“Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.” Maggie Smith.
Such valuable advice from Maggie Smith, an excerpt from her memoire, You Could Make This Place Beautiful.
A few days ago, Maggie Smith, one of the greatest actors of our time, died at the age of 89. Throughout her career, her speech was clear, accurately delivered and carried a wide variety of accents and attitudes with absolute aplomb. Yet even Dame Maggie confessed to suffering from stage fright during her long and successful stage and screen career.
When we are facing an audience, whether it is in person or online, occasionally there can be a moment of panic that rears up inside our stomach, which threatens to de-rail our speech.
A moment of terror at the thought of speaking to people can render us speechless. A sudden lack of confidence to deliver a spoken message can bring us to a sudden halt in our speech. A feeling of that old, recurring ‘imposter syndrome’ can create a jumble of feelings and make us feel worthless in that moment.
I believe most, if not all, of us have suffered from stage fright at some point or other during our careers. However, the end point is not about the failure to deliver your speech, stage fright can be turned around – to challenge us to recognise our strengths.
Many years ago, I read that it’s not about the falling down (making mistakes) in life, it’s about the getting up and realising what went wrong and how to avoid making the same mistake again. Being a successful speaker is about getting stronger and more savvy about how we function and how we can grow and develop. Being a successful orator is about being brave. It’s also about getting on with the task in hand. Here is Maggie Smith’s character in Downton Abbey delivering the motivation: “You are a woman with a brain and reasonable ability. Stop whining and find something to do.” Dame Maggie Smith was ‘a perfectionist who turned anxiety into an art form’; ‘She was constantly driving herself to do better.’
I love Maggie Smith’s opening line at the beginning of this newsletter: ‘Let everything happen to you… Just keep going’. And that is so important. Keep going, remember to breathe before you speak, know your presentation material inside out and back to front and most importantly, remember your knowledge and what it’s worth to your listeners. You are there to provide information and they are there to learn.
Just like Dame Maggie Smith, your task is to tell a story, paint a word picture, share a vision with your audience, whether they are in the room with you or remotely. Your imagination can play a vital role in making a successful speech and combatting stage fright.
A true legend of stage and screen, who leaves an indelible mark on the world of film, TV and theatre and an inspiration to so many others on and off the stage; the extraordinarily talented Dame Maggie Smith, leaves a rousing legacy.
If you suffer from stage fright or a feeling of ‘imposter syndrome’ which is affecting your ability to speak to your business audiences, do get in touch with your professional voice coach for help with your speech making.