How to Overcome Fear of Public Speaking: 8 Proven Tips

The mere thought of speaking to an audience from the stage, whether a class presentation, a business pitch, or a public event, is enough to cause your heart to start racing. Your palms become sweaty, and your voice shaky.

This fear, known as glossophobia or fear of public speaking, is shown to affect roughly 77% of people. So if you experience it, you are not alone.

And when you finally step on stage, the staring eyes can feel intimidating, and you feel like your body and mind are suddenly working against you. You immediately start thinking about how your audience would judge your performance, and the anxiety builds up to the point, your mind blanks out on the little you prepared.

Thankfully, there are proven ways to get over this fear of talking in public. Whether you’ve been dreading your first-ever public speaking assignment or you’ve done it before but still experience stage fright, this article will guide you through the proven strategies to overcome that fear and speak with confidence.

What Makes Public Speaking So Scary?

We often don’t experience the fear of speaking when having a casual conversation with a few friends we are acquainted with. This is because public speaking comes with its dynamics that put you on the edge and make you nervous about what to say.

Somewhere in the center of these dynamics is the desire to perform excellently. You want to deliver your speech as you planned it, which makes you afraid of failing or performing poorly. While this desire to perform excellently is an honorable one, it is unfortunately the primary reason why people fear or start fidgeting on the stage.

Several experts have described this as a fear of social disapproval, a concept clearly explained in this short video by Dr. Ali Mattu, where he breaks down how our brains respond to the pressure of public speaking. Rather than focusing on your content, this fear makes you worried about how your audience would judge you, and it can dampen your stage confidence.

Other factors that may worsen this feeling of fear and anxiety for a public speech presentation include speech anxiety, stuttering disorder, rapid speech, a tight jaw, and dry mouth. Anything that affects one’s quality of speech also affects one’s overall confidence in a public engagement.

One last thing to note is that while some speakers may have fully overcome the fear of public speaking, many master speakers never entirely overcome stage fright. Oftentimes, the size and caliber of your audience can determine how you’d feel. However, understanding the practical tips to overcome this feeling can help you get hold of yourself within the first few seconds to minutes into the presentation.

How Fear Affects You on Stage

According to the Mayo Clinic, the fear of public speaking is a form of performance anxiety, along with stage fright and test anxiety. If you have ever experienced fear before or during a public speech presentation, you clearly understand how it impacts your overall performance.

This fear increases your heart rate, respiratory rate, and puts you in a state of anxiety (increased sweating, uncontrollable muscle twitching, quivering speech with awkward pauses, etc.). The overall effect is poor composure, loss of memory or disorganization of thought, and a shaky voice that lacks confidence.

The above effects further worsen the more you think about it. And to a lot of us, everything happens so uncontrollably.

Fear during a public presentation:

• disconnects you from the audience,
• makes you forget what you planned to say,
• makes you scared to take up public speaking engagements,
• can dampen your confidence, and
• affect how your performance evaluators perceive your competence and capability.

One question left unanswered is how one can overcome the fear of public speaking and the above sequelae that come with it. We will explore everything you need to know in the next section.

Let’s now look at how fear shows up physically and mentally when you step on stage.

8 Ways to Overcome the Fear of Public Speaking

I was going through The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and Berg Esenwein when I discovered that understanding some essential tips about public speaking can help you get over the fright and focus on your audience and the message you want to convey to them.

While Dale’s book offered highly enriching tips on how to master public speaking, I will summarize his points on how to overcome the fear and deliver your speech without fear.

1. Prepare Adequately

One of the commonest fears people experience before mounting the stage is the fear of not being adequately prepared. Adequate preparation gives you a sense of confidence you could never get otherwise.

While having an adequate experience on a topic can make you climb the stage even when told about the presentation at the eleventh hour, adequate preparation gives you the confidence that you will satisfy your audience’s curiosity on the topic.

Preparing for a speech requires acquiring the right knowledge and information on the topic, asking and answering the questions your audience might have on the topic, and rehearsing your speech after organizing the content. “You must learn to speak by speaking”, as Dale rightly put it.

Avoid trying to memorize the lines or remember the exact words in your speech; rather, aim to immerse yourself in the understanding of your topic and deliver it as though you are experiencing it. When you understand the entire idea and understand the flow from one idea to another, it becomes even easier to remember the exact words or their variations to use, thus boosting your confidence.

2. Understand the Objective

The objective of public speaking is to capture your audience’s attention and convincingly share your knowledge with them. It’s basically about communicating with them. However, stage fright and whatever triggers it attempt to redirect your focus from your audience to yourself, thinking What if I fail, or what if it doesn’t go well.

Worrying too much about how your audience would judge you is a critical way to examine yourself. You should instead focus on how you can best convey your message in a way they understand. Think of it this way, your audience wants to learn from you, not condemn or judge you as you might think.

This brings us to the four important objectives to keep an eye on:

• Capture your audience’s attention: Dress well, stay composed, and begin with great introductory hooks (statistics, stories, or strong statements), etc.
• Keep them in the flow: Avoid sounding monotonous, apply a change of pitch while talking, take pauses, and observe your audience for feedback. Establishing this kind of two-way communication can keep your audience glued to your speech until you are done or they are too tired to listen further.
• Entertain: Not only do you want to teach or educate, but you also want to entertain your audience. This ensures they maintain a longer attention span and actually enjoy the discussion. Apply jokes, stories, funny gestures, etc.
• Conclude with hopefulness: In public speaking, the ending is as important as the beginning. This is why you should thoughtfully plan the conclusion before you enter the stage. Leave them with a food for thought, offer hope and encouragement, and thank them for their rapt attention.

