The 5-Day STAGE FRIGHT Solution
Media/Press Materials
Contact Information
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (704) 402-0627
Facebook: facebook.com/stagefrightsolution
Twitter: @drdavidleefish
Author Bio
Dr. David Lee Fish, Ph.D., is a veteran educator, professional musician, public speaker, and recognized authority on stage fright management. His popular online course has helped musicians, actors, and other performers as well as public speakers and even athletes to find the way beyond their anxiety. Dr. Fish directs a thriving program of study in popular music at Catawba College in North Carolina. His students have competed on series like America’s Got Talent and American Idol, won national songwriting contests, and enjoyed chart-topping success with their music. Such accomplishments have led the country’s leading music education magazine to honor Catawba as a Best Music School for eight years running. As a saxophonist, Fish has shared the stage with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Cher, and the Temptations. He is also a founding member and past president of the Association for Popular Music Education.
Book Description
You’ll never achieve your full potential as a performer, public speaker, or athlete until you find your way beyond stage fright. The stakes are that high. The 5-Day Solution’s breakthrough, new DIY stage fright solution offers genuine hope those who become anxious in front of others. In a matter of a few short days, you can learn what might otherwise take years of frustrating, aimless searching to find on their own. As an important extra, Dr. Fish helps you achieve the type of flow that is synonymous with peak performance in the arts and beyond. Large bonus section includes instructions on how public speakers and athletes can also benefit from the 5-Day Solution.
Pat O'Connor (artist manager & CEO - POC Media, Inc.)
The 5-Day Solution is an essential weapon in the arsenal of any serious performer, public speaker, or athlete, and anyone else whose career depends on persuading, entertaining, or motivating others. Dr. Fish is revolutionizing entertainment & public speaking. DO THIS!!!"
Having spent the last 30+ years in the entertainment industry as a director, producer, writer, actor, sportscaster and voice-over artist, I'm all too familiar with the nemesis known as stage fright. Dr. Fish has helped me better understand this unwelcome guest, who often shows up unannounced.
Maddie A. (American Idol contestant) As a media and arts teacher, I love the multi-disciplinary and holistic approach to the never-ceasing problem: fear of what others are thinking. The text uses psychology and philosophy but also remains bluntly pragmatic. I start with the 5-day method in my On Camera course as a means of freeing my students from themselves to become themselves.
—Dr. Woodrow Hood (Director of Film Studies, Wake Forest University) I really like the straightforward and empowering method for helping performers recognize and work with stage fright without feeling shame, guilt, or embarrassment. The beauty of the approach is that it can be applied to other anxiety-provoking situations.
—Barbra Weidlein (MajoringInMusic.com) When you're 18-year-old twin sisters from Florida and trying to crack the shell of Nashville, it's easy to feel intimidated. The 5-Day Solution is a life-changer, driving the confidence & energy we need to deliver our sound, our dreams, and our art to our audiences! Thanks, Dr. Fish. You ROCK!!!
—2 Miles South (country recording artists)
Editorial Reviews
Thorough, yet concise, this useful guide helps you identify the root of stage fright and eliminate it through practical, clearly defined techniques. The encouraging tone, plethora of information, and side benefits of mindfulness and self-awareness add to the book’s appeal and value.
—Maya Fleischman (San Francisco Book Review)
★★★★★ Infused with a practical but can-do attitude throughout, Goodbye Butterflies is encouraging but not overwhelming. It is written in a way that makes for easy consumption and understanding, providing gems for all aspects of life. And while Fish has crafted such an engaging book that it can be read in one sitting, he also provides content that is guaranteed to be reread and pored over. A great book for anyone looking to combat their fears and live the life they would love.
—Kayti Nika Raet (Readers’ Favorite)
★★★★★ Goodbye Butterflies is a well-written book using plain English without any jargon. As a psychology graduate, and as an individual who suffers from stage fright during any sort of public speaking, I found Goodbye Butterflies to be both interesting and helpful. I felt like the author truly understood my anxiety with public speaking and that made it so much easier to follow.
—Sefina Hawke (Readers’ Favorite)
★★★★★ Goodbye Butterflies offers practical solutions to a problem that plagues people from all walks of life. I loved seeing how he was able to apply Zen principles and philosophy in developing his stage fright strategy. I enjoyed working through the 5-Day chapters and doing the workbook exercises and love that unforgettable image of the strawberry and the monk. Fish makes it easy to get into his book. You might even learn to embrace that fear and harness its energy to boost your performance. Most highly recommended.
