A short coaching excerpt from TJ Walker (YouTube video) offering practical advice for presenters: to reduce anxiety, shift attention away from oneself and toward the audience by focusing on helping one person in the room and making an idea meaningful to them. This audience-centered technique reduces self-focused anxiety and improves engagement.
So how do you stay focused on your material when you're giving a presentation and not obsess over the fact that I'm feeling a little anxious? It's very simple. Don't focus on your material. Instead, focus on your audience. Focus on helping one person in your audience, making an idea come alive to that person to mean something to that person. Put yourself in their shoes. When you do that, you won't have time to feel any anxiety for yourself.
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