How to Stop Worrying When Speaking Online
Miscellaneous / / May 05, 2022
Own the voice and mood of the audience.
It seems to many that performing online is even more difficult than offline. After all, you sit in front of the monitor and do not see the faces of the audience, their reactions. But changing your feelings and becoming the king of webinars is real. So says Svetlana Kolosova, a candidate of psychological sciences, engaged in scientific understanding and development of online communication methods.
Her book "Ether Star: Upgrading Online Communication Skills" was published by Alpina PRO. Lifehacker publishes the third chapter.
Stress during and before the broadcast is normal. Any occupation, the result of which is important for us, causes a storm of emotions: excitement, impatience, fear, delight, jubilation. And an overabundance of feelings creates internal tension. Yes, this is true: you can also get stress from very bright positive emotions. Hence the tears of joy, and the desire to hug everyone - in this way we relieve the tension that has arisen.
Time factor
When communicating online, there is no opportunity to hug the audience, so the speaker puts all his energy into speech. And this is where the problems begin. Believe it or not, but the fact remains: the time on the air, especially in the first ten, is completely different! It slows down significantly. There is no fantasy here.
Here is an interesting example for you. Exploring the perception of time by people in different emotional states, American scientists carried outResearchers at Baylor University College of Medicine, Texas. The leader of the experiment is Associate Professor of Neurobiology, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences David Eagleman. such an experiment: they brought the subjects to a steep cliff, turned their backs to it and pushed it into the abyss - very friendly, isn't it?
A monitor was installed in front of the flyers' faces - just a white glow. But when the subjects landed (on a pre-stretched grid), they said that they saw numbers on the screen. This is explained by the fact that the images on the monitor changed with such frequency that the human eye in a normal, calm state did not have time to fix a single picture. And in stress - please. The brain begins to work in an enhanced mode, and all the senses are aggravated. We perceive this as a distortion of time.
At online presentations, the same thing happens - you do not know when and how to "land" at the end of the broadcast. The stress factor is obvious - time, slow down!
Therefore, novice speakers often have the feeling that they are talking about something for a very long and tedious time. It seems to them that an eternity has passed, the listeners have had time to get tired of them and are about to leave the air. This effect complements the fact that they do not see the reaction of the audience and draw conclusions based only on their feelings. As a result, the speaker gets lost, starts to chatter or speaks in a crumpled, fragmentary phrase. The opposite reaction may also follow - the speaker will simply shut up.
Distorted perception of time is corrected by self-discipline and practice. After a few episodes, you will get used to the new sensations. In addition, you will be able to properly use this resource. Your brain works faster, and if in a normal state in a certain period of time you could only share information, now you will also have time to view, and most importantly, understand what is written in comments. In the meantime, just trust me: during a speech, you hear your speech one and a half times slower than it actually sounds.
Physiological level
But it's one thing to control the speed of speech. And it is quite another to overcome the excitement while you are making this speech. Let's take a look at the factors that, from the point of view of physiology, can increase stress, and therefore provoke anxiety, and get rid of them.
Let's start with food, because stomach discomfort - one of the most common manifestations of anxiety. Before the broadcast, you should not eat up, and here's why. First, in front of the camera you have to keep your back and abs muscles in good shape so that your posture is correct, and such muscle tension can cause stomach cramps. And secondly, all the energy needed for the presentation will be spent on the digestion of food, which, moreover, will take place in extreme conditions.
I want to give you one useful advice: when preparing for the broadcast, hide everything that you can eat from your eyes. When you tune in to a speech, you concentrate on the audience, all your thoughts are already there - on the online platform. Therefore, you can uncontrollably begin to occupy your hands: rearrange objects, grab food. You yourself will not notice how two large bunches of grapes, followed by sandwiches, and then a handful of nuts from the table are teleported into your stomach.
You don't have to go hungry either. During the broadcast, you spend a significant amount of body resources, comparable to non-strength sports training. Therefore, the feeling of hunger during the broadcast can cause dizziness, and from the funny thing, obsessive thoughts about food will appear. As a result, examples and comparisons in your speech may take on a gastronomic flavor.
When choosing a snack, refrain from snacks and any salty foods with an enhanced taste. From them, dry mouth appears, the tongue "ties up" and speech becomes less legible.
Be very careful with strong tea and coffee. They also dry out the mouth. Moreover, an excess of caffeine causes hand tremors and increases the excitation of the body - it will be difficult to maintain motor calm during a presentation. As we know, the camera tends to exaggerate everything, so for the viewer, any of your unnatural movements and gestures will be much more noticeable than in live communication. Give up carbonated drinks, otherwise you will have to fight with bubbles approaching your nose all the time on the air. Do not drink cold - it injures the ligaments.
