Welcome back to our on-going blog series:

"Don't Picture Them in Their Underwear: 5 Uncreepy Strategies to Calm Yourself Before Public Speaking"

Let’s start out our 1st week of Speak Masterfully Speaking Tips with a brazenly simple suggestion:

If you know you struggle with speaking to a crowd of people, then don’t speak to a crowd of people.

Speak to one person.

Imagine you have a good friend sitting in the back row—someone nonjudgemental. The kind of friend you’d have no problem inviting over even if your place were a mess. Make this a private conversation between the two of you. 

Allow your eyes to take in the whole room, but keep the intention of a private conversation. Focus in on the one or two people smiling and nodding.

Not only will speaking to one person calm your nerves, it will create a feeling of intimacy with the audience.

Apply this advice to the writing of your piece as well as the delivery. To quote James Joyce, ...

Please...Don't picture the audience in their underwear. 

I’m not sure where that advice initially came from, but I guarantee you there are more effective (and less creepy) ways to calm your public speaking nerves.

How do I know? I’m an actor.  

Hi, I’m Sara Glancy, founder of Speak Masterfully. I received a BFA from NYU Tisch School for the Arts in Making a Fool of Myself in Public. (Okay, it was in Drama, but those are basically the same thing.)

And here’s something that might surprise you:

Even after 5 years touring and performing Off-Broadway, I STILL get nervous before stepping onstage.

Yep. Like clockwork, the curtain rises, the heart-rate quickens, and the butterflies flap.

In fact, most actors get pre-show jitters. You learn to get comfy with those nerves and let it fuel rather than derail your performance.

But here’s something that surprised ME:

The first time I stepped onstage as an...