Mark (50) Fear of Presentations & Giving Speeches

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VIP Client Case Histories

Mary (28) Fear of FlyingDavid (38) Fear of Public SpeakingMark (50) Fear of Presentations & Giving Speeches

Mark, Executive, 50: Fear of Presentations & Giving Speeches.

“I made a major presentation today to senior execs from a range of major companies.  It was awesome.  I put into play all of my preparation techniques. My best presentation ever!  Poised and powerful!  100% Success. Thank you..”

Summary.

Mark came to CTRN with a major presentation that he needed to give in less than a month – and a serious case of stage fright.

He had plenty of experience and skill, but in the heat of the moment anxiety and adrenalin would mess up his thinking.

Working with CTRN in the VIP program, Mark is now able to present fearlessly and powerfully.

Background.

Mark came to CTRN to eliminate his Fear of Public Speaking. He had a major presentation coming up in less than a month away.

A naturally positive and enthusiastic individual, he was looking forward to being able to present to various groups of people.

The trouble was that – like many people – Mark was constantly running an old ‘movie’ in his mind of everything that could go wrong in a meeting or presentation. He felt the adrenalin run throughout his body and he would switch into the “Fight & Flight” mode. He was asked a lot to present even as a keynote speaker but the anxiety would kick in around one hour prior to his presenting and send him into tunnel vision frozen, helpless, like a deer in the headlights of a car.

Diagnosis.

To try and compensate for his problem Mark would over prepare. During his presentation for example to several hundreds of people, he would use humour and ask the audience questions to engage the audience first. A great idea, however Mark would lose his way a little and need to take a break.

Fight-or-flight kicked in and he needed the break to regain his composure. Needless to say this was a embarrassing for Mark.
This was not the first time that Mark had lost his way – it had also happened many years prior, way back in his college years.

As a result he had developed a rich vocabulary of negative self-talk: “I hope it doesn’t happen this time” had becoming a resounding phrase in his sub conscious.

The good news was that he could imagine how it would be when his problem had gone. He said when a presentation would be suggested that he would think to himself, “Wow, what an opportunity”. That his upcoming presentation less than a month away would be a normal experience.

But in his thinking, the images and self-talk of failure filled his mind as he reran the negative script with what could go wrong, over and over. Thoughts of embarrassing himself and not even delivering what he needed to present.

He would even plan emergency exits in case things didn’t go so well.

The anxious feelings were closing him in. Mark was losing his creativity and spontaneity. He was feeling intense stress as his hands grew colder, his vision narrowed to tunnel vision, his body hunching down as he thought about whether he had really prepared well enough.

Strategy.

So with Mark we worked through the CTRN VIP program to help him change his behaviour.

We started with a special process to have him feel balanced, level, and grounded. This also allowed Mark to have the audience feel connected to him. Also through this process he was able to remember all his content and information that he needed to deliver.

We then worked to remove the negative emotion of fear from the events in the past. This memory of fear from these events had laid the foundation for anxiety. So once fear was no longer associated with past events Mark was then able to remove anxiety regarding his future presentation.

Mark was concerned that the fear of physiological response that he could not control may happen again triggering the fight and flight response within him again. The next stage: remove the ‘limiting decision’ of doubt.

He said at this point he was almost 100% complete in doing the CTRN program.

Digging deeper, however, we found that his mind was divided with part of him holding him back whilst the other part of him wanting to perform naturally, ultimately so that he could be happy and safe. We worked with a special process to resolve that internal conflict.

Finally had him create in his subconscious the ideal thoughts regarding his next important meeting. It was a high level meeting that had been quite a stretch for Mark to reach. He now felt good about the presentation and compelled to succeed.

Results.

As usual we received Marks daily report and this was the result we were happy to read:

“I made a major presentation today to senior execs from a range of major companies.  It was awesome.  I put into play all of my preparation techniques. My best presentation ever!  Poised and powerful!  Thank you. 100 percent success.”

Mary (28) Fear of FlyingDavid (38) Fear of Public SpeakingMark (50) Fear of Presentations & Giving Speeches

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