TJ Walker explains how to beat presentation nerves: record yourself, note what you did well, then practice one small improvement at a time. Audiences care about usefulness and clarity, not how you look or sound.
Chapters
So what do you do if you're so nervous when you give a presentation that all of a sudden you feel, oh, all this sweat is coming down, I'm perspiring so much and I could just collapse up here in front of people. It's so nerve wracking. If you've ever felt that way, you are not alone. This is a common problem people have. Now, the solution that I recommend, you're going to want to say, no. No, T.J. it doesn't work for me. Doesn't work for me. Time out. Please listen to me. The solution is you need to practice in advance on video. And I know what you're thinking. Oh, T.J. i practice a hundred times. It doesn't work. I'm still just as nervous. I didn't ask you to practice a hundred times. I asked you to practice your presentation on video. No, no. I don't like my voice. I don't like the way I look. Guess what? I'm sympathetic to you. I've got things I don't. I don't. You think I like my hairline or my jawline? Beast, I'm sympathetic to you, but nobody else cares whether you're speaking to a teacher. Business colleagues, investors, nobody cares what you look like. They just don't. Nobody cares what you sound like. Unless your voice is Morgan Freeman and you're auditioning to be the voice of God. Nobody cares what you sound like. What they care about is, are you saying something, anything interesting or useful to them? If you do that, they will love you. Now, you may be thinking, there's got to be an easier way. I know. I'll take a beta blocker. I hear these drugs are great. I'll no longer be nervous. You could do that, but it's not really dealing with the fundamental problem. It's just papering over the problem. The problem is not that you feel nervous quite often. The problem is the speech you're giving. The presentation you're giving isn't interesting or memorable to people or useful to people. And you're giving the presentation in a way that makes you look scared stiff, nervous, uncomfortable. Whether it's sweat coming down or you're clutching the lectern or you're rocking back and forth to make yourself look nervous. That's the real problem. So let's forget the beta blockers or the shot of tequila or these other things, actually go deeper and solve the underlying problem. The problem is, is you don't really know how you're coming across to your audience and you're concerned that you might not be coming across as comfortable, confident, relaxed, and authoritative. You're concerned the way you're speaking isn't understandable to people or memorable to people. Well, guess what? Those are legitimate concerns. Because most speakers in the business world, the professional world, aren't really coming across that confident. And they're not memorable. They're just giving people a boring data dump. So there's a very real concern there. Let's actually solve the problem. Fortunately, you can, at no cost, gather a very, very extensive focus group research team to let you know if your presentation is boring or not. And I'm talking about you. You have a lifetime of experience listening to teachers, business people, executives, colleagues, giving presentations. You already know what's boring and uninteresting and instantly forgotten. You already know who is coming across in a scared, nervous, uncomfortable way. You know what sends signals, like if someone starts reading quickly, head down, you know, oh, poor TJ he's having trouble here. I feel sorry for him, but let me just read my cell phone instead and check email. You know what doesn't work. So use that knowledge to help yourself. You can't do it without watching yourself speak. So I beg you, never, ever, ever simply rehearse a speech out loud. Never, ever, ever rehearse a speech staring in a mirror. Only invest your valuable time if you can get the greatest return on your investment. And that means you need to practice your speech in front of a video camera. You need to record it. You need to look at it. Then here's the absolute hardest part. You're going to tell me this is insane. You're going to tell me you can't possibly do it. You are wrong. The thing I want you to do is to watch yourself give a speech and then make notes of only the things you like. Write down, step by step, exactly what you like. If nothing else, give yourself credit for having more hair than I do or having enough volume in your speech so that people can hear you. Everybody does certain things well. Now do the very same speech again and only focus on doing more of what you liked. Don't even think about your flaws yet. Now, after you've done it a second time and you've watched it, make notes of what you did better that time. Make notes of what you like now. Try to isolate every single thing you didn't like and be specific. Don't say I lacked confidence. Say it looked weird the way I was holding a pen. Don't say I didn't like my overall presence. That's too general. But do note if you spoke too quickly and you sounded nervous. Note the speaking speed. I want you to practice again doing more of what you liked, but this time, try to improve just one item, one thing from the checklist that you didn't like. Do it again. Record. Watch. Critique. All we're looking for is one tiny improvement in one area. Keep doing it again and again and again until the list of things you like with your presentation is getting higher and higher. The list of things you don't like is getting shorter and shorter and shorter. Keep doing it. Not until you're perfect. Nobody's perfect. The presentation I'm giving you right now isn't perfect, but it's good enough. I want you to get to the point where you can watch the video and say, hey, pretty good. I like the way I sound. I like.
