Aug 01 07
Art Bell - Guide to Banishing Speaker’s Nerves
Art Bell, author of more than 40 books and a professor at The University of San Francisco, returns to the program to discuss another text he’s penned. The book, McGraw Hill’s Guide to Banishing Speaker’s Nerves, tackles a subject that most people have a lot of trouble with and we were glad to talk to him about it. (Total Running Time 8:41)
Full transcript after the jump
Renn Vara: So, Art, you have a book called, “McGraw-Hill’s Guide to Banishing Speaker’s Nerves”.
Art Bell: Correct.
Renn Vara: OK. Now, this is the biggest issue I know for most people. You and I both do the same kind of business, where you do a lot of coaching with people, standing up and speaking. Is there anything you can really do about this, other than… We have little tools we use but I mean ultimately, it comes down to either some people are good at it, and some people aren’t.
Art Bell: Well, there’s the old Seinfeld joke: at a funeral, mourners standing beside the grave would rather be in the grave than giving the eulogy.
[Laughter]
Art Bell: Speaker’s nerves are that widespread. A recent Gallup poll said that 40% of American adults admitted to being afraid of giving a speech in a professional context.
My point in the book is simply that’s costing business people and companies a lot of money, when 50%-60% of the effect of any kind of presentation comes from what people see, not from what they hear. So if speaker’s nerves reflect badly on you as a professional, or reflect badly on your organization, it becomes a professional question, just a practical problem - “What can I do about it and how can this happen?”
Renn Vara: Let’s talk about that.
Art Bell: Sure.
Renn Vara: Is it simply an issue, because everybody knows this. Most people, if you ask them to get up and speak, the first thing is, they’re quite afraid. But is it just an issue of training? Is it an issue of investment in that.
Art Bell: As a person who’s done training for speakers over the last 30 years, let me address that in 25 words or less. The old approach was, if a person had poor eye contact, let’s say, you would help them look at the audience. If they had poor gestures, you’d help with gestures, and so forth - with movement, with all the things that we associate with smooth, natural delivery, that establish rapport with an audience.
It turns out, that until you get speaker’s nerves under control, everything goes south. Your eyes start floating to the ceiling, floating to the floor, your hands are shaking. You can work forever with a person on those things and get nowhere until at some point they overcome - not necessarily excitement or enthusiasm, we always want that in a presentation.
But you need to overcome the kind of nerves that are blocking them from connecting as friends with the audience. And that’s finally what we’re after is looking at an audience, recognizing that I’m on your side, you’re on my side, we’re here to reason together about something that’s interesting.
Renn Vara: You know, we often say in our businesses that the nerves are the engine. You do need to have that nervousness to drive you to be bigger than you currently are in front of an audience, right?
Art Bell: Yes.
Renn Vara: But what are your techniques for helping people get over this nonproductive nervousness?
Art Bell: It’s somewhat individualized, but let me give you three or four common techniques that work for people. Probably the first thing that any reputable speech coach has to say to somebody that he or she is working with is, “Check with your personal physician before we go further.”
When we’re talking about a pulse that’s up around 160, when we’re talking about feelings of lightheadedness, breathlessness, stomach cramps, and so forth, unless you’re a medical professional, you don’t really want to make guesses about that and say, “Well, of course, it’s speaker’s nerves.” How do you know it’s speaker’s nerves? There are lots of conditions that could account for that, and a person owes it to themselves, and to their coach frankly, to have that checked out.
All that being said, then, let’s assume the waterfront is clear of physical symptoms. Then it’s a matter of getting hold of something that’s going to work for you. The old routine often practiced by Toastmasters is preparation, that if we were to go over and over our notes, and so forth. Well, it helps about 60% of speakers and it is the solution for many people, to be well-prepared. Unfortunately, for 40% of us, the more we prepare, the worse speaker notes get.
Renn Vara: Yes. I think I’m in that category, actually.
Art Bell: Yes, I am too. And so, for that 40%, what we have to get comfortable with is our ability to wing it and not apologize for that, but recognize that our most spontaneous, most interesting self tends to come out in winging it.
For example, you and I are in a radio studio here, I am speaking to you. This would not be as effective if I were reading off a 3″ x 5″ card, which I am not right now. If someone were to ask me, “Well, Art, how long did it take you to prepare that answer?” I would say, “Oh, about 50 years.”
