Why do you get nervous before speaking, and what helps?
The racing heart is your fight-or-flight response, not a flaw. Name it as a normal biological reaction and the panic about the panic starts to loosen.
What I say in the video
If speaking in front of people makes you nervous, you're in good company.
If you've ever felt your heart racing, your hands get shaky, or your mind go blank right before speaking, that's not a flaw. That's your brain reading "audience" as a potential threat and flipping on the fight or flight response. Adrenaline kicks in, your heart rate speeds up. Your body is trying to protect you.
The key shift here is this: instead of thinking, "What is wrong with me?" you can say, "This is a normal biological reaction."
Just understanding that often reduces the panic about the panic.
What I didn’t say in the video
The racing heart isn't the enemy. It's the same surge of adrenaline an athlete feels before the whistle, or an actor feels in the wings. Same biology, different label. The athlete calls it "ready." We call it "something's wrong with me." The physical event is identical — what changes everything is the story you tell about it.
That's why "calm down" almost never works. You can't argue your nervous system out of a response it evolved over millions of years to keep you alive. Fighting the feeling just adds a second problem on top of the first: now you're anxious about being anxious. That loop is what actually hijacks your mind and makes it go blank.
Naming it breaks the loop. The moment you say "this is just adrenaline, my body doing its oldest job," you stop treating the sensation as a crisis. The heart still pounds, but the panic about the pounding drains away. And here's the quiet upside: that same surge you were fighting is fuel. Channeled instead of resisted, it makes you sharper, more present, more alive in the room. The goal was never to feel nothing. It's to let the energy work for you instead of against you.
Try it today
Next time your body reacts before a talk, don't fight it. Just call it what it is. That alone changes the moment.
Bill Smartt is a New York executive presence and public speaking coach and the founder of Smartt Talk. He works with leaders in financial services, tech, advertising and startups.
