Many pals asks me how do I deal with stress when I speak to international audiences. And my answer's always happens to be the same. -I'm good at business presentations because I'm shameless.
People got surprised when they hear my reply. But I just keep on explaining... To become a good professional in communication fields it's imperative to make believe your audience you're saying the most important thing in the whole world, and to really mean it with your attitude.
In this post I'll show you some rituals I do before a presentation, specially in topics I'm not an expert about or in a language that I know but I don't usually use.
Let me start by saying that old trick to imagine your audience's naked, mmm! it doesn't work. So here's my ten tips to deal with panic when you noticed there's a presentation soon and it's time to demonstrate the bilingualism skills you've put on your CV when you've got hired.
- Prepare answers, just in case. Reporters usually take note of important things like numbers, dates, names, etc so you'll be ready to answer quickly to your audience. Make a scheme on a small card or your mobile to maintain order in the exposure.
- Get organized with time carefully planned to present the information you want. The more organized you are, the less nervous you'll be.
- Practice over and over again: practice your presentation several times. TV reporters do it for the cameramen and ask them for their opinion. You can also film yourself and then see how you can improve. For example, you can focus on your pronunciation.
- Visualize your success. Imagine that your presentation will be fine. Positive thoughts can reduce some of your negative view about social action and release some anxiety.
- Try deep breathing, it helps to bring calm to the situation. Take one or two slow, deep before put yourself in the place of exposure and breathing during speech.
- Focus on your material and not in the audience: people usually pay attention to the new rather than how information is presented. Your audience may not notice your nervousness.
- Do not fear to forget info, be sure that you are more critical of yourself to those who have heard you. Everyone is wrong during speeches or presentations.
- Get support. Sure you can meet friends or colleagues who are in a similar situation. You can help each other and encourage you to participate together in a workshop or course to overcome fears.
- Try to listen to yourself while speaking. Sometimes we are talking automatically so we ain't hear ourselves. This would help you a lot to eliminate repetitions.
- Never apologize for your bad pronunciation when you're speaking a second language, when people hear you're sorry for that, they usually get more criticizing and focused on the way you talk instead of paying attention to your message.
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