It makes sense for most people to be nervous before giving a presentation. Most people give boring presentations and why should you be better than most? OK, I know I’m being depressing, but I’m just being realistic. It actually is quite rational to be nervous before a presentation. But the main reason most people are nervous before a presentation is fear of the unknown. If you haven’t actually seen yourself give your presentation, then you don’t know what you are presenting to the outside world. After all, a presentation is not what is on a PowerPoint slide or a chart, a presentation is you standing or sitting in front of people and you are talking. If you haven’t seen yourself on video giving your talk that means that the rough draft of your presentation is the one you give to your final intended audience. Ugh! Rough drafts are usually rough by definition—so it makes sense to be nervous if you are going to wing it in front of people.
If I were coaching you to become a world class, spell-binding orator, I would tell you that you have to rehearse for days and days and watch dozens of video rehearsals. But I want to make your life easier and save you time. So all you have to do is rehearse on video until you’ve seen yourself give a pretty good presentation. It doesn’t have to be perfect, you don’t have to generate a standing ovation, and you don’t have to reduce your ums and uhs to zero—you just have to be pretty good compared to all of the other people your bosses and colleagues compare you to.
How do you know if you are pretty good? Just watch the video of yourself practicing. If you think you are pretty good, then you probably are. Great! Now you are good to go. But if you think you are incredibly boring, monotone, and tedious or confusing, you are also probably right. Practice your presentation again on video. This time, do less of the stuff you don’t like, and do more of the stuff you do like. Now, review the video again.
For a very high percentage of people—and I hope you are one of them—2 video rehearsals will often be enough. The first time you see yourself practice the speech you will hate it. Spend a few minutes tweaking your outline, and then do the speech again on video. Watch it. Now, you are likely to see something you can live with—congratulations, you are now virtually guaranteed to give a pretty good presentation.
