Any public speaking advice for someone really nervous around crowds?

In My Humble Opinion
21

seaptho, cast your mind back. Glide backwards through your memories until you find a clear memory of the last time you had to sit through a presentation with a large group of people. Hold that memory. Let it take shape. Think about yourself, what the audience was like, the atmosphere, the mood.

Then ask yourself: “How much attention do I pay to other people standing up on stage yammering?”

That’s how much attention these other people will be paying to you. Probably less. The reason you have PowerPoint slides is so that when they tune back in every once in a while, they’ll have something short to write down.

It’s pretty much just like giving your speech in front of the mirror, except when you’re on stage you’ll probably also get to play with a laser pointer.

Failing that, many people who don’t speak in front of large groups very often find it comforting to get to the moment of truth and discover that they cannot see a god-blessit thing, other than themselves. If you’re speaking for 500 people and you have slides, that means you also have a screen and a projector of some sort, and in order to make that properly visible, everything else needs to be pretty dark. It makes you effectively night-blind, mercifully unable to make out anything of any note out in the house. Unless you’re so terrible that they rise up and start pelting you with rotten fruit, you have no way of knowing the audience is even out there.

22

I’ll second that, and add a bit. For a long time I didn’t practice my presentations properly. I thought I was, but it was only after a disastrous presentation that I figured out where I was going wrong.

Practice your entire talk from start to finish, in the same voice you intend to use on the day. Practice every word and pause and gesture and slide change. If you mess up during practice, don’t start again - keep going like you’ll need to on the day. Repeat until you’re comfortable, and then a bit more.

23

Take your keys and change out of your pockets.

Warm up.

Speak clearly and just a little slowly.
Keep shifting where you look to different points in the room.
Remember, most people are terrified of public speaking. They see you going up there and they think you are like bravest person in the world. To them you are running into a burning building to save a baby. So do OK and you’ll be a hero to them.

24

If you are a fidgeter, hold onto your pen. With both hands if need be.

25

Don’t pace. I work with somebody who speaks in public regularly, and she has a little dance she does…never fails. Take about three half-sideways steps in one direction…cross opposite foot over and stop. Re-plant both feet. Repeat process in opposite direction. Every once in a while, interrupt the process by putting one foot awkwardly too far forward with the toe pointed.

Having said that, it doesn’t hurt to move. If I’m not tethered, I like to move around every once in awhile. I feel like it helps the audience focus, because they have to follow you. Also makes individuals feel more involved because at some point, you will be standing directly in front of them. Combine this with the ‘talk to one person’ technique.

Ew, which reminds me of another terrible habit somebody else has, re. that technique. I call it the ‘typewriter’. He will focus on the first person in the front row. Talk to them for 30 seconds. Move to the person beside them. Focus on them for 30 seconds. I mean, stare right at their forehead. When that row is done, he moves to the next row, like a typewriter, staring at each person in turn.

Awwwkwaaaard.

26

Not ant-anxiety drugs per se, but propanolol (Inderal) is useful for some. It is a beta blocker that stops your heart rate from increasing when you begin to get nervous. Many people believe it helpful.

Personally, when I have to speak in public I have a few drinks first. Probably not for everyone, but hey, works for me and my talks are always well received.

ETA link: http://www.minddisorders.com/Ob-Ps/Propranolol.html#b

27

Look, for people who HAVE anxiety disorders, maybe drugs are a possibility worth considering. But the OP didn’t mention that, they just said they were nervous. I mean, I know Americans are keen to throw pills at every problem there is to make it go away but can you people not hear yourselves?

kayaker - I’ve never sat through one of your presentations but I can assure you if you’ve had some drinks before you gave them you weren’t nearly as coherent as you thought you were. I really really don’t think that’s the answer either.

28

Actually, Propanolol is not an anti anxiety drug. It is a beta-blocker often used by people who experience nervousness when speaking in public. I’ve never used it, but have heard very positive results from others who have. There are many studies comparing placebo to propanolol.

[QUOTE=link]
Public speaking. Anxious subjects received propranolol or a placebo before giving a videotaped speech. The beta-blocker significantly reduced anxiety symptoms as rated by the subjects and by trained observers. Compared with a placebo, propranolol also improved word recall in subjects with higher anxiety but hindered it in those with lower anxiety.
[/QUOTE]

I have no doubt my self assessment is inflated. However, I receive stellar feedback and have been asked to return. Cheers!:smiley:

29

There’s a lot of advice here already. I’ll just note that as you are already aware that anxiety makes you speed up, take care to speak a little more slowly than seems natural. It will be weird but the adrenaline of the situation will speed you up to normal.

30

Have a doctor give you a limited prescription for a beta blocker such as Atenolol. It works.

31

Why would you need an “anxiety disorder”, whatever that is, to justify taking an itty bitty pill that makes you feel like yourself? I think you are the one making a MUCH bigger deal of taking a pill than it really is.

That said, you should either avoid any anxiolytic or try it in advance. It may make you feel like yourself and be totally worth it, in spite of other people’s judgmental attitude, or it may make you feel sleepy and out of it, which would be an actual problem.

Beta-blockers like propanolol are probably a better option since there’s no danger of it negatively impacting your performance unless you take way too many and your heart slows dangerously and you die.

Other tips - Think of public speaking as a skill, like writing. You learned to write by writing hundreds of papers over the years from grade school through college and most likely as a professional. Don’t let the tiny handful of people who are superficially charming in public trick you into thinking it’s a talent. It’s a skill you’ll develop with practice, so don’t expect to be amazing your first time.

Try to force yourself to talk slower than you think you should be talking. You’re probably speaking faster than you realize and keeping your pace slow helps with clarity. It’s unlikely anyone will wonder what is up with the weird slow talker.

