Tips for Managing Nervous Energy During Presentations

𝐍𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐨𝐮𝐬? 𝐍𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐥 You’re waiting to speak. Your heart races. Your stomach flips. Your mind goes blank. Sound familiar? Whether you’re a seasoned speaker or stepping onto the stage for the first time, nervousness is natural. The founder of NSA Cavett Robert, said “The key is not to eliminate the butterflies, but to teach them to fly in formation.” Here’s how I coach my clients to turn anxiety into impact: 𝐌𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲:  Preparation is your best tactic. As a rule, invest six hours of preparation for every one hour of speaking. Memorize your opening and closing. Know them cold. These are your most high-stakes moments, when you’re most nervous and need to be most fluent. 𝐋𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲: Arrive early. Get comfortable with the room or stage. Walk where you’ll stand. Test the tech. Make friends with the stage before your audience arrives. 𝐏𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲:  Shake out the tension. Backstage or in the bathroom, try this: shake your hands, loosen your jaw, bounce on your toes. Also, greet your audience! Shake hands, make eye contact, connect before you speak. You’re rarely nervous about people you’ve already met. 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐮𝐬 𝐓𝐢𝐩: Don’t get stuck sitting down right before speaking. If you are going to talk about an hour into the agenda, sit in the back of the room so that for some portion of that hour, you can stand up. It isn't easy to immediately jump into your presentation and be dynamic when you have been sitting down and relaxed. Sitting in the back of the room allows you easy access to the bathroom before a speech. One of the greatest orators of the twentieth century, Winston Churchill, said, "𝑁𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑢𝑝 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑜 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑚." This is very true with delivering presentations. 𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫: Nervousness is a sign that you care. With the right preparation and techniques, your audience will only see confidence. Good luck with your next presentation. #presentationskillsexpert #keynotespeaker #publicspeaking #frippvt

I've mentioned this to many in our community, but it often catches people off guard when they learn that I grapple with stage fright and on-camera anxiety. I'm well aware that I'm not the only one; after all, the fear of public speaking is a common challenge for so many of us. To offer a bit of assistance to those of you in the same boat, I've compiled a quick rundown of some of the tactics I use to tackle those pre-show jitters. -- 1. Plan and Rehearse: - Rehearse, but Don't Over-script: Nothing beats practice and rehearsal. I aim for a natural delivery, which typically means not sticking rigidly to a script. This helps me be more relaxed and authentic. - Interactive Elements: Incorporating visuals like pictures or videos, and interactive segments keeps the presentation dynamic and gives me necessary breaks. - Anchor Phrases & Transitions: I build in specific phrases that I'll use to "right the ship" and get me back on track into the next point/topic. This built in safety net helps give me peace of mind going into the presentations. 2. Avoid Caffeine and Stimulants: - Steer Clear of Caffeine: Caffeine and energy drinks can amplify anxiety, so I avoid them before presentations or broadcasts to keep my nerves in check. - Hydration and Snacks: I make sure to bring my own water and a light snack to boost my energy levels. Green rooms are usually full of these things, but I never assume that they will always be stocked. Hunger and thirst are not things you want to be worried about when the the spotlight turns on. 3. Centering Techniques: - Prayer: I use prayer to center my thoughts and calm my mind before going on stage. (For those who don’t pray, a short meditation session can also provide a moment of calm and focus.) - Breathing Exercises: Simple, focused breathing exercises are a great way to reduce anxiety and prepare mentally.