—Jack Mangus (Readers’ Favorite)
I really like the straightforward and empowering method for helping performers recognize and work with stage fright without feeling shame, guilt, or embarrassment. The beauty of the approach is that it can be applied to other anxiety-provoking situations as well.
—Barbra Weidlein (MajoringInMusic.com)
Goodbye Butterflies is for anyone who has ever been required to appear before an audience yet suffers from stage fright, but it doesn’t just come from a doctor who hands out advice. It’s written by a fellow sufferer who well knows the mechanisms and challenges of stage fright, and who uses his personal experience and professional knowledge to provide tested solutions that work on many levels.
—D. Donovan (Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review)
As a media and arts teacher, I love the multi-disciplinary and holistic approach to the never-ceasing problem: fear of what others are thinking. The text uses psychology and philosophy but also remains bluntly pragmatic. I start with the 5-day method in my On Camera course as a means of freeing my students from themselves to become themselves. As graduates deal with the pervasiveness of cameras (on camera job interviews, meetings, performance situations), I’m always looking for sharp, practical solutions. The book is quickly poured over with easy language and a forward-moving narrative so students can break the tyranny of stage fright quickly, and, if need be, they can always go back for quick reference whenever the fear-of-the-lens sneaks back in.
—Dr. Woodrow Hood (Director of Film Studies, Wake Forest University)
Target Audience
Who Should Read
Book Benefits
Book Excerpt
Does this sound like you? You battle feelings of nervousness, self-doubt, and vulnerability while performing. Your heart pounds, your fingers tremble, and your vision blurs. Anxious thoughts and feelings distract you, keeping you from concentrating fully on the task at hand. Your nerves sometimes even lead to mistakes like missed notes or forgotten lines of dialogue.
Even if the performance goes well, the emotional ordeal prevents you from enjoying the moment. Perhaps worst of all, you’re painfully aware that nervousness is keeping you from realizing your full potential.
Most of us who perform in public as musicians, actors, dancers, comedians, or the like, recognize ourselves in that description. In fact, stage fright and speech fright reign as the #1 fear of people everywhere.
Some estimates put the number of those who suffer from stage fright as high as 75%. Remarkably, one study even found that 70% of professional orchestra musicians experience such intense anxiety that it mars their performance.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. There is an effective solution to stage fright. But it’s not found in trying to fight it as you might tend to think. It’s found in the opposite—in the type of acceptance that comes through what is known as mindfulness.
With acceptance comes detachment from your stage fright. Your nervousness may not disappear completely, but it fades into the background, and its hold on you shrivels. As it does, you’re able to achieve your full potential as a performer and can enjoy the spotlight. You can also more readily attain a state of flow associated with peak performance.
Helping you find your way beyond stage fright through mindfulness is my passion and what the 5-Day Solution is all about.
Interview Questions
1. Who gets stage fright?
2. When and why does stage fright strike?
3. How prevalent is stage fright?
4. Why do so many people have trouble with stage fright?
5. What are the consequences of stage fright?
6. Who have been some famous victims of stage fright?
7. What are some ways people try to deal with their stage fright?
8. Why is stage fright so difficult to manage?
9. Is there a cure for stage fright?
10. Isn’t there something wrong with a person if they get stage fright?
11. What makes you an expert on stage fright?
12. How did you become interested in stage fright?
13. Who is Goodbye Butterflies for?
14. What benefits does the 5-Day Solution offer?
15. How is the 5-Day Solution different than other approaches?
16. I understand there’s a big added benefit to the 5-Day Solution.
17. Can something really be done about stage fright in five day?
18. You say getting stage fright actually makes a person perfect. How?
19. Do you still get nervous?
20. How can someone find out more about the 5-Day Solution?
Story Ideas for Reporters
1. Why There is No One-And-Done Cure for Stage Fright
2. Why Stage Fright is a Problem for So Many
3. Famous Individuals Who’ve Battled Stage Fright
4. How Mindfulness Can Help with Stage Fright
5. How to Handle Stage Fright Like a Rock Star
6. The Three Factors that Cause Stage Fright
7. Why Talent and Skill Can’t Cure Stage Fright
8. You & Your Stage Fright: What You Need to Know
9. The Secret of Finding Your Way Beyond Stage Fright
10. Here is a Method that is Helping Performers Everywhere Overcome Their Stage Fright
11. Here’s a Quick Way to Reduce Your Stage Fright
12. What Everybody Ought to Know About Stage Fright
13. The Truth About Stage Fright
14. Is Stage Fright Sabotaging You?
15. This is the Effective Way to Counter Stage Fright
16. Why is Stage Fright So Difficult to Beat?
17. Breakthrough Approach for Stage Fright
