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Standing out i nature can be dangerous..
For humans, not daring can have serious consequences!
However, our emotional reactions still resemble
those of animals...
NOTE THIS
Everytime you walk away from doing things that would make you feel great, even though it makes you feel sad, something inside of you dies.
In the United States, public speaking is #1 on the list
of what they're most afraid of doing!
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- 43% of Danes find speaking in front of others so uncomfortable - that they'll do anything to avoid doing it!
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The fear of speaking is an ancient instinct rooted in the oldest part of our brains, the amygdala.
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This fear of presenting is related to the fear of death —
either by being kicked out of the group or of getting killed by the group.
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The fact that we're hardly going to die by giving a presentation is a rational explanation.
The amygdala isn’t buying facts.
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This is what we will do:
We work practically and contemplatively to focus on preparing you:
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Understanding mechanisms and reflecting on our own reaction patterns.
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The knowledge of how you can use rhetoric, presentation building, stage techniques, and performance is going to help you achieve the right focus and avoid the amygdala's trap.
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Give me a call - I'm here to help.
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Speech anxiety
Is a mechanism that can be switched off.
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Presentation anxiety — the key to success?
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When examining your presentation anxiety you will also acquire a professional awareness
of the DNA in x-factor.
What takes away your discomfort will also be the key to your success as a speaker.
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The trap of the amygdala - The biological explanation
Without numbers, we're weak. As a species, we're useless alone: we cannot run fast, bite, scratch, or climb trees well.
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Our incredible creativity and capacity for co-operation is what we’ve got going for us.Working together requires us to be adept at adapting and at finding our place in the group.
This is the key to our survival, and it's rooted deeply within us.
Blending in; being like others.
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This is where we run into problems when speaking in front of others.
Expulsion from the flock
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Behind the anxiety we experience when speaking is our fear of being the centre of attention — of standing out and showing our differences, with the appurtenant risk that we might be kicked out.
Getting noticed is accompanied by the danger of being discovered and being revealed as a weak individual.
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You can't deliver; you're just too dumb, and you don't deserve to be part of the group = expulsion.
The unequal battle
Standing alone in front of a group of people also seems to trigger the fight-or-flight instinct as it appears to be an unwinnable fight!
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The cultural explanation
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In the USA we find the Tall Puppy Syndrome and in Scandinavia, the Principle of Equality :
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You mustn't believe that you are something!
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You can't be better than the others.
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You cannot betray your community by being different..
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What is it like where you're from?
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Case
When speech anexiety becomes too much of an distracting factor
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I was contacted by a young man in connection with his role as the keynote speaker at a large conference with customers, investors, and representatives from official bodies in Denmark. There was a lot that was laying on the line for him. And, of course, he wanted it to go well.
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My client told me he had loads of experience with oral communication, and he was good at what he did. He was, quite simply, God, according to the business.
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So why contact me?
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It was bothering him that, in the past, he had experienced losing his focus about a minute and a half into a presentation — and along with that came the feeling of losing his train of thought, losing track of where he was.
And now, just before his next presentation, I understood that the thought of this happening to him again wasn't pleasant. Perhaps even a fear that it could escalate, and get out of hand!
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Up to that point, he had been dealing with the discomfort by taking a short pause to drink a little water, buying himself some time to get back on track. But this way of only treating the symptoms wasn't satisfying, and it irritated him that this anxiety was taking up all of his preparation time.
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"Why is it that sometimes I have a fantastic experience — getting my message across, feeling free to interact with the audience — while at other times, I feel like I'm frozen in place and can't get through to the people in the room?"
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My client says he always regains control of himself in those situations, but he feels like he never quite gets back on track to create that spectacular experience he wants for himself and for his audience! And I believe that there are a lot of other people who feel this way."
The secret behind big presentations
Make a choice.
You can either continue polishing your survival strategies and accept living with discomfort and the fact that you'll never be a truly great speaker.
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Or you can set aside some time to understand what's going on, to practice, and to get things working.
Process
After a short mini-course in human emotional biology and some concentrated reflection on his own reactions, communicated by me to the client via Skype, the code had been broken, and my client was fortified with a strategy for how to tackle these mechanisms in the future.
After that, we met on a stage with all the equipment in place, practised these stage techniques and tweaked his pre-made PowerPoints to best support his strategy.
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Result
On the day of the conference, "God" called me, elated: He said he had given the best presentation in his whole life, and everybody loved it!
I could tell that it meant a lot to him to have maintained full control over everything
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Bonus
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There's something that is personally satisfying when your presentation skills match your ambitions, your experience, and your professionalism!
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New kinds of opportunities open up to you when you master the key points of rhetoric, stage technique, and presentation psychology.
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Really being able to put yourself and your message out there!
