The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Practice practice practice. A lot of actors get nervous before auditions. Does that even make sense? Their job is to perform and they get nervous performing in front of people who want them to be so awesome that they will give them money to do it? Its outrageous but it happens all the time.
If its that big of a deal to you, try some open mics. Even if you don't write comedy/poetry or sing diddies, go up with lousy material just to get used to doing it. Hell, go out for some kareoke.
Aka fear of public speaking. According to wikipedia, as many as 75% of speakers experience this fear to some degree while engaged in public speaking. I am one of those people.
I wasn't always. I don't know what set it off, but it began sometime in late high school, and has gotten increasingly worse over the years. Fortunately my job does not require it that often, but here is an example of how bad my particular brand is: I was required to read a 6 page report to two clients over the phone today. It started off ok, but about 4 pages in I could feel myself starting to become short of breath, and it eventually built up to the point where I had to stop the reading for an extended period to try to collect myself. I did finish the final two pages, practically hyperventilating, but the whole experience left me completely mortified. If I am struggling to read a document to two people from the relative privacy of my cubicle, where does it stop?
For those of you who've managed to find a way to overcome or at least deal with this, how'd you do it? How severe was your glossophobia?
Did you read the report out loud beforehand? Then did you mimic the situation by speaking into a telephone while reading the report?
That's what I do. I try to mimic the situation I'm going to be in. For example, if you're going to be standing with a pointer in your hand while giving a talk, practice while standing and with a pointer in your hand. If you're going to be reciting on the phone, then sit and recite on a [dead] phone. It puts you in the situation and gives you some confidence that when you do it for real, it'll be pretty similar.
I started overcoming this in college when I took a speech class. The first thing I did to start to overcome that first bump was to look around at my class of 50 people and say, "I'm actually incredibly nervous right now; I don't speak much. I expect I'll screw this up a bit." For whatever reason that made it much, much easier to start speaking.
Practice won't always defeat this, but exposure and dry runs can help you manage it. I wish I had better advice for you... handling this is much like handling any other phobia.
I don't know if reading to two people over a phone counts as public speaking. It sounds like you have some real anxiety in general. Are you worried about how it is going to go?
Remember, they are people just like you. You're people. They are people. Breathe evenly. Talk naturally. You are just having a conversation. Think about it that way. You are just conveying some info to a friend.
JebusUD on
and I wonder about my neighbors even though I don't have them
but they're listening to every word I say
0
SixCaches Tweets in the mainframe cyberhexRegistered Userregular
As everyone else said: practice. Also, develop your "speaking persona." Find a way to get into this persona right before speaking, and you'll be fine.
Examples of speaking personas:
I'm going to deliver this... LIKE A BOSS
I don't give a fuck what these people think
I straight kill it every day, in every way
I know everything, you know nothing la la la
Your attention is under my complete control!
Most people are scared about it until they do it to the point where it becomes slightly boring, then you start to have fun with it. Making internal jokes as you go is fun too. Or, do as my friend and I have done and figure out how many childrens cartoon references you can slip into an official business presentation to outside customers.
schuss on
0
MichaelLCIn what furnace was thy brain?ChicagoRegistered Userregular
edited April 2011
Mostly covered here.
Don't know how it's broken down medically/clinically, but speaking on the phone can seem different than speaking to a group live. That might have just been the most recent example?
Yeah, practice. Reviewing the material ahead of time helps a lot. I certainly find I can talk about topics that I know or are interesting to me much easier than some random report. During interviews I feel a 'shift' depending on if I'm describing a project I was proud of or if I'm struggling with an answer, if that makes sense.
Join a club, or even doing volunteer work with the public can help.
MichaelLC on
0
SixCaches Tweets in the mainframe cyberhexRegistered Userregular
edited April 2011
Just to add a bit. I have to do a lot of public speaking for work, everything from running conference calls internally to hosting and presenting webinars to speaking live at events with between 10 and 500 or so people. It's not something I've always been super comfortable with, but it's certainly something I've gotten a lot better at with practice. One of the tricks I've learned is to just pretend I'm the kind of person who's good at it. Honestly - just play the part of someone who knows what he's doing. It's helped me get started at some of the bigger gigs, and once I'm started I find it's pretty easy. If at any point I feel myself slipping and losing it a little bit, I pause, take a breath, and go back to pretending.
Now I'm only even nervous during the really big and/or really important presentations, but even then I've done these so often that I can always just fall back on muscle memory at this point.
Posts
If its that big of a deal to you, try some open mics. Even if you don't write comedy/poetry or sing diddies, go up with lousy material just to get used to doing it. Hell, go out for some kareoke.
Did you read the report out loud beforehand? Then did you mimic the situation by speaking into a telephone while reading the report?
That's what I do. I try to mimic the situation I'm going to be in. For example, if you're going to be standing with a pointer in your hand while giving a talk, practice while standing and with a pointer in your hand. If you're going to be reciting on the phone, then sit and recite on a [dead] phone. It puts you in the situation and gives you some confidence that when you do it for real, it'll be pretty similar.
Remember, they are people just like you. You're people. They are people. Breathe evenly. Talk naturally. You are just having a conversation. Think about it that way. You are just conveying some info to a friend.
but they're listening to every word I say
Examples of speaking personas:
I'm going to deliver this... LIKE A BOSS
I don't give a fuck what these people think
I straight kill it every day, in every way
I know everything, you know nothing la la la
Your attention is under my complete control!
Most people are scared about it until they do it to the point where it becomes slightly boring, then you start to have fun with it. Making internal jokes as you go is fun too. Or, do as my friend and I have done and figure out how many childrens cartoon references you can slip into an official business presentation to outside customers.
Don't know how it's broken down medically/clinically, but speaking on the phone can seem different than speaking to a group live. That might have just been the most recent example?
Yeah, practice. Reviewing the material ahead of time helps a lot. I certainly find I can talk about topics that I know or are interesting to me much easier than some random report. During interviews I feel a 'shift' depending on if I'm describing a project I was proud of or if I'm struggling with an answer, if that makes sense.
Join a club, or even doing volunteer work with the public can help.
Now I'm only even nervous during the really big and/or really important presentations, but even then I've done these so often that I can always just fall back on muscle memory at this point.