Episode 91 – Listen to This If… you want to conquer nerves when giving a talk

Transcript

Jen (00:00:02)

Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of Listen to This If, your friendly pep talk from Jen and Michael from Let’s Talk SciComm. We’re here to help you out with whatever’s going on at the moment, and today’s episode is about public speaking nerves.

So listen to this If you’ve got a talk coming up and you are feeling nervous. Help me, Michael. What do I need to know?

Michael (00:00:25)

Oh, well, first thing I’d say, Jen, is it’s completely normal to have nerves before public speaking. And it actually means you care about what you’re talking about. And there are some things that you can do to try and tackle those nerves. So there’s a lot of science behind breathing techniques.

You know, deep breathing, box breathing, cyclical sighing. These are all things that you can look into.

You know, firemen and, you know, people who work in really stressful jobs learn about this type of breathing so that they can stay calm in stressful situations.

So, you know, breathing does have a, you know, a physiological effect on your body and you really want to emphasize extending the time that you spend exhaling.

Because when you do that, that that slows down your heart rate and your nervous system relative to time that you spend inhaling.

But yeah, those breathing techniques can be really, really helpful.

And I suppose there’s also research out there looking at reframing the physiological sensations that you feel when you’re nervous, which are your heart rate is increased, your palms are sweaty. Um, yeah, I’m getting nervous.

Jen (00:01:38)

You got bright red cheeks. You got bright red cheeks and a red rash down your neck and your legs shaking.

Michael (00:01:47)

I’m getting nervous just talking about those feelings. But those are the exact same physiological sensations associated with being excited.

So you can tell yourself, I’m noticing these things. Gee, I must be excited. And the evidence shows that if you do that, it can increase performance.

Jen (00:02:05)

Yeah, I think it’s such good advice that we mistake or we just don’t recognise it physiologically.

Being very nervous and and worried and anxious and frightened is so similar to being very excited and it’s our self-talk that determines how we feel about it.

So we can be telling ourselves, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m so nervous. I don’t want to do this. I hate giving a talk. This is terrible. People are going to be judging me.’

Or the exact same body sensation can be, ‘I’m really excited. What an amazing opportunity to give this talk.’

And so I think, yeah, your suggestion of the breathing is so important, just to get ourselves in a place where we can think rationally about it. You know, what is the worst that could happen here?

There is no such thing as a perfect talk.

I’m going to do the best I can with what I have, but what I’m not gonna let happen is have my nerves undermine my ability to kind of think straight, ’cause it’s, you know, our goal is not to not feel nervous.

Our goal is to not let those nerves completely destroy our ability to be present in the moment and think about how we’re gonna connect with our audience and how we’re gonna share what we know.

But Michael, I think my top tip is so basic and banal, but just incredibly important, and that is to practice. And when I say practice, I really don’t mean writing a script. I think there’s huge problems with writing a script because the way we write and the way we speak is so different.

And if you write a script, you’re convincing yourself that that’s the one perfect way to express those ideas. And there is no one perfect way to express those ideas. Don’t write down full sentences and try and replicate them because, yeah, the way you speak is so different. Equally, memorizing is a complete disaster because the minute you do feel nervous, you’ll forget and you’ll get flustered.

You know, when I say practice, I mean spend time talking aloud. So actually talking like I am now, not inside your head. You know, talk to your dog, talk to your partner, talk to a friend, a family member, talk to a teddy bear if you have to talk to the mirror. But just talk out loud and you know, maybe go for a walk and and have your headphones and just talk. People think you’re having a phone conversation. No one’s gonna look at you strangely to have you speaking while you go for a walk around the park.

But just the more we express our ideas out loud, off the cuff, without a script, just spontaneously crafting sentences as we go, that is how we become more effective public speakers. And there’s, I just don’t think there’s any replacement for doing that practice and.

Yeah, the more often you do it, the more comfortable you become expressing your ideas without having pre-scripted or pre-learnt what you’re going to say.

Michael (00:04:41)

Yeah, definitely.

And I guess the another kind of extension of that when you’re preparing is to not be tempted to cram too much into your talk, because then you’re going to feel a rush that you have to get through it. You’re not going to allow yourself time to breathe. And it’s really important to make sure you have time to breathe while you’re presenting. So hopefully that’s helpful.

Jen (00:05:01)

Absolutely. So good luck. You’ve got this. You can do it.

And just remember, there is no such thing as a perfect talk.

If this talk doesn’t go as well as you hoped, that’s OK because you’ll learn something from it and your next talk will be better.

So just trust yourself, trust what you know and go and see. This is a great opportunity, a great privilege and a great exciting thing to have the chance to share your work with other people.

Michael (00:05:25)

That’s right.