Tweet

Successful People Use Their Nerves to Deliver Dynamic Presentations

Guest post by: Bud Bilanich

Article Overview: Successful people are dynamic communicators. Presentations are opportunities to shine -- to demonstrate that you are a dynamic communicator. Stage fright is the biggest enemy of presentation success. Don't let stage fright rob you of your opportunity to shine. One good presentation can make a career. Presentations are the best ways to get noticed and have your name at the top of the list when promotional opportunities come up. There are several ways to deal with presentation anxiety: be prepared, know your stuff cold; think of your talk as a conversation with the audience; tell stories to illustrate your points. However, there is one piece of advice that trumps all when it comes to delivering dynamic presentations: practice, practice, practice!

Successful People Use Their Nerves to Deliver Dynamic Presentations

The other day I was at a workshop and one of the speakers was clearly nervous. He began his talk by telling the old story about the survey that asked people to name their greatest fear. Public speaking came in first, by a large margin. Death was fourth. So, if you believe the results of this survey, most people would rather die than stand up and give a talk. He was one of them. He urged us to be kind to him because he was nervous doing this talk.

He was suffering from what is known by a number of names: presentation anxiety, stage fright, the jitters. Whatever you call it presentation anxiety can be the death knell for an otherwise great talk. We all get nervous before a talk, but being nervous doesn't have to mean you'll do a bad talk. Presentation anxiety is a response to fear of doing a poor talk. It shows ups in a number of ways: blushing, shaking stuttering, preparing. At its worst, it will lead you to feel as if you're not making sense, or worse yet, to lose the thread of your talk.

I make speeches for a living, and I get nervous before every one of them. In fact, if I'm not a little nervous I start to worry that I will be flat and deliver an unenthusiastic talk. Over the years, I've developed a few tricks that I use to calm my nerves before a big presentation and make them work for, not against me. Check them out...

Practice your talk out loud. This will help you get comfortable with your material and your delivery.

Think good thoughts. Imagine yourself succeeding beyond your wildest dreams. Imagine that you will get a standing ovation for your talk. This is what visualization is all about.

Get there early. In this way, you'll be able to set up your computer and run through your slides one last time.

Greet people as they arrive; exchange a few words with them. This will help you make a good first impression with members of the audience. It will also help you get control of your nerves, because you'll feel more comfortable speaking to a group of people you know rather than a group of strangers.

Take a deep breath before you begin. This will calm you, help center you and give you enough air to get through your opening.

Move. When you begin your presentation, move around. Use body movement to help release some of your nervous energy. Don't get trapped behind the podium. It can inhibit you from releasing your energy.

Just chat with the audience. Think of your presentation as a conversation. There might be 10, or 25, or 100 people in your audience. But in terms of real communication, there are only two people in the room: you and a single listener.

Tell stories to illustrate your main points. People like listening to stories and they tend to remember points illustrated by stories.

Ask questions during your talk. This will help you build a dialogue and a participatory feeling. I try to make at least one quarter and as much as one half of my talk a discussion with the audience. In this way, it's less of a speech and more of an expanded conversation with every person in the room.

Don't worry if you make a mistake. To begin with, most people won't realize that you made a mistake. Second, realize the audience is with you. They've all been there and know that presenting can be nerve wracking. Most people in the audience will be pulling for you to do a good job.

The common sense point here is simple. Successful people are dynamic communicators. Presentations are opportunities to shine -- to demonstrate that you are a dynamic communicator. Stage fright is the biggest enemy of presentation success. Don't let stage fright rob you of your opportunity to shine. One good presentation can make a career. Presentations are the best ways to get noticed and have your name at the top of the list when promotional opportunities come up. There are several ways to deal with presentation anxiety: be prepared, know your stuff cold; think of your talk as a conversation with the audience; tell stories to illustrate your points. However, there is one piece of advice that trumps all when it comes to delivering dynamic presentations: practice, practice, practice!

