The Warburton Trail Festival is held every year over the long weekend in March. A 3 day event of running, lilo-derbying, films, seminars, yoga, and all round appreciation of trails, it is one of the highlights on the trail running calender. My role in this is usually running, socialising, and standing in the river with a few beers.
We were presented with the opportunity to take a slot on Sunday afternoon to talk about For Wild Places – a sports activism NFP that seeks to protect wild places via the trail running community. A perfect match!
Hilary (the FWP CEO and two time Greens election candidate, and experienced public speaker) and I briefly discussed about what we’d talk about, and didn’t give it much further thought…until the day before. When suddenly I got nervous about standing up in front of people I knew!
My introvert shyness kicked in and the thought of all that attention on me was…more than a bit unnerving.
There were two key ways I managed myself through this – I thought about how I could shift my mindset, and the actions I could take to deal with the challenge at hand.
Mindset – I focused on my message and not my fears. I reminded myself that the reason I was going to be up there was to share the awesome work that FWP is doing, and to get our message out there. I acknowledged that what we were doing was a service – our audience wanted to understand more, and we would helping them understand how they could be a better trail custodian and protect the wild places they love.
This reframing of mindset also reminded me that sometimes you have to be prepared to do slighlty uncomfortable things in order to achieve the goal or outcome you want. The obvious analogy is physical training; being prepared to do the challenging thing, in pursuit of a longer term goal. So as well as being in service of the audience, this presentation was in service of my goals as well; I want as many people as possible to understand and protect the trails!
The action I took was to practice the key parts of what I wanted to say, particularly the part I was most nervous about. Hilary heard that part probably half a dozen times! I find that practicing saying the words out loud (not just reading them) helps me figure out how it will sound, how it will flow and identify where it was a bit tangled up – so I could refine it and practice further. It also helped me realise where I was rushing through content, and where I needed to slow down to have more impact.
These few basic points helped me feel more relaxed, and ultimately do a better job. It wasn’t flawless, but was generally well received; we got a few more members, a few more hits on the website, a few more people at our next event, and a few more followers. So, success!
So, if there’s something you’re nervous about – ask yourself how you can shift your mindset to help you rather than hinder, and the actions you can take to support this.
Mindset
- Shifting your mindset away from how you feel, and towards the longer term goal – what will you to achieve by doing this successfully? What will that feel like? Who else will benefit?
Actions
- what can you do to beforehand to reduce nerves or be more relaxed? Practicing is one (key) thing, but making sure the tech works, knowing the venue and arriving early are all simple things that can reduce nerves.
Your speaking notes can also provide you with reminders of the helpful mindset – reminding yourself of your broader goals and purpose.
