“When I do a presentation I feel scared...”

Your fear of public speaking is lying to you. You were not born afraid to raise your hand or to share your ideas. That fear was learned over time. Think about it. As kids, we'd talk endlessly until someone told us to sit down and shut up. We learned to hold back, to avoid standing out, to fear the judgment in a room full of staring eyes. And if you keep believing that lie, it will steal your future. If you keep letting this fear shut you up, you'll watch opportunities slip by. The promotion you don't get, the client that you never pitch, the investors who never hear your idea. When you run from presentations, you start to build an identity as someone who can't lead. If you let that false identity take over, it will kill your dream of being a bold entrepreneur, all because you were too scared to speak when it mattered. One of our subscribers just opened up about this. Darsha, a university student from Sri Lanka, wrote to me and said, when I do a presentation, I feel scared and I forget everything that I planned. I can't do it. Please suggest a method to overcome this issue. Darsha, you are not alone. So many entrepreneurs and students feel exactly what you feel. You freeze, you blank out, you feel powerless on stage. But I promise you that can change. Let me prove it. If you've been here before, drop a hashtag #believe in the comments below so I can feature you here in a future video. And if you're new, welcome to Believe Nation, the only channel that helps you believe in yourself daily, one video at a time. Consider the story of Warren Buffett, one of the richest, most respected entrepreneurs alive. Today he speaks to packed arenas, but as a young man, Warren was petrified of public speaking. At 20 years old, he actually signed up for a Dale Carnegie public speaking course and then dropped out before the first class because he was so terrified. A few years later, he tried again. This time Buffett forced himself to show up. He famously said, "I knew that if I didn't cure it then, I'd never cure it." And that thought lit a fire under him. He completed the course on a second try and immediately put his new skills to the test. Buffett started teaching an investing class to a handful of students, even though public speaking still made his heart pound. Every week he would stand in that little classroom. His voice was shaking and he practiced the very thing that scared him. It was basically exposure therapy, though he didn't know the term. By repeatedly putting himself in a situation that gave him anxiety, he slowly got desensitized to it. Day by day, the fear shrank and his confidence grew. And that one decision to face the fear instead of running changed the trajectory of Buffett's life. he began to find his voice. At 21, he suddenly had the courage to pitch stock ideas to older investors and even the nerve to propose to the woman that he loved. Years later, Buffett would tell business students that learning to speak effectively raised his value by 50%. Think about that. The skill most people dread became one of his biggest competitive advantages. If Buffett hadn't conquered his stage fright, by his own admission, he might never have become the billionaire that we know today. And here's the thing: Warren Buffett felt the same paralyzing pressure that you feel right now. He was so scared, he literally ran away from his first class. The only difference is he eventually made a different choice. He walked back in. He did the work. And you can too. Now, I want to get a little personal and tell you my story too, because I've been there. Believe it or not, I'm an introvert. I hated the spotlight most of my life. In fact, my biggest fear has never been heights or snakes or anything like that. My biggest fear is letting people down. Put me on stage in front of an audience and I used to feel this intense weight. Oh man, all of these people are counting on me. What if I disappoint them? And that fear chased me for years. So I decided to face it head on. I committed to something absolutely insane for me, a 90-day speaking tour across 23 cities. And every 4 days I was driving to a new city where nobody knew me, walking into a room full of entrepreneurs and putting myself on stage. I did it to force myself to grow, to finally get comfortable being uncomfortable. And let me tell you, it was brutal at first. I remember night after night standing behind the stage with sweaty palms, heart about to burst out of my chest, and part of me was begging to cancel, to run away, to quit. But I didn't. I went out there anyway. I was shaking those early talks, and that voice of doubt was yammering away in my head the whole time, but I got through it. And then I did it again in the next city and again in the next city. And halfway through the tour, life tested me even more. I had a freak accident between events and broke my neck. Neck in two spots, and I got a concussion. I'm not