How To Handle Your Anxiety At Your Next Business Presentation

Being a business owner means that you are going to have to do many things to effectively run your organization. From managing your employees to be more productive to building the perfect website, you are going to need to wear many hats and tackle multiple projects if you expect your venture to succeed. One skill you are going to have to become quite effective at is giving a presentation.

Whether you are delivering a presentation in your office or at a conference, you will need to become quite effective at it. However, many entrepreneurs struggle with this because they are riddled with anxiety. The fear of failure and looking dumb in front of the audience overwhelms most people causing them to do poorly when presenting. If you have every struggled with this problem, here are some basic measures you can take to address this problem:

Handling Your Nerves

Public speaking can be one of the most nervous times for an individual. Sometimes these nerves can be so over- whelming that the thought of saying one word will almost be cause for you body to simply shut down. While this is true for a few, others have learned the various tricks to combat these nerves and are able to perform with very little distress. And of course there will be some who when you look at them you decide that there is no way that they could be nervous. 

Actually there is no real reason for anyone to be nervous before giving a public speech. There are some simple and tried ways to overcome these nerves and even though you may not believe this, it is very true. The tricks of the trade, if you will allow, are well known and often spoken about. We gathered these speaking tips from the website KeynoteSpeakers.info:

Drink Water

One of the best ways to put away bad nerves is to put yourself in a positive position. A simple way to do this is to make sure that you have a glass of water waiting on you in case you need. This is a simple task but one that allows you to take charge of the situation and deliver the glass of water to the podium yourself. 

Breathe Deep

Another trick is take a few deep breaths before being introduced. Here you will want to take a deep breath slowly, hold it in your lungs for at least a three count, and then let it out very slowly. Do this three or four times and you will feel your heart rate slow, your normal breathing will be slow, you will even be able to notice that your hands are not as sweaty as they were before the deep breaths.

Read Positive Affirmations

If you are unfamiliar with with these, positive affirmations are short sentences or “mantras” you can tell yourself to help create a positive mindset. Many athletes and performers use these words to help shape their mindset before they are going on stage or out to play a live game. Websites like Motivation Ping provide a great resource of positive affirmations if you need some inspiration.

Master Your Materials

Knowing your material is paramount. It is important that you spend the time required in researching the topic you have been asked to speak on. After you have done your research then and only then will you be able to begin to write your speech. 

It is important that you write your own speech so that you can use the words and phrases that you are comfortable with. This way your speech will sound like you. After your speech is written then it is time to practice. Reading the speech a few times is not practicing the delivery of said speech.

Use A Mirror

It is recommended that you practice your speech in front of a mirror. The reason for this is it allows you the opportunity to get used to looking up as you say the words. Even if you never make eye contact with anyone in your audience you will be able to at least look directly over their heads. No one in attendence will be able to determine it you are making eye contact or not so this is nothing to be concerned with.

Don’t Memorize Your Speech

After practicing your speech many, many times you will begin to commit some if not all of it to memory. This is a good thing, as the fact is, if your speech is committed to memory then the use of note cards or an outline will not be necessary. This will also give you the opportunity to give your speech from a position of comfort as opposed to one that is forceful.

Final Thoughts

The steps to do away with nerves when giving a public speech are clear and simple to follow. If you do these things shown here you will be well on your way to giving a successful speech. There really is nothing to be afraid of, if you say that you can not get up in front of a group and give a speech you are only fooling yourself. 

You talk to groups of people every day, you just don’t realize it. Take that deep breath, relax, public speaking is not a death sentence. With time and practice you just might come to realize that you enjoy doing this.