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Before You Pull The Alarm, Find Out What's Causing You To Panic

All that I’m asking for is some simple rules that would govern our lives. Among these rules would this little gem: I’ve got no problem having to deal with being nervous as a beginning speaker; however, once I’ve been speaking for a while I should no longer have any problems with nerves. Dang it – it turns out that these rules don’t exist and speakers can have panic attacks at any time no matter how much experience they have…

Where Does The Panic Come From?

When you’ve never felt a sense of panic before (or if it’s been a really, really long time since you felt it), then the first question that will pop into your mind when panic arrives is “What’s causing this?” As with all such things in life, the answer is probably somewhat complicated.

If you don’t normally have to deal with a case of the nerves when you are either preparing or actually giving a speech, then clearly something has changed. You need to take the time to search your environment in order to identify what’s different.

There are a number of common causes that make experienced speakers nervous. Who’s in your audience is one of them. More often than not, when you have someone that you know in the audience you can start to become jittery. This can include family members, friends, or even just people that you respect.

If you are having your speech recorded in some manner (either sound or video or both), then the need to be perfect can cause you problems. It’s not that the recording is that big of a deal, it’s just that it may be a different environment from what you are normally used to.

Finally, someone asked you to stand up and give a speech. You want to do a good job for them. The more important that your speech is for them and their career, the more pressure that there will be on you and the higher the probability that you’ll experience some level of panic.

How To Deal With Nerves

Understanding why you are dealing with a sudden case of the nerves is a good first start. Now you need to find a way to make them go away. The good news here is that this is possible and it’s really not all that hard to do.

Let’s cover the basics first: what not to do. Skip the caffeine. No matter how you get your drug of choice whether it’s from coffee or soda, just say no on the day that you’ll be speaking. Skip the milk. Same thing goes for dairy products because they can leave a coating on your mouth and throat that you don’t need to be dealing with. Finally, do I even have to tell you to stay away from alcohol (for obvious reasons)?

Since there is no way to tell what kind of shape your throat is going to be in before you give a speech and since becoming panicky can cause your throat to dry out, bring some throat lozenges along and pop them as needed. Couple this with some deep breathing exercises and you will be on your way to regaining control over your nerves.

Nerves have a lot to do with nervous energy. If you can cause this energy to go away, you’ll have less energy to be nervous with. The quickest and easiest way to do this is to perform some stretching exercises. I’m not talking about jumping jacks here, but rather leg and arm extensions that will stretch you out.

Finally, you need to turn that room full of strangers into a room full of people that you know. The fastest way to do this is to take the time to meet as many people as possible before you get up and give your speech. Shaking their hand, introducing yourself, and finding out a little bit about them will win them over to your side before you even open your mouth.

What All Of This Means For You

No matter how comfortable you are standing in front of an audience, there is always the possibility that at some point in time you’ll have to deal with a case of the nerves. The good news is that this can be a temporary situation.

When this happens, the first thing that you need to do is to take the time to understand what is causing it. Next, you need to focus on taking actions that will allow you to relieve the stress that you are feeling.

Sometimes the best realization is that panic attacks are temporary things – they won’t last. As speakers we need to realize that we are providing a service for our audiences and this is why we go through the effort of creating and delivering speeches. Focus on this and all of your temporary fears will melt away…

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™

Question For You: If you feel a panic attack coming on, what do you think is the one thing that you can do to regain control?

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Note: What we talked about are advanced speaking skills. If you are just starting out I highly recommend joining Toastmasters in order to get the benefits of public speaking. Look for a Toastmasters club to join in your home town by visiting the web site www.Toastmasters.org. Toastmasters is dedicated to helping their members to understand the importance of public speaking by developing listening skills and getting presentation tips. Toastmasters is how I got started speaking and it can help you also!

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Why do you give speeches? I suspect that like most of us, the reasons vary; however, there is probably a common thread running through most of them – you want to lead your audience to take some form of action. In order to convince our audiences to follow us, we need to use words that will show them that we are leaders. Do you know how to do this?

Related posts:

1. Hey Speaker, What’s Your Room IQ? So how do you get ready to deliver a speech?...

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There’s No Love Like A Heckler’s Love

Just What Is A Heckler Anyway?

Just imagine your next presentation. You’ve studied your audience, researched your topic, created a speech, and practiced, practiced, practiced. You take the stage and start to smoothly deliver your speech. Just a few minutes into your speech, you become aware of someone, gasp, talking. We’re not talking about quiet whispering here, we’re talking about someone in the audience standing up and shouting things at you. Congratulations, you’ve got a heckler…

Why Do People Heckle Us?

It’s in the world of stand up comedy that I suspect we are most accustomed to seeing hecklers in real life. That environment has an explosive mix of edgy humor, alcohol, and an audience who desperately wants to show off for friends and participate in the fun. Hecklers are an everyday part of that environment. But what about when you are giving a speech?

Just exactly what is a heckler? I’m going to define a heckler as being anyone who chooses to interrupt your speech with their own comments. More often than not, a heckler is motivated by deep-set emotions: hostility, resentment, or even simple anger. Whatever you are talking about has set them off and they’re not going to be quiet about it. Oh, and there’s one more thing – they just might be disagreeing with what you are saying.

As bad as all of this is, there is one more reason that you may have attracted a heckler – they may not like you. For whatever reason, there are people out there who will simply set their minds to not liking us for some unknown reason and during our presentation they’ll just stand up and let us know about it. Talk about poor timing!

The Best Defense Against A Heckler Is…

The now classic case of how NOT to handle a heckler was demonstrated by Michael Richards (“Kramer” on the TV show Seinfeld) when he was performing at comedy club. A table of Afro-American and Hispanic audience members started to heckle him and he responded by trying to “out heckle” them by using racial slurs. Needless to say this didn’t work and the fallout from this event is still being felt by him even today.

When it comes to dealing with a heckler, a speaker’s options are somewhat limited. What is going on here is a power play – you own the stage, but the heckler is trying to take over your audience. The big unanswered question is which way will the audience go – will they side with the heckler or will they side with you, the speaker.

In order to win your audience over to your side, there are three different things that you can do:

• Ignore: It takes a great deal of courage to be a heckler. If the speaker doesn’t acknowledge the heckler and he starts to get disapproving looks and “shsss” sounds from people sitting around him, then his courage will start to fade quickly. By simply ignoring a heckler, you can often get them to sit down and go away quietly.
• Respond: another way of saying this is to meet force with force. If your heckler is simply unable to restrain themselves from asking a question, then answer it and go on. If your heckler is being insulting, insult them right back and tell them to sit down and shut-up.
• Joke: Humor is a very powerful tool for speakers to use. If you take a moment, and then use humor to either deal with the issue that the heckler has raised or to deal with the heckler himself / herself, then you can defuse the situation and move on.

What All Of This Means For You

At some point in your speaking career, you will be confronted with a heckler. It’s how you choose to deal with this interruption that will define how good of a speaker you are.

It’s all too easy to over react when someone has been rude enough to interrupt your speech. You’ve got a number of options from ignoring them to using humor to deflect the interruption. How you handle it will depend on the circumstances that you find yourself in.

The ultimate goal is to keep the audience on your side and not have them bond with the heckler. If you treat every interruption with dignity and style, you’ll have won the audience over and you’ll be seen as the great speaker that you can be.

What do you think the best way to deal with a heckler is?

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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Did you know that when you are delivering a speech, there is always another conversation going on? No, I’m not talking about your rude audience (although they may be talking also), instead I’m talking about your body – it’s having its own conversation with your audience. Maybe you should know what it’s saying…?

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