kidding. I had three staples in my head. I was physically in pain and could have easily said, all right, that's a sign, right? I'm done. But I stayed on the tour. I kept going to the next city and the next stage, neck brace and all. Why? Because I refused to quit on the mission. Now, I'm not superhuman. I was still that scared introvert inside, but my desire to serve people was stronger than the fear. And by the end of those 90 days, something had changed to me. Stepping on stage no longer felt like death. It started to feel like purpose. I had proven to myself that I won't let fear make my decisions. Was I still nervous before talks? Yes, I still am today. I still get butterflies, but now I know how to fly with them. Now I know that feeling scared doesn't mean I'm going to fail. It means I'm about to do something meaningful. So you might be thinking, okay, Evan, that's good for you and good for Buffett, but I'm still freaking out here. I'm not them. I'm not you. I freeze and I forget everything. What if I go blank and I embarrass myself? If that's the voice in your head, listen, that voice is fear, not truth. And we're going to shut it down right now in this video. First, understand what's actually happening to you when you're up there panicking. It's not that you're stupid or that you just can't do it. It's your biology. When you get anxious before a presentation, your body triggers a fight or flight response. It thinks you're facing a threat. And so adrenaline floods in. That rush of panic literally short-circuits your memory. In neuroscientific terms, the anxiety can cause your prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain that handles working memory, to shut down under stress. So it's no wonder that you can't remember what you plan to say. Even the most prepared speakers can lose their train of thought in that state. So you're not broken. Your brain is doing exactly what it's meant to do when it thinks that you're in danger. So now that you know this, let's take the power away from that fear response. Here's how we're going to fix it. I'm going to retrain your brain and give you tools so that when you feel that surge of adrenaline, it works for you, not against you. And by the end of this video, you won't just have the tips, you'll have a whole new belief system about what it means when you're shaking before a presentation. So let's transform you from scared presenter into confident communicator. [MUSIC] Number 1, everyone's scared. You're not alone and you're not weak. The first thing you need to do is stop feeling ashamed of your fear. Feeling nervous about public speaking is astonishingly common. Studies estimate that up to 77% of the population experiences some level of anxiety about public speaking. That's nearly 8 out of 10 people. Glossophobia— that's the fancy term for speaking fear— is often ranked even above the fear of death for many people. So if you're shaking in front of an audience, congratulations, you are completely normal. Even top CEOs and celebrities feel it. Oprah Winfrey once said she still gets nervous before big interviews. Richard Branson admits that his fear of public speaking never fully went away. He just learned to handle it. And remember, even Warren Buffett was so scared that he avoided speaking until he was 20. This is not about the lack of ability or character. It's a human response. What's important is fear feels like a signal that you're not ready or not good enough, but it's actually just a sign that something matters to you. So reframe that feeling. Those butterflies in your stomach aren't telling you, "I'm going to fail." They're telling you, "I care about this." Your nerves mean you want to do well. That's a good thing. As one psychology expert put it, "Our desire to be accepted by the group is hardwired over millions of years." Of course you feel anxious. Your brain thinks, "If this tribe rejects me, I'm in trouble." So forgive yourself for feeling scared. Say, okay, a lot of people feel this. I'm not weak, I'm human. The fear is there, but it doesn't have to stop you. Number 2, turn fear into excitement. So here's a pro tip backed by a lot of science. Your body doesn't know the difference between fear and excitement. Think about it, the, the racing heart, the sweaty palms, the butterflies. Physiologically, excitement and anxiety are almost identical. The only difference is how your mind labels that feeling. This means you can reframe that energy. So When you feel your nerves spiking before a presentation, tell yourself out loud, "I am excited." It might sound silly, but it can work. Researchers at Harvard found that when people reappraise their anxiety as excitement, they actually perform better. In one study, simply saying, "I am excited," improves speakers' confidence and speaking performance compared to those who try to calm down. Why? Because you're switching from a threat mindset, "Oh no, I'm nervous, this is bad," to an opportunity