making a speech without getting nervous

A simple trick to help you speak in public without showing your nerves

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You don’t have to put up with a thin, shaky voice, says speech-language pathologist Jackie Gartner-Schmidt.

Every weekday for the month of January, TED Ideas is publishing a new post in a series called “How to Be a Better Human,” containing a helpful piece of advice from a speaker in the TED community. To see all the posts, click here .

Ever given a presentation and felt like your throat was closing up or that there was a big lump in it? Or made an important request of your boss but thought your voice sounded as shaky as Jello on a trampoline?

Turns out, you don’t suffer from some unexplained physical malady. There’s an anatomical explanation for what happens to our voices when we’re under pressure, says speech-language pathologist and University of Pittsburgh professor Jackie Gartner-Schmidt .

All humans have vocal cords — also called vocal folds since they’re folds of tissue — which sit on top of our windpipes, right behind the Adam’s apple. “The real reason we have vocal folds is to protect ourselves,” says Gartner-Schmidt. In fact, they do the very important work of preventing us from inhaling water into our lungs whenever we drink something.

But researchers have found “in experimentally induced stressful situations — be it public speaking, hearing a loud startle sound or having cold water put on your body — that the muscles around the voice box and the muscles actually inside the voice box [a.k.a. the vocal folds] react,” says Gartner-Schmidt. “They activate, and in some cases, they close altogether.”

Of course, no one wants to sound shaky, squeaky or choked up when they speak. As Gartner-Schmidt puts it, “We want our voice to reflect our strengths, not our weaknesses.” She says, “in study after study a high-pitched voice has been correlated with the perception of anxiety, not being competent, not being strong, and not being trustworthy.”

And this matters more and more now, as many of our meetings and interviews take place over conference calls or low-res video chats. As a result, says Gartner-Schmidt, “the voice is substantially taking over more and more of how we are perceived.”

To avoid this, she suggests doing this easy exercise (which she calls one of her favorites).

Hold up your index finger a few inches in front of your mouth. As you exhale steadily, make a “Wooooooo” noise (think: little kid pretending to be a ghost) for 5 to 10 seconds. Do this 5 to 10 times. (Watch her demonstrate it here .)

“This … essentially relaxes the vocal folds,” says Gartner-Schmidt. “It establishes breath and air flow and voice stability, which is the cornerstone of any strong, clear voice.”

Right before the next important occasion in which you have to speak — for work, for the toast you’re giving at a wedding, for a speech to a community board — take Gartner-Schmidt’s advice and “spend some time finding your best voice.”

Watch her TEDxPittsburgh talk here:

About the author

Mary Halton is a science journalist based in the Pacific Northwest. You can find her on Twitter at @maryhalton

• business advice
• how to be a better human
• jackie gartner-schmidt
• public speaking

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How to not be nervous for a presentation — 13 tips that work (really!)

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Why do I get nervous before presenting?

How not to be nervous when presenting, 5 techniques to control your nerves, quotes for inspiration, speak with confidence.

If you feel nervous or scared about talking to someone new, giving a speech, or being on stage, rest assured: you’re not alone. 

Experiencing symptoms of performance anxiety like an increased heart rate, trembling hands, or excessive sweating is perfectly normal. In fact, people often fear public speaking . But the more you’re immersed in these types of situations, the more comfortable you’ll become . 

We’ll explore how to not be nervous for a presentation and offer inspirational quotes to help you step out of your comfort zone.

Based on data from the National Social Anxiety Center, fear of public speaking is the most common phobia . The official term for this fear is glossophobia, colloquially termed stage fright.

Stage fright typically arises from the perception that when you're in front of a group of people, they'll judge you. The brain’s frontal lobe aids in memory, and when we’re stressed, increased stress hormones temporarily shut that region down . This is what causes us to freeze up and stop talking. 

There’s nothing wrong with being nervous. We all have different social comfort zones, communication styles, and presentation skills. But we can expand and improve our skills if we’re cognitively flexible .

Cognitive flexibility plays a big role in our behavior and attitudes and impacts our performance. You can use your fears as a catalyst for growth and learning — including giving a great presentation.

The following techniques will help you shift your thinking from reactive to proactive to combat nerves throughout the presentation experience:

Before the presentation:

1. Know your topic

Don’t wing it when it comes to presenting any topic. The better you understand your subject matter, the more confident you’ll feel. You can answer questions right away and won’t have to rely on your notes.

If there are a few points or any information you think might arise during the presentation or Q&A, research it and become comfortable speaking to the subject.

Here are a few ways to study: 

• Break down concepts onto notecards
• Practice answering questions  (especially the hard ones you hope no one asks)
• Explain complex information to peers and colleagues

2. Be organized

Take time to thoroughly plan each aspect of the presentation. Often, that means designing PowerPoint slides or other visual aids like videos. Clarify with the organizer what format and technology you’ll be using.

If it’ll be virtual, get your background and room organized, too. This ensures the presentation will go smoothly, in turn reducing stress.  Consider the following preparations:

• Invite your support network to the event
• Arrive early to set up tech and get comfortable in the space
• Practice timing your presentation with the time tracker you’ll use day-of
• Bring a water bottle and a snack
• Contact your manager or venue staff to discuss any accessibility or tech concerns

3. Practice, practice, practice

Whether you’re rehearsing in front of a mirror, family member, or pet, you can never practice enough. Ask for feedback about your body language , eye contact , and how loudly you project your voice.

If you’ll be giving the presentation on a video conference, record it on the platform to see how you look and sound.

4. Visualize your success

Thinking through possible outcomes is a great way to prepare — but it can also backfire on you. If you obsess over negative what-ifs, this failing mentality might become a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

The more often you fill your mind with positive thoughts and visualize your success, the more automatic they’ll be. Positive self-talk can make a big difference to your confidence. Run through the presentation — successfully — in your head.

During the presentation:

5. Focus on your material, not the audience

Your audience is there for your presentation — not to assess you. They’ll be looking at your colorful slides and listening to what you’re saying. Don’t let your mind fill with insecurities . 

6 . Don't fear silence

If your mind suddenly goes blank, that’s okay. It may seem like an eternity to you as you try to figure out what to say next, but it’s only a few seconds at most. 

Pausing isn’t a bad thing, anyway. You can use dramatic breaks advantageously to draw attention before the most important bits. 

7 . Speak slowly

Presentation anxiety often causes nervous energy, so we speak faster than normal. This might make you fumble your words or forget important details.

Slow down. Audience members will be thankful since they can understand you , and drawing out your speech will give you time to calm down, ground yourself , and stay organized.

8 . Take deep breaths and drink water

Breathing delivers oxygen to your brain, allowing you to think more clearly. Drinking water ups your energy, and also gives you a moment to pause. 

Smiling is a simple yet effective way to soothe your nerves. Doing so releases endorphins, helping you physically feel more confident. And a friendly face will make the audience more open to what you’re saying. 

10 . Remember the three "audience truths"

These include: 1) for the duration of the presentation, the audience believes you’re the expert, 2) they’re on your side, and 3) they don’t know when you make a mistake. 

After the presentation:

11. Recognize your success

Giving a presentation is something worth being proud of — celebrate it! In addition to family, friends, and coworkers, you deserve a high five from yourself, too.

1 2. Collect feedback

Feedback is a wonderful gift if you use it as a tool to help you do even better next time. Ask some of your audience members what they liked and what they didn’t. Remember, you can learn a lot from your mistakes . 

1 3. Don't beat yourself up

You did the best you could, and that’s all anyone — including you — can ask for. 

Nervousness is perfectly normal, but sometimes our symptoms hold us back from doing — and enjoying — scarier tasks. Here are five tips for overcoming nerves:

1. Practice impression management

Impression management requires projecting an image that contradicts how you actually feel. It’s essentially a “fake it ‘til you make it” strategy.  Let’s say you’re about to make a corporate-wide presentation and feel worried you’ll forget important information. You’ll counteract this worry by imagining yourself remembering every detail and delivering it entertainingly.

Learn from this practice by noting the information chosen in your hypothetical and how you expressed it effectively. 

2. Talk to someone

Emotions are contagious. We absorb others’ positive vibes . Chatting with people who are excited about and confident in our presentation abilities rubs off on us. 

Before a presentation, call a cheerleader in your life — someone who’s on your side and understands your nerves. Be specific, discussing which parts of presenting are nerve-wracking and what you need from them.

3. Do breathing exercises

Mindful breathing is when you pay attention to the sensation of inhaling and exhaling while controlling and deepening breath length. Breathwork has several health benefits, including reducing stress and anxiety and improving memory, attention, and focus. 

Before the presentation, find a quiet and solitary space. Breathe deeply for at least a minute, focusing on sensation and depth. This practice brings you into your body and out of your mind (away from nerve-wracking thoughts).

4. Practice reframing 

Reframing is a technique used in cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) to improve negative automatic thought patterns over time. One such pattern is viewing certain emotions as bad, and others as good. Nervousness feels the same in the body as excitement. Instead of panicking even more when realizing you’re nervous, reframe your impression of nerves as excitement for what you’re about to do.

This excitement will propel you forward with confidence and pride for stepping out of your comfort zone and doing something scary.

Here are seven inspirational quotes to help you feel confident and excited when doing something you’re nervous about:

“You can speak well if your tongue can deliver the message of your heart.” John Ford

“ When speaking in public, your message — no matter how important — will not be effective or memorable if you don't have a clear structure. ” Patricia Fripp

“The most precious things in speech are the pauses.”  Sir Ralph Richardson

“The way you overcome shyness is to become so wrapped up in something that you forget to be afraid.” Lady Bird Johnson

“It’s what you practice in private that you will be rewarded for in public.” Tony Robbins

“The worst speech you’ll ever give will be far better than the one you never give.” Fred Miller

Like any other skill, learning how to not be nervous for a presentation takes time and practice. Acknowledging this hurdle is the first step to making a change in the right direction.  Facing your fears will empower you to take on scarier — and more fulfilling — goals and enjoy the experience along the way. You don’t have to start with a TED Talk. Tackle small challenges like presenting an idea to your manager or practicing a short speech with a friend.  We won’t sugarcoat it — it’s hard to change our minds and habits. But if you’re willing to put in the effort, you’ll be rewarded with increased confidence and new experiences.

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Elizabeth Perry, ACC

Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.

30 presentation feedback examples

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22 Ways to Calm Your Nerves Before a Speech or Presentation

by Janice Tomich

• Fear of Public Speaking

So, you have a big presentation coming up. Maybe you’ve been invited to pitch an idea to your boss or deliver a presentation to an industry association. Maybe you’re even giving the keynote .

Your first reaction is to jump at the opportunity. Then, as the day gets closer your pre-presentation nerves start getting the better of you.

As your public speaking anxiety ramps up, you can hear the sound of your heart thumping in your ears. Your clothes are sticking to your skin. Nights before the big day you toss and turn in bed.

Thankfully there are lots of ways to manage your presentation jitters.

Notice the emphasis on the word “manage.”