Transforming Stage Fear into Stage Presence: Cultivating a Positive Speaking Mindset You’ve all seen it: shaking hands, sweaty fingers, and a blank mind when the stage lights come on. Performance anxiety, sometimes known as stage fear, affects many people, including the most professional performers. But what if I told you that the secret to breaking through this mental barrier is not raw force, but understanding the psychology behind it? Here are some psychology-backed tips which can help you overcome your stage fear: 1️⃣ Understand Your Enemy: Stage Fear ✅ Fear of judgement, rejection, or failure is a common source of stage fear. ✅Recognising and treating these underlying fears is important. ✅Remember that connecting with your audience authentically is more important than being faultless. ✅Accept mistakes as a part of your journey. 2️⃣ Accept the Nerves Before a Performance ✅Those pre-performance butterflies, believe it or not, can be your friends. ✅The adrenaline rush can help you focus better and perform better.  ✅Deep, controlled breaths tell your body that it is OK to relax. ✅Meditation and mindfulness activities can be quite beneficial in stress management. 3️⃣ Visualization and Positive Affirmations ✅Imagine yourself giving your speech or performance with confidence. ✅Combine this with positive affirmations to increase your self-confidence. ✅Use your imagination as a strong instrument to create a mental rehearsal in which you beat the stage fear one good thought at a time. 4️⃣ Connect with Your Audience ✅Change your attention away from yourself to your audience. ✅Keep in mind that they are there to hear your message or to enjoy your performance. ✅Engage with them, make a connection, and you'll notice that the fear fades as your focus changes to providing value to others. 5️⃣ Practice makes a man perfect ✅The more you practice, the more at ease you will get with the material. ✅Practice not only improves your talents but also boosts your confidence. ✅Knowing your material well allows you to overcome stage fear more smoothly, changing your presentation into a well-rehearsed masterpiece. How did you overcome your stage fear? #fear #transformation #publicspeakingcoach #mindset

Public speaking make you nervous? Let’s talk about the speaker’s “waggle.” 🏌️♂️✨ Clients often ask for help with their fear of speaking in front of an audience. Besides, “Prepare,” one of my favorite tips comes from golf - the waggle. It’s “a preliminary swinging of a golf club head back and forth over the ball before the swing,” according to the Oxford dictionary. Golfers “waggle” before they start their actual swing to distract them from fear and loosen up, so when they take the club back, the nerves are calmer. In speaking, I recommend a “waggle” to bridge that moment between getting up to speak and uttering your first syllable. A speaking waggle takes 1-3 seconds. And nobody needs to know you’re doing it. It can be as simple as taking a conscious breath, making eye contact with an audience “friendly,” or tapping one foot quietly on the ground, as if to step on the gas and go - or all 3. Using a waggle over time feels comforting and reassuring, so you begin speaking with more confidence. It’s one of many things you can put in your speaking nerves toolbox. How do you calm yourself right before giving a speech or presentation?

I recently watched a speaker and after 3 minutes I was exhausted. He had too much energy. Maybe because it was 9am, maybe it was because my coffee just hadn’t hit yet, but his hype? It was TOO much. I’ve worked with hundreds of speakers. Some lack energy. But others? Well, they have too much unharnessed energy. Too much energy can distract from your content, wear your audience out, and in some cases make you appear fake (because no one should have THAT much energy at 9am). If you tend to be high energy you want to look for the right balance and direct it in a way that is winsome, not exhausting, for your audience. Here are 4 ways how: Step 1: Do some cardio  During my 20s I was interviewing for a big radio producing job while also training for my first (and last!) marathon. I flew to Colorado for the interview, checked into my hotel, and ran several miles on the treadmill to fulfill my training plan, then headed to my interview. As I walked into the interview, I felt a fantastic sense of calm. Running all those training miles had helped burn my nervous energy. If you know you have too much adrenaline while you speak– do some cardio the morning before you speak - go on a run! Take a brisk walk! Get outside! You will feel much steadier and calmer when you step onto the stage. Step 2: Slow down and pause When I was a kid an adult told me once that I could, “Talk the legs off a cast iron pot.” At the time I didn’t know what that meant but I could tell it wasn’t a compliment. As a fast talker I can forget to pause. Slow your energy down and increase your impact by pausing. Pause before you open your talk to increase audience anticipation. Pause before you answer a question. Pause after you ask a question. Pause before a punchline. Pause before a big idea. Pause after a big idea. Pause at the end. Step 3: Speak like a dance (aka use vocal variety) When we were engaged, my husband and I took ballroom dance lessons, and then performed a (pretty epic if I do say so myself) waltz for our first dance at our wedding. Great speaking sounds like a dance. In fact, one Forbes article says the best speakers follow the same rhythm as a dance– slow, slow, then quick. Speak slowly for impact– then, you can spend one sentence speaking a little faster. Then, slow down again. Use this as you go through your points, and don’t forget to include the pause! Step 4: Watch your body language. 55% of communication is nonverbal. You are EXCITED to be there-we get it! We’re excited to be in the audience too. Just be careful that you are not frantically pacing and moving the entire time you are speaking. Instead, at times plant your feet shoulder width apart, drop your shoulders, make eye-contact, and smile. Consciously slow down the energy of your body. What about you - do you tend to be high energy or low energy when it comes to speaking? —-- Hi, I’m Eva.  I help speakers develop and deliver compelling speeches. Need help? Send me a DM.

