Everyone experiences fear in one way or another, particularly when we leave our area of comfort, and journey off into the unknown.  I’m here to remind you that having fear is not always something you should dread or avoid. As a professional speaker, I wind up in situations that most people would associate with fear… so the question arises as to whether or not I experience fear.  I’ll be happy to answer that question later in this BLArticle® because I need to know what kind of fear you are referring to.  Fear can present itself in three different varieties.

Good Fear

Whenever we are faced with unknowns, a certain amount of fear will appear. This can manifest itself in the form of anxiousness.  In business, this might be due to an important meeting with a client, or a key presentation in front of a large audience.  We can feel butterflies in our stomach, and a slight shortness of breath.  Sounds like trouble, right?  Wrong.

A few butterflies is what I call, “good fear.”  For starters, if you feel good fear, I can almost guarantee you that you won’t be boring.  One of the biggest challenges anyone can experience is showing up to do a job, and just not feeling motivated, or excited, to take on the challenge that awaits you.  Good fear takes care of that concern because it provides just enough of a reminder of what’s at stake to keep you on your toes without doing any real harm to your performance.

Bad Fear

Now that you know that certain types of fear can be helpful, let me introduce you to a second kind of fear I call, “bad fear.”  Some will refer to this type of fear as nervousness – a word I’ve never been a fan of.  When I think of the word, “nervousness,” I think of a person shaking from fear, almost cowering in the corner.  It’s rooted in a fear of the unknown, and I’ve never known anyone who performed better when nervous. 

The first suggestion I’d like to make is to drop the word, “nervous” from your vocabulary; just get rid of it!  In some instances, words really do matter, and this is one of them.  Substitute the word, “anxious,” for the word “nervous.” Now, there’s a word – anxious – that I can get behind.  When you are under pressure, and you’re anxious, you can channel that anxiety into energy.  Strangely enough, the only time I find myself feeling a bit nervous is when I’m not anxious.  

My second suggestion would be to try and stop misusing your imagination.  When faced with pressure, our imaginations can get the best of us.  We find ourselves thinking about all the little things that might go wrong.  For instance, when preparing for a presentation, you probably feel a small amount of good fear keeping you on your toes, and eliminating the chances of you sleepwalking through a presentation, or forgetting to bring a key item.  When bad fear creeps in, you begin to think about the worst possible outcomes to your task, and they are often almost unimaginable.  Perhaps these thoughts are difficult to imagine because they never actually happen. A gentle reminder about reality can snap you out of that bad fear funk.  To be clear, I’m not necessarily a fan of bad fear, and although I don’t like it and I try to channel it into good fear, it doesn’t scare me. There is something that does scare me, however…

No Fear

The third, and in my mind, the most dangerous fear of all is, “no fear.”  For the record, I’ve only experienced one significant slump in my life as a professional speaker.  Ironically, as my command of my topic and delivery techniques were going up, simultaneously my evaluations from my audiences were going down.  I couldn’t figure out what in the world I was doing wrong, and I finally flew another Xerox trainer out to watch me speak. He nailed it in the first five minutes when he said this: “You look like you have no fear.” That was no surprise to me because I did feel fearless and in complete control.  Unfortunately, to the audience, I looked like a guy who was going through the paces, a bit arrogant, almost bored, and had little interest in truly connecting with those who were in the seats watching me. 

So, do I get nervous before a presentation?  You already know the first half of my answer: No, I don’t get nervous, but just like you, I do get anxious. Please let me continue that thought: When we learn how to do our jobs well, we don’t have to worry about being nervous.  We have to worry about being flat.  That’s why I actually hope I feel a little anxiousness in my belly before I begin.  I can channel that into energy!

You don’t have to be giving presentations to connect to this message.  Maybe you’re visiting a client to sell them a product you have sold hundreds of, if not thousands. Maybe you’re handling an interview with a recruiter and although you’ve had interviews countless times before, you feel some anxiousness.  Good fear can be used to your advantage, bad fear can be rationalized away, but no fear can wait like a silent assassin.  Remember to appreciate the fear you feel so you can perform like a champion in whatever you do.