Nervousness isn’t something you can entirely get rid of. But when you increase your skills—by learning these anxiety management techniques—you can begin to quiet the feelings that fuel the unhelpful stories that take up far too much time in your head.

These are some of the tried-and-true tips I give to my public speaking coaching clients, many of whom struggle with nervousness when they have a presentation looming.

Table of Contents

How to Calm Down Before a Speech or Presentation: 22 Techniques

1. understand fight or flight.

Almost everyone feels some degree of nervousness when they need to present. Thanks to our Neanderthal ancestors, the body’s response to your amygdala getting hijacked and going into fight or flight is a deeply embedded, primal reaction.

Public speaking, however, is not the same as being attacked by a sabre toothed tiger.

The best way to manage this innate response is simply to realize that it’s part of your DNA, hardwired into what it means to be human. This awareness will help tamp down your public speaking nerves and put them in context.

2. Nerves and Anxiety Are a Habit

Behaviours follows triggers. For many people, the fear of public speaking fuels overthinking and worrying, which then results in them feeling more anxious. According to Dr. Judd Brewer , this creates an anxiety loop in which we convince ourselves that we are being constructive and solving a problem.

When you feel your heart racing or your monkey brain telling you doomsday stories, notice where it feels tight or uncomfortable in your body. One way to begin managing your anxiety is to notice where in your body you’re feeling it from. As with the fight-or-flight response, simply knowing about the anxiety loop gives you insight can helps it to stop progressing.

​​​​Sucheta Misra Associate VP Inclusion & Diversity and Social Impact Leader

3. Take a Deep Breath

Breathing sounds easy!

Actually it’s not.

When you get anxious you’ll find yourself taking rapid breaths, restricted to the upper half of your chest. Physiologically, shallow breathing fuels nervous reactions. Instead, consciously take a few deep breaths. This will naturally regulate your heightened emotions. Your heart rate and you will instantly feel more relaxed.

If you have a Fitbit, Apple Watch or other device that monitors your heart rate you’ll be amazed to see how quickly your heart rate will drop by simply taking in a series of deep breaths. Try it!

4. Transform Your Nervous Energy Into Excitement

Anxiety and excitement are similar emotions. Both are high states of arousal accompanied by things such as a rapid heart rate, dry mouth, sweaty palms and sometimes a feeling or sensation of being “outside” of your body.

Typically, we view anxiety as negative and excitement as positive. Anxiety is uncomfortable. We’d much rather feel excitement than anxiety.

Because both are heightened states of arousal, however, you can actually trick your brain into feeling excited instead of anxious by using awareness and reframing techniques. Positive thinking and using affirming self-talk can flip the switch from anxiety to excitement.

Try it. The next time you feel anxiety bubbling up, simply say “I feel excited.” Yes, say it out loud!

Using this simple tip, it’s possible to change a negative mindset to a positive one. You’ve set yourself up nicely for your next presentation.

If you’re lost and unsure about how to make your presentation compelling, I can help.

5. Smile, Even if You’re Feeling Anxious

Smiling helps lower your stress level by releasing endorphins, which lowers your heart rate and blood pressure.

Yes, as easy as smiling!

6. Use Relaxation Exercises

Meditation is the simple act of being aware of what’s in front of us … no yoga mat or meditation cushion required. Meditation can subdue the nervous tension that comes with delivering presentations.

Recently, a client shared with me his rather surprising meditative process. It’s slightly unusual (and had me laughing).

Before every presentation, he goes to a fast food restaurant and orders a cheeseburger. Then, he consciously watches as he orders his food, receives his order, and then eats it. Apparently this meditative ritual works for him every time.

A more common approach (than the cheeseburger routine) is to simply be observant of your environment while you’re walking, or consciously feel the sensation of water falling on your body when you take your morning shower.

Meditation techniques lower your anxiety because you won’t cycle through all worrying “what if’s”. Instead, simply be present.

7. Burn Off Energy by Doing Some Cardio

Moving your body and getting your heart pumping also releases endorphins which can help quell any pre-presentation anxiety .

I’ve been known to do a few fast-walking laps around a conference centre to reduce the stress I feel before I deliver a speech or presentation.

Going for a quick run or cycle before your event are terrific anxiety-busters too!

8. Use Visualization Techniques

Did you know you can strengthen muscles without even moving them ?

Elite athletes, such as golfers, practice watching (in their mind’s eye) their ball land on the green or in the cup. The visualization exercise builds muscle memory to help hit the ball successfully, so it lands where the golfer intended.

Public speakers can use visualization techniques to manage anxiety, too.

As your presentation day nears, take your mind on a walking tour. Imagine every detail – in your mind’s eye walk onto the stage, deliver your speech, listen to the applause, and then leave the stage. Do the visualization with a positive outlook to set yourself for an anxiety-free delivery.

9. Be Prepared

Preparing in the content of your presentation in the ‘theatre of your mind’ is a trap. Practicing this way lulls you into thinking that all is well as you run through your presentation self correcting.

Only practicing your actual words will prepare you for the live event. You’ll establish exactly what you want to say, and how to say it, which will boost your confidence and soothe any nervousness.

10. Practice, Practice, and Then Practice Some More

I have never had a client tell me they wished they’d practiced less.

My advice for how to practice delivering a speech or presentation is to practice until you are tired of hearing yourself, which typically clocks in at 30 hours of practice for a one-hour presentation .

Pro Tip: Once you have practiced your entire presentation a few times, you only practice the parts which are tripping you up. There’s no value in practicing from start to finish when you’re only challenged by specific sections.

11. Drink Water to Stay Hydrated During Your Presentation

Having a dry mouth can cause you to trip over your words, which will rev up even more nervous tension. Beginning a few days before you’re scheduled to deliver your speech, increase your water intake so your words will flow easily.

Pro Tip: Pop one of these lozenges in your mouth a few minutes before you go on stage. They work wonders to coat your mouth and throat.

12. Prepare an Excellent Opening to Your Presentation

I don’t recommend memorizing your entire presentation or speech. But I do recommend memorizing the open and close.

Anxiety often ramps up in the first 30 seconds of your presentation. By committing to memory the beginning (and the close) you’ll prevent yourself from having a rocky start or lacklustre finish.

13. Employ the Power of the Pause

You likely talk too fast when you’re nervous. With the rapid fire of your words comes an increase in your stress level.

Pauses are a brilliant technique slow down your speech, and avoid talking too quickly.

Look through your presentation and find the most important points you want your audience to take back to the office. Place a pause in the front and back end of these sections.

Not only do pauses help your audience understand the important points, it gives you some breathing room and slows down your rate of speaking.

14. Before You Present, Test the Technology

There’s nothing like technology not working to rattle your nerves — even for seasoned presenters.

Whether you’re online or in person, make sure you’re comfortable with the technology you’ll be using.

If you’re delivering online ask a friend or colleague to do a technology run-through.

If you’re delivering live on stage most event planners invite their presenters for a pre-presentation tech check.

Take advantage of the time to test the technology so you can deliver without having to worry about which button to click or where to stand.

15. Arrive Early, Before You’re Scheduled to Present

Whether online or in person, arrive 20 to 30 minutes before you’re scheduled to present.

Give yourself lots of time to settle in and feel comfortable in your surroundings. Arriving early will give you the opportunity to check out where everything is situated, which will stop any last minute scrambling that could leave you unsettled.

16. Walk Around. Own Your Space.

When you walk into a space cold — not having been on-site before — it’s challenging to know how much space you can take advantage of.

Take the time to walk around the presentation space (This applies to both live events and online ones.)

There is comfort in knowing how much “real estate” you have to move through. Feel your feet on the floor.

17. Attend Your Colleagues’ Presentations

Likewise, take the time to get comfortable in the event itself. Stop in and listen to your colleagues’ presentations, and encourage them to attend yours.

Building a sense of camaraderie helps you feel supported by your peers, which helps release the nervous energy soothe your pre-presentation jitters.

18. Meet Your Audience Before Your Presentation

When I deliver a presentation I arrive well in advance of when I’m scheduled to deliver so I can meet the people who will be attending my talk.

It’s a good investment. Meeting your audience beforehand “warms” the room (makes you and them feel more comfortable). This allows you to better connect with your audience.

19. Connect Through Good Eye Contact

During your presentation, connect with the audience using effective eye contact. Make this an easy win by following tip #19 and reading my article with five tips for making eye contact .

20. Use Powerful Body Language

Try slumping over. How do you feel? Low on energy?

Now stand tall with your shoulders back and your head held high. How do you feel now? I suspect you feel high energy/confident.

Your posture affects how you feel. The small shift from slumped to taking up lots of space makes a big difference to your level of confidence .

21. Avoid Alcohol & Caffeine in the Lead-Up to the Event

We all know the effects of excessive alcohol and caffeine. One will leave you too relaxed, and the other too jittery.

Save the drinks until after your presentation, and limit yourself to one cup of coffee or tea before you present to deliver your speech as the best version of yourself.

22. Sleep Well the Night Before

A day or two before you are scheduled to deliver your speech plan to have your slides completed and confident you know your content inside out.

Don’t spend the night before adjusting slides and practicing. Trying to create a perfect presentation at the last minute will only ramp up your anxiety.

Schedule lots of time to prepare in the weeks leading up to the event, so can feel refreshed to meet your audience.

If you’re struggling with presentation nerves choose a few of the techniques which resonated with you. Give them a try. It’s though practice and increasing your public speaking skills that you’ll get a handle on your nerves.

Watching my clients build their communication & public speaking confidence is my sweet spot. Reach out to discover how we might work together so you can manage any presentation anxiety you might be experiencing.

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Speaking Up Without Freaking Out: How to Tackle Communication Anxiety

In this podcast episode, we share the science behind nervousness and offer tips for keeping your cool during various speaking situations.

January 05, 2022

“Eighty five percent of people report being nervous about speaking in public, and I believe the other 15% are lying,” says Matt Abrahams, lecturer in strategic communication and podcast host. “What is it about speaking in front of others that makes most of us nervous? Well, those of us who study this ubiquitous fear believe it is part of our human condition.”

In this special episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart , Abrahams returns to one of the podcast’s main goals: helping people become more confident communicators. Listen to his interviews with Stanford University professors who research stress, as they share insights into why these feelings affect our communication, and how to overcome them.

Explore our 2022 Confident Communicator Challenge and discover more resources on public speaking anxiety.

Think Fast, Talk Smart is a podcast produced by Stanford Graduate School of Business. Each episode provides concrete, easy-to-implement tools and techniques to help you hone and enhance your communication skills.

Full Transcript

Matt Abrahams: According to comedian Jerry Seinfeld: People fear public speaking more than death, so at a funeral most people would rather be in the casket than give the eulogy. This joke is funny because it rings true for many of us.

Hello, I am Matt Abrahams and I teach strategic communication at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Welcome to Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast.

For today’s episode, we return to one of our podcast’s key goals: helping people feel more comfortable and confident in their communication. With this in mind, we have pulled together insights from three episodes to help us better understand our nervousness and provide us with specific tools to manage it.

To get started, we need to understand where our communication apprehension comes from, then we can explore how our mind set and framing of this stress can be hacked to help us. Finally, we’ll look at specific techniques we can use to manage our anxiety.

