Last time I had to do public speaking was years ago in college, and it went horrible. Got distracted, lost train of thought, sweat a lot, probably 120+ heart rate, visible shaking. I got a C, just happy I passed, rest of my group got B/A's. Ever since then I've "known" that I just can't do public speaking, and I'd never have the guts to handle managerial/director/higher type of work. Public speaking is a literal road block in my career.

Fast forward all this time and I'm finally expected to present for a corpo conference of 100+ people on a stage in an auditorium. I've known about this for a couple of months, have had some sleepless nights due to it SRS. My talking points are rather complex, but probably won't last longer than 10-15 minutes.

Finally it is upon me, and I'm honestly just excited to get it done and have it behind me lol. I've got some jokes lined up, and think if I can focus that I'll get all the technical stuff blurted out.

Heard Jeff Bezos, Katy Perry, Shawn Mendez, Bobby Lee, Whitney Cummings, and many others take it before their public speaking / performances.

Got a prescription, will report back if it will save my career, or if I'm just hopeless.

I prefer to call them Chad Enablers

Blocked

hate this for you

I do a lot of "public speaking". The one piece of advice I can give you is: the more you know your chit, the easier it is.

If you're delivering a presentation try to have a light-hearted slide or two - and for Christ's sake, do NOT read.

Yeah there's 3% reading, 97% me going off-the-cuff. The data is mostly just a diagram or 2, and me talking "paragraphs worth" about each thing. I went over the material, got a dry run coming up. Told my GF not to come over this week because I want to have some extra free time to study here and there.

Ever since I left college, when I had upcoming webex meetings for work, I would actually write out entire paragraphs that I'd just recite from beginning to end. Been doing that to survive - obviously not able to though when there's impromptu meetings, which happens rarely.Das it mane. I already did back during COVID time, but only because we thought it would be federally mandated and my company was preparing employees for it to be a mandated requirement (we would have to report our vax status to the company). Ended up being rescinded though. Hate those shots, every time I had one I was sick for days.Based. Hope this is true.

I take them for what they're for, but they def make me more chill

Talk slow AF, will help you maintain your train of thought better srs

I've learned to accept it. If Elon Musk can get social clout and billions despite the autism, maybe I can too.

I was forced to do public speaking at a young age up until like 20, I totally understand the feeling.

The nervousness never really goes away, you eventually just learn to manage it better.

What really helped me was just not making eye contact with anyone, but rather lookingover, the audience. Also like that yapper above said, talking slower helps a lot.

Combine that with a solid and rehearsed outline and you're good to go.


Anyway, you said you have some jokes planned so I think you're gonna do great anyway. Good luck, you got this.

You recite them because you aren't as comfortable with the material as you think you are - I don't say this with malice, but I've had to present things I worked on for years now.

If your gf is cool you might try to run the presentation by her too. Honestly, my wife has redone some of my PowerPoint presentations (she's awesome...) where the content remains the same but she just styles it way better.

Yea I was horrible at public speaking until my speech teacher freshman year of college made me speak in class every time. Dude was a legend and I went from being the worst public speaker to a good one. He just convinced me that as long as you are competent and know what you're talking about, there's zero reason to ever be nervous. You're the expert, right?

So basically the best way to get good at it is to do it all the time and to just know what you're going to talk about. It becomes natural after that. It's a skill you learn.

But since this seems like a one off, then good luck with the pill. No idea how that would help in any way.

It's probably true, and the topics I have to go over are all super technical usually.

I'd like to think I'm comfortable enough, since usually in those webex meetings, I am able to spin up my paragraphs in less than 20 minutes and am good to go. The talking points in those meetings are usually from MY OWN investigation / findings, I just don't wanna miss anything important or speak about things in an incoherent or non-linear way, you know?

The talking points for this one involve something I played a minor role in and didn't sit through the "big picture" of. I was left out of the box and high level understandings for this subject back when it mattered. Now, after many many moons since, it's time to present on it and I'm the one doing it.

Good call on the GF / family thing.

420, blaze it phgot

It can go away, and even become 'excitement'.

In my graduate school, back in the day, hazing went like this: you had to present a chapter of your research to other students in the faculty, and other faculty members. Your supervisor could only listen and not help you.

Their goal was to humiliate you - under the guise of making your research the best it could be. They 'honored' you by trying to poke holes in your research.

My first time was truly nerve wracking, heh. By the time I graduated I relished the challenge.

Now, especially if someone tries to be cheeky with a question during one of my presentations, I offer them the same courtesy. Even had one dipchit claim X during a colleague's presentation, and I called him out on the fly during my presentation. He was let go by his firm shortly thereafter.

LOL. It can feel really good srs.

lol i do this too, i make occassional eye contact so i dont look autistic but most times i'm not looking at them. theres a balance. but yeah i'm terrible with public speaking but atleast became competent through god knows how much practice

I've used them, honestly most people in Finance that I've talked to along with me use them as well. They just stop physical symptoms and keep your heart rate down but you'll still 'feel' nervous. Some people I know also pair it with v@lium to stay calm.

