What do you do if your confidence wavers and nerves kick in during a big crowd speech?

First, create a space where you can breathe. Ask a pertinent question of the audience and give them a long, pregnant pause to think about it. During that time, go into small, deep breathing. Feel, hear and experience your breath; be present in it. Slowly come out of it and continue. That long pause will create an aid of confidence around you in the mind of your audience.

When it comes to managing your nerves, there are several breathing techniques that you can use before going on stage. These techniques are designed to calm you down and help you feel more relaxed. To start, breathe in through your nose for five seconds, then exhale slowly through your mouth for 10 seconds. Repeat this for at least two minutes to effectively relieve your anxiety. It takes your brain about two minutes to realize that you are in a safe place and that you are not in any danger. After two minutes, your adrenaline and anxiety will start to subside. I have personally witnessed it with a patient who was connected to a heart monitor. Now, I use this technique whenever I feel stressed, and before going on stage.

It's good to have several pauses in between your presentation- such as poll, enrolling question, discussion, video or even ice breakers. This allows you to recollect your thoughts, take a sip of water and take a deep breath. Often, these short breaks are ideal in helping us regain composure and focus, at the same time engages the audience.

I would still my mind, adjust my physiology to match how I look and feel when in a confident state and remind myself the world is but a stage and that my focus is on helping others, and all stumbles are no problem at all and as long as you move forward you will succeed.

Positive mental rehearsal is such a powerful tool to help evoke the peak performance mindset. Paint a clear picture on your successful speech- leverage on the visual, auditory and kinesthetic.

Anchoring is also taught in NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming). It involves associating your past previous positive states to a stimuli- either visual, auditory or kinesthetic. For example, you can associate your peak state to a certain song, certain picture or touch of your ring.

One helpful technique during a presentation is to identify one person in the audience who is positively engaged with your message. This way, when you feel like you're not hitting the mark or struggling, you can focus on the fact that you are making a positive impact on at least one person's life. Rather than getting discouraged by the negative reactions of a majority of the audience, this technique allows you to remember that making a difference for even one person is worth it.

It's a great way to offload the illusion that you must do all the work as a speaker. Let the audience do the work a bit. Ask them questions for small group discussions, and then you will do a class share. It slows things down, takes the load off you, and you are increasing the energy and engagement in the room.

Focus on those who show up, not on those who give up. Focus on those who are engaged in your session- those who are smiling and nodding their heads. Leverage on them to give you the upper hand in controlling your emotion. And to do so, you might also want to strategic in designing engagement opportunities- in order to identify them. Start your presentation with a joke. Play a short game. Ask enrolling questions. And start spotting the responsive ones.

What works for me is to include video, poll or quiz in between the talking points. It allows myself to rest, audience to absorb the information and slows down the pace of the session.

Nerves are the greatest thing for a speaker. I will NOT speak if I am not nervous. Nerves keep you honest as a speaker. Being a bit nervous helps you focus on delivering value. If you are not nervous, you will most probably get cocky, and the audience will pick up on it and humble you through difficult questions, not engaging with you or having someone make life very very difficult for you. I have seen that happen to other speakers, and it was great entertainment, though. ??