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Getting Past Fear to Present Live, On Camera, In Life and Beyond

I often take for granted that it does not rattle my cage at all to present, live, on camera, on the microphone. In fact, I LOVE IT! But, I also  love to teach, encourage and most of all build confidence in my clients.

But, for many, in fact, the majority of adults, presenting is a major fear. I’ve spent a lot of time and still spend a lot of time teaching technique in presentation, which is very important. However, there is something that is even more essential than technique that ensures success and that is confidence building in potential speakers.
Today, more than ever, presentation is valuable and that’s in part because of technology. We now have video and podcasting. The statistics on sales through video are staggering and for those who are not getting on the video band wagon out of fear, hopefully this article will help.
I can do an entire series on confidence building, in fact, I might, but for the sake of time, yours, I want to give you the most important tip in confidence building when presenting live, on camera and/or podcasting.
Ready for this? STOP thinking about, worrying about, wondering about what others will think. The reason that public speaking is one of the number one fears can be broken down into several fears. I know this because I’ve studied it among my clients for years. Some of these fears include: what if I mess up, what if I get so scared I forget everything, what if I sound dumb and of course, the biggest of all, the most unspoken, the most debilitating, what will other people think?

I asked this question to someone one time, dealing with my own fears (not speaking related). I said, “What will people think of me?” I asked that question because I had heard it my entire life from my mother. The answer, dumb founding! “They won’t.” Now what does this mean? Well, it means that people are so busy thinking about themselves that they may not even be thinking about you. Wow, that sounds harsh and I certainly don’t mean for it too. But, the truth of the matter is twofold. First, we give our power to unsuspecting strangers. We get all bogged down in what they may be thinking about us and the truth is, they may be thinking about how mad they are at their husband, or their child is not doing well in school, or the vacation they are about to go on a week. They may not be thinking about you at all. We “assume” that everyone is going to think or might be thinking about how bad we are doing or how awful we are at presenting or how we clearly are not the expert we claim to be and that’s just that, an assumption.

The second part of this problem, this fear, is we really doubt our ability to do the job, to be the expert, to simply express and share our knowledge to others in a clear and concise and hopefully dynamic manner. If we would simply stop doubting ourselves, we could present like a pro. (Make sure you see the blog on dings vs. the victory box!) Now, don’t get me wrong, technique goes a long way when presenting on video or live and I think it’s crucial, obviously, that’s my business, but you can get past the fear if you will stop worrying about, thinking about what everyone else is thinking about you and your presentation. What matters is what you think. Also, if we would stop telling ourselves that we can’t do it, we aren’t good at it, no one would want to watch us or listen to us.

So, here is your take away. It’s very important for you to spread your message, get your voice out, and be heard, because your voice matters and the world needs to hear it. Get clear on how you want to spread your message and I mean through video, live presentation or podcast. Start preparing your first topic/presentation/video based on the desired outcome you hope to achieve and what can benefit your specific audience the most. Decide on a mantra. Examples include but are not limited to:

I’ve got this
People are going to love this
I can do this
My voice matters
My message is important
I can’t wait to help people
I am the expert

Anything that empowers you past the fear of what others think or any other fears you have around your ability to present. Then, start preparing (see blog on preparation for tips on this) and throughout the entire preparation experience, convince yourself, through your mantra, that you’ve this. Because, you DO!

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