Renn Vara: [Laughs]
Art Bell: In the sense that all that I am at this moment is coming at you, for better or for worse. And that’s the wonder of winging it, if that’s your particular style. But again, for people who like to prepare, that’s their…
Renn Vara: So the point is, find your personal style, and know who you are.
Art Bell: Exactly.
Renn Vara: The only way to do that is by doing it.
Art Bell: Right. So you have to, I think, pick some non-threatening speech environments. For example, we all have to, from time to time, offer a toast at a table. We have to, perhaps, introduce somebody at a business meeting. This might take 30 seconds at most, but it’s enough to get your nerves up and enough to let you experiment a little bit with what works for you.
Another wonderful technique that professional speakers use are distraction techniques. Because God, in His infinite wisdom, did not create our mind in a way that we can parallel-process. You can’t simultaneously be thinking about your breathing, and your heart, and your sweating, and all the symptoms of speaker’s nerves at the same time that you’re distinctly thinking about something else.
I’ll give you a quick example. If, for example, just before you get up to speak, you were to challenge yourself to count backwards from 100 to 1 by threes. Of course, you don’t do this out loud. No one knows you’re doing it. But you’re simply sitting there, before you get up to speak, and you’re “97, 94, 91, 87…” and so forth down the number line.
Lou Holtz used this technique as a famous football coach. He would do multiplication tables. Anything that you can use as a distraction technique to get the mind of itself restores what’s called the sympathetic nervous system. You feel warmth in your hands. It starts to all come back. You start feeling like a normal human being again, instead of like a frozen robot up there.
Renn Vara: Very interesting. And I must tell you I am, in theory, a professional person in this area too. I never heard of the distraction techniques, so that’s really quite interesting.
What I actually do - this is my own personal technique, because I teach a lot. Right before I walk in the room, I say to myself as loud as I can in my brain, “It isn’t about you.”
Art Bell: Good.
Renn Vara: Because I have found with most, the real issue you’ve got to get past is this is not about you. So get the halogens off yourself, turn them out to the audience, and really think that you’re a teacher. And, “What I am doing here to help this audience understand what it is I’m trying to get across?” Rather than, “Oh, my God. I’m nervous” and all this.
Art Bell: Well said. In the book, what I try to point out are ways that you could physically get close to an audience. For example, get there a little early, shake a few hands, talk to a few people, take time in advance to find out about your audience.
Renn Vara: Demystify them.
Art Bell: “What do they want from me?” And, “How can I fill that need?” And so forth. All those are useful techniques to establish that you’re one of the crowd. The technique I don’t like, if I can just stick this in, is the most famous, which is to imagine your audience naked. I want to say a word about that.
Renn Vara: Bad move [Laughs].
Art Bell: The difficulty is that it sets up a ‘big me, little you’ environment. If I can only speak to you comfortably because in my mind I’ve made you ridiculous, that’s hardly a good format for communication. Because in little ways, it’s going to come out as a very patronizing attitude later on.
The reason probably that either of us, or anyone for that matter, can speak comfortably to a kindergarten class is because the little kids don’t threaten us. Is that what we need to do to get comfortable, feel like everyone else is a kindergartener? So, I’m not pushing that route at all, even though the sexual angle of it probably caused its notoriety. I think it backfires in actual practice.
Renn Vara: Now, I’ve used this as an example too, thinking that that’s going to…
Art Bell: Yes, it gets a giggle.
Renn Vara: Yes. But it’s dead and gone, right?
Art Bell: Well, actually, if you were to do a poll of managers, it’s probably the one that comes to mind most often. It’s not necessarily what they do, but it’s the one they’ve heard most often. So, I think it’s still one of those urban myths out there that needs to be exploded.
Renn Vara: Good for you. You did just that.
Art Bell: My purpose in life. [Laughs]
Renn Vara: Absolutely. Art Bell’s the author of a book called, “McGraw-Hill’s Guide to Banishing Speaker’s Nerves”. Art, thanks very much.
Art Bell: Thanks Renn.
Its very immpresive program and covering evry aspect of art bell.I love it
Pretty sure this isn’t the same Art Bell whom just retired and created the hit overnight radio program coast to coast am, listened to by millions nightly.
You’re right. Different Art Bell. Dr. Art Bell is a professor of corporate communications in the MBA school at the University of San Francisco. He’s also a prolific author.