I have always been scared of public speaking. I guess this is partly thanks to my reserved nature. I dreaded facing my classmates during presentations in Uni. I once lost a job opportunity because I could not do a presentation before a few people. What happened, you ask? I froze, that's what happened 🥺. I knew this was going to be a hindrance for me later on, as my career advances. I knew I had to do something about it.

My current job changed this for me. About a month in, I was asked to demo a new feature we were working on for the whole team, my bosses included. I was terrified. I knew I had a problem with speaking publicly and seriously considered requesting to be replaced. On second thought, I saw it as an opportunity to face my fear of public speaking. I prepared for the presentation, gave it my best shot and it ended up not being a bad one 🥳. I was a nervous wreck and stuttered a couple of times as expected, but I didn't freeze this time around, thank goodness. Shortly after this, I was asked to train new hires on our core product. I was still quite nervous but felt more comfortable doing it. Over the next 6 months, I went on to do about 6 more training sessions. After the 3rd session, I was no longer nervous before going on and started connecting better with my audience.

My recommendations on facing your fears?

Acknowledge it

You can only effectively treat an illness after identifying it...

This is the first step to overcoming your fear. You have to acknowledge its existence. I always encourage being in tune with one's emotions. Don’t shy away from it. Avoiding it does nothing to improve the situation. Once identified, you can then face it.

Carve out a plan

Document steps to take in order to overcome your fear. Start small. Include a timeline if it involves something that needs a little bit of time to master and have regular check-ins to review your progress. It also helps to have an accountability partner to keep you on track.

Put yourself right in front of it

I have always been drawn to writing but avoided it because I worried I may not be good enough. I decided six weeks ago to start writing one article weekly, even though I know little about writing. This is my 6th article 😬.

Volunteer for that thing you're scared of doing. What's the worst that could happen - you freeze or stutter a few times while addressing an audience? Big deal! I strongly believe that the more you expose yourself to your fears, the better you get at handling them, and over time, mastering them.

Even though I am now able to speak publicly without being a nervous wreck, I am still a work in progress. I hope to do more public speaking as the opportunity arises, until mastery and beyond!!!

The best way to get over your fear is to face it.