Before your Presentation

Now that we know what stage fright is and what it's medically called, we want to see the ways in which we can over come our stage fright. First we will talk about what to do before your presentation. Speaking in front on a group will become less daunting when you allow adequate preparation, sufficient practice, and rehearsals.

The first tip to keep in mind is prepare thoroughly. One strategy you can use is to know your project thoroughly. You want to always research your topic diligently so you understand what your talking about. One thing we don't want to do is "wing it", this usually results in getting butterflies in your tummy and make your presentation a negative one.

The next step you want to take is rehearsing repeatedly. When you rehearse, you want to go over your whole presentation, not just parts of it. If you have a PowerPoint, you may want to print out your speakers notes, outlines and slide handouts which are good for practice. Making up transitional sentences four yourself will be helpful when you need to move on to your next slide. A great way to practice is to record yourself and see how you sound. Doing this will evaluate how effective you are.

You then want to time yourself and check the room. When timing yourself,  you want to make sure that you presentation is no longer then 20 minuets. When timing yourself, place a kitchen timer to see how long your talking for. For checking the room, you want to check all projectors, computers and cables are all working properly. You want to ensure that the seating arrangement in the room suits your needs.


The next thing we want to do is greet the members of the audience. Try to make contact with different members of the audience when your presenting, while you are waiting to be introduced, and when you walk to the podium. A major aspect we want to make sure of our body language. This is a key component in a good presentation. You want to make sure you give off a positive confidant stance.

The very last thing you want to do before you present in front of people is to practice stress reduction. If you are ever feeling tense while you are waiting to present, you want to do practice your slow deep breathing.