As for alcohol, you can drink a little cognac before the performance. But quite a bit, because the purpose of this event is not to untie the tongue, but to expand the blood vessels, relieve the stiffness in the body that occurs during stress. But this method is not for everyone. There are people who, in the literal sense of the word, have written on their faces that they have sipped something: their cheeks begin to turn intensely pink. Viewers can interpret this in their own way, for example, that you are ashamed of what you are talking about.
Another aspect to consider when preparing for broadcast is natural needs. Don't start work without satisfying them. Otherwise you will painfully waiting the end of his speech. At the same time, its quality, as you understand, will be appropriate.
Equally important factors are the temperature in the room, it should be comfortable, and clothing, it should be comfortable. We will talk more about how to dress for the air in the chapter “Clothing, jewelry and cosmetics for online communication”, but for now let’s get back to the speech checklist.
The voice is our main tool when performing online. On the one hand, intonation, speed and clarity of speech depend on the internal state of a person, and on the other hand, on warming up.
For novice speakers, the very sound of the voice becomes a cause for concern - few people like it the first time they record it. It is important to understand that the point here is not that he is “some kind of different”, but that we hear ourselves all our lives differently from those around us. Firstly, the sound wave is always directed away from us, and secondly, we pick up the sound when it is still being formed in larynx, so we are more accustomed to hearing our voice as if it comes from somewhere under the water - muffled and in a lower range.
If these arguments do not dispel your doubts about voice timbre, you can try to simulate the sound, and at the same time prepare the ligaments for long work. If you are very excited and your voice goes into the upper registers, try drinking some weak coffee or weakly sweetened tea. These drinks contain tannin, a substance that makes ligaments less elastic. This is also why the use of tea or coffee must be moderated: tannin dries out the ligaments, resulting in the effect of a harsh and champing voice. You can relax and warm up the ligaments with the help of some exercises (for example, a yawn with an open sound, coming from the larynx), as well as with the help of 30–50 g of cognac, but I have already spoken about the risks of its use higher.
It is not recommended to have a snack in the form of yogurt before the broadcast: dairy products provoke the formation of mucus in the larynx, which prevents the voice from sounding freely.
So that during the broadcast, from a long and intense speech, the tongue does not begin to tangle, and the jaw does not suddenly cramp, brush your teeth before the broadcast. This stimulates the flow of blood into the mouth. But “talkativeness” can be adjusted in an unexpected way: rub your palms one against the other, sort out massage balls or a rosary. The area of the cerebral cortex that processes signals from the receptors of the hands is located next to the area responsible for speech. By stimulating one area, we create a wave of impulses that spreads to neighboring areas of the brain.
From physiology to psychology and back
It is easier to control the excitement during the broadcast than before it. When the process is started and the light of the camera burns affably, when the first words have already been said, and on the screen views numbers appear - there is no turning back, our brain is rebuilt from anticipation mode to maximum performance. It's worth just getting started. To enjoy from the very first seconds of the broadcast, you need to tune in to it not only your body, but also your mind.
Do not rehearse right before the broadcast - now you are least interested in the topic: if you miss something, the audience will not know about it. Moreover, they themselves can help by directing your speech with the help of comments in the direction they need. Let me remind you once again: you should focus not on the text to be voiced, but on people, for whom your mood in the first moments of the broadcast is much more important than the content side speeches. The audience will be immersed in the topic not only through your words, but also through emotions. Therefore, the first pool on the air is the emotion of joy from the meeting, and not a welcoming word: a motor - a smile - “Hello!”, as is commonly believed.
There are many ways to generate a good mood before shooting. For some, the most effective thing is to remember loved ones, for someone bright positive emotions are evoked by memories of the sea, travel.
For auditory people, music is an excellent way of self-tuning - favorite, dynamic. You can even dance to it. Movement is another way to relieve stress and recharge
body energized, accelerate blood circulation. Speakers who react intensely to smells will benefit from the scent of their own perfume or the perfume of a loved one.
Exhaled? Did you smile? Fine. The first emotional stage of self-control is over. Now you have to learn how to control the image that you broadcast. And you will have to do this throughout the broadcast. Develop the habit of looking at yourself as if from the outside. Practice outside of filming. At first, you can set an alarm clock with a difference, for example, ten minutes, and go about your usual activities. In this case, three conditions will need to be observed: maintain a friendly facial expression, do not reduce the emotional charge, and behave like a business meeting. The alarm clock rang - freeze frame. Evaluate how you sit, where your hands are, what position your legs are in, what your facial expressions say. If the results are far from the expert format, the training will have to be continued. During the conference, regularly remind yourself of this alarm clock and return to the set standard.
