How to Control Nerves When Speaking

You’ve not said a single word and you feel as though you’re about to faint. Nothing has gone wrong, you’ve walked up to the front of the room and you’re facing the audience. That sequence is one of the most normal experiences in public speaking and it happens to people who have been presenting for years.

Learning how to control nerves when speaking is not about switching them off. It is about understanding what your body is doing, working with that energy instead of fighting it, and moving your attention away from the fear of being judged and back onto the reason you agreed to speak in the first place.

What nerves actually feel like in the body

Fear of public speaking is a common form of anxiety and it ranges from feeling a little nervous to extreme fear and panic. The physical signs usually arrive first: trembling hands, a shaky voice, damp palms, a racing heart, a tight chest and shallow breathing. People also describe their experiences as the room starting to spin and their breath growing short before they even reached the front of the room.

These reactions are uncomfortable, but they are not evidence that you are bad at speaking. It’s your body adding in fuel, the extra adrenaline because it’s preparing you to be in the limelight. The mistake most people make is that the fuel as a warning sign and they try to suppress it, which tends to make the sensations stronger and the voice a little croaky.

Why we get nervous before speaking

Public speaking anxiety has its own name, glossophobia, and it is well known enough to have been discussed for decades by voice coaches and speech specialists. The reasons behind it are personal, but a few patterns come up again and again.

• You feel exposed. A room of faces looking at you can feel like a room of judgements and it feels daunting.
• The stakes feel high. A pitch, a promotion, a wedding speech or a work presentation expectations that you must get it right.
• You care about the outcome, so your body treats the experience as VIP moment rather than routine.
• You have had a difficult experience before and your system remembers it.
• You are uncertain about your material and uncertainty feels physically uncomfortable.

Not all nerves are the same

People often talk about nerves as if they were one fixed thing. They are not, they affect everyone differently. Speaking to a large room with an unknown audience may produce a very different physical response from joining a panel discussion with fewer than twenty people present.

Some people prefer to speak in front of strangers, when they get something wrong, there’s less judgment as they only will see them once, hopefully. Whilst speaking to people they know comes with more pressure. For others it’s the other way round, speaking to people they know is more comforting.

The same person can walk onto a stage one week and almost feel no nerves, then feel their hands go cold before speaking up to inform their senior colleagues of a short update. Every event affects each person differently and comparing you feeling with other people who experiences nerves is rarely useful. We are all individuals experiencing something different when it comes to nerves but what matters is having a set of responses you can use for whichever environment you find yourself speaking in.

Transform your nerves into adrenaline

One of the most practical ways to deal with nerves is to stop trying to get rid of nerves completely. Instead it’s better to turn the fear into positive adrenaline. The energy that makes your hands sweaty and your heart pound is the same energy that can use to give your voice colour, pace and presence.

To transform your nerves, we have to think positively about the experience we are going to have. Instead of thinking about everyone is looking at me, tell yourself, I am here to tell everyone a story and they need to know. Your brain will think of the experience as positive if you tell it so.

Breathe in a way that actually calms the body

Breathing is the fastest tool you have to break the switch of thinking that speaking is going to be a negative or positive experience. When you have the physical symptoms, this is a form of anxiety and this can be reduced by breathing differently, using slow inhalations and even slower exhalations with brief pauses in between. When you breathe out, this is the key because a long, slow exhale is what signals your nervous system to be calm.

Try taking two or more deep, slow breaths before you get up to speak and return to that pattern during the talk when you feel more intune with your body. If you can, practise it in the minutes before you enter the room so the rhythm is already established then you are forming a positive habit with speaking. You’re telling your body that there is no need for it to go into fight or flight mode.

Shake the surplus energy out

Nerves create physical energy and physical energy responds well to movement. Before you go in, flick your fingers outwards as though you are shaking water from your hands, then let your arms hang and repeat. Roll your shoulders, unclench your jaw and if you have space, walk up and down the corridor for a minute or two to get the energy out of your system.

This is not superstition, it’s something that is tried and tested. Movement gives the extra adrenaline somewhere to go, so it is less likely to arrive as something physical like the tremor in your hands or the shaky start in your voice. Do it somewhere private, ideally a few minutes before you are due to start speaking and when you’ve finished speaking again take with a slow breath in and out.

Move your attention away from being judged

Most of the discomfort of nerves comes from a single thought: everyone is watching me and deciding whether I am good enough. That framing puts you on trial and turns the audience into a panel of examiners, seeing what you say is right.

Take the perspective away from that. You are not there to be inspected. You are there to share a story, an idea or an opinion that has value and the people in front of you have given up their time because they want to hear it. Your opinion matters, and the room is on your side. Two techniques that help with this shift are removing negative thoughts as soon as they arrive and using positive visualisation, picturing yourself delivering the opening lines steadily and seeing the room respond.

Prepare in ways that lower the temperature

Confidence is often a by-product of preparation and a feeling that you can summon directly. The better you understand your topic and the more you care about it and relate to it, the less likely you are to make a mistake or drift off track. You can also transfer your confidence from other parts of your life. For example, think of the last time you were confident, maybe when you graduated with your degree, maybe after painting a picture, maybe telling a friend some advice, channel that same confidence into your speaking.

Keep the structure simple. Get the air out of your lungs and get the words out of your mouth, rather than trying to perfect every sentence in your head. If possible, get a sense of the room or the audience that are going to be there, because sometimes familiar faces are far less intimidating than anonymous ones. Allow your body language to be open and walk into the room as though you’re floating.

What to do in the final minutes before speaking

1. Stop practising. Ten minutes before you present, sit quietly and let your body rest. Trust that you’ve prepared enough.
2. Breathe slowly, with longer exhales than inhales and small pauses between.
3. Remind yourself of how you want the audience to feel and the point you want the room to take away.
4. Shake out your hands and shoulders, then stand tall and let your arms rest.
5. Walk in with you giving your energy to people rather than on focusing on your own physical sensations.

If nerves are something that you often encounter, it’s severe and persistent and it’s becoming an annoying factor, it’s worth getting help rather than enduring it and managing it on your own. With preparation, practice and the right support, most people find their fear becomes manageable. Our one-to-one sessions offered by Speaking Voices help people all of professions be more confident with speaking. We created a programme specifically designed to overcome your fears with speaking where you can manage to control your nerves, so speaking can become effortless and not a chore.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do I get nervous when speaking in front of others?

Fear of public speaking is a common form of anxiety and it ranges from mild nerves to sheer panic. It usually comes from feeling exposed and from caring about the outcome.

Can I get rid of nerves completely?

Some people do reduce nerves significantly with experience. Others find that every event brings a fresh response and that is entirely normal. A more useful thought is to channel the energy into positive adrenaline so it adds energy to your vocal delivery.

Does a smaller audience mean fewer nerves?

Not automatically. A panel talk with fewer than twenty people can feel easier because there is less at stake, but a small room with senior colleagues can feel harder than a large conference. Everyone will react differently to each speaking scenario.