The fear of speaking in high stakes situations is very common. 85% percent of people report being nervous about speaking in public, and I believe the other 15% are lying. So why is this? What is it about speaking in front of others that makes most of us nervous? Those of us who study this ubiquitous fear believe it is part of our human condition. Evolution has wired us to pay very close attention to our relative status to others. Now, when I’m talking about status I’m not talking about who drives the fanciest car or who got the most likes on a social media post. What I’m referring to is back in our evolutionary past, when we were hanging around in groups of about 150 people, your status in comparison or relative to others meant your survival. The lower status you had the less opportunity you had to get shelter, to get food, for reproduction. Your life was literally on the line. When we speak in front of others, we risk that status. People are judging and assessing us. This is ingrained in who we are.

Just because this is ingrained in us does not mean we can’t manage our nerves. There will always be a situation that can make us nervous, but we can learn to manage our anxiety, so it doesn’t manage us.

Not only will this help us feel less nervous and more confident, but it helps our audience too.

Let me explain: We have all watched a nervous speaker. Most of us feel bad for them. Some of us begin to experience what I call secondhand anxiety…we get nervous because the presenter is nervous. We’re distracted and can’t focus on the speaker’s message. So, as a speaker, reducing anxiety also helps our audience by allowing them to focus on us and our message and not our anxiety and their reaction to it.

One way to address our speaking anxiety is to explore our mindset and framing. Here is a helpful exchange I had with Stanford psychology professor Alia Crum on this topic.

Matt Abrahams: When it comes to communication, stress and anxiety loom really large. Be it delivering a presentation, giving constructive feedback or answering questions. What insight does your work on stress provide to those of us suffering from communication anxiety and stress around speaking?

Alia Crum: Yeah, so … a lot of people have been studying stress and anxiety for over a century now from an academic standpoint, of course we’ve always experienced stress and anxiety to some degree. And by and large what they focus on is when it comes to the psychology of stress is what people call appraisal. So how do you appraise or think about the stressor and your ability to handle it. So, do you view a conflict or a challenging situation or an important presentation or an important meeting as a threat? Something that you don’t have the resources to overcome or a challenge. Something that’s difficult but you do have the resources to overcome. Those sort of appraisals have shown to be really important in shaping how we show up and how we perform in stressful situations. Our work on mindset goes a little bit deeper into the mind, into understanding not just sort of how we appraise a particular situation, but what are our core assumptions about the nature of stress itself.

The nature of a challenging situation or a demand in our life. That’s what we been focused on. And what we’ve found is that, if you kinda go back into those core assumptions, what you realize is that, most people have the mindset that stressful situations are inherently debilitating. They’re going to ultimately make us sick, make us struggle, make us crumble under pressure. And when you look at the truth about stress which is like most things very complicated, you realize that that is a simplified assumption. It’s not necessarily wrong, but it’s only one way of viewing stress and you start to realize that the true nature of stress is more complex.

And in fact, there’s a whole other side of stress that reveals to us that the body’s stress response, the mind stress response, was not designed to be debilitating, but instead designed to help us elevate our performance and behavior to meet the demands we’re facing. There’s a whole side of stress that shows that it can have enhancing qualities on our cognitive functioning, our physical health and on how we behave and interact with others. And so, our work is not necessarily to find out the truth of stress, what it is or what isn’t. But to look at how our mindsets, the core assumptions we make about it shape how we respond in stressful situations. And what we’ve shown is that if we can get people to open their minds to this notion that stress can be enhancing. That stress can help you rise to a new level of understanding, can deepen your connection with others, can make us even physiologically grow tougher and stronger. Having that focus shifts our attention and behaviors in ways that make that mindset more true.

Matt Abrahams: To reiterate what Alia said, Reappraising our communication stress and changing our mindset toward it, helps us put our anxiety into perspective and actually harness the benefits of it.

Next up is advice we heard from Stanford School of Medicine Professor Andrew Huberman. Andrew shares the purpose of reframing, while helping us understand the biology behind our anxiety.

Andrew Huberman: When we are in a state of alertness, whether because of excitement or fear, the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system, let’s just call it the alertness system, deploys a hormone from our adrenal glands adrenaline and it deploys the equivalent chemical in the brain where it’s called epinephrine. It’s actually the same chemically identical structure, but called two different things, because neuroscientists and physiologists like to make things complicated. Not simple, but the role of adrenaline/epinephrine is to create agitation in the body and to create focus in the mind. And this is an important concept because that agitation makes it harder to be still, which is sort of a duh, right? That’s the definition of agitation, but it was designed to move us, to physically move us so that we would be biased toward ambulation or biased toward shifting from one position to a new one. And so one of the toughest things for many people is to tolerate that level of adrenaline or alertness when they have to be still.

The simplest example — I can give you this that I think most people will be familiar with, as if in the days where we congregated in person, this is this traditional practice of going around the room and introducing yourself and saying something about what you do and most people actually find that to be very stressful, especially if they toward the end of the line. Now, why would that be right? Most people know their name and can say their name. Most people know what they do and can say that — it’s anything but a high stress circumstance and occasionally there are some social pressure where someone’s very funny before us or they say something in a particularly nice way than we feel like some additional pressure to do that as well, but it really has more to do with the fact that when we’re in a room listening to somebody, we can we’re comfortable with the fact that we’re not going to speak or walk or do much and we could just sit there and write or listen or text or whatever it is we have to do. As we are called on to say something the reason it’s easier to do early in the line is because we are holding on to a reverberatory circuit. There are circuits in our brain that anticipate action and prepare us for action and the longer we keep that in check, the more challenging it becomes when we are trying to withhold action. But we’re preparing for action. There’s a lot of reverberating, excuse me, active activity in our nervous system and it feels like stress.

Getting ready to go up to the podium is tough. When we get up to the podium, many people, including myself, find that if we rock back and forth a little bit or we can engage some movement in our body, suddenly we start to relax and that’s because adrenaline/ epinephrine was designed to move us and it wasn’t designed to move us in response to incoming large predators. It was, but that’s not its primary function. Its primary function was to move us from whatever position we’re into a new position, sometimes towards things, sometimes away from things, depending on whether or not we want the experience or we want to avoid the experience. But the actual inner experience, what we call interception, our perception of our internal landscape, is identical for something that we want to approach versus we want to move away from; absolutely identical — below that from the neck down then.

Matt Abrahams: That is really interesting. So if you can reframe the physiological response, you can see it very differently. And I find it fascinating that when we see somebody who is nervous moving one way versus the other way, as an audience member, we have very different perceptions. So if somebody steps up on a stage and then takes a step back as they’re starting to speak, it looks like they’re retreating and therefore may be nervous or shy. But if somebody actually steps forward, we have a perception that they’re confident in stepping into the challenging situation. So it’s not only what we perceive, it’s how the audience perceives it as well.

Andrew Huberman: Absolutely. It might be useful for people to think about the fact that there’s only three responses we can have to any circumstance. One is to stay still. One is to move forward or one is to move back. Back in two-thousand eighteen a graduate student in the neurosciences program did her thesis with me Lindsays Tillet, and I published a paper in the journal Nature. Lindsay discovered a brain circuit that controls the movement toward threats. Now, this isn’t the kind of movement that will get you killed. This is the kind of movement toward an intelligent way, an adaptive way towards something that in this case, an animal or a person wants to do, but feels a tremendous amount of autonomic arousal, of stress and nervousness about.

And the take-home message is the following: forward movement under conditions of anxiety or high levels of alertness, a case, stress triggers the activation of a circuit deep in the brain that releases the neurochemical dopamine. Dopamine, of course, is a molecule that is most commonly associated with the sensation of reward and it is released when we achieve something that we want to achieve, but the other very interesting function of dopamine is to increase the probability that we will move toward similar types of goals in the future. So dopamine is not just the molecule reward, it’s the molecule of motivation and drive. And so Lindsay’s results have a number of different implications, but I think if people can just conceptualize that the anxiety or stress response is the same as the excitement response, they feel different because of some top down perception or verbiage that we introduced to it, but they’re actually identical physiologically. And that forward movement, provided it’s adaptive toward a goal, triggers the activation of chemicals in the brain and body that will make the subsequent pursuit of those same or similar goals more likely and more pleasurable.

Matt Abrahams: So once again, we learn that reframing how we see speaking anxiety can really change how we feel and act.

Additionally, forward movement like stepping toward your audience when you start an in-person presentation or leaning in slightly when in a virtual meeting can help us feel better and appear more confident.

Reframing is one key element to managing our anxiety about speaking. Let’s explore other ways. We will again hear from Professor Alia Crum followed by Stanford GSB Professor Baba Shiv.

Matt Abrahams: So let me put you on the spot. Let’s say I am somebody who has a big upcoming presentation or a meeting contribution and I’m getting nervous. What could I do in terms of my mindset to help me feel a little less nervous and perhaps even more excited about the opportunity?

Alia Crum: The steps to change your mindsets, at least as we teach, are as follows. The first is to acknowledge that you’re stressed, right? So, you have an upcoming meeting or a presentation that you’re given. It’s important, just acknowledge that you’re stressed, I’m stressed about this.

Matt Abrahams: Right?

Alia Crum: And also become … oh sorry go ahead.

Matt Abrahams: I was going to say that it’s normal to be stressed about it, most people would be.

Alia Crum: Exactly, notice that it’s normal. So acknowledging means yeah acknowledging without judgment, right? Knowing, just noticing what you’re feeling, right? How do you respond to stress? Is it hype getting hyperactive and sweaty palms or is it for me sometimes it’s like I have a big presentation or talk and I just get all of a sudden I’m exhausted.

Matt Abrahams: All right I perspire and blush. That’s my big thing. I start dripping with sweat.

Alia Crum: Yeah, so noticing the physiological reactions, noticing your emotional reactions, noticing your behavioral responses without judgment. That’s the first step. The second step is to welcome your stress. So why the heck would we welcome our stress? Well, it goes back to what I just talked about. We only stress about things that we care about. And so inherently underneath the stress is a true value, a true care, a true purpose. And we wouldn’t be in this situation if it wasn’t for something that mattered. And we wouldn’t be stressed about it if it wasn’t for something that mattered. So that step involves basically just asking yourself or completing the sentence, right? I’m stressed about x this upcoming presentation because I care about y and what is the y?

Matt Abrahams: Right, so it’s the goal that you’re trying to achieve or the change you’re trying to affect. That’s the y.

Alia Crum: Exactly. I care about it because I really feel like I have something important to say that could improve the lives of the people I’m communicating to or could change the way we’re doing things at this company or could alter fundamentally the relationship that I have with this loved one, right? These are the why’s, right? And you know, you got to go deeper in asking the why we call it sort of the downward arrows of why’s. Sometimes people are like, well, I’m stressed about this presentation because like, I don’t wanna screw it up.

Matt Abrahams: Right.

Alia Crum: Well, why don’t you wanna screw it up? Well I don’t wanna screw it up because I don’t wanna get fired, it’s well why don’t you wanna get fired?