 

 

 

What do you get when combine energy, enthusiasm… and great content?  You get a “Pocket Sized Pep Talk!”  Tune in and you’ll hear a collection of BLArticles®, conversations, and interviews that are sure to teach, motivate, inspire, and oh yes; entertain!   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pocket-sized-pep-talks/id1497772972

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s better than one sales trainer? Well, two of course!  Join us every other Tuesday for our LinkedIn Live Series at 12:30 pm EST when we bat around different ideas in what we’re calling: “What to say when a prospect says…?”  Our most recent tips related to, “What to say when a prospect says, I want to think about it.”

 

 

 

 

 

I was on, “It’s Not Rocket Science! Five Questions Over Coffee,” a fun podcast with Stuart Webb.   You can listen to the podcast here: https://thecompleteapproach.substack.com/p/five-questions-over-coffee-with-rob#details

If you are looking for something to listen to on your next coffee break you might enjoy this brief chat between me and Tom Bailey, Founder of Succeed Through Speaking and the Succeed Through Speaking podcast. Listen closely if you would like some high value ideas to boost your business results.

You can read the transcript here – https://bit.ly/3BOfU7o

You can watch the podcast here – https://youtu.be/w-QgGvweE2M

You can listen to the podcast here – https://apple.co/2YVGWuN

I Zoomed my way to India to speak with Motivational Diaries, and Ashish Janiani.  We spoke for about 30 minutes about sales processes and training for success. 

   Sales Process To Sales Success || Interview With Robert Jolles – YouTube

If you want to read some “Life Lessons” I was able to share in a recent interview, you’ll find them here:  https://worldclassperformer.com/short-life-lessons-from-robert-jolles/

I had the pleasure of appearing on Robert Miller’s, Follow Your Dream Podcast and thoroughly enjoyed the discussion.  We go way back in this conversation to my first memories of performance… at age four!  I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!  https://follow-your-dream.simplecast.com/episodes/rob-jolles-superstar-salesman

I took another spin on, “The Abundant Accountant” podcast, and talked about a number of issues including  why sales training so often fails found here:  https://theabundantaccountant.com/episode-101-why-sales-training-for-accountants-and-tax-firm-owners-fails-and-how-to-avoid-it-with-rob-jolles

I also mixed it up with a wonderful podcaster, Terry McDougall on her Marketing Mambo show.  As she puts it, we “Cha-cha-chatted!”  If you want to hear sales and marketing go toe-to-toe, you’ll enjoy this show. https://www.buzzsprout.com/1569061/8172686-the-art-of-influence-in-sales-and-marketing-with-rob-jolles

I recently did a podcast with a wonderful, new, and up-and-coming star named Jahmaal Marshall.  His podcast is called, “Listen Then Speak.”  I’ve done a lot of podcasts, but we got into topics I rarely talk about, and I’m quite sure you’ll enjoy the show!  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/listen-then-speak/id1550684472

I’ve appeared on the “Small Business Advocate Show” with Jim Blasingame for almost 20 years now, and you’ll find dozens of our conversations on his website.  We just sat down a few weeks ago for a great conversation about selling fundamentals and the strategic use of stories.  Here’s a link to over 100 interviews done over the years, including my most recent interview that explores our many behaviors we display that are based more on a default mechanism than actual logic. https://www.smallbusinessadvocate.com/small-business-experts/rob-jolles-134

We posted a video series on delivering amazing online presentations with my friend, Jeremy Webb.  We go over some great stuff including:

• How to Select the Best Equipment for Online Presentations
• Pro Tips for Sustaining Interest in Online Presentations
• How to Look Like a Pro!
• Public Speaking Anxiety Tip
• Virtual Office Setup for Online Presentations

You’ll find the whole playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRO7BsBDl6oL-6ZPW3O01x-g5PiR38ljL

I was recently interviewed on the “Salesman Podcast,” which was a lot of fun. If you’re looking to Change Minds, check out this podcast: https://www.salesman.org/the-simple-step-by-step-process-to-influence-anyone-with-rob-jolles/

I loved talking about the book, Why People Don’t Believe You on a podcast that I’m sure you’ll like called Onward Nation: https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/rob-jolles/

After 30+ years as a professional speaker and trainer, one of the most common questions I get is this: “How do we make sure the training sticks?”  Take a moment and listen to this podcast; “SalesChats” with John Golden.  If you want to know why most training fails, listen up! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR3dDOlTK7U&list=FLxBXKhqz0xBwbUPMqNthAJA&index=2&t=1293s