Learning to speak with confidence takes lots of practice, but sometimes you need a short-term confidence boost. If you have an hour, you might think your time is best spent practicing your presentation multiple times, but, no. I have found that simply practicing repetitively can heighten anxiety (note: I am NOT anti-practice. See my article https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/practice-your-presentation-like-pro-diane-windingland/. Confidence boosting can only go so far if you don’t know your audience and your material).
- Get excited about your topic. Even if you feel that your topic is not exciting, find something to be excited about. People who speak with passion sound more confident.
- Don’t be so self-centered. A lack of confidence occurs when you are focused on . . . yourself, and what people think about you. Focus on the gift that you can give the audience. Make it about THEM.
- Remember you won’t die. Ask yourself, “Realistically, what’s the worst that can happen?” And, then come up with a solution to the worst. What will you do if the worst happens?
- Recast potential failure as a learning experience. At the very least, you will learn something to help you do better in the future.
- Just breathe. Practice “combat” breathing if you feel anxiety well up. Or at least take a deep breath in and a longer exhale out a few times.
- Practice power posing (2 minutes of standing tall and upright, hands on hip, superman-style, as Harvard social psychologist, Amy Cuddy, discusses in her TED talk), repeating affirmations, at least in your head. My affirmations are, “I am smart. I am powerful. I can make a difference.” If you have negative thoughts about your presentation, replace those thoughts with your affirmations.
- Recall something you are good at. This will help you feel generally more confident. If possible, link your strengths to your upcoming presentation. For example, I’m good at playing with children. My link: adults are just grown up children. They are curious and like to have fun. I can do that in my presentation.
- Smile—a genuine smile that engages your whole face. Then, if you have some privacy laugh out loud for a few seconds. Ha! I laugh in the face of death!
- Visualize yourself speaking confidently and the audience hanging on every word. Then act “as if” when you present.
- Rehearse a complete run-through of your presentation (out loud, and with slides, if you are using them), without stopping for any mistakes. If you make a mistake, don’t fall apart, just move on. People who are flustered by mistakes do not look or sound confident.
Do you have other ways to fast-track your confidence when speaking?
I’d love to help you speak with greater confidence!
Check out my upcoming in-person presentation skills training (including 2 free public seminars in the Twin Cities), or take my online course, “No Fear Public Speaking: Look, Sound, and Feel Confident.”
“Ha! I laugh in the face of death!” That line in itself made me smile!
Having a sense of humour projects confidence – outwardly and inwardly. So, a tactic I recommend is to think of 1 or 2 lines you might say if something goes wrong. For instance, if the projector fails midway through your slideshow, you might say “Does someone have a coin for the meter?!”
When prepping for webinars, that’s part of an approach I call “invest/test/jest”. You can get full details here.
Thanks, Craig! By the way, I find your blog incredibly interesting and helpful. I will be doing a webinar later today, and I wish I had read more of your post earlier!
Thanks so much, Diane! I’m delighted that you find my content helpful. Your reply, and the comment you left over there recently, are the fuel that keeps me posting. (Plus, the latter comment reminded me to revisit your blog!)