Stop Being Nervous About Your Presentation
Stop being nervous about your presentation.
I know, easier said than done. But if you do the six simple things in this article, you can immediately go from anxious and unsure to confident and committed.
Most people in positions of leadership have a love-hate relationship with public speaking. You know it’s a necessary skill to influence and guide and build, but you struggle with finding the confidence to make the experience easy and enjoyable.
After reading and applying these simple steps, you’ll have what you need. You can change your relationship with presentations and talking from stage (live or virtual), forever.
Before I was 40-years-old I’d given over 1,000 talks from stage. And I’m an introvert! Someone who doesn’t like to be the center of attention. But what I do like is helping people by using my insights and experience. And I grew up going to church, so I saw the stage as a medium of connecting, contributing, and helping others grow.
And that’s all it is.
If you’re anxious about how you look, sound, or what people will think, stop it! That’s not the point. Shift your mind. Stop focusing on yourself. Focus on them.
Which brings us to the first step…
1. Decide to Serve
It’s not about you. You’re giving a presentation to serve the audience. Period. This is an extension of you helping, giving, and doing good in the world.
Take the pressure off a “perfect performance.” That doesn’t exist anyway. If your heart is in it, and you really care about adding value and serving people, the best way you can, it’s already a win. You can’t fail.
From here, we just refine the fundamentals to improve the quality and effectiveness. But make no mistake, it’s your heart to serve, and getting the focus off yourself, that sets the tone for a great presentation.
2. Lean Into It
Stand up. Yes, right now, where you are. Stand up straight and look forward.
Now, rock backwards onto your heels. Feel that? Take a small step backwards, settling on your heels, and look at the floor.
Feel that? Do you feel the energy shift toward passivity? Toward retreat, lack of confidence, or being unsure?
Backwards = Bad
Forwards = Good
Lean forwards. Rock from your heels to your toes. Do it. Feel it.
As you do, look forward. Chin up. Look around. You don’t need to say a word. Just leaning in, leaning forward, and looking out makes an audience feel your strength, your confidence, and conviction.
From heels to toes. Lean forward.
If you have to look at your notes, move to look at your notes. Then, move forward, back onto your toes (or the balls of your feet). Chin up. Chest out. Shoulders back.
Again, I don’t care what you’re talking about yet. This matters more.
Practice again so you feel it. Rock back and forth. Feel what happens to your body and energy when you step or lean backwards. Feel the shift when you step and lean forwards.
Lean forward. And make notes to yourself (on the stage, on your hand, or in your presentation notes) to keep leaning into the point, leaning into the audience, and leaning into the present moment.
3. Trust Your Preparation (and Be Present!)
Your brain is incredible. It will hold onto details, decisions, dilemmas until those things are resolved. Or, until the brain is confident that there is a plan in place to resolve it.
So, one of the reasons why you feel anxiousness is because your brain is not yet confident that you have a plan in place to prepare for the presentation. Fair, right?
The solution is simple. Put a plan in place so your brain can relax.
Block the time in your calendar, like a meeting with yourself. And don’t break the meeting. Keep it, and make the most of it. Use this article to help guide you in your preparation.
I’d recommend blocking out plenty of time, especially if it’s the first time you’re giving this presentation. Considering this:
For every minute of presentation,
30 minutes of preparation.
Thus, if your presentation is 30 minutes, spend 15 hours preparing.
And, block off five chunks of 3-hour time-blocks. (It takes an hour just to get into the flow of the work.)
Sure, there might still be a little bit of underlying nervousness because talking in front of crowd feels “unsafe” to the brain. But the more you focus on serving your audience, instead of worrying about what they think of you, the more your brain will relax and confidence will grow.
If you’ve done the presentation before, and you just need to refine it or tailor it to a new audience, you can block less time. Just ask yourself, what amount of preparation is required for my brain to relax and feel confident that I will be prepared?
Note: I do not recommend trying to memorize the presentation. Think instead about “absorbing it.” Or use the analogy of a tea bag in hot water. Let it steep, until the tea bag permeates the water.
You want to be comfortable with your points, stories, and illustrations. You want to feel like they are “in you,” so to speak, but you don’t need to stress about memorizing everything word-for-word. That’s where slides come in.
4. Simplify Your Slides
Less is more.
Do not make the mistake of jamming all your information onto your slides because you think everything is important or because you’re afraid of forgetting stuff. That’s called death-by-powerpoint.
