- I'm going to give you a reaction and breakdown
of a new David Blaine interview clip
where he talks, almost the entire time,
about his fear of public speaking and how he got over it.
If you don't know him,
David Blaine is an incredible magician,
and that's his claim to fame.
But there's nothing magical about how he coped
with his speaking anxiety.
The educational message of this breakdown
is that celebrity speakers and high level leaders
are just like you.
I'm guessing you'll relate
to a lot of what David Blaine says.
- You don't necessarily like these sorts
of interviews though, right?
- My strength, I feel like, is more based on doing magic
as opposed to talking.
So I rarely like to go out there and talk too much 'cause...
But I did a TED Talk which was very difficult, jumping
into the fire pit, and I did it without magic,
just speaking.
And that was kind of the first time that I did
a talk where I had no magic to stand behind.
- And how did you feel about that?
- It was very hard and I was very awkward and stuttery,
but it was nice to work on a talk, so it was interesting.
As a magician, I try to show things to people
that seem impossible, and I think magic,
whether I'm holding my breath or shuffling a deck of cards
is pretty simple.
It's practice, it's training, and it's...
(David sniffling)
It's practice, it's training, and experimenting
while pushing through the pain to be the best that I can be.
And that's what magic is to me.
So thank you.
(audience applauding)
- First, it's clear that David Blaine prefers the thing
he's best at, magic, rather than speaking.
Many of us have a preferred area of competence or skill,
or message, and that often comes from our education,
our background, our experience, in this case magic.
And we use public speaking as that next step,
that powerful way to communicate what we know.
So maybe just like you, public speaking was an add-on
to David Blaine's career, it wasn't the main point.
- Towards the end of it, you got a little emotional.
- 'Cause everybody thinks when I do magic
that that relates to the endurance.
Everybody always thinks that I'm cheating
or it's a trick or something like that.
So, when I finally put it all together
as one coherent thought and worked on it diligently
for a long time, most of the people that are close to me,
they like that talk 'cause they feel it's very honest.
By the way, Richard Worman was the one that asked me
to do that, and he had asked me to do that for 17 years.
- [Interviewer] Really?
- And then I worked day and night forever on that talk.
- [Interviewer] Did you?
- Months, day and night.
I didn't even watch one thing during that conference
'cause I was just studying all the notes
of what I needed to remember
and then I converted it to bullet points.
- Second, celebrities like David Blaine and others
get quite nervous about speaking.
Fame, status, money, that does nothing for you
when it comes to public speaking anxiety.
He avoided this TED Talk for 17 years.
You think you're nervous?
17 years is professional level avoidance.
But the key thing I want to focus on in this segment
is how much he prepared.
He says he worked on that 20 minute presentation for months,
day and night.
I'm guessing he practiced a hundred times
if you counted every single time he talked through it
in his house, in his car,
pretended to be on a practice stage.
And it's the same for most celebrity level speakers
and leaders.
The rumor is that the late Steve Jobs practiced
his presentation, where he introduced the iPhone 1,
over 100 times.
Some people claim he practiced 200 times.
Arnold Schwarzenegger practiced his first speech
as the new governor of California over 70 times.
My recommendation is always to practice a minimum
of 10 times for an ordinary presentation.
But most successful speakers I know, practice a lot more
than that for a big speech.
- What are the nerves going into something like that,
given that it's out of your comfort zone?
- Well that's another thing that's very interesting.
So when I was trying to figure out how to do this,
I started reading all of the books on public speaking,
and the first thing that was a really interesting approach
by the way, was learning why we're afraid to public speak.
I'm not afraid to go on a white sharks in the ocean
with no cage, but public speaking I was very uncomfortable,
very nervous to do it.
- [Interviewer] Still?
- No, no, no, no, no.
I put myself in the boiling pit.
But once you understand the psychology
of why we're afraid to public speak,
it becomes really interesting.
So do you know the...
- No.
- What would be your first thought?
- I mean, you don't wanna mess up.
All eyes are on you doing something
that you're... - But what's the problem...
What's the problem with all eyes on you?
- Self-conscious, uncomfortable.
- The reason that we're so uncomfortable public speaking
is because when all eyes are on you,
if you go back a million years
and you think about every eye on you,
it's somebody that's a predator wants to hunt you.
So having all the eyes on you while you're on
an open plateau and you're elevated, you're in a place
of extreme danger, if you go back.
So the evolution of the brain hadn't changed that much.
So we still, even though we're now not in a dangerous place
to be on a stage, we're wired to have that fear
of being hunted, being chased by a predator.
Once I started to process that, then I started to accept it.
And then once you accept it, then the fear starts to change.
And then after that talk,
I went with Washington Speakers Bureau
and I had them just book me to do talks.
And I started doing 10,000 people,
and I would go up on stage and I would not even prepare.
I would just go up and I would just wing it.
And most of the time it was terrible by way
because it would hit like one and 10 or something.
- Yeah.
- But it really started to make me comfortable
with the process.
- You notice here, he says he's not anxious anymore.
So how did that happen?
He said he put himself in the boiling pit.
Once you do a big presentation like that,
and push through it, you'll notice that the world
doesn't end just because you were nervous.
Public speaking gets easier and your nerves
will be much easier to manage
once you put yourself out there.
The more you do it, the easier it is to manage
those emotions.
Now, here is where I disagree with what Blaine says.
He says our anxiety is about a deeper fear of being hunted.
And I've never seen any evidence
that connects public speaking fear to a fear of being hunted
in our past.
That's a belief he has, not a verifiable fact.
Virtually all research I've read shows
that our anxiety is related to fear of failure,
embarrassment, and essentially the potential
for imagined downsides of performing in front
of lots of eyes that we believe are evaluating us.
So I don't buy his diagnosis, but who cares?
There's a bigger lesson.
Blaine found a mindset that helped him get over that fear.
Our anxieties are driven by mindsets and thoughts,
and if we can change our mindset,
we can change our emotions.
For example, the mindset that helps me feel
much less nervous about speaking
is that I say to myself, "This is just practice."
No matter how big the presentation,
even when I'm getting paid by a high profile client,
I still say to myself as I'm getting ready,
"It's just practice.
It's just practice."
That mindset instantly relaxes me
and helps me do an even better job than I would have.
The tip here is to find whatever mindset works for you
to manage your anxiety.
And at the very end he mentioned how he ended up
doing lots of public speaking,
and that was what was ultimately very helpful in terms
of him in getting completely comfortable with the process.
And that's true for anyone I've met who is working
on public speaking.
The more you do it, the more comfortable you get.
The big picture takeaway for this is that celebrity speakers
are no different than you or me.
They get anxious and they cope with that
by practicing like crazy,
by finding a mindset that helps reduce their anxiety,
and they ultimately get over it
by doing lots of public speaking.
If you want some concrete tips on this,
I have two related videos on public speaking anxiety
and I have a free PDF download with seven instant tips
to make you a more confident speaker.
I'll put links to all of that
in the expandable description below the video.
Don't forget to tell me your thoughts
in the comments section.
Thanks for watching. God bless.
And I'll see you soon.