Related Articles
  Presentation Tips for Success
  Audience Analysis and Presentation Success
  Use Webinars to Add Value to Existing Presentations
  Business Presenting - How To Make A Great First Impression
  Presentation Skills Training: How To Deliver A Winning Webinar

Article Tags: Dynamic communicators, opportunities to shine, practice, preparation, presentation success, stage fright
Referred by: http://www.jimbouchard.org



Related Forum Posts
Re: eBlogging 101: Getting Your Internet Business To Stand Out F - Hi Tyrone, Good to see you back on the forum. I had not heard of the "UPOD" acronym before (Under Promise, Over Deliver). That is a very good guideline. Don't use "promises" as personal challenges to do better - just in case unanticipated events prevent you from fulfilling the promises you make.
Re: What's 1 word to describe what your business will be in 2012 - Successful.
Books for Women Entrepreneurs - There's a thread for good books in the Resources folder, but it doesn't target books for businesswomen particularly, so I figured I'd start such a thread here. It doesn't matter how successful you are in your business - it's always possible to learn something new. In subsequent posts I give Table of Contents and brief descriptions for various titles - most of them devoted to the businesswoman - and sometimes a review. If anyone else has read a review, or has read the book and found it useful, please comment! 1. The Old Girl's Network 2. Mother's Work 3. The 7 Greatest Truths About Successful Women 4. Pitch Like A Girl 5. Workplace Warrior 6. Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the Modern Consumer 7. Contingency Planning & Disaster Recovery 8. She Wins, You Win 9. Napoleon On Project Management 10. Why Good Girls Dont' Get Ahead, But Gutsy Girls Do 11. Comeback Moms: How to Leave Work, Raise Children, and Restart your Career even If you Haven't Had a Job in Years 12. The One Minute Millionaire 13. Talking From 9 to 5 14. Soloing: Realizing Your Life's Ambitions 15. 101 Best Home Based Businesses for Women: Everything You Need to Know About Getting Started on the Road To Success 16. Work With Passion: How to Do What You Love for a Living. Revised and Expanded 17. Fail-Proof Your Business: Beat the Odds and be Successful 18. Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End 19. Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide 20. Millionaire Women Next Door: The Many Journeys of Successful American Businesswomen 21. Start Small, Finish Big: Fifteen Key Lessons to Start - and Run - Your Own Successful Business 22. Rewired, Rehired or Retired: A Global Guide for the Experienced Worker 23. The Martha Rules: 10 essentials for achieving success as you start, build or manage a business 24. The Essentials of Entrepreneurship: What it takes to create Successful Enterprises 25. Net Ready: Strategies for Success in the E-conomy 26. The Promotable Woman 27. Leave The Office Earlier: The Productivity Pro shows you how to do more in less time and feel great about it 28. The Work At Home Balancing Act: The professional resource guide for managing yourself, your work, and your family at home 29. Secrets of Six-Figure Women
Yugma - MAC & PC - Shri, This online tool is great for the following: - Webpage walk throughs or showcasing a website and it's functionality - Demo something on your Computer - Presentations of your powerpoint slides You can have a number of users online at the same time and you are given a free teleconference line (may be long distance to the callers or you have the option of a toll fre number). you can now have customers from across the continent - including overseas at a presentation. No need to book rooms, AV equipment, snacks etc. etc. You can also record the conference to be replayed at a later time. So do a conference once and make it available on your site. does anyone use a similar tool (gotomeeting or webex) in other creative ways?
Write a great headline - Whether it's online or on paper, I think a great headline (with a good picture if possible) can draw a reader into the body copy. In "The Copywriter's Handbook", Robert Bly says "On average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy...The best headlines appeal to people's self-interest, or give news...Your headline can perform four different tasks: 1. Get attention. 2. Select the audience. 3. Deliver a complete message. 4. Draw the reader into the body copy." (pg. 15 & 16). Personally, I only read Yahoo! or online news if there's a captivating headline.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

The True Cost of Employee Turnover

Live To Work Or Work To Live?

A New Year in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.