Alia Crum: I don’t wanna get fired because I feel like I have a contribution to make here because there’s something in here that I feel that I really have to offer. You go until it becomes a, it resonates at that positive level for you. That’s the second step. So, first acknowledge you’re stressed, second welcome your stress as being linked with something you care about, reconnect with what you care about. And the third is to use or utilize your stress in ways that help address the purpose, address that y rather than spending all your time, money, effort energy trying to avoid or get rid of the stress, right?

So you start to realize, you could go back to those behavioral or emotional responses you identified in step one, like you get flushed or you start getting jittery. I start kind of getting tired. It’s like, okay, well sometimes physiological responses you can’t change. But oftentimes the behavioral responses you can, right? So maybe you start snapping at your spouse or your kids or you start getting anxious and talking really fast and you realize, well, okay, well that’s not serving my purpose of the underlying value. Which is to really communicate this important thing that I have to share. So the third step is really utilizing your stress to address the core value or purpose, underline stress. So those are three steps that we share with people to help them to get into this mindset that stress can be enhancing. That the experience of stress can help us rise to a higher level of communication, and performance, and existence.

Matt Abrahams: That is really powerful and very specific and thank you and it avoids the checking out in the freaking out and allows you to harness the stress to support the goal that you’re trying to achieve. I think that’s fantastic.

Baba Shiv: First and foremost, in my opinion, the tactic is go for any practice that will de-stress you. And this can range from, in some case, just taking some deep breaths. It could be visualizing the audience and visualizing the other person being very receptive. It could be laughter. You don’t need real laughter. Even fake laughter will de-stress you. The reason that is important is because if you don’t do that, if you’re not in the right state, and what I mean by right state if you’re stressed then, your brain tends to adopt frames that are much more risk-adverse. And it doesn’t allow you to experiment because you’re coming out of fear. So, the main tactic I’ll say is just feel comfortable in your own skin. Are you comfortable out there or are you still stressed? Because sometimes, you don’t know that.

So, that’s where practices like meditation is so very crucial. Not just for health reasons, but also, for communication reasons. To be a good communicator your brain needs to be a lot more resilient to stress. Matt, you have done this talking to an audience, and what will happen is that when you want to crack a joke, and this has been part of what you plan to do, and you get in to a stressful situation the joke will fall flat.

Matt Abrahams: Oh, yeah.

Baba Shiv: Right?

Baba Shiv: So, some of the things I’ll do is that I’ll do the [unintelligible]. “Oh, I’m going to tell you a joke.” I laugh myself before I tell the joke and then, people will start giggling because it’s a natural human tendency if someone is laughing you get to laugh yourself. And then, I’ll crack the joke so, there are these kind of techniques, but the most important thing I believe is that of course, you need to know your audience.

Matt Abrahams: Yes.

Baba Shiv: That is the first thing you’ve got to know, and you probably have been mentioning this time and time again.

Matt Abrahams: We have.

Baba Shiv: But I’m a big believer that the most critical factor here is you are in a state of comfort.

Matt Abrahams: Right, and we’ve talked about this. Interestingly, we’ve had a couple guests, Christian being one of them who you teach with and Dan Klein, who I know you know. When it comes to this improvisational mindset and really, the logic is the same. We get in our own way through our anxiety and the pressure we put on ourselves. And if we can actually learn to relax that allows us to achieve our goal much more readily and be much more present-oriented, too.

Baba Shiv: That’s right, and you’ve got to understand that the way the brain is working is all these instinctual brain systems are shaping. And if you are stressed then, what happens is that it will completely shape the frame that you’re adopting about the audience, about your content, et cetera. And your body language is also going to tell.

A lot of our ability to persuade, as we all know, is not just dependent upon what we are saying, but how we are saying it. And so, if you’re not in that state it is going to show. It is going to show.

Matt Abrahams: Right, the tells that we’ve revealed, for sure. I have enjoyed so much getting some of your tips. I’m wondering, do you have any other tips that we haven’t discussed that you think might help us be more effective communicators?

Baba Shiv: Absolutely. So, if it is going to be a very important piece of a thing, you’re giving a talk to an audience, a large audience out there I would just say go to bed early, as you often do. Get a good night’s rest. Don’t sacrifice on sleep. I know people are doing this, that. They will keep on practicing the talk, and all through the night, and they get about three hours of sleep before they’ve got to talk.

If you’ve not had a good night’s rest guess what? Your brain chemicals are going to be such that you are going to be risk-adverse. You’ll then adopt a frame of mind where your brain is already thinking about failure, and that’s the wrong state to be in. I would always advise ‒ and if you didn’t get a good night’s rest that could happen.

And in your traveling Matt, you do this, and I have done this. You’ve traveled across time zones, and you can get in to jet lag and stuff like that. So, one of the things I very quickly do if I’m doing that is first and foremost, what I do is I’ll order food that is comfort food for me.

Matt Abrahams: Huh, okay.

Baba Shiv: Right? So, for me, it is growing up in India, and you talk to most Indians it is yogurt rice. So, I will just go order some plain rice, get some yogurt, plain yogurt, mix it up and have it because you need to have that comfort, right?

Baba Shiv: And food brings a lot of comfort. And then, if I’m not able to get to sleep that night I will go for a run in the morning because running also within about 15 minutes of a run serotonin levels, some of the chemicals in the brain will increase and then, you get in to the right kind of a state when you’re giving the talk.

Matt Abrahams: Great. I love that. Any excuse to eat my comfort foods I’ll take so, I’m now going to tell everybody, “Baba told me to.”

Baba Shiv: Even if it is unhealthy a little bit of it won’t hurt.

Matt Abrahams: We now have some very specific techniques we can employ to manage our communication apprehension: We can change how we view our anxiety through reframing, to exploring the value our communication brings to us and others to sleeping well and eating right.

Each of us has the ability to become a more confident, calm communicator…It can take a lot of repetition, reflection, and feedback, but it is possible. I see it all the time in my students and the people I coach and I have seen it in my own communication journey. So regardless of if you’re presenting at a wedding or a meeting, protesting or pitching. I hope that you confidently share your stories, give your input, and spread your ideas. We all stand to benefit from your speaking up without freaking out.

For media inquiries, visit the Newsroom .

Explore More

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November 20, 2020 Feelings First: How Emotion Shapes Our Communication, Decisions, and Experiences In this episode, we discuss how recognizing your audience’s emotional needs can help you achieve your communication goals.

September 16, 2021 Mindset Matters: How to Embrace the Benefits of Stress In this podcast episode, we discuss how you can channel stress to help your performance and relationships.

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How to Reduce the Anxiety of Public Speaking

Most people hate it. here's one way to hate it less..

Posted November 22, 2021 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch

• What Is Anxiety?
• Find a therapist to overcome anxiety

Anxiety and stress go with public speaking for all but a lucky few. Now a recent study underscores the importance of recognizing and accepting those emotions rather than trying to deny them. According to the study, if you journal about your anxieties and stress, and accept them, letting them run their course, the result is improved mental health compared to the rest of us who judge ourselves. The negative moods don’t last as long and are not as powerful.

I like this strategy. Denying that I was anxious was certainly my standard operating procedure when I was beginning in the business, first as an actor and then as a speaker on speaking, communications, storytelling, and body language . Denial didn’t help me, of course, just as it has helped no one else, and it wasn’t long before my anxiety was reaching epic proportions and the beginnings of speeches were going by in a blur of adrenaline. I had to do something, and so began my lifelong pursuit of ways to reduce the pain of public speaking for myself and others.

In these early days, it never occurred to me to look straight into the heart of darkness: the anxious core of public speaking, the self-consciousness that intrudes when we feel exposed standing before a group of people. Most of my methods involved tricking or distracting my brain long enough to give the speech and get to the bar. For example, getting some moderate exercise before a speech allows some of the nervous energy to dissipate so that you are calmer than you otherwise would be. Meditating can work, too, for those who have some experience with that form of mental discipline. My favorite distraction from those days turned out to be having the airline lose my luggage – with my speaking suit in it – so that I had to go shopping at 9:00 before the speech at 10:00. Good thing I could walk right into a 42 Long. I was so distracted by the suit crisis that I never got nervous for the speech.

That’s an expensive distraction, however, and I don’t recommend it as a long-term solution. Also, I started carrying my suit in my carry-on luggage, so the tactic no longer worked in any case.

My father passed away the day before a speech years ago, and I was too distraught to be nervous. But again, I don’t recommend that as a permanent solution, since our supply of fathers is generally limited to one or two.

Eventually, I focused on three truly helpful strategies.

1. A simple physical exercise that helps control anxiety: deep, slow breathing. The key is to breathe out on a longer count than the in-breath.

2. Positive self-talk . Find your mantra and repeat it ad infinitum. Whenever you have a dull moment, whenever you are nervous or anxious about an upcoming speech, and whenever you have trouble sleeping . I’ve used this technique for years, and I’m pleased to say I’ve just about wiped my mental slate clean of debilitating negative patterns of thinking. I’ve also witnessed many clients and friends benefitting from this technique. If it sounds New-Agey to you, get over yourself and get to work. In the long run, you’ll thank me.

3. Finally, the most powerful technique for getting over stage fright is to realize that a speech is not about you, but about the audience. Put yourself in service to the audience in front of you, get out of your own way, and think about them. You will be liberated and even find the joy in public speaking, and that is indeed a good place for both audience and speaking to be.

Now we can add journaling to our arsenal of mental weapons designed to keep anxiety and stress at bay. May we all write our way to the calm after the storm.

Nick Morgan, Ph.D. , is president of Public Words Inc., a communications consulting company, and the author of books including Can You Hear Me?: How to Connect with People in a Virtual World.

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17 Tips and Tricks to Stop Shaking and Ease your Anxiety During a Speech

Hrideep barot.

• Public Speaking

Just seconds before you are about to go on stage to give a speech or presentation, your legs or hands start to tremble or you might feel jittery running up your legs, making your whole body feel numb, and your heart starts pounding so fast you feel that might pass out. 

Does this feeling sound familiar?

Don’t worry you are not at all alone. This is something almost everyone experiences at least once before giving a speech in front of an audience. If someone tells you otherwise, they are probably, definitely lying!

But WHY does it happen?

When we physically start trembling, it is our body’s natural way of responding to a situation that our mind perceives to be scary and dangerous. There is an instant adrenaline rush due to which our heart rate fastens and our mind starts preparing us for the “fight-or-flight” situation, i.e, your mind starts preparing you to decide whether you want to stay and fight the situation or you want to flee or run away from the situation.

And as public speaking is one of those situations that we tend to perceive as a threat, it results in anxiety that causes not just our body to tremble and shake but even our voice.

Thus, the shaking and trembling of our body and voice during a speech is nothing but an exhibition of our anxiety and with some time, effort and practice you can overcome it!

Physical and verbal trembling during a speech is something that can come to us involuntarily and at that moment we might blank out completely and become so vulnerable that our mind is not able to process and think of anything. At that moment it’s easy for us to start feeling powerless and like we’ve lost the game. 

