Have you ever experienced intense heart beating before your presentation? Do you feel nervous about having a sudden empty mind while you are doing a public speech? If you are in a class, have you ever self-talked, “don’t call me, don’t call me”?
Yes, these all happened to me. I was not a confident person, and I was terrified of public speaking. My voice was always low and soft while speaking publicly. Now, my audiences enjoy my presentation. They always ask me about my presentation skills. Believe me or not, I still feel the intense heart beating before every speech, I still feel nervous, and I still self-talk “don’t take that presentation”. However, once I am in that position, I talk like I am 100% confident about my speech. I share my experience to tell you that it is pretty normal to feel not confident. And we should not push these feelings away. These feelings are good, and they are the actual motivation for us to improve.
Before we talk about the skills, we need to figure out why are we afraid of public speaking? We probably worry that we could be stupid, and people disagree with us, etc. Have you noticed that all these worries are from our guess? They probably never happen, be brave.
Now let’s talk about the skills for presentation. The only way to be self-confident for public speaking is repetition. Before every speech, I write every word I want to say, read it through multiple times and modify it accordingly. Then I practice by videoing myself and then review to find things that I can improve. By doing this, I probably feel the heartbeat every time before the speech, but once I start, I enjoy every moment of my presentation, and I love this feeling.
Because of the repetition, my mind and my muscle already have memories of doing it well. Sorry, I may disappoint you that I don’t have any magic idea or skill to be confident in a presentation. However, if you try, you will find the power of repetition and how it makes you self-confident.
