How to overcome nervousness while giving a presentation
Unless they do it for a living, most people get nervous when faced with having to give presentations or speak in public.
It seems like a very modern affliction, compounded by Zoom presentations and webinars, presentations being uploaded to Youtube for eternity (or until Putin pushes the button) and the prospect of facing an audience with attentions spans shorter than a goldfish.
However, it’s not a new fear.
As far back as 200BC, the Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar said:
“Many are ready to even die in battle, but few can face an assembly without nerves” - so whilemany in his tribe may well have been happy getting a war axe to the face, they really didn’t want to stand up to tell the local council meetings about their year-on-year growth in their collection of enemy thigh bones.
So it’s natural and expected to get nerves before a pitch, presentation or important meeting - but why?
Well, basically, you’re an idiot and you think you’re about to die.
The answer lies in our biology; facing a sea of eyes is an intimidating feeling, one which harks back to our ancestors - if you’re on the Serengetiwith a sea of eyes staring at you, chances are you’re about to be eaten. Years later, your body still produces the same fight-or-flight reflex when you’re facing a group
The important to remember about this is that although it might feel awful, it’s designed to help you out. It’s a natural response designed to help you deal with a tricky situation - a lion attack, fighting a swarm of wasps or being trapped in a lift with Katie Hopkins.
What it means is that your subconscious is stepping in like a handy mate in a scrap - making you wittier, more reactive, faster and sexier. Maybe not sexier.
It’s putting you into top gear, giving you the edge over your audience and bringing you clarity - if you let it.
So that’s what’s happening. Here's how you can make it work for you;
1. REFRAME THE SITUATION
This is basically a way to reposition the pitch, speech or presentation in a manner which takes the pressure off you. They key here is to remember why you’re up there - and focus on the audience.
If you can shift your mindset from being all about you (inward looking) to being all about the audience (outward looking), you’ll be much more relaxed.
It’s not about lots of people judging you while you stand in a spotlight with a wedgie. It’s now about having the opportunity to share your ideas with a likeminded group.
It’s not about selling an IT infrastructure to a senior client - it’s now about the opportunity to solve some problems that are affecting their business as a partner.
You should be focussing solely on the audience - what you want them to feel, what they’ll find interesting, what they’ll want to take away from your speech.
This leaves no room to feel sorry for yourself - no space for you to dwell on bad outcomes, and no capacity for panic. Shift your focus to the audience and you’ll reap the rewards.
2. FOCUS ON ENGAGING
OK, as a header, this is on a par with “don’t be shit”, but hear me out.
Sometimes a crowd can take a while to warm up, but luckily there’s a few tricks you can use to turn a cold crowd into an engaged audience.
If the venue is small enough, introduce yourself to as many people as you can before your presentation.
This serves two purposes - it establishes immediate connections with individuals and relaxes you, as it reminds you the audience isn’t an amorphous blob, but made up of people just like you.
They’re probably quite nice.
You’ll start to like them before you take the stage - and that will show.
Secondly, when you do jump up and start speaking, you’ll be able to connect with some of the people you’ve met and use them as little glowing hotspots in a gradually warming sea of faces.
This technique works wonders - but introducing yourself to strangers is hard. Bite the bullet. It will be worth it.
3. VISUALISE SUCCESS
Spend a few minutes ahead of the pitch imagining a successful outcome in as much detail as you can - the laughs of the wedding crowd, the grateful sobs of the client as he begs for your business, being carried shoulder-high from the care home.
Think carefully about what success looks like and make it part of your memory in advance.
Felix Baumgartner did, just before he plummeted out of a very very high-up balloon. As he explained in The Telegraph:
“I did this jump a thousand times in my mind. I think about how it will feel, what it will look like. When I stood on that exterior step it felt like I expected.
"When I finally jump for real, 99 percent of the time it works exactly as I’d visualised. The more you can turn thoughts into reality, the better you are.”
4. DISSIPATE NERVES WITH YOUR BODY AND BREATH
Some classic warm up techniques will help here:
Get moving. Walk. Roll your shoulders. Squat. Lunge. Make sure you’re in private. Anything that gets your body limber and your blood flowing will help.
The Electric Boogaloo, the Caterpillar, and The Running Man are all great too.
Warm up your voice, so your first sounds on stage isn’t a strangled yelp.
Make some noises. Hum. Sing a few notes. Then rap Alphabet Aerobics by Blackalicious.
You could even try power posing if that’s your bag - adopt a post of confidence and strengthfor 30 seconds to energise your body and mind. You might look stupid, but it might work for you (although they’ve been proven to have no effect at all. But hey, if posing is your thing, go for it)
5. TRUST YOUR BRAIN
There’s a reason many comedians hone their material onstage - their brain is working better due to the pressure to perform. Yours will too.
You can sit for hours in front of a blank sheet of paper, trying to write some comic gold about, say, seagulls and you’ll end up with the word “seagulls” written down and nothing else.
Get on stage with the same subject in your head and a sea of blank faces and you’ll suddenly pop out a stream of beautifully crafted seagull jokes (and forget to record them, but that’s a different blog).
That’s the beauty of adrenaline. Your brain will show up, even if you’re convinced it’s actually hiding in a toilet backstage.
The best thing you can do is trust it to do its thing - even if you momentarily lose the tread of what you’re saying , the chances of the audience noticing are slim. And if you miss a bit - they never knew it was there anyway.
Interjections, objections, a heart attack in the third row - your brain will handle it all for you, as long as you trust it.
Hopefully this is of some help.
Next time you feel those butterflies in your stomach, try and remember some of these tips and make those fluttery bad boys work for you.