5 Winning Ways to Control Your Stage Fright

When I ask individual clients or seminar groups to mention stage fright symptoms they feel, I'll often hear "dry mouth," "shaking hands," "excessive tension," "memory loss," "quivering voice," "shaking knees" "sweaty palms," "cold and hot flashes" and "churning stomach."

Chances are good you have felt those reactions and probably others. Unchecked, these symptoms will severely limit your speaking effectiveness.

Fortunately, you can manage pre-speech jitters. Consider these five winning ways to control your stage fright.

One: Prepare adequately.

Here's advice I've given ever since I started teaching Speech Communication at the University of Georgia: The greater your preparation, the less your perspiration. Knowing what you're going to say and how you're going to say it reduces anxiety.

Fortunately, you don't have to rehearse twenty times and strive for a verbatim recitation. Study and organize, yes, yet follow another one of my maxims: Plan, but don't can.

Two: Give up the quest for perfection

To get this point across instantly, I give coaching clients a handout that includes this instruction: "Don't try to be PURRRFEKKKKT." Right away, I explain they got the meaning of the word despite the botched spelling. Likewise, audiences understand us when we stumble. Luckily, they're tolerant of miscues.

Want to see famous broadcasters and actors making highly public speech blunders? Go to YouTube and enter "bloopers" in the search bar. Not only will the videos entertain you, they'll illustrate vividly that even the world's best talkers will botch words, often hilariously.

Three: Consider audiences your cheerleaders

Mistaken assumptions about audiences scare us. We assume audience members are highly critical, unforgivingly judgmental. That's totally inaccurate. Listeners want us to succeed. Rather than being our critics, they're our cheerleaders.

Face it: The main thought an audience member has is "Glad I'm not up there in front of all these people."

Four: Welcome the high energy level that stage fright provides

Those stage fright symptoms we listed at the outset reflect our heightened state of awareness. Though unnerving, that elevated energy becomes beneficial. We look and sound involved and eager.

So when I'm going to give a speech, record a video or direct a seminar, I'd worry if I didn't experience being on edge. Better to feel a bit frantic than to feel flat.

Note my speech coaching approach: I'd rather have to tame a wild stallion than awaken a sleeping mule.

Five: Remember your valuable secret

Your secret is that you--and only you--know what you intend to say, what you meant to say instead and what you forgot to say. Think about the times you were driving home from a presentation thinking "Oh my gosh, I forgot to say. . . ." The good news is nobody but you knows that.

During a presentation, it's easy to realize you skipped an important fact or illustration. Take comfort. The secret remains confidential.

Additional Stage Fright Control Guidelines

You'll find an additional twenty stage fright control strategies in my brief yet action-packed book, 25 Ways to Control Your Stage Fright and Become a Highly Competent Speaker! You can order the book on Amazon, either the Kindle or paperback versions. Here's the link:

https://tinyurl.com/lamptonstagefrightbook

#stagefright #presentationanxiety #stagefrightcontrol #fearofspeaking #performanceanxiety

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you turn down promotions because you think you lack the communication skills for leading a department? Do you decline speaking opportunities because you experience excessive stage fright? Would you welcome the thrill of speaking to an audience confidently with only minimal notes?

Have you avoided sharing your message through video because you are camera shy? When you attend networking meetings, will your current listening skills prompt people to contact you again? Are you resisting becoming a podcast host or guest? Are you ready to meet with the media productively when your company’s crisis has gone public? Do your employees need customer service training?

Let’s have a conversation to determine how my services will elevate your communication skills dramatically.

I’m Dr. Bill Lampton—the “Biz Communication Guy”—sharing in this newsletter the communication skills and strategies I learned first as a college and community theater actor, then later a radio host, university faculty member, college and health care vice president, professional speaker, coach, consultant, author, and podcast host. You’ll find the opportunity to subscribe to my podcast when you visit my website, https://bizcommunicationguy.com