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Don't let fear hold you back with Justine Armstrong
With Justine Armstrong Fearless Speaking
You can be genuine, authentic and a phenomenal operator and innovator - but if you are not a talker or a wonderful presenter, even in front of the smallest group, some opportunities may be passing you by. Fear of public speaking can be a crippling experience but it is something that can be overcome and Justine Armstrong can show you how.
A renowned psychologist and educator, Justine has worked with people from all walks of life, helping them refine and develop their confidence with presentation skills. Generally the people who seek out Justine’s help are CEOs and business owners. Justine says, her clients are “…someone who's either been entrepreneurial in spirit, or responsible for either selling a product or a service that has some degree of value for someone else."
She adds, “People that are drawn to me are people who have a high level of integrity, who value authenticity, who value genuineness, who have got high standards for themselves, and who want to feel comfortable in front of a room full of people. They don't want to feel like they've got to press some charisma button and be fake."
For these kinds of people however, public speaking does not come easily and their intense fear can stop them from taking opportunities which could change their lives. She had one client who was a CEO. She says, “He started a company from scratch. The last valuation I heard from him, it was valued at $100m. He was getting a lot of offers. And at one point in time, he would go into a panic attack speaking in front of six of his own staff. And this is a confident man - someone that people would gravitate towards because he's such a dynamic, confident guy. But, in front of the room, that just dissipated totally."
She says, “Fear is not the enemy, and a lot of people think there's something wrong with them for feeling that fear. And my view is that there's nothing wrong with them at all, and actually, in contrast to that, there is a very good reason that they feel that fear."
People who are fearful of speaking in public, often understand the magnitude of what they are being asked to do - the responsibility - and they want to do it well. The good news is that Justine can help people work on their fear to become outstanding presenters.
She has developed a five-step plan and program to help people deliver any message or information, to any audience and to do it confidently and clearly to captivate their audience, so they can increase their business, income and recognition.
"I TEACH PEOPLE TO DECODE THEIR FEAR, AND THE FEAR THEN DISSOLVES OF ITS OWN VOLITION."
JUSTINE’S FIVE-STEP PLAN
1. Dissolve the fear
People have to learn how to dissolve their fear. Justine says, “Most people in this space talk about conquering your fear, or feel the fear and do it anyway. And I actually believe that that doesn't work. Firstly, because your fear is not an enemy to be destroyed. Feeling the fear and doing it anyway also doesn't work for a lot of people, because they don't know how to feel it because it's so uncomfortable and unpleasant.” What works though, is working on the source of the fear. She says, “When you actually know how to dissolve the fear, there's no effort involved, actually. What I find is I teach people to decode their fear, and the fear then dissolves of its own volition. Once that's dissolved and people aren't being derailed and out of control, then they can actually do the next step."
2. Focus
If you are not fearful, explains Justine, and not ”… focusing on your heart rate going berserk, your temperature going weird, face going red, feeling sick, chest tightening - then you can focus on other things. The audience, your presenting style. You can enhance strengths in your style and minimise weaknesses so you can engage more people in your audience."
3. Work to a new formula
It’s time to throw out the out-dated presentation formula of introduction, body, conclusion. It doesn’t engage. Justine says, “My job is to help make this easy for people, so there are formulas that I teach from the beginning to even after the end to design a presentation easily, seamlessly, so that you're inspired, the audience is inspired, and it's enjoyable to design it."
4. Flow
Justine says, “You have to learn how to go with the flow. Stuff will always go wrong at some point in time. Either you'll make a mistake, or someone in the audience will do something you don't like, or your slides will stop, or the tech will blow out. There'll be some problem, and so you have to know how to handle those things with what I call ‘elegance’ so that they don't derail you, so that you can use them to your advantage."
5. Fluency
Justine says, “Most of my clients have very high standards for themselves, and they beat themselves up at the end of a presentation – ‘I should have done this. I could have said that. Oh, my God, why didn't I do that? I'm an idiot’, or whatever, and they feel worse after than they did at the beginning. And what that does is it makes them feel bad, so then they don't want to present next time because who wants to feel bad again? It's a downward spiral. It doesn't do anything constructive. So what I teach is, how can people feel good after every presentation and improve so that it's a spiral upwards? Feeling good, and improving, and mastering the art of presenting."
How to get in touch with Justine
Justine says, “I usually offer a consultation, a complimentary consultation with people, just to really dive into what is stopping them. Let's really look at the barriers, the obstacles, what's getting in the way, and exactly what steps need to happen to take someone from where they are to where they want to go."
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