How do you calm your nerves and boost your confidence?

It's essential to recognize that anxiety and excitement share similar physiological symptoms. So, reframe any negative self-talk by telling yourself, "I'm excited to do this" rather than succumbing to anxiety. Your thoughts significantly influence your emotions and actions. Also, try to get to know the space beforehand, you'll feel more at ease and confident during your talk, allowing you to "own the space”.

Just don’t stop at exploration. For manifestations then match the manifestation with a specific strategy. For example, heart racing needs to be matched with a deep breathing exercise whereas fidgeting needs to be matched with learning to stand in a way that is more grounded. Same with sources. If you identify a source you need to then work on it. One of my favorite exercises is to fight self doubt with irrefutable truths from people we respect. Identifying issues without pairing them to a matching problem solving solution is wasted time.

I find it liberating to focus on my audience rather than myself. They feel awkward when you open with 'Sorry, I'm a bit nervous or 'I'm not used to speaking on a mic'. If I go out there showing confidence (even if I dont feel it), I find that they can relax and I flow into it more easily and am able to be more attentive and responsive to them.

I've found from experience that I had to create a presentation alter ego that was confident and controlled the room more compared to my natural personality. It drained me especially when I was delivering constant presentations to groups who could be quite hostile but it was the best way I could control my anxiety. I appreciate that this isn't a way to fix it but it helped me get by until I was naturally more confident.

Icebreakers also help to ease the atmosphere when you are presenting to an audience that is unfamiliar or if the content of the presentation has an impact on your project or the business. This might not work if you have a time limit. Pauses between points help you to breathe and get calmer. However, above all: Prepare, Prepare, Prepare!

Agreed here. Honestly 90% of presentations are under prepared. That may sound harsh but most people don’t understand how long or how to prepare effectively. If you’ve never over-prepared for a presentation, try it once. You’ll be surprised by how much difference it can make.

Embarking on the journey to conquer nerves and boost confidence mirrors sharing stories around a campfire. Deep breaths soothe before challenges, walks in nature ground us, and visualizing success sparks determination. Encouraging self-talk is armor against doubt. Exercise is a potion for body and soul, embracing progress. Mistakes are steppingstones, and mastery is boundless potential. Gratitude journals weave achievements with thanks. Nods, smiles, and the superhero pose compose a symphony of confidence. Learning languages means celebrating victories. Central is self-compassion, a reminder of shared humanity. Strategies stand as companions. It's not erasing nerves but finding confidence within.

It's really helpful if you can rehearse in front of someone to see how you feel, making eye contact, even if it's on Zoom, I've even rehearsed in front of my pets (they thought I was brilliant). If you feel anxiety that you are wasting their time, if you have emotions that are out of place, it's time to slow down, acknowledge your thoughts and feelings, and practice working through them. Experience will lessen the effects of and allow you to compensate for your anxiety.

Create your story for your presentation. What works for one person might not work for another. It needs to feel as natural as possible to you so that you're not having to think about what you're saying too much.

Improvisation always come in handy, but that's when you are really familiar with the subject and the audience, and that level comes after practicing many many times, so don't underestimate the power of practice and preparation, especially infront of an audience.

Positive visualization is a key to success for sure. But here's a key most people miss: use irrefutable truths from other people though as when you tell yourself something you don’t actually believe it does not have the same impact. An example can be as simple as friend who says the enjoy our presentations. As long as you believe they believe it, this is like gold for your brain.

Visualization is such a powerful yet underrated tool. In college, I always dreamed about the day I would finally finish my three-year-long journey. I created a little movie in my mind and imagined exactly how I would look, what clothes I would wear, what the weather would be like outside, and how it would feel when I approached the stage and received my degree. Guess what? It happened exactly as it did in the little movie in my mind.

I did some NLP in the past and in addition to what is mentioned in here, I find particularly helpful to also create a "confidence" anchor that you can trigger before your performance on stage.

Walk on purposefully, use confident body posture and project a strong voice to reassure them and yourself. Watch out for too many 'um's. Try to use a pause instead, takes practice (Um, I'm still practicing!)

