3 ways to love your audience without stage fright will help you change from dreading the idea of speaking or performing in front of an audience to actually learning to love your audience.
Did you know around 75% of the population struggles with a fear of public speaking to a certain degree?
1. Be Prepared
I’ve read about a dozen articles preparing this post. Every one of them regardless of the source or author’s credentials agreed on one thing. Being prepared is the number one way to love your audience without stage fright. Practice makes permanent. It’s logical that if you repeat something often enough, you will become an expert at it. If succeeding on stage in front of an audience is important to you, there is a way to improve. In the process, you can exchange fear for confidence. Eventually, you will care less about what others think and more about serving your audience with excellent performance. There is a relationship between how prepared you are and how much you practice. This is part one of 3 ways to love your audience without stage fright
2. Imagine performing well.
Our thoughts can help us or hurt us. How often does thinking about doing something outside your comfort zone make you nervous or excited? The difference between the two often comes down to what we allow ourselves to think about. And we are interested in changing fear into love. Loving the people you are playing for is the best way to overcome stage fright.
Second only to diligent preparation, our thoughts can be used to support an enjoyable performing experience. To imagine doing well and taking time to picture it in your mind is a good practice to start. Compared to imagining the worst possible scenario, imagining doing well is actually a good thing! How do we make that happen? Close your eyes, picture yourself picking up your instrument, taking a slow deep breath, and actually smiling at your audience as you begin to play. Remember? You are doing this for your audience – you love them! Self-talk matters. Talk truth to yourself. You can talk yourself into a good performance. So don’t talk yourself out of it.
Take some deep breaths from your abdomen. It’s hard to fake taking a deep breath. But that’s good. The whole point of intentional breathing is to slow down and relax. Shallow, rapid breathing does not support relaxation. Focusing your breathing for even one minute can do wonders in calming your jitters. This is part two of 3 ways to love your audience without stage fright
3. Play as often as you can
“The only way to conquer stage fright is to get up on stage and play. Every time you play, it gets better and better.”
Taylor Swift
I love this quote by Taylor Smith. The wisdom revealed sums up the whole blog post in one sentence. If you are nervous, just play, sing, and do your thing. Don’t expect perfection. Know that there will be some good moments to build upon. And there will be moments to learn from – things you can improve. Remember – progress is better than perfection!
Do it again – repetition is a good thing. Take every opportunity to keep improving your craft. I’d love to hear from you on this topic. What are your tips for conquering stage fright?