Overcome your fear of speaking in public with the power of movement!
I was a member of a Public Speaking Group for 5 wonderful years. I loved the camaraderie. I also loved the Club meetings, which offered countless opportunities to practise my blossoming public speaking skills in a friendly and supportive environment. There was one thing I was not so crazy about and that was the regular impromptu speaking exercises (also called: Table Topics). But that’s a story for another day!
One year, I entered the Annual Club Speech Contest. When it came to selecting a topic for my speech, the Contest Co-ordinator offered the Contestants a choice between several phrases to be the theme for our Speech. I was a little dismayed when I read my choices - None of the phrases resonated with me. I finally selected the phrase: “Foregone Conclusion”, and gave my Speech the snazzy(!) title “Don’t Jump to Conclusions!” It was written as a “Speech to Entertain”.
In my Speech, I discussed my real-life enrolment into Medicine as an ambitious, fresh-faced eighteen-year-old and the circumstances that led me to drop out of medical school a mere four weeks into the 2nd year of the course. It had indeed initially been a foregone conclusion that I would end up as a doctor, hence the connection to the phrase “Foregone conclusion”.
There were three Contest levels through which to advance – Club, District and Region (Australia).
All the Contests were formal and well organised affairs, replete with a program leader, judges, evaluators, time-keepers, tellers, door pages and a contest chairman.
The Club Contest went smoothly, and surprisingly I was quite calm. I gave my Speech without a hitch and was proud of my delivery. When the prizes were awarded at the end of the evening, I was rapt and so grateful to win the first prize! It was then onto the District Contest, scheduled in one month’s time.
At the District Contest, the competitors came from three Clubs in our District. The hall was filled to the rafters with supportive friends and family. I had been feeling a little anxious in the lead-up to my speech. But as soon as I walked onto the Stage, my nerves vaporised. I was cool, calm and collected and “on fire” at the same time! What made me happiest after delivering my speech were the people who approached me, complimenting me and telling me how much they enjoyed my Speech.
I was thrilled when my friend and fellow Speech contestant, Annie, and I were awarded equal first prize. This was indeed an honour because the speaking calibre was of a particularly high standard.
We were now bound for the Region Contest on the Gold Coast in two short months’ time. “How exciting!”, I thought!
That night, my husband and I went out to a local Italian restaurant for a celebratory dinner. We savoured the most delicious Italian home-cooked food and I basked in the glory of winning equal first in the Speech Contest with dear Annie.
I had given myself a challenge for the Region Contest – I was not going to use notes at all and had decided to not even have them on Stage with me as a back-up.
My goal was to know my Speech back to front. In the days and weeks lead-up to the Region Contest, I earnestly practised my speech out loud at every opportunity - In front of the bathroom mirror, cleaning the house, cleaning my teeth, parked at traffic lights. I’m sure my brain was even wending its way through my speech when I was in deep REM sleep!
The Saturday of the Speech Contest finally rolled around and with much anticipation, I flew to the Gold Coast, arriving on the same day of the Contest.
When I entered the magnificent, marble lobby of the Hotel, everything felt different. Unlike the previous Club and District competitions, this time the vibe felt high stakes. I was in a new State, in a swish Hotel and would be competing in a glitzy ballroom. To top it off, the competition was so much fiercer this time, with my fellow contestants hailing from all over Australia.
One hour before the official start, we congregated in the ballroom, were fitted with microphones, and were briefed on the proceedings.
The Speech Contest commenced promptly at 5pm.
The hall was packed and the air was thick with excitement.
I was so nervous I thought my heart was going to explode right out of my chest.
My turn came and my name and speech title were announced. I walked tentatively up onto the platform and gazed out to a sea of faces, scanning the crowd to latch onto a friendly face or two.
My eyes settled upon a stern looking, poker-faced middle-aged man, seated in the third row. I still don’t know to this day why I kept fixating on this man. It felt like I was one of those hopeless rubbernecker drivers at the scene of a car accident drawn to the wreckage!
In hindsight, I think my goal was to be so engaging and animated that I would bring a smile to this solemn man’s face. Thirty seconds in, and with no change to the man’s dead-pan expression, something terrible happened - My jaw froze and locked up. It was a struggle to get any words out of my mouth. Panic set in. At which point my brain went out in sympathy with my paralysed jaw and I forgot the words to my speech!
With no notes in sight, seconds felt like minutes, which, in turn, felt like an eternity. I tried valiantly to pull myself together. And, fortunately, I did! My jaw muscles softened, my brain went back into gear and I resumed my speech. However, the rocky start had unnerved me and, this was definitely not my best rendition of the speech.
The following Sunday morning, all of the Conference delegates attended a training Workshop with tips on how to be a better public speaker. I almost fell off my chair when the facilitator discussed different exercises and tongue-twisters we could use to relax the jaw muscles in the leadup to public speaking. I sure could have used this last night! I thought to myself.
Not only did I learn about the importance of exercising the mouth, tongue and jaw, which tighten up under stress and tension, I also learnt about the importance of moving the whole body as well.
When we are under acute stress, such as when being chased by a tiger, or when competing in a National Speech Contest(!), we go into fight or flight mode, the sympathetic nervous system is activated and the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol are released.
Please refer to my previous blog post on the Power of the Breath to calm us when we are stressed. In that article, I discussed the fight/flight/freeze response, and how we can neutralise this response via consciously changing our breathing pattern.
To recap that post - When we are stressed, we breathe in a short, sharp, shallow style. The key is to switch to longer, deeper breaths, coming from the abdomen. (Also termed abdominal or diaphragmatic breathing).
There are different breathing techniques out there. Check out the 4,7,8 breathing technique, advocated by Dr Andrew Weil. Another breathing technique to consider is box breathing, that is practised by US Navy Seals to stay calm.
We also need to make every effort to move our body before a potentially stressful event.
Our muscles have been primed to flee from the scene, in anticipation of a looming threat. But, when we make a concerted effort to move and exercise beforehand, we can release some of that accumulated tension in our muscles. And, in the process, feel so much better!
So, before your next speech/presentation/webinar/meeting, remember to practise the following 3 things to neutralise any tension in your body:
Do some jaw exercises and tongue twisters to relax the muscles in your mouth and jaw. Check out this amusing video to warm up your tongue, mouth and jaw.
Do some shoulder rolls, especially if your shoulders happen to hold a lot of tension, when you feel under siege.
Move your whole body – For example – go for a brisk walk or a run around the block. Or even do a set of jumping jacks, which are surprisingly effective in elevating your heart rate and releasing some of that pent-up stress.
And I’m happy to add that, despite my rocky start, miracle of miracles – I was awarded the 3rd prize in the National Speech Contest!
© 2022 Susan Weser. All rights reserved.
Susan Weser is the Founder of Speaking2Win, a boutique public speaking and presentation skills consultancy, based in Melbourne, Australia. Susan’s mission is to demystify public speaking and presenting. She loves to fast-track her clients’ public speaking success, empowering them with the skills and confidence to excel in all their public speaking endeavours.
