Does your stomach get queasy, your legs start to tremble, and your mouth feels as dry as a bone when you have to speak in front of a group? ….If so you might have  the dreaded “glossophobia”.

You guessed it- glossophobia, better known as stage fright, can be incredibly debilitating, and prevent us from getting our points across, influencing others, making sales, becoming more visible, or moving up or forward in the business world.

This fear, which, by the way, is actually considered by many to be greater than the fear of death! (yikes), can relate to a simple team presentation, conference call,  or  keynote address.  It is really about the ability to organize thoughts in a meaningful way so as to articulate them to your audience clearly, concisely and with connection.  It also means managing all of the overwhelming emotional and physical symptoms that can come with glossophobia.

One way to minimize glossophobia is to be really confident with the material you are presenting, and with your ability to present it with ease and with impact. To do this requires skill in Writing (designing)  Owning, (declaring ) and Working (delivering) that material .  Our presentation skills training offers a very specific and easy process to do this.

Here are three ideas to begin guiding your thinking in preparing your presentation, that, honestly, many presenters forget, and when considered, are key to being confident and effective.

1. LESS IS MORE  (Keep It Simple Speaker)

2. IMAGES SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS (especially on slides- no more than 6- 10 words per slide- at the most)

3. WHO YOU ARE SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WHAT YOU SAY (connection over content)

If you notice- I only shared 3 tips above- that is because the brain really cannot take in more than 3 chunks of information at a time ( think area codes, social security numbers, etc.)   When it comes to preparing your presentation well, keep in mind you should not have more than 3 Key Points you want the audience to remember.- There may be information under each key point, but it needs to be organized around 3 main points.

When it comes to the fear part of presenting, when you are facing all of those “eyes” in front of you, you want to be able to calm the
“threat” response in the brain, which is releasing adrenaline, and cortisol.

Here are 3 unique ways to help do this:

• Eat a banana!- believe it or not, bananas contain beta blockers that will help reduce some of the adrenaline rush that can create havoc in your system.

• Do “lazy 8’s”-with a pen and paper, using your dominant , then your non-dominant hand, draw the infinity sign (number 8 on its’ side) for 1-2 minutes daily, or clasp hands together, fingers and thumbs intertwined and “draw” the figure eight in the air for up to a minute before presenting.

• Do the “cross- crawl”- march in place, touching the opposite hand to the opposite leg for at least 12 repetitions. This creates cooperation between the two brain hemispheres and reduces stress and increases performance.

I know these sound a bit unusual, but they are designed to balance out the brain and reduce anxiety and threat.

There are many other techniques to help with unruly or resistant audience members, presenter memory lapses, and some of the other things we fear which add to our glossophobia. But the bottom line for any presenter dealing with this fear (and we all experience it to some extent)…is to increase their stage presence by being confident, concise and connected!