Simplify.
Ask yourself,
Is there a simpler way to say it?
Is there a simpler way to show it?
What’s the main thing here?
If you have seven bullet points, try to make it five. If you have four sentences, get it down to two. If you have 60 slides, chisel away until the most important 30 are left.
Less is more. If everything is important, nothing is important. And do your best to minimize any slides that run the risk of confusing or overwhelming your audience. If they get overwhelmed, they check out. If you confuse them, you lose them.
5. Tell a Story that Connects
The best way to keep your audience engaged is to tell a story that connects. Humans love stories. Even if you feel your audience shifting in their seats, checking their phones, or losing their focus, nothing beats a good story to get them locked back in.
A story that will connect with your audience has the following characteristics:
- It relates to your presentation or point. Don’t force a story just because you like it. It needs to step up the overall presentation, or connect directly to the current point you’re making.
- It relates to your audience. Relevance is key, because people are always subconsciously asking themselves, “What’s in it for me?” Show them a place of connection–a human element, or a helpful element–a place they can quickly connect the dots and see their own specific circumstances in the universally-relevant point you’re making. We all like to connect at a human level, feeling like we are similar to someone else, or have a friend on stage that gets us and can help us.
- It has a memorable pay-off. The best stories stick with you. They evoke emotion, or have an unexpected twist. You can make your presentation “sticky” (memorable) by connecting the theme or key point to a story that surprises or sparks an emotional reaction–empathy, human, inspiration, etc.
Stories connect to our humanity, reminding us we’re all the same, we’re in this together. There is something about narrative that engages our brain at a deeper and more meaningful level.
If you rely too heavily on slides and points, without connecting via stories, the presentation will feel long, burdensome, and forgettable. Tie in a great story and keep your crowd on the hook.
6. Break the Invisible Wall
There is an invisible barrier between you and the audience. They can’t articulate why but people feel removed from the stage. The stage is above and the audience is below. The stage represents expert, professional, presenter, which leads to disconnection that can become distrust or judgment.
The way you break that invisible barrier of disconnection is by engaging. Not just by being engaging–like funny or high-energy–but actually engaging the crowd.
That means you ask someone a question, or invite them to participate. Yes, an actual human in the audience. You stop, go away from your slides, and talk to a single person.
You will have everyone’s attention immediately if you call on the audience for participation. They are thinking to themselves, “Oh crap, she might call on me. This is dangerous. Anything could happen!”
And, it actually is a little dangerous. Anything could happen. The person might refuse to play along. They may be dud. They might say something off-the-wall. Who knows?! But that’s part of the fun. And no one blames you for the person being lame. They will only blame you if you waste lots of time on the person. If you try something and it’s not working, move on. Move to someone else.
But, generally, people want to play nice. People don’t want to look dumb or have anyone annoyed with them. There is a 90% chance they do exactly what you hope and it makes the presentation better. You’ll have everyone’s attention, you’ll break the barrier with the audience, and–if you do it well–you’ll make a memorable point.
Here are a couple specific ways you can engage the audience and break invisible barrier.
- Visual illustration. Have someone stand up and be an example. Make a point in some way that requires them to do a thing, catch a thing, repeat a sentence, or any number of physical possibilities. Just make sure you minimize the risk of it taking you off track. Just a crowd participation element that has a 90% certainty of making your point.
- Personal Share. Invite them to share an example of what you’re talking about from their own life or experience. To do this, you want to be prepared to cut off, lead in new directions, and deal with emotion.
- Verbal response. This is the easiest and safest method. You see it all the time. The presenter simply invites a response. “If you know what I’m saying, say YES!” “By a show of hands…” “If you’re still with me, say Uh Uh!”
Either of these options can help you break down the invisible barrier between the stage and the audience, keeping your audience engaged and boosting your likability as a presenter.
Conclusion
Here are the six steps to a killer presentation—helping you to calm your nerves and connect with your audience:
- Decide to Serve
- Lean Into It
- Trust Your Preparation
- Simplify Your Slides
- Tell a Story that Connects
- Break the Invisible Wall
Most people in positions of leadership have a love-hate relationship with public speaking. It’s a necessary skill to influence and guide and build, but it can be a struggle.
Apply these six simple steps and you’ll have what you need. You can change your relationship with presentations (live or virtual), forever. You can even learn to enjoy presenting, as you crush it from the stage with confidence!
