Last Updated on April 4, 2023 by Paul Hradek
…Get Lucky Sometimes. “Even The Losers” is a song by Tom Petty. But more about this at the end.
When I was at school, I used to dread having to walk to the front of the class and read out loud from a book or do a presentation. I used to go red in class, and remember wishing it wouldn’t happen. I can control it now.
It’s estimated that up to 75% of the population suffers from a fear of public speaking, otherwise known as glossophobia. This could be because we don’t like to be judged and standing up in front of a crowd is a vulnerable position to be in. But there are different reasons people don’t like to present.
There are practical things you can do if you’re presenting in person at an event. Get to know the room you’re presenting in and talk to some of the delegates in the room beforehand if you can. After all, if you have met most of the people you’re presenting to before you present, it might not seem so intimidating. If you happen to have 10 good friends in a social situation, would you mind standing up to ‘present ‘something to them?
A lot of senior leaders in companies aren’t comfortable or even that good at public speaking, but have learnt how to do it, and crucially that they NEED to do it to get where they want to in their career.
Get to know your material. Rehearse it, but don’t memorise it. Accept and welcome questions, as this is where the attention is off you for a moment. Then when you answer the question, it becomes a conversation, not a presentation at this moment. This can make a difference to nerves in this situation.
Personally, I realised my fear of presenting was turning into a massive phobia and would hold me back in life. I decided to deliberately put myself out of my comfort zone and approach presenting challenges with the view that I was looking forward to it, to see if this would help me get over my struggles.
We have to have challenges in life or we go stale. I’m reminded of the feeling that DelBoy had after he’d received £3.1 million from a watch sale in ‘Only Fools and Horses’. Del reveals that he is already beginning to miss the old life as a market trader. It turns out the journey to being a millionaire was what Del lived for. When he made it, he felt something was missing. It is good to get out of our comfort zone to test ourselves, to feel alive!
Before I present, I always fast forward in my head to AFTER I’ve given the presentation, to the feeling of achievement I will have. To me, it doesn’t matter if the presentation was brilliant, average or ok. If I have pushed myself to make it through, this is an achievement.
To go back to Tom Petty and the song in the title, if you’ve been brave enough to get up and present, you’re halfway there. A real loser is someone that’s so afraid of not winning, they don’t even try.
And briefly back to what I said earlier about rehearsing a presentation. Sometimes it helps to not be too attached to exactly what you’re going to say, as you never know what might occur in a presentation that means you might need to ad lib, or what else might not go to plan. And this is where some magic could happen. When Tom Petty had most of the song “Even The Losers” written, he allegedly didn’t tell anyone that he didn’t have a chorus. He told his band to roll with the song the first time they played it live and hoped something would come to him. He said when the chorus came up, he just sang “Even the losers, get lucky sometimes” without even thinking about it. And everyone gets lucky sometimes.
There are a lot of things we can do with people with fears of presentation. I’ll cover some of these in my next blog.
If you want any help in working on your presentation issues in the meantime, or anything else, please contact me.
https://paulhradek.co.uk/contact/
or via https://www.facebook.com/PaulHradekCognitiveHypnotherapy