Fear | Ideas on Stage USA

Put your most nervous speakers early in the program

by Pierre Morsa — Tuesday 9 July 2019

One of the most stressful moments when speaking at an event is actually not during your presentation, but the hours before your presentation. To some speakers, the wait can be so stressful that they completely lose their presence. As mother nature didn’t give humans an appropriate instinctive response to face the stress of a presentation, they adopt one of the basic survival techniques for protection: they fight the public, they flee, or they “play dead”.

The 7 deadly sins of slide design

by Pierre Morsa — Tuesday 23 April 2019

This is a quick list of seven common problems that we see with slides created by non specialists. However they are relatively easy to spot, and you don’t have to be a graphic designer to avoid them. Read on and your next slides will look much better! Too much content. The goal is not to cover every single inch with content. It’s not because you have some space left at the bottom of the slide that you should put something there.

Is there a drug to get rid of my fear of public speaking?

by Pierre Morsa — Tuesday 26 March 2019

It may sound weird, but this is a question we get asked from time to time: “Do you know a prescription drug that would help me reduce my stress on stage?” We’re not talking about illegal drugs, but legal drugs sold in pharmacies. There are a lot of those designed by pharmaceutical companies to reduce stress, anxiety, blood pressure, cardiac rhythm, etc. We are not doctors, so we cannot say anything about them from a medical perspective.

How to starve the presentation vultures (part 2)

by Pierre Morsa — Tuesday 12 February 2019

Last week we saw how presentation vultures can destroy your confidence and ability to present in front of an audience. We saw that the best way to fend them off is to strengthen your vital space anchor. But how can you do that? If your presentation has an objective, a clear message, it is much easier to use it as an anchor. Let’s imagine for example that the key message is that your presentation is about a new software service that offers necessary services to protect your IT systems.

How to starve the presentation vultures (part 1)

by Pierre Morsa — Tuesday 5 February 2019

Maybe you feel that your last presentation was a complete failure. You didn’t manage to shake off your nerves. You became confused. The client or your boss criticized you. Maybe you’ve been caught in a downward spiral for some time, each criticism making you lose confidence, and making the next presentation worse. I have good news for you: no matter what your situation is, this vicious circle can be broken, and you gain the necessary confidence to enjoy presenting.

7 Tips for Overcoming the Fear of Presenting

by Michael Rickwood — Monday 9 April 2018

Fear doesn’t remove the danger. Embrace it and get on top of your presentations. “There is nothing to fear but fear itself” - a memorable line from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s inaugural address in 1932 at the depths of the Great Depression. At the time he may not have realized it, but his words are among the most powerful pieces of advice for public speaking. After all, what we all fear in presentations is succumbing to fear.