I often speak to groups of 250 or more, and people are always asking me how I do it with seeming nervous or anxious. Though I’ve been doing this for more than 20 years, I still get nervous and that’s OK. I expect it. I also know how to work around it. Here’s how you can do it too:
1. Prepare and practice your presentation well in advance.
2. Do your speech drills daily (I teach these in my High Yield Communication class)
3. Check out the location of your presentation and test audio visual, staging, sound, etc.
4. If you are using audio visual, have a back-up plan.
5. Arrive early, thank your hosts and find a quiet spot to practice.
6. Remember, the first 5 seconds are the most important. If you nail those, you are golden!
Just follow these six simple steps, and YOU can make it look easy too!