Out Of My Mind—Episode 18 Show Notes
The Scariest Audience—Overcoming the Fear of Public Speaking with Peter Desberg, Ph.D.
Psychologist and Professor Emeritus of Psychology Peter Desberg has been one of Hollywood’s go-to psychologists for people needing to overcome their fear of public speaking. He’s lectured about stage fright, conducted workshops and written four books on the subject. So when Peter advises that the number one way to overcome your fear is practice, practice, practice, he’s not reprising the old joke about Carnegie Hall. He means it. And, to Peter, practice is not a matter of reading over your speech. It’s performing your speech (or talk or lines of dialogue) the way you’re going to do it in front of an audience. It’s rehearsing with distractions so you get used to stopping and starting your speech without feeling rattled. And it’s rehearsing until you know your speech so well that you can incorporate any unexpected events into your talk so smoothly that people wonder if you planned the interruption.
Peter has some advice on what to do when even practicing doesn’t allay your fear in this Episode Extra only on YouTube.
Here are links to Peter’s books on managing your fear of public speaking.
Speaking Scared, Sounding Good: Public Speaking for the Private Person
No More Butterflies: Overcoming Stagefright, Shyness, Interview Anxiety and Fear of Public Speaking
Mastering the Art of Public Speaking
Your Voice Deserves to be Heard with Ann Utterback, Ph.D.
“If you’re lucky enough to lead a long life you’re going to have to deal with changes in your voice.” That’s the word from Ann Utterback, Ph.D., a broadcast voice specialist, a stress reduction counselor and an author. Of course, there’s a difference between accepting these changes and dealing with them. We can’t reverse the aging effects, but we can mitigate the common ones, such as not being heard or poor articulation. Dr. Utterback takes us through a few simple exercises to correct what most people are doing wrong (are you a victim of social breathing?) that will make a difference in how you sound to your friends, colleagues and loved ones. Oh, yes, and did you know that as we age, men’s voices go up in pitch while women’s voices go down? The reason why will bring a smile to your face.
Dr. Utterback writes a regular blog on the voice and keeping it alive and well. You can read her blog posts by clicking here.
And here’s an additional exercise you can do to keep your voice in shape. This is an Episode Extra found only on YouTube.
If you’d like to follow up on some of the advice in the show, look at Dr. Utterback’s book Broadcaster’s Survival Guide: Staying Alive in the Business. Don’t be put off by the title. Broadcasters have the same voice challenges you have, only starting at a younger age, and this book covers the care, feeding and protection of your voice from the best foods to eat to the best ways of avoiding voice-robbing stress.
And for more voice exercises here are some audio downloads you can listen to on the go.
Out Of My Mind is on YouTube
Episode 18: Listen on YouTube
Forget about fiddling around with podcast apps and players that don’t work when you want to listen to Out Of My Mind. We’ve moved all our episodes to YouTube. Don’t worry. We haven’t gone Hollywood, and you won’t have to look at Jay’s face for 17 minutes a week. It’s the same podcast you’ll find on iTunes but with a static picture slapped on it so YouTube thinks it’s a video.
Go to outofmymindpodcastonyoutube.com, pick what you want to listen to and enjoy.
Not only does listening on YouTube take fewer steps, but a single click on the Read Show Notes banner at the beginning and end of each show will take you right to the show notes. No more working your way through the website. In the coming weeks, we’ll post bonus interviews and comments from guests you won’t find anywhere else online. And we’ll take popular interviews and features and put them in their own videos so you can listen to them without having to listen to the entire program (do not tell Jay about this).
If you have a Google account (and, honestly, who doesn’t), you can subscribe on YouTube and receive a notification whenever we post something new. You can also leave comments about the show right there while you’re listening. We think listening to Out Of My Mind on YouTube will be a more pleasant experience for you. Try it right now, then let us know if we’re right or what we can do to make it better.
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Music
The Out Of My Mind podcast theme by Jimmy Fontanez.
Contacting the Show
Email: jdouglas@thetheaterofyourmind.com
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