So, how do we overcome it? 

It’s all about balancing and combining our physiology and psychology, i.e., we need to physically as well as mentally prepare ourselves in order to overcome the tremble and anxiety during the speech.

While there are some things you can do to get quick results, there are some things you have to practice in order to address this issue in the long run, which we will talk about later.

But first, let’s look at some of the simple and basic tips and tricks that you can use during or a few minutes before your speech.

Tips and Tricks to Stop shaking Before and During a Speech

Visualize yourself.

A few minutes before going onto the stage, start creating a mental image of yourself, going in front of the audience with confidence, picturizing everyone applauding and cheering, you being sure of the subject matter you’ve prepared for and you’re enjoying talking about it. 

It is one of the ways to convince your mind that you won’t be getting nervous while speaking.

This is something you could also practice over the period, about 10-15 days before D-Day. You can visualize yourself on the stage being confident. If you can go and check out the venue in advance, you can visualize yourself in the same place you are going to be delivering your speech.

To get a better idea about what I am talking about, check out the youtube video linked below.

Clench your legs or hands

If you are giving a speech behind a podium, where only your upper body is visible to the audience, you can use this trick. While speaking, if your hands or legs start trembling, you could tighten or cross your legs. 

You might have noticed that whenever we are tense or nervous, our muscles tighten and we start clenching our hands. It’s one of the ways our body releases tension. This will help you feel a little bit relaxed temporarily throughout your speech.

But what if there is no podium and there is no way you can cross your legs or clench your feet? – You can try to walk on the stage but not so much that your audience might get distracted from all the moving instead of listening to what you are saying. You can try moving whenever you start feeling that you might be forgetting or getting anxious.

Brief introduction

Instead of beginning your speech with your topic directly about your topic, you can start your speech with a brief introduction of yourself. This will help grab your audience’s attention and make them feel comfortable.

You can start with a small greeting, following up with your name, qualification, and what you are going to be talking about.

For example, “Hello, good morning everyone, My name is XYZ, and I am pursuing my master’s in psychology, and today I will be talking about the Effects of social media on mental health.” then all you have to do is start talking about what you have prepared. 

Before going on to the stage if you start getting anxious, this small introduction will help you get briefly acquainted with the whole setting. Check out this article if you wish to know more about introductory opening lines- How To Introduce A Speaker In Any Setting (And Amaze Your Audience)

And if you have the liberty you can also begin your speech with a small anecdote or even use humor. 

Using defense mechanisms right

Smiling and laughing are a couple of ways we try to defend ourselves emotionally and mentally when we are nervous or anxious. Sometimes, it may be awkward to laugh or smile in an inappropriate situation that makes us uncomfortable.

But when you are on stage, this works!

And this is one of the tips that I received from a friend of mine, 

He says it somehow helps him to redirect his nervous energy into a smile . 

When we physically smile our brain produces chemicals like dopamine and serotonin which are responsible for making us feel happy and less stressed. This works, because in a way by doing this we are trying to convince our body that it’s okay, that the situation is not threatening and we are smiling it away.

And of course, smiling is a great way to connect with your audience as well.

Use simple vocabulary

If you think you might get anxious while talking in front of an audience, avoid using difficult words in your speech. Fancy vocabulary will make you sound like an intellectual and add credibility to your speech but if your mind suddenly goes blank and you start trembling, at that moment you might have a difficult time recalling those heavy words you prepared.

So, unless it comes naturally to you, try using simple vocabulary. You just need to ensure that your audience understands what you have to say.

Move before your speech

You can also warm up your body by dancing, exercising, or just moving around a few minutes before the speech. One of the tricks I use is that, if I feel anxious before a presentation, I just take a little walk or move my legs up and down. 

You can even dance or exercise on the day of your speech. These physical movements help us reduce overall anxiety and get us pumped. It helps in improving our overall mood which eventually reduces nervousness. 

There are various drawbacks when it comes to using cue cards during a speech, your audience might get the impression that you are not prepared or it can be very distracting. It might also hinder your connection with the audience.

But, even with all these drawbacks of using cue cards, it is useful to keep the cards ready for reference, especially when you think you might not be completely prepared for the speech or are worried that your anxiety might take over.

If in any case, your mind blanks out or starts getting nervous, you can just look into the cards and continue to talk. Having cue cards ready might also take off the pressure of memorizing everything because you will know that even if you forget anything you can just refer to the cards.

Breathe, but how does it help?

We might have heard of this tip to calm our anxiety many times before right?

But why and how does this help us with our public speaking?

Deep breathing physically helps our body to calm down when we are anxious or stressed. The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for our ‘fight or flight response that was mentioned earlier, breathing helps us to manage and calm that sympathetic nervous system eventually reducing the feeling of anxiety

There are breathing exercises you can use just a few minutes before your speech that will help you control your anxious thoughts.

Just take a deep breath, hold it in for 4-5 seconds, release it, and continue doing this for 5 minutes. That’s it! That’s all you need to do to physically relax your body. While doing this breathing exercise try not to think about your speech. Just let it go.

Few other things you can keep in mind before giving your speech

Get a good night’s sleep.

Matthew Walker, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California conducted a study to see the association between sleep and anxiety. According to that research, insufficient sleep affects our emotional regulation and increases anxiety by 30%.

Hydrate yourself before going onto the stage

Not being hydrated enough can lead to dizziness and confusion. Also, make sure you’ve eaten enough.

Eye contact

Do not directly maintain eye contact with the audience. It might not be the case with everyone but it is possible that locking eyes with someone in the audience can further add to our anxiety. Instead, you can just move your eyes around the room or focus on something else like a chair or desk. 

Body language

 If your body language is powerful and confident, it signals your brain that everything is okay and you got this.

To get a better understanding of how our body language on stage influences our speech, check out this article that we’ve written- 5 Body Language Tips To Command The Stage

BUT what if, despite doing all this, you are still not able to shake off the feeling of nervousness?

I remember 2 months back when I had to give a small presentation in front of my professor and my classmates, even though I had prepared and knew exactly what I had to talk about still, my legs couldn’t stop shaking throughout the presentation. It was not because of my lack of preparation or my not being confidence about the material.

I realized that this fear was something that I had internalized deep into my mind and that no matter how many breathing exercises or preparations I did, I was not able to manage my anxiety.

While there are short-term things that you can do to help you with your anxiety on stage, there are things that you can do that will help you overcome the anxiety of public speaking internally and help understand the root cause of the nervousness and physical trembling while speaking.

These are some of the tips that I personally use whenever I know I might have to speak in front of an audience.

And yes, It is not something that can be achieved in a day or two, overcoming the anxiety of public speaking will take some time but it will help you get rid of it internally which will be helpful in the long run.

Long-term Tips and Tricks to Stop Shaking During a Speech

Prepare your subconscious .

Our subconscious mind is the storehouse of every experience, every memory, every feeling, and every skill, it includes everything that we might have seen or done in our life from the 

the moment we are born.

Even though we cannot see or physically witness our subconscious mind, it pretty much runs our life, emotions, and whatever we do. Our subconscious mind communicates with the conscious mind based on the information that it receives from our senses and emotions. That is how our negative or positive self-talk and emotions towards something or some situation directly affect how we perceive them.  

When it comes to public speaking, we have internalized that fear into our subconscious so much over the years that even if we do small and simple practices like breathing and exercising it does not really help and we still end up shivering and feeling nervous whenever we have to speak in front of an audience because we keep on telling ourselves so many negative stories- “They might think I am an idiot”, “I don’t think I am prepared enough”, “I will be so embarrassed if I mess up my speech” etc.

Again, the best part is that we can overcome these internalized fears.

There are a few daily practices that we can do to gradually deal with our anxiety about public speaking.

Affirmation 

Through daily positive affirmations, we consciously try to give a message to our subconscious minds. It challenges and changes our negative thought processes into more positive ones. 

All you have to do is listen to any audio which includes all the affirmative sentences related to public speaking while you sleep. There are various audio available on the internet and on youtube, one of the youtube audios is linked here . You can also write down these sentences and then read them aloud a few times.

These are my favorite tricks that I use to overcome any kind of anxiety I face, be it nervousness related to exams, socializing, and of course public speaking. 

You can especially practice this a few days before you know you have to speak in front of an audience and it REALLY helps!

Identify the cause of your fears

It is important to Identify why you feel scared and what is causing it.

Is it a particular experience? What is it that you internalized throughout your life? 

For example, when I was in 8th grade I had to give a small speech in front of my classmates and teacher. I think I was not able to frame my sentence properly or I fumbled while talking, my friends and teacher started laughing and making fun of me. Since that experience I have internalized the fear of going through it again and whenever I had to talk in front of an audience, no matter how much I had prepared, out of fear of getting laughed at again I used to experience severe anxiety resulting in trembling, shivering and blanking out.

When we recognize where our fear is coming from, we can challenge and work on them.

Back to the example, now that I knew where my fears were coming from I was able to reason with myself, maybe it was just that one time or that every time I have to give a speech, it’s not necessary that I will have the same kind of audience. 

Changing perspective 

-Before you prepare for your speech and go onto the stage, it is important to keep in mind that even if you feel anxious and your legs and voice starts to tremble, there is nothing wrong with that!!

Keep some faith in your audience and know that even they understand how terrifying it can be to speak on stage. Public speaking is something everyone gets anxious about. Even the most experienced speakers get nervous before talking in front of an audience.

If you blank out while speaking, what’s the worst that could happen anyway? We need to realize that most of our audience will be empathetic if we fumble.

Stop being so hard on yourself because the pressure of what ‘might’ happen makes us feel anxious.

-Don’t think of your speech as a one-way conversation, instead think about it in a way that you are having back and forth with your audience, this will make you feel less nervous because you will know they are not just there to listen to you but also interact with you.

For example, you can ask questions to your audience, try to have a small conversation with them, or pose a rhetorical question. In this way, you know you are engaging with them in some or the other way.

Knowing your content

This is the most important point to keep in mind, and I can’t stress it enough.

If you are thoroughly prepared for your speech, even if you start shaking or get nervous you will be able to deliver at least something to your audience.

Focus on serving your audience 

Whenever we are speaking in front of an audience or giving a presentation, we tend to make the whole thing about ourselves, and by doing that we make a big deal of the whole experience that pressurizes us and we end up shaking and getting anxious.

But it is never about us, we need to focus on the audience and how we are serving them, and how we can deliver what we know in such a way that might help them.

Because we put pressure on ourselves, we start thinking and worrying about how we will do, and eventually, anxiety kicks in.

Along with the tips and tricks mentioned above, there are a few other practices you can inculcate in your routine. We’ve written an article on – Simple Yet Effective DAILY Public Speaking Exercises . Check it out to know what other activities and exercises you can do to improve your public speaking and ease your anxiety.

To Summarise, 

If you have prepared the best you could have and you know what you are going to talk about, It is okay if you even end up shaking and fumbling during a speech. 

Speaking in front of an audience is not easy but it is also not impossible, with practice and experience you CAN overcome the anxiety of public speaking. 

You just need to put yourself out there and practice and practice. 

