Do you get anxious when you need to speak in a meeting or hold a presentation? Do your palms get sweaty, hands shaky, and mouth dry? Does your brain freeze and voice flatten while you stare blankly at the camera?
Don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong with you! You probably have ‘glossophobia’ — fear of public speaking. This phobia is among the most common fears, more common than the fear of death.
On the bright side, like any other fear, people can beat glossophobia. So, we gathered expert tips to help you overcome it and master public speaking in remote settings.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Glossophobia affects almost 75% of the general population.
- Public speaking anxiety signs include dry mouth, sweaty palms, shaky hands, blushing, and voice trembling.
- Good preparation of materials, speech delivery, and technical equipment will reduce the fear of public speaking in remote settings.
Fear of public speaking and its signs
Glossophobia, or fear of public speaking, is a social anxiety disorder, and affects approximately 75% of the population. More precisely, it means that over 200 million people are anxious about talking to others.
Or, as Mark Twain said: “There are two types of speakers: Those who get nervous and those who are liars.”
The essence of this phobia is the fear of judgment, negative evaluation, or rejection by others.
Some signs of glossophobia may include dry mouth, perspiration, increased heart rate and blood pressure, blushing, trembling voice, and even extreme fear and panic.
Fear of public speaking can appear regardless of the environment or circumstances — you can face it if you speak to a live audience in a venue and if you talk to the camera in an online meeting. However, fear of speaking in a remote environment may have slightly different roots.
What causes remote speaking anxiety?
According to Peter Murphy Lewis, Chief Marketing Officer at Strategic Pete, former national TV host and communications strategist, remote speaking anxiety is routed in:
- “Cognitive overload: Unlike face-to-face presentations, your brain is dealing with camera angles, mic sound, screen-sharing, chat notifications, and your own video feed, all while trying to create an emotional rapport with your audience. That’s a lot of tabs open in your brain.
- Exposure of identity: On camera, you’re very aware of how you’re being perceived. People don’t merely hear you, they see every micro-expression, glance, or quiver of uncertainty. The visual feedback loop of self-consciousness makes many feel too exposed, especially if they’re not used to seeing themselves perform.
- No social mirroring: When in a room, you feel nods, laughs, glances. On Zoom, you’re speaking into a void. Your brain can’t adapt. That throws off even veteran communicators, as feedback is what modulates rhythm and flow.”
He also lists Zoom fatigue as a trigger for remote speaking anxiety:
“Even extroverts tune out when they’ve already been on six calls.”
Further reading
Is your calendar packed with virtual meetings? Read how to better organize workdays:
A global keynote speaker and an instructor for Stanford Continuing Studies and LinkedIn Learning, Lorraine K. Lee, says one of the biggest causes of fear of public speaking is the ‘spotlight effect’:
“A feeling that gets magnified on video calls when there’s an increased focus on one’s image in the video feed. It’s even worse when we have a self-view and are constantly looking at ourselves.”
How to ace a speech in remote settings
When remote speaking anxiety steps in, “people freeze up, their voice flattens, or they start overexplaining to prevent dead air”, says Lewis. “And the most common? People fall back on reading from slides instead of actually connecting.”
Luckily, there is a solution. Benjamin Franklin summed it up many years ago:
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
Preparation is the key to successfully delivering a speech or presentation.
Now, there are many different preparation tactics, but to make it easy for you, we’ve split them in 3 categories:
- Preparation of materials,
- Delivery preparation, and
- Technical preparation.
Preparation of materials
Before you start preparations, collect all the important information about the meeting. If you’re not a meeting organizer, ask for:
- A detailed agenda,
- Your timeslot,
- The number of participants,
- The technical aspects of conferencing tools you will use for the meeting, and
- If you should prepare a presentation.
Gather as much information as possible so you can start your preparations on time and reduce stress and anxiety.
Then, you can start preparing your materials. When creating a PPT, try using templates, and think about branding, aesthetics and consistency. Be mindful of the text length — don’t put too much text on a slide. The human brain struggles to read and listen simultaneously. Consider using the ‘5-5-5’ rule, which means no more than:
- 5 words in a line of text,
- 5 lines on a slide, and
- 5 text-heavy slides in a row.
Lewis also suggests having one slide for at least 2 minutes of talking time.
Further reading
Do you need extra tips on how to prepare an effective presentation? We’ve got you covered:
If you don’t have to prepare a presentation, you should still write down key messages — short sentences to structure your thoughts and remember what you want to emphasize.
Finally, you might also want to prepare a Q&A document: think of potential questions the participants might ask and write down answers. You can also ask your colleagues to brainstorm with you.
Delivery preparation
Now you know what you want to say, focus on how you want to say it. We asked experts to share their best strategies for speech delivery.
#1 Practice and focus on the message
Lee advises to know your material well and then practice. She advises to dedicate 1 hour of practice for every minute of the presentation:
“You will definitely feel prepared after doing this!”
Moreover, instead of focusing on yourself, she recommends concentrating on how your message helps the audience. Then, “it becomes less about others being critical of you and more about how you’re serving and helping others.”
