Meeting anxiety is a real thing. Here’s how to beat the nerves, according to a career expert. [Video]

Anxiety is known for rearing its head at the most inopportune times.

The fight-or-flight response in our bodies, once needed for survival, still exists but manifests in inconvenient, everyday ways.

Meetings are no exception.

Emily Durham, a career coach, content creator, and host of “The Straight Shooter Recruiter” podcast, told Business Insider that countless of her clients have admitted feeling nervous before interviews and public speaking. Many also express feeling the same way before going into a meeting.

Durham said she used to experience the exact same thing.

“I had prescription hand deodorant,” she said, explaining she needed it because her palms would be so sweaty walking into a meeting room.

“The barrier isn’t your skill, it’s not your experience, it’s not the examples that you have prepared,” she said. “It’s the confidence you have showing up and believing that people want to hear what you have to say.”

Our own worst critic

Anxiety at work…