Felicia Slattery: Getting Past Your Public Speaking Jitters

Recently on a popular online networking forum, a wonderful author announced that she will be interviewed during an upcoming radio program. She also confessed how nervous she feels. I gave her a few pointers and thought they could help you, too.

I give these tips to all my students and public speaking clients:

1. Visualize: Take yourself through the interview in your mind, feeling comfortable and confident answering the questions.
2. Practice: Can you get the questions ahead of time? (Did you get to write them yourself? It’s a common practice.) Look over the questions and be prepared with the answers. Practice what you’ll say out loud– not just in your mind.
3. Speak, don’t read: If you have the questions, the possible “danger” would be that you will craft beautifully written answers and then be tempted to read your answers. People can usually tell when you’re reading, even over the radio/internet/podcast, unless you’ve had some acting-type experience (and even then, I’d still be careful). Further, the spoken word tends to be more informal than the written word. If you happen to be a great writer, you may want to stick to your beautifully written prose… when what most listeners want to hear is much more conversational.
4. Be in the moment: Just think of your interview as a regular conversation and focus on the interviewer and her questions.
5. Butterflies are normal: That feeling is your body’s way of pointing out that you are doing something out of the ordinary. Be ready for it, acknowledge the feeling, and as we often say in the coaching world: feel the fear and do it anyway! It’s likely as you get rolling that nervousness will melt away.

Good luck to anyone who has to do a presentation. And if you need a little (or a lot of!) help getting ready, I have a quick 20-minute service that gets people more cash flow — often immediately — and they see the results they wanted from their talk. Contact me today!