3. Concentrate on the Present

If you are feeling a bit more anxious than usual, concentrating more on what you are trying to say would help. This involves turning your attention away from distractions or cues that make you more anxious. You can think of concentration in this context as a way of distracting your attention from distractions.

When blacksmiths want to construct shoe horses, they sometimes twist a tight rope around the nose of the horse to inflict a little pain to distract the horse’s attention from the shoeing process. This is the power of distraction, but while you may view it differently, focus is distraction away from meaningless things and paying attention to the most important thing.

Different people have different ways of concentrating and distracting themselves. While some people have said looking at the ceiling, people’s foreheads, or somewhere away helps them speak confidently, it completely defeats the purpose of public speaking – communication. Maintaining genuine eye contact helps you feel more relaxed and builds a connection between you and your audience.

Now you may ask, “What is a genuine eye contact?” Dr Michelle Mazur shared on Donnell King’s blog that genuine eye contact could mean looking at your audience to genuinely connect with them. That is when you’d notice happy faces looking enthusiastically at you, and this can be very empowering and encouraging.

One last thing about concentration and how it can help build your confidence in public speaking is what Dale shared in The Art of Public Speaking when he emphasized that speakers should concentrate their mental energies on what they are presently saying, not on what they want to say next. Putting your mind in the present has the benefit of building your confidence, as well as keeping your audience locked in to what you are saying.

4. Engage your Audience Actively

The more you engage your audience, the more at ease they’ll make you feel. Public speaking should be more like a collaboration than a struggle. You need to understand that by involving your audience in the discussion, you pique their interest even more.

And to think that engaging your audience is difficult is something far from the truth. Start by stressing the second-to-the-last words and allow them to complete sentences. For example, when trying to say “That is how it is done”, say “That is how it is…” and pause to allow them to say the last word, “done”.

Another way to engage your audience is by asking them questions individually. Encourage individual or group responses, because the more you make the presentation like a two-way interaction, the more confident you will be, and the more comfortable you and your audience will feel.

For effective two-way interaction, you should also learn to listen while you speak. Barack Obama, ex-US President and one of the greatest orators of our time, shared in his book Say It Well, how listening can elevate you from a dry speaker to an effective communicator.

“When you listen and you get a sense of other people’s priorities, lives, values. That means that you can reach a broader audience,” Obama shared. When you understand people, their priorities, lives, and values, you are far better equipped to speak to them in a way that will resonate with them. Seeing such an attentive audience creates a ripple effect that builds your confidence while you speak, and even for subsequent engagements.

5. Use Meditation and Breathing Techniques

Meditation and breathing exercises may help you feel better and more confident before mounting the stage. These are relaxation techniques that can enhance your focus and calm your nerves.

Meditation, especially including positive visualization, helps improve your mindfulness, self-awareness, and confidence. Through visualization, you can project your thoughts onto the stage and live the experience even before you set foot on the stage.

Breathing exercises, particularly the square breathing or box breathing technique, help keep you calmer. This involves regularly taking deep breaths as a relaxation technique. The goal is to gain awareness of your breathing and ensure that your stomach rises when breathing.

6. Prioritize Resting Well Before Talking

While adequate preparation is important, some speakers may find themselves over-preparing or downplaying the importance of resting and sleeping well before the engagement.

Adequate rest and sleep help you feel relaxed. They enhance your memory, reduce stress, reduce anxiety, and improve your sense of well-being before the presentation.

7. Start Small and Gradually Improve

Overcoming stage fright or glossophobia doesn’t happen overnight. It is something you would gradually get the hang of as you keep practicing. Find and create opportunities to speak in small, familiar settings, or even in front of a mirror. Every successful attempt builds your confidence until you are capable of facing any audience you encounter.

Every attempt gradually chips away at your fear, no matter its outcome. So, you should not be ashamed to start small.

Another important tip is to try recording yourself during practice sessions and playing them back. That way, you may find that you sound and look more confident than you feel. Additionally, this can help you identify areas where you can improve in your content or delivery.

8. Aim to be Authentic, not Perfect

Chasing perfection adds to the pressure and dampens your confidence, but the most memorable talks are not flawless; they are authentic. Instead of aiming to be perfect, aim to connect with your audience naturally. When you realize that small stumbles in grammar or presentation won’t ruin your speech, you feel more confident and adequate.

The goal is to keep your message strong and clear.

Other Factors That Affect Stage Fright

Your experience of stage fright can be affected by a number of factors affecting speech quality. By understanding these, one can address these issues to further boost one’s confidence before and during a public presentation.

• Speech anxiety: Similar to the above, where you are constantly reminded of past failures on stage. Positive visualizations, adequate practice, or breathing exercises may help.
• Stuttering: May be inherited or caused by certain other factors. Stuttering can affect one’s confidence, but it can be overcome through speech therapy, speaking slower, and breaking words into syllables when pronouncing them.
• Dry mouth: Dry mouth affects speech quality and one’s level of confidence. Aim to rehydrate regularly before and during your speech.
• Rapid speech: Some people naturally talk very fast, which can affect their speech and level of confidence. Practice speaking at a slower rate and being more mindful of your words as you speak.
• Harsh speech: This often results from what is referred to as a “glottal attack”, where there is too much force in closing the vocal cords while you speak, producing an unpleasant sound, especially for words that start with vowels. Practice speaking with a more windy voice until breathiness becomes natural in your speech. If there is an anatomical issue, it may be necessary to see your doctor.

Final words

Even Barack Obama, in all his glory in public speaking, once recalled how he failed at one of his earliest public speeches as a community organizer. So, don’t be too hard on yourself. With the right tips and understanding, you can soon elevate your public speaking to heights you never thought were possible.

What’s your biggest fear when it comes to public speaking? Is it forgetting your words, being judged, or something else? Share your story or questions below. I’d love to hear from you.