mindset, "This adrenaline can help me be dynamic." Even famous speakers use this trick. Sinek once shared that before he goes on stage, he doesn't say, 'I'm nervous.' He says, 'I'm excited,' to channel that energy. Olympic athletes do this too. They interpret the pre-game jitters as fuel to compete harder. So the next time your heart is pounding, literally smile and say, 'This is excitement. My body is gearing up to give a great performance.' It might feel forced the first time, but you'll be amazed at how it shifts your mindset. As a psychology professor explains in her book Choke, if you interpret your body's stress response as a positive, as a call to you are likely to thrive under pressure. So don't fight the butterflies, ride them. Instead of hoping your nerves will disappear magically, because they won't, even veteran speakers get them, embrace that adrenaline. Say, "Yes, I'm pumped up because this is important to me." Turn your fear into excitement and you'll transform that paralyzing energy into propulsion forward. Now, personally, I don't use the, "I'm not afraid, I'm excited." I like to, tell myself that I do difficult things. And so whenever I feel my heart racing and my palms are sweaty, I'm about to get off and do something difficult, I want to tell myself that I do difficult things. So before I get on stage, one of the main things I do is when I feel those nerves, I say, "You're Evan Carmichael and you do difficult things." If you want to take real action after this video, I made a free worksheet just for you. It covers the top lessons from today, gives you space to write your biggest takeaways, and helps you build a simple action plan. It's 100% free. Just click the link in the description to go grab it. Let's start building real momentum in your life and business. I'll see you there. Number 3, focus on your audience, not on yourself. One of the biggest breakthroughs you can have in overcoming presentation fear is realizing it's not about you at all. When we are anxious, it's because we're stuck in our own heads, right? How do I look? How's the pimple on my face? Do I sound stupid? What if I mess up? That self-focus turbocharges anxiety. The antidote is to redirect your focus outward to the audience you're serving and the message that you want to share. This is a powerful concept in psychology. Human generosity can quiet fear. Studies show that when we do something kind or focus on helping others, it activates the vagus nerves, which calms the fight or flight response. So in other words, when you approach speaking as an act of service, your brain doesn't feel like it's under attack. So before you get on stage or a Zoom room or in that meeting, flip the script in your head. Instead of thinking, "I hope they like me," ask, "How can I help them?" Even if you're just giving a class presentation, think of your audience. Maybe it's your professor, maybe it's your classmates, and say, "I have information or perspective that could be valuable for them." Make it about delivering value to them, not about you and your ego. This mental shift, it can be really liberating. Suddenly you're not a performer being judged, you're a messenger doing a service. So if you stumble on a word, your hands are shaking, like, who cares? It's not about being perfect. It's not about looking perfect. It's about whether they get the message. So here's a little technique that I use. I picture one person in the audience who really needs to hear my message today. I focus on that face, maybe someone who looks friendly, or sometimes even imagine someone from my past that I've met who's struggling with a problem, and I speak to that person. It becomes a conversation, not a performance. And so by doing this, you create a sense of connection instead of confrontation, and your anxiety levels drop because your brain registers, oh, I'm just helping someone. I'm not fighting a tiger here. As Harvard Business Review put it, stop thinking about how your presentation is making you look and start thinking about how it's going to help your audience. Remind yourself, this isn't about me, it's about them. When you operate with a spirit of generosity, you counteract that feeling of being under attack and you'll feel your nerves go down. So when you combine it with the last point, I call this the push and the hug. And sometimes I need more push and sometimes I need more hug. So when I feel the nerves of going on stage and I'm backstage, the push is you do difficult things. Get out there Carmichael, you do difficult things. The hug is I'm here to serve. I'll find one person in the audience like this is the person that I'm trying to help. And sometimes I need 80% push and 20% hug. Sometimes I need 80% hug and 20% push, but it's in that combination of what will work for me in the moment. I either need to push to tell myself, I do difficult things, get out there and do this, that being scared is not a good enough reason, and channeling