8 Tips on How to Overcome the Fear of Public Speaking

Prepare yourself for your next speech or presentation with advice from communication coach, Kyoko Takeyama

Speaking confidently and staying calm is a challenge many creatives face when speaking in public. While some people have natural confidence, many of us find speeches or presentations awkward, and even try to avoid them. But whether it's for a job interview, pitching to a client, or a team presentation, public speaking skills can be learned and help you on your journey to professional growth.

A public speaking trainer and communication coach, Kyoko Takeyama (@kyokotakeyama) knows how to help creatives become responsible and assertive communicators. In this article, she shares top advice to help you communicate with your audience or clients confidently, and prepare yourself for your next speech.

Public speaking as an important tool

Despite that buzz that comes from a hit of adrenaline, standing on stage or stepping into the spotlight at a work meeting often isn’t the most comfortable feeling.

How comfortable you feel can also be impacted by various factors, from everything to the seniority level of who you’re addressing to the gender balance in the room. As Kyoko (who works particularly closely with women on confident communication) shares in a post on speaking up more, and thinking less: “A Princeton research team discovered that women speak up 75% less often than men do when there are more men than women in the room. I see it happen at the business school and it happens to me as well.”

However, in creative industries where a lot of success depends on how you convey your ideas, it's important to learn how to handle situations in which you need to win over an audience—whoever they are.

Kyoko is familiar with all kinds of public speaking situations; as well as working with clients like the University of Barcelona and IESE Business School, she's given keynote speeches for high-profile events including Digital Design Days and for the Norwegian Communication Association.

Throughout her career, Kyoko has built up a wide array of exercises and techniques to help others overcome the fear of public speaking. Her advice here will help you deliver a memorable pitch, impactful speech, or professional presentation, whatever the occasion.

8 tips to overcome your fear of public speaking

While there's no magic formula to turn you into a public speaking maestro overnight, there is a way to prepare for and approach these situations to help bring the best out of your speech, and leave your audience with a strong and professional impression.

1. Change your inner narrative

“Most creative people struggle with speaking confidently about their creative work. Quite often, there is a negative narrative playing inside of your head,” says Kyoko. You probably can recall these voices all too well: they focus on the things we lack, or what we perhaps didn’t get right.

Instead of allowing the doubts to take over, Kyoko emphasizes the importance of tuning into the positive narrative, and identifying what makes you special. Listening to your own positive reinforcement will help you find the strength to speak more confidently.

Exercises to find your positive narrative

If you're finding it hard to focus on the positive, Kyoko recommends writing down a list of adjectives that describe what makes you great at your job. They don’t have to be huge achievements. For example, you might be very empathetic, a great listener, or a fabulous team player—these skills all make you a good professional.

Take two minutes to jot down as many adjectives as you can focusing on your strengths. Next, take two minutes to note down the necessary professional skills of leaders in your industry.

When you've got your two lists—one that describes you, and one describes your idea of a great professional—compare the qualities you see. Kyoko says to ask yourself: "Are there similarities? Are there differences? Was one easier to write than the other? [...] Is it possible that both lists describe who you are? Is it possible that you're a combination of both lists?"

Doing this activity can help you identify what you're truly capable of and help you really see yourself the way others see you.

2. Create a positive mantra to combat your insecurities

Now you have a better understanding of your strengths, come up with a short phrase that pushes back against your doubts. This will help you balance any negative thoughts about yourself, and remind yourself that you have faced challenges and emerged victorious before. Repeat your mantra whenever you’re feeling nervous.

Kyoko recommends doing this exercise regularly, to change your attitude whenever you’re feeling insecure, not just when you need to speak publically.

3. Identify a clear goal

How often do you leave a meeting, presentation, or conference asking yourself why you were there or why you just had that conversation? This is what happens when speakers "haven't figured out the purpose of why they're talking,” explains Kyoko. This is why you should always know what you want to say before you start speaking.

She emphasizes, “When you give a speech or presentation, or even having a one-to-one conversation, there's some reason or purpose why you're having that conversation." Never forget that goal.

