the same way as animals let go of that stress: You shake your body for 2 to 3 minutes.
Shake your arms, rotate your shoulders, kick your legs, move your feet—focus on every single limb.
The more physically active you can be, the more you’ll let go of stress and clear your mind.
If anyone sees you, they should think that the devil has taken control of you.
The shake out helps you let go of stress. But sometimes, you may not have the space and privacy to do the shake out.
Here’s the next exercise of our public speaking training that you can do even if you’re in a meeting, surrounded by people.
In 2022, Andrew Huberman from Stanford University ran a few experiments to understand how effective different meditations are in reducing stress. And even though all of the meditations helped reduce stress, one stood out.
Dr. Huberman called this technique “the fastest real-time tool for reducing stress and anxiety.”
What is it?
It’s called the Physiological Sigh.
How does it work?
Within just a few breaths, the Physiological Sigh will help you activate your parasympathetic response which is responsible for relaxation and slow down your heart rate. Just a few breaths will help you relax before your speech and help you overcome fear of public speaking.
But Philipp, I don’t have any experience with breathwork or meditation. Can I still do this?
Absolutely. You don’t need to have spent one year in an ashram in India to do this or spend half every day in lotus position. Though it sure wouldn’t hurt. This breathing technique is so powerful because it allows any person, beginner or advanced meditator, to get into a highly meditative state very quickly.
For my book, Public Speaking with Confidence, I interviewed 34 professional speakers.
Each time I asked them, “What’s the one thing you do before your speech to get ready?”
You’d expect to get very different responses on that one, right?
To my surprise, three in four speakers responded in the same way.
They said: Focus on the audience.
Let me explain what that means. The best speakers don’t focus on themselves before going on stage. They don’t obsess about their nerves, their looks, or how they’ll be perceived.
Instead, they focus on how they will help their audience.
Do they help them solve a certain problem?
Do they help them develop healthier habits?
Or do they bring some fun into their boring days?
Focus on the value you bring to your audience.
This will help you get out of your head and more into the moment.
But Philipp, my job is quite boring. I don’t really change anyone’s life. What should I do?
It doesn’t matter whether you’re in engineering, marketing, accounting, or whatever other department in your company. In the end, you help your company solve problems. By solving these problems, your company (and the people that work there) will avoid pain and have more pleasure. Any business presentation should focus on solving a problem. If your presentation doesn’t solve a problem, there is no point in giving a presentation. You can rather send a quick email.
If you combine this exercise with the next one, you’ll know the best techniques to overcome fear of public speaking.
In my coaching sessions, my clients often ask me:
“Philipp, can you help me get rid of my nerves?”
And every time I’m like, “No, I can’t. Unless you’re a total sociopath, you will have these feelings.”
Every single speaker that I know still gets nervous when speaking in front of an audience that matters. Doesn’t matter how experienced they are.
Feeling nervous before speaking in public is completely normal.
But the key is not to be afraid of this feeling.
Nerves are like waves in the ocean – you can’t stop the waves but you can learn how to surf.
So how can you accept your nerves and actually use them to your favor?
By doing a simple, but very powerful reframe.
In 2014, Harvard Business School professor Alison Wood Brooks found that participants who reframed their anxiety as excitement performed much better than the ones who didn’t.
They scored higher in karaoke, were rated as more persuasive, competent, and confident speakers, and even scored higher in a math test – only by reframing their anxiety into excitement.
So, next time you get nervous, simply reframe your nervousness and tell yourself “I’m excited.”
Say it out loud a few times and you’ll feel significantly more confident.
Let’s now go to the last mindset shift of our public speaking training to feel good about speaking in public.
A couple of years ago, I had to give a presentation at work, and I was freaking out. I had spoken in public before, but most of the time, it was a disaster. A few times I had forgotten what I wanted to say, almost every time I had been out of breath, and often my voice was just trembling.
And there I was, thinking that this time would be the same. “This is gonna suck.”
And right when I went down the rabbit hole of thinking about all the things that would go wrong, I found this article online that said something very profound:
“Be grateful for the tough times. They made you who you are.”
And as I read that, I realized, “Wow. That’s right.” Each one of my bad speeches have made me who I am today. They inspired me to try out new things, get out of my comfort zone, and continue to work on myself. Without them, I’d never be where I am right now.
So, in the moment, I started to say, “Thank you. Thank you to all the embarrassing, terrifying, and shi*ty presentations I’ve given. They’ve made me who I am today.”
Minutes later when I went in front of the crowd, something curious happened.
I didn’t feel the usual anxiety. I felt surprisingly calm. I felt good about being on stage.
That’s the power of gratitude.
So the next time you find yourself getting nervous, be grateful.
You can be grateful for any traumatic speaking experiences because they’ve made you who you are.
You can be grateful for the sensations in your body. They just show that you care and help you connect with your audience.
Or you can be grateful for all the people that have helped you get to where you are.
When you’re grateful, it shifts your focus from feeling anxious to feeling happy, confident, and abundant. You’ll radiate positivity.
That’s our free public speaking training. Those are my 5 fixes that I use before any speech to overcome fear of public speaking.
But these are kind of short-term hacks. They will help you a lot, but they won’t help build long-lasting confidence. In case you are interested in building long-lasting confidence, I suggest checking out this next article in which I share How I’d learn public speaking if I could start over.
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