Conquering Stage Fright

At 13, a disruptive moment in music class led to a crippling fear of public speaking. Imagine being pulled up to sing in front of the whole class...

Many years later, I took small, consistent steps to break that fear- I'm sharing my experience since this often comes up in conversation.

1. I made a conscious decision to get over this fear.
2. Couldn't afford courses, and books don't work for me, so I decided to take some small steps and be comfortable with the fact that this would likely take a while and there would be some terrifying moments.
3. Started seeking out some small opportunities like panel discussions where the focus was on someone other than me and I could get away with answering just a few questions. This helped me be more comfortable on stage. And the big thing was - not much preparation was required. If you write a talk, you naturally start worrying about how you will deliver it, and your fear is constantly in the back of your head.
4. Even though I wasn't happy with how I answered questions on the panel discussions, it gave me the push to then seek out a very short talk in front of a small group of people. Admittedly, I did a really bad job, struggled to prepare and froze with fear to the point where I don't remember what I said.
5. Then, when I organised the Design Disruptors screening in 2016, it was my event. I had to say a few words and couldn't back out or hand it over to someone else. Putting myself in that position was a big break in my head. I was still extremely nervous, had 4-5 G&Ts before going on stage and didn't say everything I wanted to.
6. And when I joined InVision , I had more regular opportunities to do small things like open and close some of our events, moderate panel discussions, and host dinners. Doing it regularly helped build my confidence to write and deliver a talk.

I guess the key was deciding I was going to break the fear, taking small steps over some time and not being too harsh on myself for "failing" the first few times.

To this day, I still don't enjoy large conference talks and likely never will. But, applying these steps has enabled me to find my cozy corner - podcasts, small group live conversations or hosting fireside chat-style events.

What's your story?

#publicspeaking ?#lifestories ?#growth