Smart Presentations: About Those Butterflies
September 04, 2008
Have a big meeting or sales presentation to give? Don't let those "butterflies" get in the way. Turn that nervous energy into your delivery power with these tips from Broadway.
By John Windsor
Lots of people fear presenting. And lots of people have advice on how to "get those butterflies to fly in formation"—i.e. how to be calm and composed in front of an audience. There are some good nuggets of advice out there about practice and preparation, but when it comes to dealing with stage fright, take this cue from Broadway:
1. Don't fight the feeling, it's natural.
What we think of as nervousness or "butterflies" is really just our bodies getting ready to perform. Like drag racers revving their engines before the light turns green, our bodies get energized so that we're "on" when it's time to step in the spotlight. Actors call this "performance energy." They don't have the luxury of building up to top speed, and neither do you. When it's your turn to be on, you've got to be ON. It feels odd embracing such an animated state—heart revving, muscles ready to spring—when you're standing around waiting, but it really is the way your body is meant to feel at such a moment.
2. Move around, don't just sit and stew.
You can't just sit there with your body churning, can you? If you do, all that energy starts gripping your body, your throat and your mind. Even if you say to yourself, "This is the way I'm supposed to feel," you may become overwhelmed by all that energy if you just sit there. So move around a bit, talk to people, check out the art work in the room—anything to channel some of that energy.
Of course, if you're sitting at a conference table, awaiting your turn in front of the crowd, you can't exactly get up and wander around…If that's your situation, just sit there with a smile on your face and take slow breaths. That will take some of the edge off the tango going on inside your body.
3. Visualize your opening and closing.
It's a common behavior, in advance of a presentation, to think of all the things that could go wrong. And preparing for the worst can help you preempt problems. But that type of activity should be done long before you’re ready to go on. Dwelling on disaster scenarios while waiting to give your presentation is a sure-fire way to mess yourself up. At that point, you are crossing over from performance energy to flat-out nervousness.
A much more positive and effective path is to visualize the opening and closing moments of your presentation. See yourself in your mind’s eye being energized, but calm and in control. See the opening going smoothly and the audience engaged in your pitch. Then switch your view to the end of your presentation, seeing yourself finishing it in strong form, with the audience responding as you expect them to.
Giving a presentation may seem like a high-wire act, but it's actually quite rewarding and fun, particularly when you’ve got the "butterflies" under control. So remember: it's performance energy you're feeling, not nervousness. Then go out and shine!
John Windsor, an online columnist for Sales & Marketing Management, is President of Creating Thunder, a Boulder, Colo.-based communications training and consulting company. As author of the popular YouBlog, John offers a unique mix of innovation, communications, sales and marketing ideas. An award-winning marketer, John has held vice president positions in marketing, sales, and business development and has worked with companies like American Express, Reuters, Staples, and Knight-Ridder.
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