How did you overcome your stage fright?

I was fifteen when I went on stage for the first time.

It was the final of the poem recital competition, and I recited a poem in Bahasa Malaysia in front of several hundred students from my grade.

I pulled through albeit having to suppress the nervousness that was on the verge of threatening to petrify me.

Minutes before I went on stage, I did something that I believe could help me with my stage fright — I removed my spectacles and recited my piece to a hall full of audiences that appeared as blurry figures in front of me.

And that was how I overcame my first stage fright.

Several more opportunities to perform on stage later, I started to enjoy public speaking. As I move on to college and university, I found myself accepting offers to emcee for extracurricular activities with little hesitation.

The more mature I get, I realised that I wasn’t actually afraid of the act of performing on stage or in front of a crowd; I was afraid of what the crowd would think of me, that the crowd would laugh at me. What I fear of was only scenarios that I pictured in my head.

Many years later, I took on a different kind of challenge which would put me on a medium that will reach more audiences than I could have ever imagined — TV, and subsequently, the internet.

When it comes to TV and web, it is a totally different ball game altogether. You are no longer just presenting or performing in front of a limited number of audience.

If you were to ask me five years ago, I would tell you that I’d rather speak to a room of audiences than to speak in front of a camera. Nowadays, I would easily choose to go for the latter. A lot of it has to do with the “can do” attitude in the newsroom.

In the early days, I had my fair share of self doubt. With the encouragement from my peers and colleagues, I continuously challenged myself and took on the opportunity to conduct interviews, host half an hour talk shows or news magazines and report live from location.

Learning is an ongoing process, I am certain that with every new experience it helps to refine my presentation and further builds my confidence. More importantly it shows that to become skilful, one requires a strong self belief and persistent practice. Lots of practice.