October 13, 2022

Reframing Stage Fright (pt3)

Wow, the replies to my stage fright emails keep on rolling in...

Thanks to everyone who has contributed!

Here’s a bit more for y’all...

From Keith Devon:

Hey Jonathan,

I’ve probably missed the boat on getting in some useful resources on stagefright, but ’Fear setting’ by Tim Ferriss really resonated with me:

Why you should define your fears instead of your goals

—Keith

From Amy Uskoski:

Hi JS,

Same experience here. [That feeling] gets me revved up, which energizes the audience. It helps to go “on stage“ telling myself that everyone will be supportive, or at least open to listening.

—Amy

From yours truly:

Amy’s comment reminded me of another tactic that always helped me way back when I was getting up to perform as a solo singer/songwriter, which was this:

Nobody wants you to suck!

They are not waiting for you to fail.

They are not judging you.

They are hoping for an experience that is worth telling their friends about!

Give it to them.

They will thank you.

Yours,

—J