Last month, I had the ability to talk with a professional keynote speaker and learned that even though she’s been speaking for years, she still struggles with stage fright. This would back a recent theory indicating that stage fright may actually be genetic. If it is, it may explain why some people have crippling stage fright while others barely seem phased by it. In any case, today we’re going to focus on our second strategy for managing stage fright – Practicing.
Dry Run vs. Walk Through
A lot of times when you are planning to give a presentation, you will hear people talk about doing a walk through. Which basically means they will talk about the presentation they want to give. They’ll share their main points and talk about activities, but they never really dive into the details. Those details are critical to you if you are the co-presenter. Instead, ask for a dry run or better yet a rehearsal.
In theater, the term dry run or dry tech is a practice by which the technical team (sound, lighting, etc.) has the ability to practice all of the cues and to ensure everything is supposed to happen as it should prior to including the actors. From my perspective, giving a presentation should follow a similar pathway. It should provide you with the ability to practice your presentation with your slides, projector, anything and everything that is a part of your session. The closer you can get to the actual presentation scenario, the better.
Independent Practice
Practicing with your co-presenters is important, but it’s also important to practice independently. By practicing independently, you can work through exactly what you want to say, how you are going to handle transitions, what your catch points or stumbling points are, and identify any gaps/overlaps/circular aspects of the conversation. Doing this will ultimately result in a more polished presentation and you’ll feel more confident that your presentation is a good one.
Practice in Front of a Test Audience
By asking a few friends to sit in on a ‘rehearsal’ or a practice run, you are giving yourself a perfect opportunity to not only practice in front of an audience, but it gives you the ability to test things you may be unsure of. Not quite sure this joke is going to land well, give it a try. Your friends or colleagues want you to do well, they will offer you the safe space you need to practice and will give you the feedback you need to be successful.
While you are practicing, try to think of a good hook or joke you can tell at the beginning of your session and test it on your audience. If you are able to get your audience to laugh right at the beginning of your presentation, it will be a tremendous confidence boost for you. If it falls flat, you have the opportunity to rework it before you have to give the actual presentation.
While we’re on the subject of jokes, if you find yourself continually getting caught on a specific point, try to think of a joke to help smooth other the situation and buy time for you to recover. If you hit your stumbling point, but are able to make a joke about it, the audience will not only forget about the issue, they will be left with the impression that you’re an amazing speaker because you can handle anything that happens!
Awareness
There is something surprising that happens when you practice your presentation. Eventually, you’ll feel so confident with what you are going to say, that you’ll be able to have a greater awareness of what is happening during the actual presentation. Since you won’t be focusing on how nervous you are, you’ll be able to pay attention to what is happening in the room. Don’t get discouraged if it takes a few presentations before you can do this. It’s a skill that needs to be developed, just like any other.
Now you may be asking, why is awareness important? Well during a presentation, it’s our feedback mechanism. Think about how a Navy Seal or any other branch of the military operates. Their survival is dependent on knowing how to execute plans with extreme precision. They do drills or practice runs to the point where they don’t have to think about what to do each moment. They try to simulate the actual environment they may find themselves in. Why? Well if you’re on a mission and you get distracted by the fact that you’re feet are freezing, one of your teammates could get seriously hurt. So they practice in freezing temperatures to understand how they will respond to the situation, physically, mentally and emotionally. They need to know what is going to happen if they want to be able to focus on carrying out their mission. They don’t have the ability to give into distractions caused by improper planning.
One Last Question
Now that we’ve talked about the importance of practicing, you may be wondering, how much time should I spend practicing? The simple answer…until your presentation feels like it’s second nature to you.