4 Types of Speech

The reasons behind your speech define what you need to say. There are four main types of speech when people give keynotes—all of which can complement each other:

- Informative: These types of speech focus on sharing knowledge, how-tos, processes. They're useful for sharing your ideas and supporting those with facts and figures. For example, a presentation about the impact of your work.

- Persuasive: The aim of these speeches is to convince people of what they should or need to do; you want to change someone's mind or push them into action by sparking curiosity and then leave them with a call to action. Political campaign speeches are a classic example of this kind of discourse.

- Inspirational: These aim to motivate people around an objective and make you believe. It’s the kind of speech given by leaders or influencers, especially in the face of challenges.

- Entertaining: These speeches encourage people to enjoy the moment, they're relatable, educating you while adding humor. For example, comedic monologues or the stories you tell your friends.

4. Draft what you’re going to say

Many people think they can stand up in front of an audience or run a successful video conference call by simply knowing what to say. But even presidents practice and rehearse their speeches!

It helps to draft out what you want to say at a job interview or in your report presentation, bearing in mind the kind of speech you want to give to achieve your objectives. Read what you have written out loud, but don’t try and memorize it, simply remember what each paragraph is about and why it’s important.

5. Create a character

“Sometimes, imagining ourselves as experts or adopting a certain role can be a great idea,” explains Kyoko. “If you’re going to give an informative speech, imagine yourself as a teacher or conference speaker. If you need to inspire people, imagine you’re the manager of your favorite sports team. Find ways to connect to those sides of yourself."

6. Overcome stiffness

“When you start practicing your speech or presentation, don’t get hung up on mistakes or apologize. If you make a mistake, just keep going," says Kyoko. As she argues, when you’re inflexible in your ideas and expectations, you lose your ability to adapt to the situation at hand—which is key.

To help improve your flexibility, she recommends avoiding being too focused on how you want things to go. She advocates you "be like water" and go with the flow, allowing your own personality to really shine.

7. Film yourself

To get a better view of what you look like and how you communicate, Kyoko recommends filming yourself speaking. "I know what you're thinking... I'm not going to do this, I'm not going to create the video," she says, however, emphasizes that it is so important.

“Listening to your voice and seeing yourself onscreen gives you a clear picture of your performance and is essential to developing your personality,” explains Kyoko. In her communications workshops and her Domestika course, she asks students to record a one-minute informal video of themselves as the final project.

Video exercise

Record and watch back an informal, one-minute film, talking about who you are, your career, and what inspires you. Knowing how to introduce yourself can be a useful starting point for working on other types of speeches!

When you watch it back, she emphasizes the importance of being kind to yourself. She asks you to focus on the positives and ask: what do you see, what do you hear, and what do you feel? Next, identify one thing (and only one!) you'd like to improve when you create your next video.

8. Don’t stress out!

Chances are, you might want to run away and hide when you watch your video and hear your voice—but don’t!

“People usually see many things they don’t like when they do this exercise," Kyoko highlights. But, "just like anything you learn in life, it's very important not to try and take on everything at once." Take the changes one step at a time.

It might be that you feel you sound monotone, or perhaps you discover you fidget when speaking, or that you talk too quickly because you're nervous. Once you identify the factors you want to change, you can work on them one at a time.

Got these tips down? If you’d like to work on every aspect of public speaking with Kyoko, sign up for her course, Communicate with Confidence: Learn to Give Powerful Speeches. She will teach you how to connect emotionally and intellectually with your audience using effective communication for professional growth.

And, if you’re interested in exploring more resources, tips, and career advice, check out all of Domestika's online marketing courses.

English version by @studiogaunt.

You may also like:

- What Is a Business Mindset and Why Is It Important?
- 12 Essential Apps to Prepare Your Presentations
- Business Tutorial: Tips to Successfully Pitch Your Ideas
- Public Speaking: Find Your Unique Voice, a course by Dasha Dollar-Smirnova