In December of 2020, Brené Brown sat down to have a conversation with David Eagleman for her Unlocking Us podcast. Eagleman is a neuroscientist, a TED speaker, a New York Times best-selling author, and a teacher at Stanford University, among many other things. In their conversation, they talked about the power of the human brain. Towards the end of the podcast, Dr. Brown asked Dr. Eagleman this question: “Say you are called to be brave, I mean really brave, but your fear is real, you can feel it in your throat, what is the very first thing you do?”
His response to that question was one that can help us as we think about the fear of public speaking. First, it is somehow comforting to know that even this incredibly successful and brilliant man feels fear. Second, his strategies for overcoming fear are based on his years of scientific research and lived experience. So if they work for him, they can work for us, too. Here’s what he said:
“I think sometimes what I do is I put myself sort of in another persona, like somebody who I think is a brave person, and I’ll just sort of step into that. Or, this is a weird one, but I’ll think about the way that other people think about me, like someone who thinks well of me, I will be that version of David Eagleman, who wouldn’t be scared because that person doesn’t think I’m scared. Like my children, for example, they think I have no fear, so I’m that person in that moment.”
1. Be Another Brave Persona
Eagleman isn’t the only one to use this strategy to fight fear. Recording artist Beyoncé is known for having a stage alter ego whom she calls Sasha Fierce. She says, “Sasha Fierce is the fun, more sensual, more aggressive . . . side that comes out when I’m on the stage . . . this alter ego that I’ve created kind of protects me and who I really am.”
While giving yourself a stage name for your presentations might seem a bit far-fetched, there’s something to this theory that could help you battle a fear of speaking in public. Instead of trying to be that alter ego all the time, you can remind yourself, like Eagleman and Beyoncé do, that you just have to turn on some of those performance traits for a little while. You aren’t becoming someone else. You are just featuring some parts of your character that you don’t normally use for a limited amount of time.
2. View Yourself Through Someone Else’s Eyes
Eagleman’s second tip is to see yourself through someone else’s eyes. It’s important that you pick someone who esteems you highly or loves you unconditionally. Eagleman mentions his children. He simply tries to see himself the way he thinks his children see him: as fearless.
I’ve used this same tactic before. I was particularly nervous before speaking at a woman’s convention, so I remember taking time to visualize my husband and my two girls. I reminded myself that no matter how my presentation went, that in just a couple of hours, I’d be driving home to three people who loved me no matter what. People who believed in me not just as a successful speaker, but as a human being.
I wasn’t expecting to encounter strategies for dealing with public speaking fear when I tuned into Brown’s podcast that day, but there it was, as clear as day. And it turns out, a neuroscientist had some pretty good tips for face fear.
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