I've got a presentation this afternoon. It's my specialist subject, I'm the authority in the business, I'm very confident in my knowledge of the subject, it's to about 40 people and I know pretty much all of them quite well, and yet I'm shitting myself as usual.
Now lets understand, I do this on a regular basis. I've presented to all 200+ people in the department before now. I've been on internal courses about doing presentations, I've done online research on best approaches to take, I always prepare and rehearse well and I try to make things as interesting as possible for my audience and yet every time, I'm absolutely crapping myself. I've never had any bad feedback about a presentation I've made and have had plenty of good feedback.
I'm fine with one on one conversations, I'm also fine with sitting round a table with groups from road workers to the executive and talking away quite happily. It's standing up in front of a load of people and talking while they all look at me.
I guess the major issue is that I'm by default, an introverted geek who doesn't like being the centre of attention and it may be that's an attribute that will never make this easy for me. There must however, be people who have been through this experience who can help though. I don't expect i'll ever enjoy it but just getting myself to the stage where I can not be sweating and shaking in the hours leading up to the presentation. I appreciate there are people who actively enjoy this sort of thing but that's not me.
Any tips that don't involve visualising people naked?
visualise yourself naked.
Learn from the master. You're a tiger. GGGRRRRRRRR
I have a very similar background and feel the same rarely sleeping well the day before I have a public speaking commitment.
My boss actually sneaked one event on me recently with me not knowing I was on stage until my name came up (1st) on the agenda!
IME it helps to rationalise what you are fearfull of and the real likely hood it it happening.
[b]So if youve spoken before and it all went well why would you expect anything different this time?[/b]
Its a great feeling afterwards when it goes well!!
Not corporate, but as lecturer (who has a few minutes ago just given a lecture to a 100+) I don't think of it as a presentation but as a conversation (albeit with me doing most of the talking). You know you'll be fine when you get going, so really it is a case of not blowing it out of proportion. Also, and it sounds dumb, but living in the moment and not in an anticipated (and feared) future makes a lot of sense as you can control now, but not the future.
It's just like speaking to one person, except they can't interrupt. Personally I just deploy my impenetrable dunning-krueger shield.
[b]You are the best,everyone loves you,you have nothing to worry about[/b]*.
[i]Apart from that wee guy in the front row with the tache[/i]
Take your nervousness as a positive thing. its making you prepare as well as you possibly can to ensure that you do the best job you can.
The fact you have always had positive reviews proves this.
If you were too relaxed you'd try and wing it and end up not doing as good a job.
Think about all the sportspeople who get so nervous before their event they throw up - its the same for you - it doesn't stop them performing well at the highest level.
Your nervousness should give you confidence that you are ultimately as well prepared as possible.
Pick on a small guy in the audience and try and humiliate him early on in your talk. It shows em who's boss and that they'd better not mess with you. Also use the phrase "You worthless Mother Fudgers" a lot. It's all about power and control.
Talk to one person in the audience - not the same one the whole way through, pick out a number of likely characters at the start in different parts of the audience and alternate between them.
Always works for me, and I seem to have a good reputation for my presentations.
EDIT - actually - click through to [url=
to skip the first minute[/url]
(or just skip the first minute manually)
presentations at events where there has been a little misunderstanding or a strange queston etc have in my exprience been enjoyed ( in relaxed evening events though) by the audience as it makes for a bit of a laugh and a break from the serious stuff.
Best thing i have found is to practice the presentation as much as possible so that you are not in the least bit concerned about whats coming up next and in what order it is.
you are supposed to be nervous.
it gets the adrenaline going and you want some of that
Providing you're doing something useful and not just bullshitting to fill a slot at a conference, it's easy. The people in front of you either want or need to know for their job, the stuff you're about to tell them. You know the stuff, so you tell them. Nervousness is just a side effect of wanting to get it right, reminds you to prepare properly.
I went from being a backroom engineer to being an IT and systems trainer so had to do this thing all the time, to one off groups and long term training with everyone from YT trainees to CEOs and uber geeky PHDs. The trick (if it is a trick) was just to not over think it, tell people the stuff you know that they have come to hear. I did take some City & Guilds teaching qualifications which included help with the public speaking aspect of it, maybe something like that, or just a public speaking course, where you could get feedback on your actual presenting skills rather than actual live presentations would give you the confidence that you're on the right track, which would quell the fear.
Three tips I was given which seem to work well:
Speak slower than normal, take good pauses and breathe!!!
Speaking slower helps you to get the words out correctly, rushing through this only makes matters worse when you start to fluff a word, if the tempo is too high it ends up with a fluffed sentence..wheras slower speaking you can fluff the word or couple of words but easily get back on track with the sentence.
Breathing and pauses are one and the same, remember to breathe properly, and in between paragraphs take a good breather. 3/4 good deep breaths. Helped me out no end for the best man speech I gave!
Take your nervousness as a positive thing. its making you prepare as well as you possibly can to ensure that you do the best job you can.The fact you have always had positive reviews proves this.
Boom. I'm in a play this week, if I dwell on all the things that can go wrong, or mistakes I've made in rehearsals, or (heaven forbid) opening my mouth for my first line and saying a line from a different play, then I've just be a quivery lump of jelly too scared to even leave the house to get to the theatre. See? I'm actually a little bit shakey right now thinking about it.