that energy and adrenaline into, I do difficult things, go. Or I'm here to serve, I'm here to help that one person in the audience, they need me today. My job is to go out there and help them, not worry about myself. So give it a try. See backstage just before you get on, That combination of do you need to push and channeling that energy into, uh, into something positive, or channeling it into the hug that you're here to serve and you're here to help. Both work really well, and I use both. Just depends on behind the scenes on that day, how I'm feeling, what I need most in the moment. Okay, number 4: prepare and practice the right way. So fear often comes when that feeling that you're not prepared or things are out of your control. So Let's talk about preparation, not just working hard on your presentation, but also working smart. Winging it is not an option when you're already anxious. In fact, one statistic claims that 90% of the anxiety people fear before presentation comes from not being properly prepared. So that tells us something crucial. Preparation is your best antidote to panic, but not all preparation is equal. You need to practice the right way in a way that builds your confidence and simulates the real thing. So first, know your material cold. This doesn't mean memorizing a script word for word. In fact, I'll advise against that in a moment. It means having a deep understanding of what you're talking about. When you truly understand your content, you can speak about it naturally from any starting point. For entrepreneurs, this might mean really knowing your business metrics and your story before you go off and do a pitch. For students, it means thoroughly researching your topic and knowing more than you'll ever need to say. That depth gives you quiet confidence. You know that if you get a question or you take a detour on your speech, you won't get lost. Next, simulate the pressure during practice. Don't just run through your presentation in your head or mumble it while sitting on your couch. Practice out loud, standing up as if you're in front of the real audience. There's a reason that athletes scrimmage and musicians do dress rehearsals. You need to train in conditions similar to the performance. Psychology research backs this up. Practicing under the same kinds of pressure you'll face helps prevent choking when it comes to game time. So add a little stress to your practice. You could ask a couple of friends or colleagues to be your mock audience and maybe even heckle you with some tough questions, or use a camera recording yourself giving the presentation as if you were live. Initially, this will feel very awkward and you might hate watching it. I sure did the first 100 times, but pushing through that discomfort will make the real presentation far easier for you. Per Second Share took me 350 videos on YouTube before I wasn't completely embarrassed to watch myself back on camera. 350. That's a lot of reps, but each one made me better, and you could probably achieve it much faster. By the time you do something dozens of times, it starts to feel more like a routine, and routine isn't scary. So don't expect your fear to vanish on rep number 2 or 3. Commit to the process. Every presentation, every practice session is another rep that builds your courage muscle. Now, part of practicing right is also preparing for the worst so it no longer scares you, which brings us to Number 5, plan for memory gaps. Don't let blanking out beat you. So our commenter mentioned, I forget everything I plan. So let's tackle that head on. We've already seen that anxiety can blank out your memory. Now we need a safety net for those moments. The key is to never rely on a perfect script in your head. If your entire plan is, I'll memorize these 30 points verbatim in order, you're setting yourself up for a disaster because one skipped sentence and the whole thing can derail. Instead, use bullet points and chunking. So break your presentation into a few key sections or messages. For each section, you can have a keyword or phrase that cues you to the idea. When I speak, I often have a simple outline or a slide that only I can see with just section titles. This isn't cheating, it's smart. As one speaking coach says, "A wise speaker keeps notes handy, not to read off of, but as a safety net." So write down just the main points in order and maybe one statistic or quote that's crucial. If you lose your train of thought, a quick glance at your outline can instantly put you back on track. There is zero shame in this. Great speakers from Martin Luther King Jr. to modern TED Talks often have notes. The audience usually doesn't even notice a quick reference, and they care far more about your message than whether you're speaking 100% off the cuff. Here's another tactic: have transitional defaults. For example, if your mind goes blank, train yourself to pause and summarize your last point out loud. So you could say something