10/11/2025
On Saturday I spent most of the day at West Midlands Fire Service Training Headquarters in Birmingham. No, I’m not training to be a firefighter (total respect to our firefighters) but it was the venue for our West Midlands Samaritans Regional meeting. So, in my relatively new voluntary role as WM Regional Marketing Officer this was my first in-person meeting with other regional RMOs in other capacities.
I’d been asked to give a talk on various regional marketing matters for our 17 branches. I agreed and prepared a talk but I never feel confident in getting up and talking infront of an audience. Talking in small groups or socially is no sweat but give me an audience and it’s arghhh!
It’s not what to say or how to say it as I’m confident with writing good content and as a pro Voice Over I’ve no problem with my vocal delivery but give me a vocal booth to hide and talk in any day of the week! 😀
When people hear I’m nervous of standing up Infront of an audience they’re quite surprised…. “but Em, you are a voice over, surely you have all the confidence”. Errrr, nope I don’t and it’s nothing to do with voice over as I’m confident vocally.
I’ve been asked several times to give talks on a variety of topics and part of me feels happy to take part and then the feeling of dread creeps in.
It’s so easy to assume we know what others are good or confident at because of the role they do but when you dig a little deeper there could be something within that holds them back which can affect performance, productivity and how they feel.
How did I get through yesterday? Well,
▪️ I compartmentalised my research and thoughts.
▪️ Wrote the content of my talk (tweaking it several times) and not using AI!
▪️ Practiced my vocal delivery and timing (as on a time restriction).
▪️ Prepared hand outs.
▪️ Mind distraction, focusing on something else.
I’m not 100% nervous free but I know the above prep helped me feel more confident and it was only moments before that a few butterflies fluttered.
Also, being okay with challenging myself.
Knowing my strengths are content writing and vocal performance also helps leaving me to deal with the audience anxiety.