One way is to accept that this might happen again and again and that it is okay.

If anyone in the world can do it, then why can’t you?

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The Fear of Public Speaking: 25 Tips to Calm Your Nerves

by Matt Eventoff

1. Prepare:  The more you prepare and the better handle you have on the material you are presenting, the better it will go.

2. Practice:  Once you have prepared, you MUST practice, early and often. Rumor has it that Churchill practiced for one hour per one minute of speech content he was delivering. 5 minute presentation = 5 hours practice. How long are you practicing ?

3. Check out the Room:  Familiarity breeds comfort. Surprises the day of a presentation are not fun and ratchet up anxiety tenfold. Is there a podium? What technology are you using and does it work?

4. Read the Room:  While not always an option, when you have the opportunity to meet a few audience members beforehand, take it! Arrive ten minutes early and introduce yourself to a few people. If you are presenting mid-day, arrive before a key break to meet a few folks.

5. “Seed” the Audience:  Ask friends, associates or colleagues come to your presentation. Talk to the conference organizers when you arrive. Locate them before you take the stage, if possible. Identify where friendly faces are sitting. The purpose – to have friendly faces to focus on if the anxiety starts to build.

6. Remember the audience is on your side:  9 times out of 10, the audience is rooting for you to succeed, not waiting for you to fall flat.

7. Breathing:  My three favorite breathing techniques – 3 Deep Belly Breathes, Ujjaiy breathing, and the Alternate Nostril technique – these techniques are explained in further detail at the end

8. Listen to Music:  Watch a boxing or MMA competition or an NFL or NBA pre-game show and you will see world class athletes entering the locker room listening to music, getting in the zone, eliminating distraction and chasing away anxiety and negative thoughts. It works prior to public speaking as well; an iPod can be a presenter’s best friend.

9. Visualization:  It works. Professional boxers, when shadow boxing, do not throw random punches — they are visualizing an opponent and quite literally sparring with that visualization. Ballplayers do the same thing before approaching the plate. Elite athletes, musicians, actors and dancers utilize visualization regularly — Todd Hargrove has an excellent article on visualization in athletics here . Visualization, if done properly, works for speakers and presenters as well.

10. Body Movement:  A few minutes before “taking the stage” – “Waggle” (lateral movement) your jaw; bend forward and dangle your arms and let them shake; shake your hands over your head; utilize simple stretches and isometric stretches (more on that later) — all of these movements, when incorporated with proper breathing, warm the body, relax the mind and calm your nerves.

11. Body Movement, Pt. II:  As a former amateur boxer, nothing prepares me to speak better than light shadow boxing a few minutes before I have to speak. I know a CEO who (literally) does 20 pushups prior to every earnings call. Focused movement helps even more than just generic movement because it tends to take your thought process in a different direction.

12. Do Sit-Ups:  There is a school of thought that suggest that constricting the abdominal wall prevents the production of epinephrine, a hormone associated with fight or flight response. The most effective way to utilize this approach prior to speaking is to “crunch” and release the abdominal muscles while standing (lying down and doing sit ups is probably not optimal!)

13. Put the Pressure Elsewhere:  The more interactive your presentation, the less pressure you will feel, as the presentation becomes a true conversation, and most people are much more comfortable in a conversation than delivering a presentation.

14. Caffeine Free:  I always avoid copious amounts of caffeine (due to the epinephrine effect), and salty foods (to avoid drying out my mouth) on presentation day. I also tend to eat lighter on performance day as this keeps me sharp and “light.”

15. Utilize Props:  A properly placed water bottle and well-timed break in the presentation to take a sip not only gives the presenter a break for a few seconds, it draws attention back to the presenter, and can be effective to “reset” the audience.

16. Work on your Open:  The first minute of the presentation is usually when your tension will peak; having a well prepared, effective, engaging open will lessen anxiety dramatically. You can find some ideas on how to open effectively here.

17. The Restroom:  Don’t laugh, on presentation day the restroom is your ally. Ten or fifteen minutes before presenting, head into the restroom to allow yourself the opportunity to breathe, listen to a last minute song or inspirational music, close your eyes and get into your zone. If called upon to do a last minute presentation, you will always be able to steal five minutes in the restroom – use it to pull yourself, and your thoughts, together.

18. Anxiety…Interrupted:  When the anxiety is building and you are less than five minutes from taking the stage, your heart is starting to pound, heat is building and you keep telling yourself to calm down my favorite technique is to pick a random number – 1,795 and start counting backwards….by another random number – 7s, 9s, 11s, etc. It is not easy and allows for thought interruption, essentially plateauing the building anxiety

19. Anxiety…Distracted:  Maybe you are a math wizard, or the number technique is not effective for you. Start reciting the alphabet backward (mentally). Again, more thought process disruption.

20. Remember the reality:  I have worked with thousands of speakers over the years and have to come to the conclusion that you are always more nervous than you appear.

21. Remember the reality, Pt. II:  In most cases, your presentation is infinitely more important to you than to your audience members – it is your job to peak their collective interest. The reality is that 99.9999…% of the time, the nightmare scenarios you envision will not come true.

22. Breathing Exercise # 1:  Three Deep Belly Breaths – Sounds like what it is. Slowly inhale through the nose for a count of 5-15 (15 is optimal). Keep one hand on your diaphragm and feel it enlarge as you inhale. Hold for 5-10 seconds, and then exhale through your mouth slowly, again for a count of 5-15 seconds (15 is optimal). Repeat three times. This is awesome to do for the few minutes before you are actually going to be speaking.

23. Breathing Exercise #2:  Ujjaiy Breathing – Also known as Oceanic or Victorious Breathing – it is remarkable. It is a yogic breathing technique I first learned from struggling through Vinyasa yoga classes. Similar to deep belly breathing, however this time the mouth stays closed the entire time.

24. Breathing Exercise #3:  Alternate Nostril Breathing Technique (my favorite) – All you need for this is your thumb, your pinkie finger, and your nose. To begin, simply cover your left nostril with your left thumb, and slowly and deeply inhale for 5 seconds to start (10 is optimal). Then immediately cover your right nostril with your left pinkie finger, while keeping your left nostril pressed closed – at all times your mouth is closed as well, so at this point you are essentially holding your breathe. Again, hold for 5 seconds (10 is optimal). Then remove your left thumb from your left nostril and slowly exhale for a 10 count. Wait two seconds and repeat the same technique, inhaling through your left nostril as your right nostril is still closed, etc.

25. Use Notes:  Memorization + anxiety = poor performance. An index card with key bullet points, just to keep you on track, will help free your mind to stay in the moment, rather than allowing the pressure to remember to add to the anxiety you are already feeling on presentation day.

There are other effective tactics and strategies including taking advantage of great programs that allow you to practice presenting in front of likeminded professionals (Toastmasters), seeking professional help to develop individual techniques to deal with a specific anxiety or aspect of presenting and in extreme cases seeking the expertise of a therapist.

One last technique is one I frequently suggest to people who have had a traumatic public speaking experience in the past, and the technique is scaling.  After a traumatic experience your memory tends to exaggerate how poorly the event went, and the more time that goes by without that thought pattern being interrupted, the “bigger” the event feels, and the more anxious you feel prior to the next presentation. In this case it is critical to break this pattern, and that is done through scaling – finding low stakes…..

The next time you are about to present, do yourself a favor and take a deep breath. Picture Winston Churchill or Abraham Lincoln. Two of the greatest orators ever, both suffering from a fear of public speaking. Think about major Hollywood actors and actresses, many of who also suffer from glossophobia. You are not alone, and I can promise that if you institute much of what you just read, your next presentation will be better.

6 thoughts on “ The Fear of Public Speaking: 25 Tips to Calm Your Nerves ”

Matt, your posts are inciteful and extremely helpful. Thank you…..

I am a music teacher in a small Las Vegas studio and I am scheduled to give a seminar this weekend on calming performance jitters.  I have read many useless articles (roll your shoulders, etc) but this was the first list I've ever seen that is right on target and extremely helpful.  Thank you so much for your insights and good advice.  I'm sure my students will find this as beneficial as I do.

P.S.  My seminar is entitled, "Picturing them in their underwear doesn't work."

Thanks Matt. Another tip that I try to use is to remind myself of other, more important presentations I have done in the past and how well they went despite me feeling very nervous. I always got through them. I have a list of about 25 presentations I have done in work, at conferences, at University, viva exams, etc. They remind you that you know your stuff and can get over the fear. I try to think of my heart racing as "feeling alive" and try to use it as a positive. Practice is the best tip though. The more comfortable you are, the easy it is. That first few lines are the key. Nail them and you will feel great and the practicing will kick in for the rest of the presentation. You will live. No one is dying. Your life doesn't depend on it. Focus on what you will be able to do afterwards and how good you will feel once it is all out of the way.

Thank you 🙂

This really helped! My worst fear is public speaking and after reading this article, I feel pretty confident about my speech tomorrow. Thanks!

Comments are closed.

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8 Ways to Deliver a Great Presentation (Even If You’re Super Anxious About It)

• Joel Schwartzberg

Know your point, always.

Feeling anxious about a presentation? It’s likely about a fear of public humiliation rather than of public speaking.

• Shift the spotlight from yourself to what you have to say.
• Reject the voice in your head trying to destroy your confidence.
• Knowing what matters – and what doesn’t – will help you succeed.

Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here .

I recently worked closely with a 24-year-old client — let’s call him Martin — who was tapped to deliver a five-minute presentation at his company’s annual town hall meeting. Martin had never given a public speech in his professional life, but his accomplishments impressed his supervisors, and they wanted Martin to share his success with the rest of the organization.

• JS Joel Schwartzberg oversees executive communications for a major national nonprofit, is a professional presentation coach, and is the author of Get to the Point! Sharpen Your Message and Make Your Words Matter and The Language of Leadership: How to Engage and Inspire Your Team . You can find him on LinkedIn and X. TheJoelTruth

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9 Tips To Overcome Public Speaking Nerves

For many of us, being called upon to deliver a presentation to dozens or even hundreds of people is a daunting prospect. In fact, it’s well documented that we fear giving presentations more than we do death or dying - there’s even a great sounding term for public speaking anxiety - it's called ‘glossophobia’.  So there’s no wonder then when we are summoned to present to a large audience it can feel downright intimidating… even to the most experienced of presenters.  We’ve put together a quick list of nine ways to overcome your nerves when presenting. So take a read to find out how to be a great public speaker .

1. Turn the fear into positive adrenalin

It’s very common to be fearful of public speaking , even when you’ve done it an awful lot. If you entirely lose your fear, there is a risk of becoming complacent. You want to find a sweet spot where you feel nerves and excitement, but not to the extent that it messes with your head and your breath -  and sends you wildly into fight-or-flight response.

So how do you find that sweet spot? Firstly, let’s take a look at the symptoms of fear when you’re public speaking.

What might you feel? Sweaty palms, a racing heart, a tight chest, slight breathlessness, butterflies in your tummy. 

All of those sensations are very similar to what you might feel if you were extremely excited.

