Stage Fright

Have you ever frozen when going onto a stage to speak or when you begin a really important presentation? Has it ever happened to you that you start thinking ‘Oh my god, what am I going to say now? Shit, I have prepared so hard and now I have forgotten everything’. And your steps to the microphone becomes slower and slower and you are looking around at the audience in a bewildered manner. 

You begin your speech the way you had practised and planned and somehow you feel the audience is not responding as you had expected – you make a joke and maybe only you laugh at it or you get a few murmurs. So, you are thinking in your head, my next joke is going to completely fall flat, my audience is bored, how do I get the audience moving etc etc etc.

And here’s the thing – the moment you get into your head, you are in a level of listening where your focus is on you and your thoughts and that is all fine at times but this is definitely not one of those times. The speech/presentation is not about you and hence being in your head now is NOT going to serve you well. So, the trick is to get out of your head and shine the spotlight on something else or someone else.

There are many techniques that people employ – you have to find one that is most effective for you. Performers employ method acting, some look for an object to hold onto to shift their nervous energy. Have you heard of the saying that ‘Imagine your audience naked when you are going up on the stage’. That is a ploy to get you out of your head and many times it could also put you in your head where you then start thinking ‘Ok, the naked audience looks weird, oh  my God, what do I say to this audience?’ So, look beyond that and find something to shine the spotlight on.

And here’s a simple technique - the best antidote to freezing or getting out of your head is being curious. So, imagine this scenario, you are walking up to the microphone and you recognize that you are already in your head going over about what to say and what to do. So, look around and ask yourself ‘what I can be curious about?’ You can be curious about your audience, you can be curious about one person in the audience, you can be curious about the inanimate objects on the stage and THEN NAME IT! Give voice to your curiosity, articulate it and then notice the shift in the energy of you and your audience – that is a great ice-breaker. And once you connect with your audience, notice how easy the flow is - do this again in the midst of your presentation if you feel your audience is drifting off.

The same technique can be used when you are about to make a presentation or conduct a meeting – could be in a closed room as well. So, go ahead give this a try and let me know how it goes....