5 Ways to Ease Presentation-Day Nerves

Practicing your presentation for an empty room—or a small group of your closest colleagues—is one thing. But delivering a presentation for an audience of people all intently focused on you is another. If you feel a flare-up of nerves preceding the moment you have to step “into the spotlight” to deliver a presentation, rest assured you’re not alone. According to Psychology Today, about one-fourth of people report experiencing glossophobia—the official name for the fear of public speaking.

But for many of us, public speaking is a fact of life. At some point most of us have to deliver a presentation for school, work, a passion project, a volunteer role, or another situation. Rather than avoiding public speaking until the last possible minute, it’s a much better idea to prepare ahead of time so you’re ready to confidently take the stage when the day comes. Looking online for some tips on how to become a TED Talk speaker can help you feel more confident and comfortable.

Here are five ways to proactively ease presentation-day nerves.

Plan Your Opening

Start with the beginning. After all, trying to envision filling an entire 20-minute, 40-minute or hour-long time slot can feel very intimidating. Make the experience more manageable by focusing on your opening—just a few minutes that’ll help you establish a connection with your audience and overcome that initial burst of nerves.

As one leadership and communication expert writes for Harvard Business Review, the adrenaline rush of nerves you’ll likely feel when you kick off your presentation “usually dissipates in about two minutes.” Practicing a punchy, memorable opener will help you power through the most nerve-wracking part of the entire speech, allowing you to find your groove shortly thereafter.

Know Your Audience

Taking the time to understand exactly who’ll be viewing your presentation will help you tailor your delivery, while eliminating the unknown quantity of having to envision a generic audience that’s impossible to know or satisfy.

How much does your audience already know about the topic? What’s your goal? And how can you make your presentation relatable and engaging for this group of viewers, specifically?

Ask the Audience

Some of the pressure you feel as a presenter undoubtedly comes from the fact that you’re in “the hot seat.” Facing your audience head-on, it’s easy to feel like you’re responsible for keeping up a one-way dialogue the entire time.

Good news, though: Great presentations have taken a turn for the conversational. Speakers are finding it’s more effective to create a two-way dialogue with audiences, asking people to answer questions and offer feedback before the Q&A session at the end. Audience response technology like Poll Everywhere works as a PowerPoint plug-in or Google Slides extension, embedding directly into your deck—and facilitating live polling in real time via mobile devices.

Involving your audience in your presentation gives them a reason to truly engage, as well as taking some of the pressure off you to speak at people.

Test Your Tech

An all-too-common nightmare for presenters is experiencing an awkward tech malfunction onstage. It’s hard to troubleshoot tech problems with a room full of people watching you, and it can even feel like it undermines your authority. The solution? Test your tech. Make sure every single piece of technology you plan to use is in working order, and make sure you know exactly how to operate them flawlessly.

Get Off Script

Having a script can feel like a safety blanket. But it’s actually more of a crutch. While it’s smart to have an outline of what you’d like to cover, including crucial notes, it’s better to work on getting off script before you take the stage. Your presentation will feel more authentic, and you’ll know you’re completely ready to deliver it from memory.

Luckily, strategically easing presentation-day nerves is mostly a matter of preparedness.