LESSON: PRESENTATION BASICS

Overcoming Fear of Presentations

Lots of people are scared 😨 of public speaking, even more than dying! It can make you very nervous and your body might react with a racing heart, sweaty hands, shaky knees, and a dry mouth. You might even forget what you want to say or talk too quickly. But you can deal with these physical reactions by figuring out what's causing your fear and finding ways to overcome it.

Calming your inner critic

Often, we can be too hard on ourselves in our pursuit of success. We tend to focus on our mistakes, blowing them out of proportion, rather than recognizing the positive moments in our lives. This negative self-talk can damage our confidence, performance, and even limit our opportunities for growth. It's important to shift our mindset and avoid letting our inner critic hold us back from reaching our true potential.

Making realistic improvements

Our fears can challenge or immobilize us, especially those with a fear of public speaking. Take small steps and set realistic expectations. You may still feel nervous, but becoming visibly calm and confident will follow. As you prepare, you'll feel more in control and gain confidence through successful experiences. You won't start out feeling confident or enjoying public speaking, but each positive experience will boost your self-esteem and motivation to improve. Don't aim for perfection, aim for improvement to grow and expand.

Changing your focus

As you advance in your career and give more presentations, you'll notice that you shift your focus from yourself to your audience. This shift shows you're no longer held back by fear. There are several ways to help you relax and get to this point.

Conquering nervousness

Many feel nervous when giving presentations. The trick is to manage the negative effects and redirect the extra energy. It's important to know that not everyone displays their nervousness, so focus on controlling your own.

Implementing useful strategies

Identify how you get nervous, and use these methods to steady yourself:

• Mental Strategies
• Psychological Controls
• Physical Techniques

Try different methods to see what works best for you. Don't worry about what worked for others, since we all need different methods to feel calm, cool, and in control. Don't give up, though. Remember that everyone has experienced fear and can overcome it. If the fear continues, it could be helpful to give it one or two more tries to conquer it for good.

MENTAL STRATEGIES

1️⃣ Prepare Properly

To beat fear, prepare well. Fear often comes from not knowing. If you know your presentation, you'll be less nervous. If you've given the same presentation before, you know this already.

Plan your presentation carefully using an organization template for logical flow. Highlight and restate key points for easy recall. Avoid overloading with information, as the audience can only retain limited knowledge in one sitting.

Learn how to create good visuals. People often overload their slides with information. To avoid this, include only essential info on the slide. This gives you the opportunity to add more detail and support during your presentation. If necessary, provide additional information on a separate handout.

Once you have selected your information and created your visuals, practice your presentation until you feel comfortable with the sequence of events. Plan how to transition smoothly from one point to the next and rehearse until you are confident enough to deliver it effortlessly. This will also help you catch any errors in advance. If you struggle with a certain word, use a different word that feels easier for you.

In essence, the harder you work on your presentation ahead of time, the easier it will be for you to deliver it without stress.

2️⃣ Conduct a Dialogue

Giving a presentation may feel like talking to yourself, but it's actually a conversation. Even a formal presentation involves getting feedback from the audience through their reactions. To help make this more conversational, try these techniques:

Before your presentation, meet and greet the audience. Introduce yourself and interact. This will help make them feel more familiar with you. 

During the presentation, maintain eye contact. First, find a friendly face to start with. 

Then, gradually focus on smaller groups. Whenever possible, involve the audience by asking them questions.

PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTROLS

1️⃣ Identify your fears

First, to overcome fear, identify what it is you're afraid of. Common fears include:

• I might make a fool of myself.
• I might forget what I am going to say.
• I might begin to stutter or say the wrong thing.
• People may laugh at me.

Once you know what you're scared of, you can figure out if it's a real concern. To examine your fears, simply ask yourself these questions:

• Is this a rational fear?
• If this is a rational fear, what is the worst that could happen?
• So what?

2️⃣ Send positive messages

To get what you want in life, expect it. Quieten down your inner critic and tell them you're capable of change. Look at yourself in the mirror and say positive things to counteract negative thoughts. Instead of "I'm bad at presentations", say "I have what it takes to do a great job". Instead of "I might forget what to say", say "I've practiced so much that I could do this in my sleep!''

3️⃣ Use visualization techniques

Visualization is like mental practice. You imagine a future event in your mind to prepare for a positive outcome. This helps you rehearse for your presentation without taking too much time. If you visualize yourself giving a successful and confident presentation, you are more likely to do well. Avoid visualizing mistakes, or you may subconsciously make them. Be positive and expect the best outcome, as successful people do. Believe in your abilities and be optimistic for a better future.

4️⃣ Meet your audience

Before starting your presentation, try to walk around and introduce yourself to members of the audience. This way, you'll be speaking to fewer strangers and you'll have a better chance of getting a positive response from those you've already met.

5️⃣ Do your best

To reduce your fear, remember that you don't need to make everyone happy in the room. Concentrate on conveying your message effectively, keep note of the positive feedback, and ignore any negative reactions.

PHYSICAL METHODS

Feeling nervous stems from insecurity in the mind, but the body reacts as if under physical threat. This happens because both situations amount to stress. To calm down, you can learn to control your body's physical response. Here are some ways to help you relax.

Progressive relaxation is when you tense and relax different muscles in your body one by one, until your whole body is relaxed. This helps you feel the contrast between tension and relaxation more clearly.

Guided imagery is a technique for relaxation. It involves picturing a peaceful and calming place in your mind, which helps you to feel more relaxed before giving a presentation.

Stand up and stretch before and during your presentation to relax your muscles and reduce excess adrenaline. Take a short, relaxed walk away from the audience.

Breathe calmly before speaking or being introduced. Then walk confidently to the podium and begin speaking energetically.