Lmao what a mog.

Ngl, I miss doing VC support in IT. I got to give instructions about technology I loved, so I totally agree with the excitement.

I have thought "shots fired" hearing either presentations or questions before, lol.

In the example I gave, my colleague was caught off guard and she's a nervous speaker. So when I went up I just smiled at her.

She felt bad for the guy who got let go though. I didn't. #rekt LOL

Very commonly prescribed for that since they negate the physical aspects of anxiety

It won't stop you from speaking like an autistic miscer but it's a start

Propanolol worked wonders for me, especially when having to give presentations at work. My heart used to pound and I'd shake when having to public speak. This helped eliminate that.

Public Speaking no jutsu

Two things:

1: bullet points. The audience wont read very much text, so don't give them lots. Just have a roadmap that you can then fill in. They are just there to keep you on course.

2: you aren't presenting to 100+ people, you are presenting to multiple groups of 30. You cannot see more than about 30 people at once. The moment you actually look at a person or a group, the most your visual field/brain can handle is ~30 and anything above that is kind of a blur. Just concentrate on groups of 20-30 at a time, change the groups regularly and don't worry about those outside the specific group you are looking at at that moment.

i used 10mg propanolol and .25mg xan for a speech last year and was fine.

What worked for me in addition to propranolol in the beginning when getting over fear of public speak is rehearse, rehearse, rehearse over and over so you're prepared on presentation day. Don't worry about body language, verbal cues, or more advanced presentation skills. Memorize the speech if that makes you comfortable at first. When you get more comfortable speaking in front of an audience, you can improve on your presentation skills and might not even need propranolol later.

I've never used it, but I know many people that do.

If I have a big presentation at work or need to speak at a public event, I've taken xnx (prescription) before and it has helped.

I've thought about beta blockers, but haven't gotten around to it and now that I've worked remotely since covid, it's pretty infrequently I need to present or speak to a large group.
I still do fine doing it without anything, but the anxiety symptoms still suck.

I have friends and colleagues that swear by beta blockers though. Masks the physical symptoms of anxiety such as racing heart, hot flashes, shaking, sweating, stomach butterflies, etc.

I took some today to see how I feel. Didn't wanna just take them and go into the presentation, with total regret or something.

I noticed that I feel quite a lot less on it, like even when my heart rate is high I can't feel it (likely due to lower blood pressure). After 40 minutes I was pacing around, drinking monster, and reciting my speech, had 120 bpm based on my smart watch, but couldn't even tell and felt calm. And then after 90-120 minutes the heart rate goes down to the 80's even when it should be a bit higher, and I just kinda felt nothing.

I read online that some performers (musicians/singers) noticed their playing had less emotional verbosity. I personally felt like I sounded more nonchalant, and my jokes had less enthusiasm / were more dry during my practicing.

Could all be placebo. But maybe placebo is something I'll happily take advantage of, cuz why not, if it works then phark it.

I played Call of Duty on it. Unfortunately my palms were as sweaty as they usually get. However, I noticed lack of adrenaline for sure. Sometimes I would get emotional (angry/shocked) when playing CoD, but not this time. Feels very tranquil.

You’re such a big shot and you can’t figure out how to handle public speaking? Just fukin get a beta blocker and say your little speech.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Ausaric again.

Presentation completed. ~70 people, including lots of leadership, up to and including a SVP.

Took 3x25mg atenolol when I woke up in AM. Felt chill. Went to conference. Leadership presents first, then I do ~6 hours later. Leadership presented, and was intimidating the entire time. Got me super anxious especially after drugs tapered off. Literally skipped all the optional conference events, got psychotic, walked around outside for over an hour, had terrible social interactions. Took 1 more 25mg atenolol an hour before prezzo.

Get on stage and feel cool as a cucumber. Can't feel heart rate, no adrenaline. Realize that my partners have easier slides (they get bullet points and words to reference off of while they talk, I only get pictures and have to generate 3-5 talking points per picture, mine's longer and more complicated IMO). Still DGAF. My turn to speak eventually. Start talking. No one interrupts. Get laughter in most areas where my jokes were lined up, but not all. Get laughter in one area where I didn't expect laughter. Finished. Some after thoughts and Q&A happens. SVP gives my team mad kudos for socializing complex topics, calls us next level. Get mad kudos from everyone after. Coworker told me based on my prior behavior he thought I was gonna have a lot of trouble on stage, but he was happily surprised I "killed it."

I felt nothing on the stage. I felt nothing afterwards... due to betablockers. Felt relief after the drugs wore off later. I looked over people's heads, the walls behind them, and sometimes people's eyes cuz IDGAF. I felt as if I were reciting everything like I've been doing in the shower.