The first thing to note is that they’re not bad sensations, we just need to send different messages about those sensations to your brain so that you don’t go into alarm mode. So, if you’re feeling those symptoms, you can literally tell yourself you’re excited. I’m excited because I’m about to go up and do a good job, and excitement is good. We want to use that energy and convert these symptoms into a magnetic and energy for our compelling speeches.

Convert the “This is terrible, I may have a panic attack”  feeling into “ This is GREAT! I’m excited!”.

The next thing is to focus on your breathing. Take a deep inhale and a long exhale. What we know is that if we’re doing that kind of deep breathing, it’s very difficult to be in a state of high anxiety. Secondly, if you imagine a golden globe inside your belly, and it’s radiating out warmth and molten lava, you can use this image. On each inhale it collects more golden energy and on each exhale it releases more molten golden warmth into your body. This image will help to calm you down. The next thing you need to be doing if you’re in a state of anxiety, and needing to overcome the fear, is really connecting to your objective. So, what is important about your message? What are you trying to say?

3. Remove negative thoughts

Presentation anxiety can be seen as the saboteur in our head, the negative voice, the chimp vs. our adult persona. It’s there with a whole flurry of negative predictions of what could possibly happen. Your anxiety is negatively hypothesising.  The way to deal with it is to say "NOT NOW – I’m focusing on my objective, which is to get my point across. You are not important. Yes, you’re a chimp fear, you’re a negative voice but I’m brushing you out the way and I’m focusing on my objective because I have something to do. You have to really clarify what you want to do. You don’t give time to these negative ideas, tell yourself you have a job to do, you have something to say, you have a message to share.

So, you conquer this public speaking  anxiety by turning it into the chimp – if you’ve read The Chimp Paradox , it talks about the difference between the chimp and the adult brain. And we know this kind of fear belongs with the chimp.

4. Positive visualisation

You can also visualise each step. Visualise yourself walking onto the stage from wherever you’ve come from. Visualise yourself taking a moment to look out to the audience and visualise doing some of the speech and the audience’s positive reaction, and the feeling of relaxation. What you might find in the first visualisation, is that, if you’re really in it, your heart will beat faster, and you’ll get nervous. This is great because if you notice it, you can try to channel those feelings and convert them into excitement, you can tell the negative thoughts that you have a more important job to do. And what you’re doing there is creating a neural pathway, even if it’s imagined. It’s still valid. You’re creating a neural pathway of confidence. Of being able to convert like your catalytic convertor, to convert these nerves into positivity and excitement.

5. Watch yourself back

There’s a couple of things you can do... You can do the visualisation technique, but it is even better to film yourself. You need to get used to your presentation and you need to remember the flow. In an ideal world, you want to know it off by heart. So, you need to have the points of what you’re saying and the triggers. Practise with people. The more you practise, the more you make it your own. The more you know exactly what it is you’re doing each step of the way.

One of the TED Talks we love is the one Alex Honnold did about free-climbing a 3000 foot peak in the USA. The first time he did it, he was ill prepared and it was extremely risky. He decided that the second time he was going to do the bigger peak, he was going to do it properly. He spent a year planning his route meticulously, climbing it with ropes 50 or so times, visualising it, asking every single question about what could possibly go wrong and coming up with solutions. He was all over it. When he did climb the peak, finally, he felt like he was gliding up there and he did it without ropes. So, practise is an incredibly powerful tool when doing any kind of public speech. Because it creates those neural networks of confidence.

6. Switch the spotlight from you to the audience

As the speaker, don’t make the worst mistake and think it’s all about you. Connect with your audience, in that first moment when you stand on the stage or you are welcoming them to a Zoom call.   They’re invested and they want this to be good as much as you do. They don’t want to sit there and watch someone who is completely wrapped up in their own spiral of negative voices.  Instead, they want to sit there and enjoy someone who is sharing a message that they’re passionate. Passionate about getting their message across because it’s important to them. 

7. Ground yourself

Imagine your feet are rooted to the floor below. Really visualise roots leaving your feet and fixing you to the floor below. Imagine there’s a supportive energy coming from the floor, that will make you feel anchored and empowered. Now from behind you imagine that you’ve got 5 or 6 backing singers who are your backing singers , they are backing you. You will find that they expand your sense of confidence and radiance and increase the size of which you can speak.

8. Emphasis key information

Make sure that you lean into key words when you’re speaking. You emphasise them and you articulate them, and you put colour into them because that is what’s going to get those messages across. That is going to appear like you’re passionate and you’re clear and you’re confident and you care about what you’re saying. At the same time it’s anchoring you in what you are saying, which is going to make you appear more confident.

9. Use your body

Finally, use your body . Don’t let your arms get stuck in your pockets or by your sides or crossed together. The more you use your body, the more it creates a positive feedback loop for you internally because it gives the message to your brain that you are feeling comfortable and confident because you’re free enough to use gesture. That in turn frees up your vocal resonance, frees up your vocal instrument and even frees up your imagination. Not only this, it also brings to life what you’re saying for your audience and shows them, here is someone that is owning, inhabiting and truly enjoying what they’re saying.

So there we have it.  We hope you find this blog helpful and that by following our tips you will be able to overcome your fear of public speaking and presenting. Be patient with yourself, use all the tools and techniques available to overcome your presentation nerves, and don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. Good luck and let us know how you get on! 

At London Speech Workshop our coaches work with people every day who have had enough of being intimidated by delivering presentations or speeches. People who may already be pretty good, but who long to be able to be consistently excellent as a presenter, to know how to harness their own power and skill as a communicator and to share their ideas and give compelling speeches in a way that is powerful to a group. With no fear! So if this sounds like something you want, then we would love to help. 

Want to know more about how we work with clients? Why not register for a   FREE 15-minute Discovery Call   with a member of our client success team?

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How to Give a Speech Without Crying? 10 great tips

• Filed under: Presentation anxiety , Public speaking articles , Speech delivery , Speech preparation , Stage fear

I am often asked for tips on how to give a speech without crying. At first, I assumed these people were just nervous or perhaps suffering from stage fright. However, I soon learned that it’s sometimes simply an overwhelming emotional experience to give a speech. This may be at a wedding, a funeral, or during a graduation party for example. No matter the reason—professional or personal—I have many tips for teary-eyed speech givers.

So, how to give a speech without crying? Take deep, calming breaths. Add some humor, if appropriate. Take a moment to acknowledge the emotions involved. Don’t forget to pause for reflection and composure. Focus on the mundane.

I’ll get into the details a little bit later, but these were some quick tips for you to use. All of that is helpful advice, but if you know anything about me at all you know I’m thorough. Of course, I have so much more to tell you. Keep reading to find my best-detailed tips on how to give a speech without crying.

Also, I think you should check out these books about public speaking, which will give you even more information and prepare you for the speech even more.

Table of Contents

How to Give a Speech Without Crying

Giving a speech isn’t always about sharing new ideas, selling your products and services, or getting ahead in business. Sometimes, we are called on to give speeches of an emotional nature. Even the toughest of us have suddenly been gripped by the lump in the throat and that urge to burst into tears.

And that’s totally okay. Sometimes, being overrun with emotions can work in your favor. Depending on the situation, you may be able to use the tears to your advantage. Other times, it’s best to keep your cheeks dry.

In either case, there are many things you can do to get through your speech without crying.

#1 Breathe Deep

When we are overcome with emotion or fear, your body will register stress. One of the first ways it does this is by restricting breathing and tightening your throat. You may even completely hold your breath.

Since you need oxygen in order to give your speech, any kind of restriction in breathing will really mess you up. That’s not even talking about the increased stress you’ll feel when you realize you’re about to pass out from lack of oxygen!

The easiest remedy for this problem is to simply take a long, slow, deep breath. It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, taking slow and steady breaths when your emotions are taking over can seem like an impossible task.

This is where a little preparation can come in handy. If you know that you’ll be giving a potentially emotional speech, or that a speech you must give in a business setting may cause you to cry, it’s worth the effort to learn some simple breathing techniques beforehand.

Did you know that taking even one deep, calming breath may be enough to counteract your adrenaline and your emotions? If you don’t have time for a full set of breathing exercises while your audience stares at you, just take one breath. It may be all you need.

#2 How to Give a Speech Without Crying Using Humor

“Funny people aren’t funny because funny things happen to us. We’re funny because we take the tragedy that happens to us, and turn it into comedy.” – Judy Carter

Unless your speech is happening at a solemn event, you may try adding a little humor to ease your nerves and calm your emotions. You might be surprised to learn that some somber events, such as funerals, are actually appropriate for gentle humor, too.

The key to making humor work to calm you during your speech is understanding your audience . If these are friends and family and other loved ones, humor is almost always acceptable. In fact, your audience may welcome the release that laughter brings.

#3 Acknowledge Your Emotions

It may seem counterproductive, but acknowledging your emotions may prevent you from crying during your speech . The more you fight strong emotions, the harder it is to ignore them. So stop ignoring them.

Recommended books

How to Deliver a TED Talk: Secrets of the World's Most Inspiring Presentations

Jeremy Donovan

Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences

Nancy Duarte

Confessions of a Public Speaker

Scott Berkun

Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds

Carmine Gallo

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right

Atul Gawande

The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything... Fast!

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But how do you acknowledge your emotions during a speech without breaking down into rivers of tears?

Encouraging self-talk is the best way to accomplish this. Mentally acknowledge that you are emotional. Tell yourself that it’s okay to feel whatever it is that you’re feeling. It might be fear, it might be sadness, it might be absolute excitement that is manifesting as tears. Whatever the feeling, tell yourself it’s okay to feel that.

After you’ve acknowledged your feelings, take that deep breath we mentioned in the first tip. It’s incredibly cathartic to mentally acknowledge emotional energy, then release it physically through a deep, controlled breath.

Definitely, check this guide here on how to overcome stage fright.

#4 Pause for Reflection and Composure

Some of the best speakers use natural pauses in their speeches to emphasize parts of what they’re saying . But they may also be using those pauses to compose themselves. This is especially common during emotional speeches such as during a wedding or while accepting an award.

You can find good places to pause your speech ahead of time . For example, while you’re writing your speech, you’ll probably feel some of those emotions creeping in. They’re giving you a preview of what your actual speech may be like.

Don’t force those feelings away. Use them to identify places where you should create a natural pause in your speech . Those pauses are where you should take your deep breath and acknowledge how you’re feeling.

#5 Focus on Your Notes

One of the best ways to avoid crying during your speech is to focus on your notes. A well-written speech with useful notes gives you a low-key item to concentrate on. When your emotions start to overwhelm you, simply glance down at your notes and pretend to read them for a second or two.

It may not be the most graceful method to calm your emotions, and it certainly isn’t surreptitious, but it’s also not unusual to have a speaker look at their notes. As long as you don’t stare at your notes the entire time, it’ll look perfectly natural to glance down and regain your composure once or twice.

As a side note, I wrote an article about how to use notes in your speech which you can find here.

#6 Focus on the Mundane

Maybe you don’t have notes, or maybe you’ve already looked at your notes too many times and your audience is getting suspicious. Whatever your reasons, you may need another option to stop your tears during your speech.

