Most people avoid pressure and stressful public speaking situations because they… well, put you under stress and pressure. And we avoid public speaking situations where we feel fearful, anxious, or panicked because they’re unpleasant and we associate them with absolute dread.
Here’s the thing: Most people feel dread and panic when they’re faced with public speaking situations because they don’t practice properly.
I’m going to give you the inside track on practice and preparation, methods that we as professional performers use every day, all the time, to prepare ourselves for high stress events like being on stage, memorizing huge chunks of text, and nailing it in high-stakes meetings and auditions.
Here are my four secret weapons when it comes to preparing and practicing for all your public speaking and performance situations.
- Put Yourself in Distracting Situations On Purpose
The first step in any preparation is to create your words. Once you’ve got them down and know your story to the point where you have the shape of it under your belt, it’s time to get cracking.
Start by repeating your words aloud while you’re doing the dishes, brushing your teeth, walking to the shops, play loud music, anything that creates outside distraction and throws you off your stride.
What this does is chuck you in the deep end when the stakes are low, ie. when you’re still practicing and preparing, and you get used to fighting distractions while trying to speak your words.
You’ll be surprised how easy it is when you’re really on stage or in the room with high-stakes people after practicing with so much distraction.
- Get Friends To Interrupt You and Piss You Off
There’s nothing more annoying than practicing an amazing presentation or pitch and then have investors, members of the audience, or stakeholders interrupt your flow when you really get going.
But this is the reality: Human beings are going to act unpredictably, especially when you least want them to. So get used to it.
Again, after you’ve got your story and words under your belt and you know where you’re going with the beginning, middle, and end of your content, it’s time to put yourself under pressure. Find a friend or family member and ask them to deliberately interrupt you with questions and comments.
This is another way to put yourself under pressure in a low-stakes situation, so when you’re in the real high-stakes situation, you’ve already experienced what it’s like to have to find your way back to your narrative and pick up where you left off.
Oh, and one other thing. Get someone to mess with your tech so it stops working at various times in your presentation or pitch. Get that person to pull the plug every now and then. These interruptions are brilliant because your tech will stop working at some point or other. Better you prepare yourself to deal with it ahead of time than get blindsided on the day.
- Practice Speaking For Less Time Than You’ll Actually Have
Time is not always your friend with pitches, presentations, or speeches. You will almost always speak for longer on the day of the event than what you’ve practiced beforehand. And this is perfectly natural.
So, when you’re preparing and practicing give yourself half the time you know you’ll have for the real event, just as an exercise. This is a brilliant practice tool because it forces you to be succinct and get to the point.
If you have 20 minutes for the real presentation or pitch, practice at 10 minutes. Trust me, you’ll speak for longer on the day and your audience will love you for keeping within the time.
Brevity is beautiful. Be brief, be brilliant, be gone. Less is most definitely more and you’ll get used to keeping your message distilled, clear, and simple.
- Practice In Your Sleep
I know, it sounds crazy, but this is a tool many people don’t know about and it is incredibly effective for learning large swathes of text, words, and content.
When you’re sleeping, your brain sifts through everything that happened that day and your unconscious takes over. And your unconscious mind is a powerful thing, it’s learning all the time, waking or sleeping. So take advantage of it.
I once learned the parts of Oberon and Theseus (the two main men’s roles) from Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in record time because I used this practice tool.
Here’s how it works: Record yourself speaking your presentation, pitch, speech, whatever text you need to learn. Then, loop it twice or three times, depending on how long the piece is.
Then, as you’re going to sleep, press ‘play’ and let the recording run. While you’re falling asleep, your brain will still hear the recording and register it. And as you continue to sleep, your brain continues to learn your words unconsciously.
So there you have it. My four secret weapons for public speaking domination. These unconventional and admittedly bonkers practice techniques come straight from the desk of someone who has had to go on stage in every mental, physical, and physiological state you can imagine and still nail it every time.
Practicing and preparing under pressure will ensure that you feel more prepared, more confident, and more able to deal with anything that gets thrown at you when you speak on the day.
You are a public speaking athlete. And like all great athletes and Olympians, you must practice under pressure in order to have more gas in the tank when you’re faced with the real event and need to perform at your best.
Give yourself distractions, interruptions, and put yourself under time pressure when you’re practicing and preparing. Try the ‘learn while you sleep’ technique and watch your performance soar.
You’ve got this. See you on the inside,
Maria x
