TJ Walker explains why breathing exercises and visualization don't fix public speaking anxiety: they ignore the real problem, which is uncertainty about how you actually look and sound. His method, used with presidents and CEOs, is simple: record yourself speaking on video, watch it, note what works and doesn't, then do it again until it feels right.
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Ultimize: Why Most Public Speaking Advice Fails. Okay, let me tell you a big secret right up front. This is the same approach I've used with presidents of countries, prime ministers, Nobel Peace Prize winners, CEOs, and leaders all over the world. For more than 40 years, I've trained people at the very highest level who had one thing in common: they were afraid of public speaking. They were nervous. Some were terrified. Some were scared about doing interviews. Some were uncomfortable speaking in front of large audiences. But the training I gave them always came down to something extremely simple. In fact, when you hear it, it might sound a little silly, but by the end of this podcast, it will make perfect sense. Here it is, the number one way to get over your fear of public speaking is to practice speaking on video and watch it until you like your own style and substance. That's it. Now, sometimes I might work with someone 8 hours a day for a week or 2 weeks preparing them for a major speech or media interview, but at the core of all that training is the same simple process. We record them speaking, we watch the video, We figure out what we like, what we don't like. We improve something. Then we record again. We repeat the process until they like what they see, every aspect of it. Now, when people first hear this, they sometimes think it sounds intimidating. Oh, I'm not going to watch myself. But it's actually easier today than at any time in history because everyone listening to this podcast or watching it already has the tool needed to do it: your phone. Over the course of this series, I'm going to show you exactly how to use that simple tool to dramatically reduce or even eliminate the fear of public speaking. Because the real cause of speaking fear is usually very simple. It's uncertainty. Uncertainty about how you come across. Uncertainty about whether your message will work. Uncertainty about whether people will find you interesting or really boring. But when you practice speaking on video and watch yourself improve, that uncertainty begins to disappear. You see exactly how you look. You hear exactly how you sound. You refine your message. You improve your delivery. And eventually you reach a point where You actually like what you see. And once that happens, something powerful changes. If you know in advance that your audience will see someone who looks comfortable and confident, and if you know in advance that your message is clear and useful, it becomes very difficult to truly be nervous. Let me give you a simple example. Imagine you have 3 close friends from high school. Every time the 4 of you go out for dinner together, the evening is the same. Everyone's laughing, the conversation flows easily, the stories get better as the night goes on. All of you have a great time. If someone invites you to dinner again with those same 3 friends, do you feel nervous? Typically not. You already know how the evening will go. You already know the conversation will be good. You already know you communicate well with those people. There's no uncertainty. Public speaking can work the same way. When you know your talk works, when you know your message is clear, when you've seen yourself deliver it well, the speaking situation becomes far less intimidating because you already know the performance works. Now, before we go any further, let me quickly introduce the show. You're now entering Fear of Public Speaking: A Practical Cure, powered by Ultimize, the world's largest personal development podcasting network. I'm your host, TJ Walker. Now, let's get back to the central idea of this podcast. Most traditional public speaking advice focuses on your emotions. You hear things like, take deep breaths, relax, visualize success, picture the audience in their underwear. Terrible advice, by the way. Some of that advice might make you feel slightly calmer for a few minutes, but it doesn't actually remove the real cause of speaking fear or nervousness about speaking. Because if you're still uncertain about how you come across, the anxiety will return. Let me give you another quick example. Imagine you had to send your resume to your dream employer in exactly 1 hour. The job's perfect for you, but you're nervous about sending the resume. In that situation, what would you prefer? Would you want someone helping you meditate? Would you want someone telling you to relax and visualize success? Or would you rather open the resume and make it better? Most people would choose the practical option. You want to run spell check, you want to fix the grammar. You might ask a smart friend to look at it. To give you feedback, you would improve the document. And as the resume improves, your anxiety would naturally decrease, not because someone hypnotized you, but because you now have evidence. You're looking at the document. Now the document is strong. Public speaking works exactly the same way. Confidence grows from evidence, evidence that your message works, Evidence that your delivery works. Evidence that you communicate clearly. And video practice gives you that evidence. When you watch yourself speaking, you immediately learn things. You might discover that your voice sounds stronger than you expected after you've listened to it a bunch of times. You're not going to like it at first. You might notice you speak a little too quickly. You might realize one explanation needs to be clearer. All of that information is incredibly valuable because once you see it, you can improve it. And every improvement reduces uncertainty. Over the next several episodes in this podcast, I'm going to show you how to use this simple process to prepare speeches, presentations, talks, briefings with much more confidence. You'll learn how to structure your ideas, how to practice effectively, how to test your message, and how to improve your delivery. But before we finish this episode, I want you to take one small step. Take out your phone right now. Record yourself speaking for 2 minutes about any topic you know well. It might be something you do at work, a hobby you enjoy, or an idea you care about. Just speak naturally, Then watch the video. Don't judge yourself too harshly, just observe. What do you like? What would you improve? Then try it again. That simple exercise is the beginning of a system that has helped leaders all over the world become more confident communicators. In the next episode, we're going to explore one of the biggest mistakes people make when preparing speeches. They treat speeches like written documents instead of spoken performances. And fixing that mistake can dramatically reduce speaking anxiety. You know, there's one thing I always find interesting. People will listen to a podcast like this, get ideas, maybe even feel a little motivated, and then just move on with their day. Nothing actually changes. And I get it. Information alone doesn't do it. Repetition does. That's actually why we built Ultimize. So if you're getting any value from this, just go to ultimize.com. That's spelled U-L-T-A-M-I-Z-E dot com. There's a free course waiting for you there. You can start with communication skills, but the whole idea is simple. Don't just hear something once, actually build it into your life. Again, it's free. Go to ultimize.com.
