Beating Pre-Talk Nerves
Almost all speaking anxiety is before you start — reframe it, then rehearse by passive listening and transition drills.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 90%
Dicks's method for public-speaking nerves rests on one reframe and two preparation techniques. The reframe: ~98% of nervousness happens before you begin speaking and largely evaporates once you start — knowing this is itself relieving. The techniques: record your talk and listen to it passively until it 'seeps into your soul,' and drill the transitions (not the content), because people forget the moves between sections, not the sections.
Origin
Matthew Dicks's approach to nerves and rehearsal from Storyworthy and his coaching practice.
Core principles
- 01~98% of nervousness is pre-talk and fades once you begin, especially if prepared
- 02Everyone is nervous (including famous performers) — you're in the same boat, which is comforting
- 03Passive, repeated listening embeds a talk deeply without rote memorization
- 04People forget transitions, not content — so drill the seams
How to run it
- 1
Reframe the nerves as pre-talk only
Internalize that the anxiety is almost entirely before you speak and dissolves once you start. Recall past talks: you were terrified beforehand but 'pretty okay' once talking.
Pro tip Remembering that even a very famous TV performer was nervous backstage puts you 'in the same camp.'
- 2
Record and listen passively
Record your talk or pitch and listen to it repeatedly during idle activities — grocery shopping, folding laundry, dishes — until it becomes part of you.
Pro tip Especially powerful for auditory learners; and once practicing aloud gets tiresome, passive listening replaces it.
- 3
Drill the transitions with a listening game
Listen actively and, at each section end, quiz yourself on what comes next. Wherever you blank ('ooh, where do I go?'), build a mnemonic or memory hook for that seam.
Pro tip Rehearse by bouncing between the scenes/transitions only (car → store → parking lot → park → three weeks later), not the full script — if you know the scene order, fumbling a scene is fine.
Watch out Avoid memorizing the whole talk — 'memorizers are the most tortured souls in the world.' Remember your talk without memorizing it.
In the wild
A speaker Dicks coached was terrified before addressing scientists in the Netherlands and again before the Florida legislature. Asked how nervous he was once he began speaking in the Netherlands, he admitted he was 'pretty okay' once the talk started — the fear was all pre-talk.
→ Confirms the reframe: naming pre-talk nerves as the real (and temporary) problem is relieving.
Common mistakes
Memorizing the talk word-for-word
Rote memorization makes speakers 'tortured'; when they lose a word the whole thing collapses. Embed it via listening instead.
Rehearsing content but not transitions
People rarely forget a section; they forget how to move to the next one — so the seams are what need drilling.
Is it for you?
Best for
Nervous presenters and storytellers preparing a specific talk, pitch, or all-hands.
Not ideal for
Fully improvised speaking where there's no fixed talk to record and rehearse.
From the transcript
“98% of your nervousness is actually before you begin speaking”
“one of the best ways to prepare for it is to record it and listen to it. Listen to it passively”
“Most people don't forget their talk, they forget the transitions in their talk”
“if you can avoid memorizing, that'll save you a ton of suffering because memorizers they're the most tortured souls in the world”
From the episode
How to tell better stories
Matthew Dicks (Storyworthy)