I completely and utterly lose my mental status when I know I am being recorded.

I have to CALL & RECORD the "Appointment Set Up" conversation with these two apartment complexes. I've been wanting to get an apartment shop, just to give it a try. Heck, I can't even do phone-in shops if I know I have to record the call through some phone system! I have to turn those shops down!

I get flubbergusted in a heartbeat when I know there is someone recording my telephone conversation. Oh yeah, I get the "This call may be recorded" from normal every-day life phone conversations - but that is "different".

How do I know this? If I make a phone call and get a voice mail - I have no idea what to say. If I DO manage to eek out some sort of coherent sentence, it makes no sense, and I talk so fast on the machine my message is completely screwed up!

One of my old jobs, I answered an advice column under an alias, and it was for entertainment purposes. I loved it, I could write as much as I wanted. I moderated the forums, talking to people. BUT! (yes, of course, there's a BUT) When I was asked to do an actual RADIO INTERNET SHOW - I could NOT do it. I would try and do test runs, and my cohort in crime would coach me along. But, I just could NOT stop being nervous and speaking too fast, misreading content, you name it!

Really wanna know why this is so weird? I worked for WDW, Universal and Sea World. I LOVED performing as a cast member, grabbing the microphone before shows, talking with guests.

How do I get over this? I'm not nervous about the shop at all. It's the phone call being recorded that is scaring the ever-lovin' crap out of me!

Actually I don't find it that weird. The reason? I video shop and have no problems with it, put a phone in my hand for a recorded call and I'm in a dither. For the life of me I have not been able to figure out why one seems so easy and the other causes severe stage fright.

The recorded phone target is an invisible audience. This is why it seems so unnatural. You are having to think of too many things at once.

Maybe this will help. Write two or three scripts according to what the target might say. Put them on different-colored paper so you can tell them apart.

Alternatively, write the telephone script like a multiple-choice test. If the target answers with C, then your next question is also labeled C.

Another way to try this might be to write all of your questions down on colored 3x5 cards, maybe with possible answers on the same color. For a radio show, with no dead spaces, this might cause you to stop to think too much, but on the telephone you don't have to.

Rehearsing with these will help you keep from seizing up when you have something to say.

Get some magazines with large pictures of male and female faces, choose one of each and put it in front of you. This will be the person you are talking to. Never look in the mirror because you might be distracted with the way your mouth says certain words.

I just wouldn't think of the phone call being recorded at all. I try to stick to the main points given within the guidelines and usually if I cover those, the conversation usually flows pretty well.