So, how to give a speech without crying if you can’t look at your notes? Change your focus.

Look out across the audience, avoiding any eye contact for now. Too much eye contact when your emotions are flaring may cause the dam to break and get the tears flowing. Instead, look out past the people. Find something in the back of the room that has no meaning to you.

Maybe it’s a poster on the wall or a stack of chairs. Maybe it’s the door out or a window overlooking the parking lot. Find anything in the back of the room that can help distract you from the overwhelming emotions tugging at your tear ducts.

#7 Take a Drink of Water

Have you ever seen those pitchers of water sitting next to a speech-giver? They’re not there for decoration. Professional speakers aren’t just really thirsty people either.

Water is usually provided for speakers for two reasons. The first is that speakers’ mouths often get dry. It’s simple biology.

The second is that taking a sip of water is a well-known way to relax your throat , give you a moment to compose yourself, and helps you focus on something other than your speech for a moment.

If you notice, taking a drink gives you the opportunity to use several of the tips already listed here. It’s an unobtrusive way to get through a speech without crying.

#8 Practice, Practice, Practice!

If you’re really panicking about becoming emotional and bursting into tears during your speech, plan ahead. Be prepared! You can breathe all you want, drink gallons of water, and stare at the windows, but if you don’t practice your speech ahead of time, you’re doing yourself a major disservice.

Practicing starts when you first put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard). As mentioned earlier, writing your speech will be the first chance you get to see where your emotional triggers may happen. Pay attention to those.

As you write your speech, stop and practice it out loud. If you choke up in the same places each time, mark those spots and move on.

Once you finish your speech, practice in front of a mirror or better yet – in front of the camera. Practice looking up at yourself (or at the camera) as you recite the speech. Glance at your notes often, paying attention to where you marked the emotional parts.

Take note of how you’re feeling as those places come up. If you feel the lump forming in your throat, try adding a pause before or just after that point. Practice taking a sip of water.

The more you practice and make it through your speech, the easier it will become . If you can condition yourself to avoid or work past those emotional spots alone, you have a better chance of making it through on the big day.

But there’s a lot more to it so I wrote a complete guide (10 effective tips) on how to practice a speech you.

#9 Choose a Handheld Distraction

Another good trick to avoid crying during a speech is to bring a distraction with you. Something small that you can hold in your palm, keep on the lectern, or hide in your pocket can help you stay calm and collected.

When you feel the emotions begin to rise, simply palm your distraction item and give it a good squeeze. If you practice with this item while practicing your speech, you may be able to train your brain to recognize it as the “calm” object.

It’s a bit like Pavlov’s dog. If you can train your brain to associate the distraction item with calm or intense focus, you can derail your emotions before they ruin your speech.

If you don’t have a pocket to hold an item or you aren’t able to bring something small up with you, you can always use your own hands. Practice ahead of time doing a casual hand fold on the lectern. While your fingers are laced together, you can give them a gentle squeeze to help center yourself.

If there is no lectern, fold your hands in front of you.

#10 Rewording Your Speech

If you still find it difficult to get through the speech without crying, even after all of this advice, there’s still more you can do.

Try rewording the most intense parts of your speech. Subtlety has its place in speeches, just as clear and concise word choice does. It’s okay to allude to something emotional without coming right out and saying it.

Chances are good that your audience is also feeling emotional, and rewording more intense parts might be a kindness to them as well.

Bonus tip: Use Emotions to Empower Yourself

You came here wondering how to give a speech without crying, but you may be looking at this the wrong way. Let me explain.

In some situations, crying and other shows of emotion can actually work in your favor. Look at the emotional speeches you’ve seen in the past as examples.

When an actor cries at the podium after receiving an award, your first thought isn’t that this person is a weakling. More likely you understand that the tears show the world how grateful they are to be acknowledged.

What about graduation celebrations? Those are notoriously emotional. Look at the tears that stream down cheeks during graduation speeches. Clearly, the people speaking have poured heart and soul into these words. Does it dampen the mood or take away from the speech because they’re crying? No way!

If anything, tears during a speech show your audience that you are invested in this topic. You care. You connect with whatever it is that you’re talking about.

Tears don’t always show weakness. In some situations, they show in an obvious, nonverbal way that you care deeply enough to be moved to tears.

Related Questions

How to talk without getting emotional? Keep your speech simple, concise, and on point. Breathe deeply in and out. Pause for composure and to catch your breath.

How to keep from getting choked up? Depending on the situation, you may be able to bring humor into the moment. Laughter helps relieve stress. It may be appropriate to allow yourself to become choked up anyway.

How to write a speech? How to write a speech depends on many factors. For example, type of event (official or unofficial), listeners (acquaintances or strangers), time (short or long speech), etc. (read full article here )

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• Tags: Art of public speaking , Making a speech , Pauses in speech , Performance anxiety symptoms , Prepare a speech , Presentation skills tips , Presentation techniques , Public presentation , Speaking anxiety , Speech anxiety , Speech skills , Speech tips , Speech writing tips , Stage phobia

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My name is Janek Tuttar , and I am the founder and author of Speak and Conquer website.

I have been teaching public speaking at Estonian Entrepreneurship University of Applied Sciences

Here, I am sharing the wisdom of how to cope in different public speaking situations.

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I have been teaching and blogging about public speaking since spring 2007. Here, I am sharing the wisdom of how to cope in different public speaking situations.

Send me an e-mail: [email protected]

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Public speaking ranks high on the list of many people’s fears. The thought of standing in front of a large audience, with all eyes watching and ears listening, is enough to make even the most experienced speakers feel nervous. However, there are ways to combat nerves and deliver a powerful speech confidently. Here are three techniques to help you give a speech without getting nervous:

1. Prepare Thoroughly One of the main reasons people get nervous before giving a speech is due to lack of preparation. Taking the time to research, create, and practice your speech can significantly reduce anxiety. As you prepare, focus on these key aspects:

– Know your topic: Research your subject matter and gather as much information as possible.

– Organize your thoughts: Structure your presentation so it has a logical flow.

– Practice out loud: Rehearse in front of a mirror or record yourself to help improve your delivery. By thoroughly preparing, you will feel more confident about what you’re presenting, which can translate to reduced nerves.

2. Connect With Your Audience

Engaging with your audience helps build rapport and creates a more relaxed atmosphere. Make an effort to establish trust and rapport before taking center stage by conversing with audience members beforehand if possible. Alternatively, find ways to connect during your speech; consider using anecdotes or personal experiences related to your topic that allow listeners to identify with you. As you deliver the speech:

– Make eye contact: Scan the room and make brief eye contact with individual listeners.

– Use body language: Use gestures and facial expressions to emphasize key points.

– Show enthusiasm: Convey excitement about your topic to spark interest in your audience. By creating connections with your listeners, you’ll feel less isolated and more at ease during your speech.

3. Implement Relaxation Techniques

Managing nerves often comes down to finding strategies that help you remain focused and calm. Relaxation techniques can provide that much-needed sense of control and composure:

– Deep breathing exercises: By consciously slowing your breath, you can lower your heart rate and alleviate nervous energy.

– Visualization: Before taking the stage, close your eyes and imagine yourself delivering a successful speech in front of an engaged audience.

– Progressive muscle relaxation: While waiting to present, tense and then relax different muscle groups in your body to decrease tension.

Finding a method that works for you can greatly impact how you handle nerves during public speaking engagements. In summary, giving a speech without getting nervous requires thorough preparation, a connection with your audience, and the implementation of relaxation techniques. By dedicating time for adequate practice, making an effort to engage with your listeners, and practicing mindfulness to manage nerves, you are well on your way to becoming a confident and composed public speaker.

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How to Give a Speech Without Preparation

Last Updated: May 29, 2023 Approved

This article was co-authored by Lynn Kirkham . Lynn Kirkham is a Professional Public Speaker and Founder of Yes You Can Speak, a San Francisco Bay Area-based public speaking educational business empowering thousands of professionals to take command of whatever stage they've been given - from job interviews, boardroom talks to TEDx and large conference platforms. Lynn was chosen as the official TEDx Berkeley speaker coach for the last four years and has worked with executives at Google, Facebook, Intuit, Genentech, Intel, VMware, and others. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 88% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 63,181 times.

Public speaking is daunting for many people, and having little time to prepare just increases the pressure. If you're called on to give a speech at a wedding, funeral, or other similar situation, stick to pre-set ideas like personal anecdotes and quotations, and keep things brief. If you have to give a speech in a professional situation, follow a tried-and-true method for quickly organizing your thoughts to keep things to the point. Take a breath, stay confident, and you can deliver an effective speech on the spot.

Using an Anecdote

• At a wedding, you could tell a funny story about growing up with the bride or groom.
• At a funeral, you could tell a story about how kind or generous the deceased was, or about how they influenced you.

• For example, imagine you're giving a toast at Frank's 70th birthday. You could say something like: “They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Frank here's proving them wrong. Who else would have the courage to start running marathons in retirement?”

• For example, if you're toasting the groom at a wedding, stick to just two good stories about your friendship.
• If you see people in the audience do things like turn away, talk to each other, check their phones or watches, or fidget in their seats, you might be rambling on and losing their attention.
• If this happens just quickly cut to your main point and say “thank you” as a way to close.

• You can also look out in the audience and find a few friends or people who seem supportive, and focus on them.
• If you're nervous, you could also try the old standby of imagining everyone in the audience naked!
• Above all, just remind yourself that most people will naturally admire the courage of someone who shows the confidence to get up and speak in front of a crowd.

Creating a Quick Speech Structure

• If you don't have time to write even a few notes, just make a quick mental outline, telling yourself something like: “First I'll say how generous Jim is. I'll tell the story about the time he fixed my flat tire in the middle of the night, then the one about how he baked me a birthday cake when I was sick in bed with the flu.”

• A moving story
• A convincing fact or statistic
• An inspiring quotation

• Begin by saying that casual Fridays boost morale, lead to greater productivity, and will make your company seem up to date.
• Follow up by acknowledging that casual Fridays mean that employees will appear less professional at the end of the week, and that they may need guidance on what kind of casual clothing is acceptable.
• End with your position that since most client meetings happen early in the week, casual Fridays overall will be good for your company and not create a disruption.

• You could start off with something like: “I know we've all been thinking about casual Fridays, and there are a lot of opinions out there. Let's get the conversation going by airing some of those. Does anyone have any questions, or want to share their point of view?”
• You can also call on someone in particular, if you want or need to: “Frank, you've been with us the longest. Why don't you start?”

Using the PREP Method for a Topical Speech

• Begin by saying you think casual Fridays are good because they boost employee morale.

Expert Q&A

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• ↑ Lynn Kirkham. Public Speaking Coach. Expert Interview. 20 November 2019.
• ↑ https://debate.uvm.edu/NFL/rostrumlib/impcox0998.pdf
• ↑ https://www.thoughtco.com/impromptu-speech-1857493
• ↑ http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/how-to-impromptu-speech/
• ↑ https://www.toastmasters.org/Resources/Video-Library/impromptu-speaking

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