You’re about to give a motivational speech. How can you overcome stage fright?

Preparation is Key: You must know your material. Thoroughly understand your content and practice until you feel comfortable with the material. Rehearse multiple times also close your eyes and visualize yourself delivering a powerful speech. Imagine the audience’s positive reactions. Affirmations are also helpful. Before stepping on stage, take slow, deep breaths. Watch your posture: Stand tall with your chest out and hands on hips. This boosts confidence. Focus on Your Message to focus on your audience. Instead of worrying about yourself, concentrate on delivering value. Connect with Individuals: Look at friendly faces in the crowd. Imagine you’re having a one-on-one conversation.

Establish eye contact and interact with the audience; this way, your mind won't feel the entire hall is staring at you. It also shifts your focus from personal anxiety to the message you want to convey. Many times, that's the reason for you to go blank. Also, before your speech, connecting with a few individuals from the audience either online or in person, really creates a friendly atmosphere.

Know your material and your audience. Be well rested and hydrated. Remember that book report you presented when you were in Elementary School? Well sure you were nervous, but reading the story and wanting to share it with others made the difference in your presentation. Your excitement and the way you related it to your audience made them want to pick up the book right away! That usually made the difference between an A or a B. Once you step into your presentation take a deep breath and just enjoy!

Preparation is Key-Knowing your material well can boost your confidence. Practice your speech multiple times until you feel comfortable with the content. Familiarity with your material can significantly reduce anxiety.

The absolutely #1 way to reduce stress or fear in ANYTHING is to be prepared. I would never fly a mission in an F-15E without in-depth preparation and planning, even though I have over 1000 hours in the jet. Likewise, despite the hundreds of keynotes and workshops I have given, I would NEVER step on stage without preparation and practice. Professional speakers who say they don’t practice are either lying or not professionals giving full value to their audience.

Selecting a purposeful breathing technique that works best for you is a must as it will reset your nerves and gives you your power back. A proven technique that I use and seen work is breathe in through your nose for 5 seconds and out slowly through you mouth for 10 seconds. Do that for at least 2 minutes and you will start to feel the release and calm come back.

To overcome stage fright before a motivational speech, focus on your breath. Deep breathing can calm nerves and center your mind. Also, visualize success—imagine yourself delivering an impactful speech with confidence. Lastly, remember that the audience is rooting for you. Embrace the nerves as energy fueling your passion to inspire others.

Engaging and relating with your audience is a separator from an okay speaker who will be forgotten immediately to a stellar speaker that will be revered and remembered for a long time.

Try to start your speech off by getting people to laugh. When people laugh they are more open to hearing what you have to say. Also, when you hear the audience laugh it gives you (the speaker) more confidence.

Connect with the Audience- Make eye contact with your audience members and try to connect with them personally. Seeing interested faces and nodding heads can encourage you and reduce your anxiety.

Get out of your own way. Have an agenda in mind...gut this is not about your. Having the audience walk away satisfied is the objective. Introduce myself....and then ask... What do you want to leave with What would make this worthwhile for you. Then I simply chart it...and focus on delivering it. It makes my life easier... It gets rid of content the don't want And at the end of the session you can summarize by going over what they asked for...and asking did I deliver. Simple and it works.

Focus on Your Message, Not on Yourself: Shift your focus from how you are performing to the message you want to convey. When you concentrate on the value you’re providing to your audience, your personal anxiety often decreases.

Love what you do, be aware of your expertise and not forget the most important thing - people love you because you help them this way. And where they love you, there is no room for armor.