like, "So the bottom line of what I just said is," and then you reiterate your last key point. This not only buys you a few seconds to gather your thoughts, it also reinforces your message, which is a win for the audience. By the time you've done that quick recap, your brain will likely have rebooted the next idea. Similarly, prepare a couple of engaging questions related to your topic that you can throw to the audience if you need a moment. It could be as simple as, By the way, how many times have you ever blank? Or think about X for a second. What would you do? This creates interaction, which audiences love, and gives you a breather. Professional speakers use this trick to turn a slip-up into a moment of engagement. And let's give you one more safety net. Hydrate strategically. Keep a bottle of water nearby. If you suddenly blank out, take a slow sip of water. This is a totally natural, non-awkward pause. Nobody in the audience thinks, Oh no, they forgot what's next. When a speaker drinks water, they'll assume that you just have a dry throat. Meanwhile, you are giving yourself a couple of seconds to breathe and remember your place. It's simple, but it works. Finally, visualize a scenario and your recovery. In your practice sessions, don't just visualize everything going perfectly. Also visualize what you will do if you stumble. See yourself pausing, smiling, taking a breath, checking your note card, and carrying on smoothly. Practice it. When you've already seen it happen in your head, it won't feel like the end of the world if it happens for real. You'll think, ah, I prepared for this, I know what to do, and you'll do it. By preparing in these ways, you remove the fear of the unknown. You're no longer thinking, oh God, what if I blank out? Because you'll know what to do. You've got your notes, your summarizing trick, your water, your plan. With that safety net, your confidence will skyrocket. Ironically, the more you plan for memory gaps, the less they tend to happen because your brain isn't overwhelmed with panic about the possibility. You signal to your mind, We're covered, it's okay. And that keeps the panic at bay. So each of these strategies, uh, normalizing the fear, reframing it, focusing on service, practicing properly, and having a plan for the worst is gonna chip away at the power that fear has over you. But there's one more element that ties it all together, your identity. Every time you put these into practice, you are literally rewriting the story you tell about yourself. Remember how I said earlier that running from presentations makes you start to believe that you're not a leader? Well, the opposite is also true. Every time you step up despite being afraid, you cast a vote for a new identity, the identity of a confident communicator, a leader who doesn't back down. At first, it's going to feel uncomfortable. You might give a shaky presentation even after all of this advice. That's okay. Celebrate it. You didn't run away. You stood and you delivered. Maybe your voice trembled. Maybe you forgot a line, but you finished the talk. That is a win, and it's proof to your subconscious that, hey, I can do this. And over time, those little wins, they accumulate. The fear gets smaller and you get bigger. I've seen it in my life. I've seen it in countless entrepreneurs that I've coached. The only way out of the fear is through it. But now you have a roadmap for getting through. Look, the goal isn't to become completely fearless. The goal is to feel the fear and do it anyway until one day that scary thing becomes second nature. You've learned that fear is not a sign to stop. It's actually a green light that you are growing. You've learned how to harness your adrenaline, how to shift your focus to the mission, and how to prepare like a pro so that you can handle whatever happens on stage. So the next time you have to do a presentation and that familiar terror kicks in, you'll have a voice in your head— maybe it'll sound like mine— telling you, "This is your moment. You've got this." Because you do. You do have this, and now it's time to act on it. Just by watching this, you've proven that you're ready to break through. Remember, courage is a habit. Every single time you speak up despite fear, you are building the identity of a powerful communicator. Your ideas deserve to be heard. You deserve to be heard. So get out there and let your voice speak. You have what it takes to turn your fear into fuel and your doubt into drive. So keep going. And congratulations, you're one meter closer to who you're meant to be. Believe. If you want to learn how to rewire your brain using just a sticky note, check the video right there next to me. I think you'll love it. Continue to believe, and I'll see you there. You ever feel like you're completely lost, like you're stuck in a rut and you can't find your way out? It's a scary feeling, especially for an entrepreneur like you who's used to chasing big dreams.