How to ease your nerves before a presentation

Here is something that might surprise you: nervousness is a good thing. It sharpens your focus and helps you perform better. But only up to a point.

Picture a thermometer, where zero degrees is your everyday, resting state. Around twenty degrees is perfect, the sweet spot for a great performance. But somewhere around thirty to forty degrees, nervousness tips over into something far less helpful. So the goal is not to kill your nerves. The goal is to keep yourself roughly between ten and thirty degrees, because that is exactly where you are at your best.

So what is nervousness, really? At its heart, it is the feeling of not knowing what is about to happen. And because it grows out of uncertainty, we can break it down further. Almost always, your nerves are pointing at one or more of these three "threats":

1. You are nervous about yourself, and how you will react.
2. You are nervous about the subject you have to present.
3. You are nervous about the group you will stand in front of.

The trick is to isolate which one it actually is. Once you know, you can work on that specific piece, and watch your nervousness soften.

"I'm nervous about myself. What do I do?"

The best all-round ways to settle yourself down:

• Breathe slowly.
• Speak slowly.
• Arrive in good time.
• Prepare and test the technology you'll be using.
• Don't back away. Take a step forward instead.

"I'm nervous about the subject. What do I do?"

• Read far more than you'll actually need to know.
• Go for a walk and run through everything you're going to say.
• Prepare for every question you can imagine, and answer each one, out loud, for yourself.

"I'm nervous about the group. What do I do?"

In the vast majority of cases, the group is on your side. In fact, they may be just as nervous as you are, sitting there tensely hoping you won't ask them to speak. After all, they haven't prepared a thing.

So here is my favourite tip for this one: mental rehearsal. Picture the group as warm and receptive, and really live in how that feels, how it looks, how it sounds. Visualise it as though it were already real. Your brain is remarkably willing to believe you, and it will carry that calm into the room with you.