Quora Answer: Does the Adage, “Look at Your Audience as if They were Naked” Help?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Does the old adage, ‘look at your audience as if they were naked’ help in public speakers’ nervousness?”

Frankly, that is a terrible idea.  Imagine the average audience you encounter in your public speaking experience.  They may be your peers, they may be colleagues, they may be your bosses.  Most of them would not be people you want to see naked.  Instead of being nervous, you would be confronted with existential horror.

To address nervousness and anxiety, it helps to have constant practise, it helps to be prepared, it helps when you have built up your confidence and credibility.  For some people, it is enough.  For others, this alone may not be so.  They cope by creating rituals before they speak, which vary from person to person.

When speaking, some people get nervous when looking in the eyes of the audience.  The trick would be to look at a point in the brow, so you still connect with them, but you do not have to look into their eyes.  Some people get nervous speaking to strangers.  If the audience is small, come early, mingle, and build rapport so they are no longer complete strangers.  If this is not possible, have friends sit in the audience, and look for them when you speak, so that it appears that you are connecting with the general audience, but you are speaking to a familiar, friendly face.

Ultimately, the best way is to understand that when we stand before people and speak, we don the speaker persona, and channel the audience, their aspirations, their dreams, their concerns.  You master the art of bridging that distance between the audience and you through psychological tricks and rhetorical devices, so they empower you with their energy, and are not a threat to your esteem in your mind.  This comes with constant practise.