Pretending everyone in the audience is in their underwear has never worked for me. When I’m really nervous about a big meeting or speaking at an event, I find myself getting stuck in my head. To combat the nerves, I’ve started reframing “I’m so nervous” to “I’m so excited”—and literally saying that out loud to myself. Reframing my anxiety as excitement has had a really positive impact on my performance and my nerves. And research shows that your mindset can change your actions: One study from Harvard Business School found that when participants said “I’m excited” vs. “I’m nervous,” they performed better. (Check out the graph for more details!) When you reframe your mindset from negative to positive—or from nervous to excited—your actions will follow. Even something as simple as saying, “I’m so excited for this opportunity.” So the next time you hop on a Zoom presentation or sit down for an in-person panel, remember this simple mindset shift and see how much better you feel.

“Hey Anne, do you get nervous?” I do. Every time I am about to step on stage my stomach fills with 🦋. But instead of feeling concern those butterflies let me know that I am excited about what is to come and that I care. For me being nervous is different than anxiety. I use planning to ensure that I can still deliver every time I step on stage - and keep anxiousness far away. 📌I eat something familiar the night before - not the time to try something new. 📌I get a good night of rest 😴 so I can feel my best - for me that is 6-7 hours of sleep. 📌I practice what I am going to say - tweaking things along the way to best reach the audience. 📌I take time to visualize the event - what is the experience I want to create for the audience? What is the energy that I am bringing to the stage? Planning will always pay off. ❓Do you need to have a conversation with a team member that feels significant? Plan for it. ❓Do you need to tell your supervisor something that they won’t take favorably? Plan for it. ❓Do you need to bring some new energy to the workplace? Plan for it. Determine the steps you need to take to make the situation as successful as possible. Many leaders approach important matters without preparation and find themselves in situations they can’t handle. 😮 You won’t have control over all the variables - but the more you have planned for what you do have control over - the more prepared you will be for twists and turns. What do you need to plan for today? #heyAnne #humanresources #leadership #speaker

Turn Anxiety Into Your Advantage We're told to ignore fear and self-doubt. But I say we use that anxiety as fuel. As someone prone to worry, I make anxiety my friend, not my enemy. Anxiety means you care about the outcome. You're invested in doing great work. Think about it. Do we get anxious over things that don't matter? No way. I used to beat myself up for feeling nervous or insecure about goals before presentations. Not anymore. Now, I reframe that angst as positive energy. The anxious voice isn't a bully. It's a coach. It's saying: "You feel this way because you want to crush it. This is important to you." Instead of dismissing anxiety, I celebrate it. It transforms self-doubt into fire to prepare harder and bring more passion. The angst reminds me why giving extra effort matters. Visualization, power stances, etc., can help channel that energy productively. But reframing is critical. Anxiety means you care deeply. It signals you've got this. Next time you feel anxious thoughts, lean in. Say: "Thanks for the reminder this matters. Let's make it great!" Put that amped-up energy to work. We all feel anxiety sometimes. But use it as a driving force, not a roadblock. You'll be amazed at the powerful results. Bring it on, anxiety! You're not a burden - you're an asset. I'm really interested in getting takes from Mitch Webb, Josh Perry and Cory Charles. Mindset framing is a legit superpower! Thanks for reading, and don't forget to like, comment, and follow me for more content related to sales, account management, and commercial relationships.