Lewis suggests creating “a brief opener that buys attention in 10 seconds. Also, [prepare] one anchor story that connects a message to memory.”
Anchors quickly connect the audience with key parts of your stories and make presentations more memorable. Anchors can be in a form of anecdote, analogy, activity, etc.
#2 Record yourself
Clinical & Forensic Psychologist of Medical Anti-Aging, Dr. Ann Monis, explains that speaking on video “triggers the amygdala, the fear center of the brain, which releases cortisol. This happens because the brain treats video calls like being on stage, where every movement is visible.”
To counter this, she suggests gradual exposure training, also known as desensitization:
“Start by recording short videos of yourself speaking and watch them repeatedly. The first few times, your brain will react with discomfort. Do not worry here because repeated exposure lowers amygdala activation and reduces anxiety.”
In addition to calming the amygdala, Lewis says recordings will help you analyze your performance:
“Adjust your pacing, your tone, your posture. Record your full talk in the actual software (Zoom, Teams, etc.). Play it back without watching yourself. Just listen like a podcast. If you’re boring to yourself, you’ll be boring to others. Revise accordingly.”
Moreover, recordings will help you evaluate and improve your body language, such as facial expressions, gaze, gestures, and self-representation.
#3 Reduce cognitive overload to improve speech clarity
During video calls, the prefrontal cortex, the brain area responsible for speech and decision-making, becomes overwhelmed. It processes many occurrences simultaneously, like facial expressions, background distractions, and the lag in conversation, explains Dr. Monnis.
To prevent this, she suggests doing structured vocal priming before speaking:
“Read a passage out loud with clear enunciation for two minutes before your call. This activates Broca’s area, the brain’s speech coordination center, making verbal delivery smoother.”
During the call, Dr. Monnis advises to “soften your focus instead of forcing eye contact with the camera. This reduces stress-related ocular micro-tremors, which have been linked to speech hesitations and mental fatigue.”
Further reading
Do you feel like you’re mentally drained? Read how to manage mental exhaustion:
#4 Design for energy loss and practice your “reset muscle”
“You lose 30-50% of your natural presence on camera”, says Lewis. Natural presence is the impression that others have of you, when you’re communicating with them. Therefore, “you need to bring 1.5x your natural energy, consciously modulate vocal tone, and smile 15% more than what comes naturally. It carries warmth across the screen.”
And, even if you start losing track of what you’re saying, don’t be afraid to pause and take back control over your thoughts. Lewis recommends building a 5-second pause habit:
“Inhale, exhale, reassert your main point. You don’t need to muscle through awkwardness. You need to regain control of the frame.”
Lee also suggests breathing and relaxation techniques to calm nerves and focus before speech:
“Try 4-7-8 breathing to help signal to your parasympathetic nervous system that you are safe.”
Moreover, always have a glass of water nearby, as your mouth might get dry (and it is an elegant way to take a break and remember what goes next).
#5 Test your presentation or speech
If you implemented all these strategies and still feel uncomfortable, ask your colleagues to help you stage a dress rehearsal. Create a meeting simulation and present it to them.
This way, you will reduce stage fright, exercise with a live audience, and see their reactions to the opener, anchor stories, slides, and overall performance. It is a chance to gather valuable feedback for further improvement.
#6 Accept imperfection
Good communication is never perfect, nor should it be! Don’t reach out for perfection. Aim for authenticity and confidence.
As Sara Blakely, founder of shapewear brand Spanx, stated for Forbes:
“Remember, people aren’t there to judge you; they’re there to learn.”
Technical preparation
So, you have prepared all the materials and practiced the delivery. Now it’s time for a technical checkup.
#1 Clear your working environment
Remove the clutter from your desk and minimize any potential distractions. Keep only essentials: preparation materials, post-it notes with key messages, and a glass of water for refreshment, for example.
Moreover, remember to close all unnecessary tabs and programs on your PC and silence your phone.
If working from home, consider creating a quiet workspace without background noise. If possible, ask someone to take care of your children or pets during the meeting.
#2 Check your equipment
Ensure your microphone and camera work properly, and your internet connection is as stable as possible. Furthermore, remember to set proper camera background to look professional.
Finally, Lee advises using the camera strategically:
“Turn off self-view if possible. Practice making eye contact with the audience and make sure you feel comfortable setting up your presentation in a virtual environment.”
#3 Just do it
As an etiquette consultant, speech pathologist, and TV reporter, Jo Hayes, offers only one piece of advice:
“Just do it. And keep on doing it.”
As Hayes says, the more we expose ourselves to something that terrifies us, the more comfortable we become with it.
Bottom line: prepare and gather experience
Fear of public speaking, both on-site and online, is the most common phobia. However, thorough preparation and experience will help you overcome it.
Therefore, prepare materials on time, practice the delivery, and ensure your equipment works properly. Then, as Hayes says:
“Embrace the pain. Dive into the difficulty, challenge, discomfort, or fear factor. I promise you, it gets much less scary the more you do it.”
And remember, don’t expect perfection! Good luck in your next public speaking session!