The famous writer and public speaker, Mark Twain, once said that "There are two kinds of public speakers. 1. Those who get
nervous, and 2. Liars. Getting nervous before and during your presentations are
completely common and you don't have to let it affect your performance. So in
this video we're going to talk about some mindsets and realizations that you
should have going into presenting and also some practical tips to help manage
that nervousness. Coming up. Let's talk about some realizations and then some practical tips. The first realization is that you do not look as nervous as you
feel. I was recently coaching some presenters and one of the speakers
finishes she said, Oh my gosh, I was so nervous. Now, she has done a good job. I
didn't realize she was nervous. So, I said to her on a scale of 1 to 10 how nervous
were you? And she said 10 out of 10! I was freaking out. And I asked the people
watching, the other participants, how nervous she looked and they said about
a 2. So she felt 10 out of 10. Top of the scale in nerves. But we couldn't tell. She
looked totally composed and normal. She did a great job. So just this one
realization alone I think is really powerful is that you do not look
anywhere near as nervous as you may feel on the inside. And that alone should I
think relax you. Second realization is just because you're nervous, it doesn't
mean you're not doing a great job in that moment. So another presenter said
after on a recent recent coaching session she said, Oh my gosh. I blacked
out. I totally don't remember even what I did. I don't know if she actually blacked out but that's how she described it. She was detached from what was happening. Even though she felt detached, she did a great job. Total home run, did the best I've ever
seen her. So just because you feel nerves, they may be getting the best of you, it doesn't mean that you're not actually performing excellently. Keep that in mind. The third
realization is that nervousness and excitement are really two sides of the
same coin. Bruce Springsteen, a famous musician, talked about early on he'd get
very nervous, a lot of stage fright before would perform and he realized,
wait a minute, this is like excitement. This is the same thing as I'm excited to
go play music for a huge crowd It gets me going. And so public speaking is a lot like that. You should be a little excited you don't have to, it doesn't have to be thought of in your mind as I'm really nervous. You know, you could say, Hey you know what? I'm excited. So you can even take a little control over your thoughts in
that way. So those are some realizations. Let's get down to some practical tips.
The first practical tip is to practice like crazy and here's why. In my experience,
and I've been coaching professional speakers and coaching college
students to do presentations for about 20 years now, 95% of the
results you get during your presentation are worked out during your
practice time. So if you practice like crazy and really prepare well, that
presentation is most likely going to go very well about ninety-five percent of
of that is all worked out. So even if you're nervous either was a couple
little things go wrong, it's almost always going to come out pretty much the
way you practiced it. so that's a great understanding of the process, that, you know, hard work does pay off and you can get and so you should make that practice
as realistic as possible. Maybe even have a couple of distractions in there, that's
fine. If you make a mistake, don't start over. Push through it. If you feel nervous,
don't rehearse talking about to yourself or out loud how nervous you are because
then you might do that during the presentation that usually makes things
worse. So work that out through practice. The second concrete tip is as you are
preparing you want to focus everything on your audience and your message. If
you're all focused on yourself that's going to spike your nerves. So a comedian is trying to get people to laugh. They're working on their joke. They not think about how they come across. they're working for their outcome. They're working for the
good performance. If you're trying to train people you should be focused on
getting them up to speed so they really do know how to do this. If you're trying
to share a message focus on saying it in a way that's going to land and it's
going to stick so that everybody gets the most benefit. Anytime we start
thinking about how am I coming across? Do I look professional? Do look nervous?
Or, are people going to judge me? It's going to lead in the wrong direction. You have
to totally flip it and think about your audience and you
message. the next tip is to visualize yourself doing it well, especially the
opening moments that first 10 to 20 seconds. Now when I say visualization, I
don't mean anything weird or experimental or new-agey. I mean it the
way athletes do it. In other words, before a batter comes up to swing. That batter
is going to put himself in the right state of mind so that he visualizes
himself hitting the ball well. Adam Vinatieri is, used to be a kicker
for the New England Patriots and in the 2001 Super Bowl against the St. Louis Rams
the clock was running down. They're tied 17 to 17. This is like high pressure situation
for a kicker. And he successfully kicked a 48-yard field goal with two seconds
left on the clock. The clock was running. There was no time outs, it was running.
And he did it and they won the game and after the game people said, you know how did you do it? You know, the most pressure that any kicker has been under ever. And
he said, I have made that kick a thousand times. And he meant it in his life, you
know, in his mind. In a kicker's life, that is the moment they live for.
And he had visualized himself doing it successfully a thousand times. So that in
that moment it felt like he was just doing it one more time. So when you're
picturing yourself in the room setting up your visual aids, getting ready and
that first 10 or 20 seconds of the presentation you're picturing it
happening successfully, picturing the steps it takes to get there, and you're
going to be set up for success so those are the tips I have for not being as
nervous. I recommend you use them your next presentation. Look for to your
comment below. I look forward to seeing you in the next video. God bless.