But if I go in there positive, I know I can get it done - I've done it before, I know this play, I know my lines and where I need to go and what to do. I can do - I KNOW I can do it. Just gotta trust in myself, be positive and go out ther eand knock it out the park. It's the same for you - this is so much easier to say than to do, I know, but you know you can do it, you just gotta think positive. It's all scarey and nervous in the build up, but the moment you open your mouth and that first word comes out, you're away. 🙂
Whenever I've done a presentation, I've said up front that I prefer a dialogue rather than a lecture, meaning that I want people to join in. If you get the audience involved then it's VASTLY easier on you, because they ask you questions, and better for them because they are more involed and they remember what you've said.
Here's a simple piece of advice.
You will be 300% better than the vast majority of people who give presentations simply because you care about how you come across and how you'll perform. Your probably far too self critical and don't realise that compared to most god awful presentations you are a speaking god.
Double post.
Those 2 are great ^^^^^^^ DavidB's for the attitude and molgrips' approach.
Getting participation is often tricky - just asking questions about what's probably an unfamiliar subject and expecting immediate participation can fall extremely flat ( 😳 )
One option is to chuck a couple of questions at the audience part way through (e.g. we're facing this issue, how might you solve it?) but give them say two minutes to discuss with their neighbour - that actually works well if the audience don't necessarily know each other, plus it can give you a break from 30+ minutes of non-stop talking.
Depends on the scope and format of your session of course as there may not be that much opportunity for participation. I'd definitely take molgrips' approach though and at least invite the dialogue.
Usually I'm explaining the product or solution I represent to a team of techies who have some kind of stake in it, so they are usually full of their own questions - they've attended to get answers after all. Sometimes though they just sit and expect a lecture, so when I say I haven't prepared anything (although I always have an outline in my head if I get no questions) and I want them to ask me stuff, they usually do.
I've never faced a properly difficult audience though where everyone's bored shitless and just wants to leave.. I'd hate that 🙂
From reading your post the issue is not with the content or your ability but the nervousness that is built up prior to the event.
If you care about what you are doing then you will always be nervous but when it becomes all encompassing before the event then it's taking you over and isn't a good thing.
Rationalising your fears and preparing for eventualities helps. But after that the best approach is to learn to relax, learn some breathing techniques, basic meditation etc. Oddly just saying relax doesn't really help, you need to learn how to do it. Also become aware of when the stress and anxiety are building so you can deal with them early.
Perhaps the most important point if you are doing this regularly is to enjoy it, so that you are looking forward to talking rather than fearing it. This requires a different mental approach. Try to remember the feeling when you were presenting and the audience laughed at an observation and the applause at the end. Hold onto those feelings and keep them as a shield against the negative 'what if' emotions.
You are uptight because you are worrying about what they think of you. But this isn't about you.
It's about "the message" you are delivering, you are just the mouthpiece for truth. So focus on delivering "the message" as clearly as possible and forget that you are there.
About hecklers: they are a speaker's best friend because they create tension. They will save the rest of your audience from boredom. Engage with hecklers; win them over, or put them down. Either way, your audience will stay awake enough to hear "the message".
Have a few brandies beforehand.
Thanks for the very useful advice guys, that's really appreciated.
The good news is that because I had to get involved in a major incident, I didn't have to go! 😉
rescheduled for two weeks time.
You know your stuff. Your audience might know a bit of it, but not all of it. You're the expert. Being nervous is a good thing. So long as you don't wee yourself in front of the audience, they won't notice anything's amiss.
Don't wee yourself in front of the audience.
By the way: I'm often in the same boat. I'm a token geek / former journalist at a comms company, so I'm often asked to present quick portraits of companies to senior managers.
If you promise to enjoy it this afternoon, I'll send you my slide explaining Dense Wave Division Multiplexing through the medium of unicorns shi**ing rainbows.
[i]Don't wee yourself in front of the audience.[/i]
best advice so far.
2 more weeks or dread, foreboding, forgetting things and getting muddled up, the whole audience laughing at you in just two weeks...
Good luck 😉
Off to a conference next weekend and have to present but haven't been told the audience, the subject or the duration yet. Just beginning to wonder how well it will end
OP, you're the authority in your field. That means you actually have something valuable to tell them, so you're not just winging and bullshitting it.
Just create a vibe with music and audience participation...
WCA, just do it BBB prize giving style. In shorts and t shirt that are 3 days old swigging repeatedly from a 4 pint jug of beer... 😛
You say that likes it's wrong. 🙁
Is there another way?
If there are "expert hecklers" in the audience, they can be very useful indeed. Provoke them and then challenge them to speak up with their experiences and be interesting so you don't have to!
I ran a training course recently, and a couple of trainees spotted a few minor errors in my material. That was really useful for me! And it made them feel clever and engaged everyone arguing about it! The course was very well received because everyone felt they had learned a lot.
I had one of those hecklers. He told me the iPhone didn't have an app store at launch. I suggested that was not correct - it was just under reported. He suggested I was talking nonsense. I pulled up the story I'd filed in 2008 from the London press conference where Steve Jobs told us all about it.
He didn't say anything for the rest of the afternoon.
Bit late if your presentation is this afternoon, but this is very good:
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/oct/22/a-z-modern-office-jargon
Read Max Atkinson's 'Lend me your ear', best book on presentations I've ever seen and can be had cheap on Amazon.
The secret to corporate speaking appears to be " not having a clue whats going on , on the shop floor"
I have to present a training course in perfumery in Harare in a couple of weeks, I'm looking forward to it because I'm pretty sure the audience will enjoy it. The problem is that you have to pass around hundreds of little smelling strips that have been dipped in various raw materials and when you reach the animalic notes and the civet, which stinks, mayhem always breaks out and it can be quite difficult to regain control of the presentation if you allow the audience to get chatting. Groups of women who know each other are the worst because they will chatter amongst themselves as the sniffing goes on. It's always fun though.