You cannot prevent yourself from getting nervous when asked to present in a meeting. Even experienced speakers will still shake when it is their time to speak. You might not prevent the nerves from coming, but you can hide them and pretend that you are not feeling nervous at all. These tips will help you if you start feeling that way.
Breathe
Sometimes, you need to breathe to get rid of the nerves. As you start holding your breath before releasing a huge sigh, you will realise that your nervousness has already gone away. You might also begin having fast heartbeats when you are close to the presentation, but with proper breathing, you can return to your normal heart rate.
Do not admit nervousness
When someone asks you if you feel nervous about the presentation, you have to say no. You can tolerate it because if you do not, you are only setting yourself up to fail. Make sure that you are confident when talking to others even if you are already shaking inside. You cannot convince others that you are confident when you cannot even convince yourself that you are.
Speak slowly
You might get caught being nervous when you sputter. You cannot hide the nerves as you start stuttering. Therefore, you need to try speaking slowly until you present everything that you need to say. You might think that you are going too slowly, but for everyone in the room, you are doing fine. You will sound smart and well-organised.
Smile your way out
When you smile, you start to look confident. You sound like you are not worrying about anything at all. Therefore, it helps if you smile to everyone in the room. Even when you have made mistakes, you still need to smile. It is also your way of telling your brain that everything is okay, and you have nothing to worry about.
Maintain eye contact
Some people will tell you to avoid looking at the other people in the room or pretend that they are not there if you want to feel confident. The opposite is true. You need to have proper eye contact with everyone in the room and show to them that you can look at them in the eye and convince them that you have something valuable to say. They will also see you as someone confident because of your capability to maintain eye contact.
Prepare the room
You need the meeting room to be ready for the meeting. You cannot enter the room and start preparing it when the rest of the attendees are already there since you will only feel even tenser. The key is to check if the equipment is working well beforehand. You also need to invest in the right equipment that will make it easy for you to finish the presentation. For instance, you might want to present slides. You need to buy a wall mount for the television to allow smooth discussion. A digital kiosk display would also be an amazing choice too.
You can fake your confidence until you convince yourself and the people in the room that you are.
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