How to calm your pre-presentation jitters

Imagine,  you start to get that sinking, no queezy (technical term) feeling in the pit of your stomach, your heart is racing and your mind is telling you to run away just as fast as you can.

 

No, you are not under attack and no one is shooting at you. Instead you are just getting ready to do a presentation. And yes those are butterflies, not helicopters inside your stomach.

This is a feeling that most people feel before giving a speech, or presentation, and the following ten tips will help you train those butterflies to fly in formation.

 

10. Take a deep breath:

When we get nervous our breathing can become shallow, which limits the oxygen that we take it. Oxygen that our brain needs to think clearly. Several deep breaths will help calm you down and allow you to get the oxygen you need.

 

9. Realize that they want you to succeed:

A good friend of mine Renata Radek once told me that every audience you speak in front of will have 2 types of people in it. The first type have never done public speaking before and they are dealthly afraid of it, so they respect you for being up there. And the second type have done public speaking before and they know how difficult it can be, so they also respect you for being up there. So either way you can’t lose.

 

8. Speak about what you know:

Knowing your subject matter well will help your confidence level.

 

7. Prepare thoroughly:

According to David Peoples, author of an excellent book titled: Presentations Plus, 95% of how well your presentation is going to go will be determined before you even start. This will also help you with tip #8, by allowing you to speak about what you know about.

 

6. Focus on the message, not the medium:

The time to focus on how you deliver your message is before you go on stage, not while you are on stage. In my journey into becoming a professional speaker, my nervousness was greatly reduced, when I took the focus off me and put the focus on my audience.

If you want to read Pre-presentation Tips 1-5 check out my next blog post.