How To Overcome Stage Fright With A Teleprompter

Do you suffer from Stage Fright? It’s perfectly normal for someone new to appearing on camera to have a little case of the jitters. Regardless of your previous experience, it’s something you have to get over if you want to present yourself on camera or in front of a live audience.

Anytime you clamber on stage –whether it’s talking to a group of one or 1,000 –part of your job is to create a positive and informed mental image in the minds of your audience. If you have presentation coming up, a little stage fright is a common phenomenon; quite a few well-known celebrities who regularly appear in the public eye have been known to suffer from stage fright. Heck, after 40 years of being on stage regularly, even I still suffer bouts of it, myself.

What can reduce the pre-show jitters? The best thing to do is develop confidence in your performance. Of course, the first step is to have your speech worked out ahead of time. One terrific way for you to overcome stage fright is to practice your speech with the help of a teleprompter. You don’t need to spend a lot of money to buy a dedicated teleprompter device to practice with, either. You could use your own laptop running reasonably-priced teleprompter software, set up a video camera and run through your performances a few times. Repetition is the mother of skill and by recording, then evaluating your speech or appearance, you’ll build a good measure of much-needed confidence in yourself and in your material. And you’ll be honing your delivery skills at the same time.

Teleprompter running on laptop. Setting up a laptop-based teleprompter is not a difficult task. You simply set up the notebook screen approximately eight feet in front of you and at the approximate eye level of your audience. Next, if you wish to tape your performance for review –or even to dub it on to DVDs and sell it! –set up your camcorder so the lens is just above your notebook screen. Now, position yourself in front of the camera so that while you read from the text that appears on your laptop screen, your eyes appear to look directly into the lens. It make take a few adjustments to get things set up correctly, but most camcorders nowadays have viewfinders that flip over so you can see yourself as you’ll appear on tape.

You need to practice using your teleprompter to get the proper flow of your speech or presentation, which means you need to practice it out loud. Remember to smile at the right places, and remember that your facial expressions should relate to the points that you’re emphasizing in your speech.

As you practice and rehearse, the stage freight will slowly fade away. As your confidence builds, you’ll find it much easier to stand before the camera and talk to a TV or a live audience. When it’s time for your big moment, you’ll find yourself relaxed and confident as the spotlight falls on you. And that’s the key, here. Confidence in your materials comes from being perfectly comfortable and familiar with your presentation, which you can easily develop by practicing in front of your camcorder with a basic teleprompter program.

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For most of us, dressing up for a big event provides a measure of confidence. In essence, that’s what this practice is going to do for you onstage. Look your best, smile at the camera, practice with your teleprompter and camcorder before hand, and evaluate the videos of your practice sessions. You’ll discover things that can be corrected –even eliminated –that will add to your presentation, and when you finally feel you’ve nailed it, you’ll probably be surprised to realize that somewhere along the way, you’ve lost your stage fright.

Our recommendation: teleprompter software for PC’s using Windows XP

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