There are a number of exercises that help reduce fear of the camera:
- Autogenic training - a popular method of relieving stress, built on self-hypnosis. Those who have mastered this method are able to evoke various images in their minds that allow them to relax as much as possible in a stressful situation, to control their emotions.
- Muscle relaxation - a method described by the American scientist and physician Edmund Jacobson back in 1938. The method consists in alternate short-term tension and subsequent relaxation of individual muscle groups of the entire body. This allows you to identify areas of clamps, eliminate muscle stiffness.
Force majeure on air
If only it were enough to control only yourself during online communication! But! In addition, you are in touch with your online interlocutor, work with the audience and are responsible for what is happening around you. It may sound intimidating that all these levels need to be controlled. However, when you are involved in the process, it comes naturally.
As a car enthusiast, I can say that while driving, we do no less work: we maintain concentration, fix the state of the car, analyze the behavior of other drivers, predict the actions of pedestrians, navigate by signs and build the optimal route. And that's not all: driving a car, for example, I can listen to music or communicate with an interlocutor. The same principle applies to online communication. Whatever happens during the broadcast, do not forget about the main goal - to please the viewer and give him the knowledge that he wants to take with him.
Now videoconferencing, where in the background a cat selflessly torments a soft toy, you will not surprise anyone. However, as a speaker, especially during the first broadcasts, such incidents can unsettle you. And most importantly, you may not immediately understand or notice that something is happening that is not planned by the script. Therefore, in advance, before the broadcast, make sure that the pets are in another room, and the household is warned about the event. If something unexpected does happen, don't worry. In most cases, some roughness even disposes the audience, defuses the atmosphere. Apologize or joke that even cats like the topic of today's broadcast.
It should be noted that the reaction of the audience to force majeure, most likely, will not keep you waiting - comments will appear. This is not bad - you will have an activation, a refraction of fear to write the first message. But to understand whether you will keep the attention of the audience directly during the speech, it is worth even before any open reaction from her.
In order to control listeners, it is necessary, as we have already said, to clearly understand the interests and psycho-emotional characteristics of each.
Remember the lady with the bracelet and the humble man? Let their images accompany you throughout the broadcast - your viewers should come to life in front of you. How much easier it is to control the interlocutor! You will have to fantasize quite a bit, because you already see it. Only monitors separate you... And you both depend on the quality of communication, sound and video. Therefore, part of the verbal and non-verbal signals may get lost. To shorten this distance, use a psychological trick: imagine that you are stepping over a screen. Feel that the person is now nearby, he is just behind the glass. You can even mentally knock on it to attract attention.
But it happens that it is still not possible to reach the counterpart. Why might this happen? It's no secret that each of us has favorite topics that we can talk about for hours. And sometimes it seems that the conversation itself becomes interesting to us. The key word here is "seems". Because we subconsciously lead the conversation to the area in which we are most competent.
It can be more difficult to keep the attention of listeners in a situation where there are two speakers on the air. As soon as you notice that your partner has gone off topic to the point where the audience may legitimately ask, “What does this have to do with it?” It's time to intervene. There is a simple and very polite trick that helps bring the interlocutor back to the basics of the conversation - sifting phrases. For example: “An interesting observation, but how do you connect this with our topic about…” or “How does this affect…”. You can also use another method. For speakers, I always recommend before the broadcast read latest newsrelated to the theme of the conference. If you and your partner are aware of current events, feel free to pay attention to them.
But how to do this if the counterpart has switched to a peppy monologue mode? In oratory, there is such a thing as "inhalation of the interlocutor." This is that happy moment when the speaker stops for a few seconds to pick up a capacious word. During this pause, you can freely insert your phrase. If you do not have time to catch this moment, then you should remain silent - it is categorically not recommended to interrupt your partner. Remember: what is possible for you, it is possible for him. By giving the go-ahead for a rude intervention, you risk turning the conference into a ceaseless hubbub of people yelling at each other. Try to get the audience's attention with gestures. Online etiquette allows the connection of body signals: wave to the interlocutor, put your palm forward as a stop sign.
When co-leading a conference with someone, one should not forget about self-control. In addition, all the time while you are trying to find a window in a monologue, you should listen to the interlocutor. Because the purpose of communication on the air remains unchanged: the main thing is not for you to speak out at any cost, but to give the viewer the desired information. In this case, through joint efforts.
Successful communication on the Internet is possible only if certain rules are observed. They are collected in a book that will help you please those you don’t see, establish contact with the audience and keep their attention throughout the broadcast. You will also learn what to look for when framing a shot, how to behave in front of the camera and what to say.
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