Anxiety oftentimes comes from considering the past and the future, which we have no control over.? We do have a fair amount of control over this moment right now AKA The Present.? Oftentimes in The Present, everything is OK or good (our needs are met, our fears are not being realized) so we can ground ourselves with this toward simplifying our perspective, helping us to focus.? Tools to help with calm and focus include meditation, light exercise, gratitude lists, and journaling.

Have you ever heard that it's not possible to breathe deeply and intentionally while being stressed at the same time? It works! For me, the box-breathing technique helps best. You can do it anywhere without any fancy equipment or stuff. Just relax, close your eyes, and breathe in for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 4 seconds, breathe out for 4 seconds, and hold your breath for 4 seconds, then repeat. It's a game-changer!

Do you know that you forget how to breathe and blink when you're really nervous,, personally I just count down to 3 very slowly to manage 1 long breath, say a short prayer to allah, and come back to breathing naturally

To calm my nerves and boost my confidence, I engage in a conscious breathing technique. I focus on taking slow, deep breaths before and during my presentation. This helps regulate my heart rate, lower stress levels, and maintain a composed mindset. I also ask myself a series of empowering questions: 1. Do I have the potential to succeed? 2. Why was I chosen to present? 3. How can I convey confidence? Additionally, I remind myself that the opinions of others hold less significance, as true growth comes from learning and improvement.

Gestures are a superpower here. Explanatory gestures creat a somatic feedback loop in your brain that brings you into the moment helping to evaporate anxiety.

I used to focus on making sure I remembered to deliver every little point so I could tick the 'content delivered' box. Too much focus on my notes. Now I realise it's much more important to focus on how content is being received and focus on making sure I deliver the key points but adapting where possible to my audience's energy e.g. building in opportunity for Q&A/table talk, movement, changing tone or pace, etc.

In my experience the most successful presentations I've ever did, are the ones with the most engagement, however you have to make sure it doesn't eat up much time, and don't ever force it, it has to come spontaneously and you have to really know the audience before hand in order not to have awkward silence in the middle of your presentation waiting for someone to volunteer.

Connecting with your audience is a sign of being present in the moment. If we ignore attempts to engage, people are likely to withdraw or feel excluded. While it might throw us off temporarily, it will remind people that we're human...a human that has the time to listen.

I actually agree with this. I am one who usually always get nervous, despite of knowing the materials on what I'm presenting. Reading the evaluations helped me to realize what should be done differently. We are our biggest critics. Majority of the time, there's no changes needed.

Keeping a journal helps me the most to grow from my experiences. After a presentation, I take the time to sit down and reflect on how I felt, what the reactions from the audience were, whether I stuck to my game plan, etc. Planning exactly what I want to accomplish and then reflecting on the actual events versus my goals drives my progress.

The one thing that really helps is walking out & introducing yourself! I know it’s sounds simple, but if you’re a bit nervous, kid your brain into thinking ‘you’ve got this’ by introducing yourself straight away, after all if you can’t remember your own name …!! Your brain will give you a pat on the back & you’re good to go!

You need a routine for the 5 minutes before that talk that includes breathing, positive visualization, and practicing walking up onto the stage, seeing an audience (just visualize during practice) stepping forward onto the stage, pausing for them to quiet and focus, and then starting your talk. People fumble in the opening moment because they have never practiced the lead up. Practice it and your first 30 seconds will dramatically improve.

If you're using a PowerPoint slide deck, try to use Rehearse with Coach. A fantastic feature that gives you real time feedback on your repetitions (ums, word overuse, etc.) as well as tips like slow down a little! Or just put your speech on a few practice slides to try it out.

When presenting don't depend that the audience already know what you're talking about, you have to build up to the main controversial point of your presentation, even if the audience are your work colleagues and already know what you're working on, prepare it like a movie, a story, and you're both the filmmaker and the protagonist who is engaging the whole time and really knows what he's doing.

One final thing I would offer, is to practice and feel comfortable pausing after an important moment in your presentation or when you want something to sink in. You might even tell the audience you are going to pause, to give them a chance to refect on what's been said. It helps keep the audience engaged and it also gives you a moment to take a breath, gather your thoughts, before moving on.