Nate’s Notes 97: Public Speaking Made Easy | Matt Abrahams, Stanford Communication Expert

What simple, practical, underappreciated lessons Matt shared today.

First, public speaking is something that all of us can improve at. And much of it comes down to managing the symptoms and sources of anxiety.

To manage the symptoms of anxiety, practice specific breathing techniques, like taking in deep breaths, and then exhaling for twice as long as we inhale.

To manage the sources of anxiety, become present-focused by doing something physical, whether it’s walking around, talking with people, or listening to music.

Finally, we can manage our mindset by reminding ourselves that we have value to bring, the goal of speaking isn’t perfection but rather a connection, and each chance to speak is an opportunity to learn and share, rather than a threat or challenge to fear.

By managing our anxiety and our mindset, we can all get better at public speaking. It’s a simple idea. Please take it seriously.

Matt Abrahams Bio:

Matt Abrahams teaches strategic communication at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is also the author of two books: Speaking Up Without Freaking Out and Think Faster Talk Smarter.

Prior to teaching at Stanford, Matt held senior leadership positions at leading software companies, where he created and ran global learning and development organizations.

Matt is a founder at TFTS Communications based in Silicon Valley that helps people improve their presentation skills. He works with executives to help them prepare and present keynote addresses and IPO road shows, conduct media interviews, and deliver TED talks. Matt also hosts the Stanford GSB podcast called Think Fast Talk Smart. and, he curates the website NoFreakingSpeaking.com.

Matt earned an undergraduate degree in psychology from Stanford and a graduate degree in communication studies from UC Davis.

I hope you enjoy learning from Matt Abrahams today, because I certainly did.