This was one of my most memorable clients.
The context:
S was a VP at a top 5 bank in the UK. Her team loved her. She felt at ease when she talked to anyone in her department.
But when she spoke on stage, everything changed.
Her voice would tremble.
Her hands would shake.
And when she had to present at the biggest team meeting of the year, she completely froze on stage.
She couldn’t believe it was happening, but it was.
She had to run off stage in complete embarrassment.
She never wanted to speak in public ever again.
But the issue was – as a VP, she couldn’t avoid it.
The challenge:
When S and I started working together, the challenge was clear:
How can we get her to be as comfortable as possible when she’s in the spotlight?
I used a dual-approach –
- I used improvisational exercises to coach S to be able to speak impromptu, without hesitation.
- We dug deeper into why she felt uncomfortable on stage and we reframed her fears. We changed her perspective on the audience – turning them from “hostile” to “curious”.
The results:
S had a presentation coming up in front of an even bigger audience.
We worked together for 6 weeks preparing for it, and practicing together. Right after the presentation, she texted me this:
Speaking with impact and confidence is a learnable skill.
You just need to stop hiding from that fear of speaking and embrace it head on.
