Getting on stage and presenting in front of an audience canbe a daunting task. It is scary since we rarely have the opportunity to do it. Whensomeone is speaking, it is easier to sit back and watch because prevents usfrom being humiliated in front of a huge crowd. Sometimes we have thoughts suchas “What will they think of me? Is my message worth sharing? Am I good enough?Do they like me?” We constantly ask ourselves these questions and when we geton stage, we stumble and it becomes true.
As a beginner, we all make mistakes and we must accept thatmistakes are learning experiences. They can only make us better. When we switch our mindsets from failing tolearning, we are learning from our failings. Let’s look at whatwe can do to prepare ourselves to become confident on stage.
Plan out your message
When we first start public speaking, many of us use scriptsand we tend to memorize it. The challenge here is when we forget and we stumble.Some people spend countless hours to memorize their presentation only to forgettheir lines because they had a hiccup on stage. Rather than remembering yourmessage, plan your message. For example, every presentation has anintroduction, body and conclusion. Rather than remembering your script word byword, remember the core message in each component. What are the key points inyour introduction, body and conclusion? When you focus on remembering the keypoints, you will have less to remember and it easier to recall. Your messagealso becomes natural because you are in the moment.
Focus on the flow ofyour message
Another key to remembering your presentation is to focus onthe flow of the message. How are you building the momentum of yourpresentation? A great presentation flows smoothly. When you focus on the flowof your presentation, focus on the key point and allow the message to naturallyflow. At first, don’t worry so much about the construct of your message. Youwill learn through experience and practice. Remember the key points and whythey are important to the audience. The more ways you can elaborate on the keypoints, the easier it is for you to express your ideas. It is easy to stumbleon stage especially when you are starting out. Thus, knowing various ways todescribe your ideas will help you overcome a mental block.
Rehearse yourpresentation
There is an old saying that is still valid to this day“Practice, practice and more practice.” You might not be perfect and you do notwant to achieve perfection but the more you practice, the easier it is for youto present your message on stage. When practicing, rehearse the structure andthe flow. Let your message flow naturally and it will come out many differentways. You will make mistakes along the way or there are some content you forgotto share. Remember “IT’S OKAY!” The critical components are the theme and thekey points. Aside from those two parts, let the message build itself throughyour presentation. Let yourself and your style come out while you arepresenting. All of us have our own style of presenting and the best way to letyour style come out is to hone our skills.
Record yourself
Finally, the fastest way to improve your presentation skillsis to record yourself. All of us at one point become nervous when we are onstage, whether it is twitching our fingers, holding our hands together, or evenusing the same movement repetitiously. These are our natural responses toprotect us. However, these reactions impede the presentation. They are likedistractions. When we record ourselves, we see our distractions and we start tore-train ourselves to avoid disturbing body movements. It is important to notonly learn great presentation skills, it is also critical to remove ourdistractions.
To learn more about what you can do to remove theineffective body movements and improve your presentation skills, you can get acoach who will review and provide solid feedback. You can also visitwww.inspirationalex.com and learn what you can do to improve your presentationskills.