Looking for advice.

Anonymous

May 25,2022 at 1:47AM UTC

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Looking for advice. I'm confident in talking to and advocating for customers, communication with co-workers and based on customer and colleague feedback that I am doing a great job BUT whenever I have to talk with supervisors or managers during bi-weekly sales meetings I tend to get really nervous. I'm worried that it's affecting how they view me even though I am a top producer, have a 62% close rate, have consistently grown my sales by 28% QOQ and just delivered a huge contact they've been trying to get for 6 months, yet my voice shakes, I fumble my words/thoughts/ideas and just don't present myself well. AT ALL. I've written everything down, and practiced but still fumble 80% of the time. I know it stems from dealing with authority and thought it would get better over time and meetings. After today I am almost thinking I may need therapy to overcome s it's just silly.

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AnonymousMay 25,2022 at 2:08AM UTC
Not silly. Your fear of authority is absolutely real and therapy is not a bad idea.
AnonymousMay 25,2022 at 11:50AM UTC
regardless of receiving therapy more than anything you need to practice public speaking frequently enough to where you are comfortable. You have to keep confronting the problem until it’s no longer a fear. Join adult debate clubs. Every state has a toastmasters to specifically help people who struggle with public speaking. Just get proactive in addressing the issue. All that therapy will do is tell you what you already know. Now you have to work on your self confidence … so the more you do it… the less it will be a monster to your mind. Public speaking is ranked one of the highest fears that people have
AnonymousMay 27,2022 at 6:08AM UTC
I also get nervous when I talk to my manager and directors. Something that I done is write down bullet points what I want to talk about. Usually in the order of how I want to talk about them. I take my time to talk through each bullet. Sometimes I might say I have a list of # of things to talk about or here are my three points on xyz. This way they’ll give me the space to take my time and talk through things. At the end of the meeting, I’ll look over my notes and see if I missed anything.
If there are topics I’m nervous about, I say that upfront.