Managing Stage Fright: Six Things That Actually Work

Public speaking is intimidating for experts and terrifying for beginners. Ask anyone who does it professionally and they will tell you that the nerves never fully go. What changes is what you do with them.

Here are six things that work, and why.

Visualise the room going well. Before you speak, spend a minute picturing yourself delivering it — the audience engaged, the delivery landing. This sounds soft but it isn't. Your nervous system responds to rehearsed images almost as it responds to real ones, so you arrive having already been in the room once.

Breathe deliberately. A few slow breaths, attention on the air moving in and out. What this actually does is reroute your focus from future what-ifs to the present moment. Anxiety lives in anticipation. Breathing pulls you back to now.

Shift what you're focused on. Most nerves come from thinking about how you'll be judged. Move the focus to what you're there to give i.e. the message, the people who need it. Remind yourself of times you've done this before and it went fine. You're not on trial; you've been given an opportunity.

Know your audience before you walk in. Find out what they care about and build your examples around it. A quick conversation with whoever organised the session is often enough. When you're speaking to people rather than at them, the anxiety drops considerably and magic!  You stop performing and start talking.

Watch your self-talk. The commentary in your head before you speak matters. If it's telling you you'll forget everything, you're arriving already braced for failure. Replace it deliberately. Focus on what you're bringing rather than what could go wrong.

Practise properly. Confidence comes from preparation more than from temperament. Rehearse out loud, more than once. In front of a mirror, or a friend, or a camera. Adjust as you go. Most stage fright is really uncertainty about the material wearing a different costume.

Public speaking isn't about being perfect. It's about conveying something you mean, clearly. The nerves are allowed to come along.