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Little Known Special Cure for Presentation Anxiety

Guest post by: Milly Sonneman

Article Overview: Do you suffer from presentation anxiety and nervous jitters? An often over-looked cure is waiting for you. It's easy, fast and entirely in your control.

Little Known Special Cure for Presentation Anxiety

Do you suffer from presentation anxiety and nervous jitters? How many presentations do you give in a day? A week? A month?

In many organizations presentation skills are the single differentiating factor between success and failure.

Traditionally this was a given for marketing and sales. The better your presentation, the more likely you were to win new clients and sell more of what you are selling.

However, a lot of other people in your organization are giving critical presentations. It's not just marketing, sales and top executives who need help with giving a high-impact presentation. And many people share nervousness, pain and fear associated with giving public talks.

It turns out that people at all levels of organizations give a whole lot of presentations -- every day, week and year. And the majority of people agree: presentations are the biggest part of their job that they fear and hate. If you don't invest in building a solid set of skills, you are losing a huge amount of time and money.

Consider some of the people who give critical presentations: project managers, managers, IT professionals, researchers, scientists and financial advisors. Many are natural introverts who may not have had specialized communication training.

Do the math.

How much is your organization spending in lousy meetings, redundant presentations, and poorly facilitated problem solving sessions? It's enough to make you dizzy. Even if you're not great at math!

I work with a lot of brilliant clients who are extremely well educated. Many come to me because they feel hopeless about presenting. Why? They've had terrible and scary experiences talking in front of groups. They never learned the basics. So they don't know how to handle things such as answering questions under fire, simplifying complex research, or calling to action.

Strangely, many of these people never thought about presentation skills. They assumed that certain people were naturally talented in presenting. Some folks got the 'charisma' gene. Others didn't. And that was that.

Think about your organization. Are there some brilliant experts who seem like miserable failures in presenting? I bet you can name a few.

Since we have a chance to change this right now, I want to give you an instant tip. You can use this for yourself -- or share it with one of the smart people on your team.

It's a powerful cure for presentation anxiety.

Attitude Always Shows

A lot of smart people including subject matter experts, scientists and researchers forget that attitude always shows to their audiences. But when you realize this fact, it can drive you a little bonkers at first.

What should you do?

Some people try to structure and control their behavior. This is an exhausting and tedious approach. I don't recommend it.

Rather than going crazy trying to control every little thing you do, look at the core: your positive and open attitude. Focus on your beliefs, thoughts and personal habits when it comes to presenting to a group.

This area is often over-looked.

Don't fall prey to the courses that teach you to manipulate your body language, speech and presence. That will only take you so far. (And it won't be far enough.) You'll always feel like you are trying to remember to do the right thing -- instead of trusting your natural strengths.

Focusing on your attitude is the fastest and easiest remedy for presentation nerves. With a positive approach, it's easier to show your core strengths and natural presence. This alone enables you to make dramatic strides. You can improve your credibility, engage your audience, and share your expertise.

Use your authentic strengths to grow new presentation skills and dissolve presentation anxiety. With skills training, you can learn to can give confident presentations.

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Article Tags: business presentation, presentation coach, visual story



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