😍 📊 NEW podcast episode: How to Give More Confident Data Presentations (even if you’re an introvert) — Featuring Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic!!! If you can speak confidently about your #dataviz work to other people, you’ll make a bigger impact. But if you’re shy, nervous, or an introvert, you might feel like speaking isn't in the cards for you. Guess what? You CAN learn this skill. Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic, a data storytelling expert, best-selling author, and CEO of Storytelling with Data, joins me on the show today to share how to identify and fix pesky presentation nerves so you can finally have the impact you want. Listen to the full episode where ever you get your podcasts or here: https://lnkd.in/esnFjdQb Here are my favorite tips: > No more excuses. Stop saying you're not a good presenter. You just haven't practiced enough. Everyone can learn this skill. You may need to practice more than other people, and that's ok. > Embrace the discomfort. Yes, it's uncomfortable. Think about this as "productive discomfort." You have a goal and you're moving toward it. > You don't look as nervous as you feel. You might feel extremely uncomfortable while speaking, but remember, it's highly likely that your audience only sees a fraction of what you're feeling, if they notice at all! > Identify how your body reacts to nerves. Don't get mad at yourself for sweating or shaking or talking too fast. Identify the annoying things your body does and PLAN for ways to deal with it. > Record yourself and watch it back strategically. Record yourself presenting and watch it back just to get over how awful it is to watch yourself. lol Review the recording again with ONLY the audio. Do you have filler words? Talking too fast? Finally, watch it one more time WITHOUT the audio. Are you frowning? Gesturing wildly? This is a great lens to find nervous tics that you don't realize that you're doing. > Start making confident gestures BEFORE you feel confident. Pull your shoulders back and smile. It'll signal to your brain that everything's ok and then the actual confidence will come. > Engineer times in your presentation where you're forced to pause. Learn to pause to catch your breath and give the audience time to process what you're saying. Take a sip of water or ask the audience a question. Count to 10 in your head to give them time to think and respond. > Also...a random tip I learned from my dentist: If you're feeling tense, think to yourself, "Breathe through the nose, wiggle the toes." It'll release the tension you're holding and get you out of your head! Listen to the episode for even MORE tips on presenting from Cole. She didn't hold back and shared so much. Do you have a presentation tip that's really helped? Let me know in the comments! ❤️

Public speaking isn’t just about what you say—it’s about how grounded you feel while saying it. Even the most seasoned speakers feel nerves before stepping on stage or into a high-stakes meeting. But here’s the difference: they’ve learned to regulate their body before they try to command a room. Breathing is one of the most underrated tools for calming nerves, steadying your voice, and regaining control of your presence. Here are 5 breathing techniques that have helped professionals stay composed under pressure: 1.    Box Breathing – Inhale 4s, hold 4s, exhale 4s, hold 4s. Repeat. 2.    Extended Exhale – Breathe in for 4, out for 6 to slow the heart rate. 3.    Nasal Breathing – Keeps breathing quiet and controlled (great before walking on stage). 4.    4-7-8 Method – Inhale 4s, hold 7s, exhale 8s. Reduces stress fast. 5.    Resonance Breathing – Aim for 6 breaths per minute. Deep, slow, and rhythmic. You don’t need to eliminate nerves to perform well—you just need to work with them. Which of these have you tried—or do you have your own go-to ritual before speaking? ------- ♻️ Found this helpful? Repost or share it with someone who needs it. 👉 Follow Cade Bergman for more honest insights and practical motivation.