One thing I found critical was really just a natural outgrowth of moving from college presentations to the real world, but it’s immensely helpful to know 100x as much about your subject matter as you have time to talk about.

In college my presentations almost always were awful because I was spewing out just about every single thing I knew about the subject. I’d realize I was speaking faster than planned and that I had no reservoir of information to draw on and that made me talk all the faster.

In the real world, you’re usually speaking about something you are an actual expert on. If you need to talk for 30 minutes, you hopefully have 3 hours of knowledge in your head.

So it’s not really a tip, I guess, just something that happens naturally, but try to keep in mind how much you really know about giving a better product experience and how easily you could keep talking about it if you had infinite time or an interesting question.

32

Take drugs. Thank me later.

33

Since you are so opposed to drugs may I suggest anger management classes :slight_smile:

Look, the people I have known who have taken a pill before a first-time presentation actually went to the doctor and had the medicine prescribed. I’m not talking about bumming some benzos from your buddy. For many people the medication will take the edge off of a very stressful first-time experience and build confidence. So take your sanctimonious attitue elsewhere.

34

As a trainer, this is what I do for a living. Although I’m generally speaking to a smaller group (5-50, usually), the advice is the same.

Practice, practice, practice. It helps if you can convince a friend or family member to serve as an audience while you dry run your presentation. Be sure to do it exactly as you intend on the day of.

Dress nicely, check your hair/face/nails/shirt/etc. prior to getting on stage. Nothing ruins your confidence like the absolute certainty that you have a bat in the cave and 50 people staring at it.

Breathe slowly and deliberately. If you feel yourself getting nervous, it’s time for a slow breath. Everyone is afraid of pauses and most folks like to fill them up with “umms” or “like”, but try to avoid that. A pause gives your audience time to internalize what you’ve just said.

I make eye contact frequently and try to move my gaze around the room–this is probably going to be more challenging with 500 people, but it definitely brings folks back to you when you’re looking directly at them.

Remember why you are there. YOU are the expert. Everyone else believes it and has confidence in you, you should do the same. :slight_smile:

35

Drugs are the answer. Thank me later.

36

Know your material.
Know your material.
Know your material.

Seriously. Nothing will make you more comfortable. You should be able to present it forwards, backwards, and upside down with no notes.

Beyond that:

Maintain eye contact with someone - anyone. But change person from time to time and keep it with someone near the middle of a row or whatever. Multiple people will think that you are looking right at them, and it will keep them engaged.

Keep your hands at your sides. Not in your pockets. Not touching one another. Not playing with a pen or papers. At your side. That’s how people stand when they’re comfortable.

Slow down. Nervous people rush. So you go slow. Calm.

Remember: You don’t need to be comfortable or confident. You just need other people to believe it. So think of how people act when they are comfortable and confident, and act like that.
As to the content:

Don’t read your slides to people. People already know how to read - they don’t need your help. Talk to them. Talk about the slides. Talk about the ideas on them. Highlight what is important on the slide - why it’s tru - what it means. But don’t read the slides.

37

I was a TA in grad school and had to lecture to 100-150 people at a time. Echoing much of the advice given before:

  1. Know your material really well. If you are confident that you know what you are talking about, it’ll be much easier to feel confident while you are talking about it.

  2. Practice your entire talk over and over again, out loud. Do it alone in your room. Do it in front of a mirror. Ask a friend or two to sit through it and give you some feedback. You’ll very quickly identify the places where you say “Umm” a lot or that you always jingle your keys or whatever. Correct and practice some more.

  3. Look at your audience - someone else said talk to one face for a few seconds, then switch to another somewhere else and so on. It’s easier if you feel like you are talking to one person at a time instead of a crowd.

  4. Relax. Breathe. Smile. You will look and feel more confident.

  5. Slow down. People tend to rush through stuff, that makes them whiz by important points too fast, lose their place, gasp for breath or whatever. Just speak at a nice conversational pace. Make sure that your sentences are short enough that you have time to breathe, that you won’t get lost in the middle and that people can follow what you’re saying.

38

You know what? Fine with me.

39

You know what works for me is to admit to the audience that I’m nervous. It breaks the ice and then I can use it as a fall back if I do screw up. “See, I told you I was nervous.”

Good Luck. Let us know how it goes.

40

I’ve been doing this for a long time, so I really don’t get nervous unless I’m being thrown into a situation where I don’t know the material as well as I should. I disagree with the drugs and alcohol suggestions, though. I will have a beer (WITH food) before a talk sometimes, but only if I know my subject inside out.

Other suggestions:

  • Do not hand out copies of your slides in advance. You end up with people looking down at the papers and reading ahead instead of paying attention to what you’re saying (I know a lot of people will disagree with this, but I’ve seen it a lot. If you want their attention, minimize the distractions).

  • If you don’t know the answer to a question from the audience, DO NOT FAKE IT. Admit that you don’t know and ask the person who asked it to contact you later and you’ll find out for them.

  • Don’t use too many slides. You don’t want people struggling to keep up and frantically trying to read the slides as you talk. I shoot for one slide per 3 minutes of talk time.

  • If you can find a guinea pig to practice on, tell them to ask questions if something doesn’t make sense to them. If you can answer all of the questions, it boosts your confidence. If you can’t, it tells you what you need to study up on.

  • Humor can work well, but generally not if you deliver like a stand-up comedian. Don’t say, “I have a little joke for you.” Never tell a shaggy dog story. Don’t wait for the laughter after a punch line. Just break the flow with a funny slide or an on-topic one-liner every now and then.

I’ve never heard this phrase. What does it mean?