As comedian Jerry Seinfeld once said "According to most studies, people's #1 fear is public speaking. #2 is death...This means that the average person going to a funeral would rather be in the casket, than do the eulogy."

I'm paraphrasing but you get the point...

Last week after giving an impromptu speech in front of a couple of hundred strangers, one of the audience members came up and commented how relaxed I seemed and asked if I ever got nervous, to which I replied..."Everytime..."

You see here's the thing, when it comes to presenting confidently and comfortably in front of any audience, so many people focus too much on the content and delivery, that they totally forget the most important step to delivering an outstanding presentation, the preparation

Now listen, I am not talking about rehearsing and going over your lines of prepared content a thousand times. What I am talking about is there are a variety of simple tips, tricks and bio-hacks that you can do to get yourself in the zone of feeling bulletproof; increasing your confidence, focus and all the while positioning yourself in a relaxed positive state.

So I thought I would share my Top 10 Tips that I have used with great effect before making a presentation

The Superhero Pose

Imagine yourself as a Super Hero standing tall and strong, with hands on hips. Your chin is held high, your chest out, shoulders back and smiling confidently and knowingly that you are here to save the day and nothing is going to stop you…Now don’t just imagine it, actually stand in that position, with those thoughts, for 3-5 minutes and noticed how much your quiet confidence has risen

Prime Yourself

If you are particularly feeling low on energy, this is a great technique to help get blood flow running and oxygen into your body quickly. In a sitting position, with a deep inhalation extend your hands up above your head reaching to the sky and bringing them down forcefully with fists clenched as if pulling down the energy close to your chest, whilst exhaling quickly and with gusto. Repeat this process 20-30 times and be amazed at how awake and energised you are. It’s kind of like Wim Hoff cross Tony Robbins level energy… I say sitting position as it may cause some slight dizziness…Go at your own comfortable pace to start with

The Calming Breath

If you find yourself with an abundance of energy, you may want to calm yourself down as to not take too much energy on to the stage. Yes, you can have too much energy which can come across as severe nerves and even pos

Change Your Self-Doubting Physiology

This technique I learnt from watching Richard Bandler, the co-founder of Neuro-Linguistic Programming approach to psychotherapy, when we talked about how closely aligned our physiology is to our self-talk and mindset. In fact there are many emotions or beliefs systems that can be subconsciously triggered simply by how we move our body. In this particular example he shared that when you stand with your eyes looking upwards, with your chin held high and arms extended above as if trying to hug the sun, it is almost impossible to be in a depressive state. So if you find that your self-talk is letting you down and a destructive mindset is creeping in, try this stand and hold it for 3-5 minutes and you should experience a big shift in positive energy flowing in.

Drink water

A dry mouth is an inevitable part of presenting, so you want to make sure that you hydrate beforehand. Not so much that you slosh as you walk out onto the stage or find yourself having to run off halfway through for an emergency toilet break, but just enough to wet your whistle and keep it wet. Personally, I have found around 500-600ml of water within 45min of presenting generally keeps me at the right level

Loosen up, vocally

There are many vocal exercises that I can recommend, such as the Motor Boat technique, Bree Brii Broo Braa Bruu Method and my good old favourite Red Leather, Yellow Leather exercise but to be honest none of these are going to translate in text. I really should do a video… My key takeaway for you here is to get your lips and tongue moving and loosened up so that you don’t find yourself tripping over your words. Its amazing how, in just 3min of doing these exercises, different and comfortable your mouth feels with stronger projection capabilities, therefore giving you greater confidence.

Imagine knocking it out of the park and you will

I could write a whole essay on the power of positive imagery. The more that you can imagine yourself delivering an outstanding presentation in front of a sea of smiling faces, each sitting at the edge of their seat hanging off every word, as you masterfully work the stage with an air of great confidence… The more likely you are to achieve it. There have been countless studies proving that simply imaging the desired result repeatedly greatly impacts your performance, whether it is in sport or other activities. The secret is to make that running image in your head large, clear, full of colour and volume. Bring it to the front of your mind, as if watching it unfold in front of you on movie screen as you sit in the front row eating your popcorn.

Know your material and relax

I am not going to lie, for you to come across as highly authentic and as a credible expert in your topic of choice, you have to know your stuff. But it’s not about learning every line of your script perfectly. It’s about knowing your subject matter intimately so that you can relax into your content. If you lose your place, it will not matter for two reasons. 1. The Audience won’t know any difference as I am assuming you did not hand out the script for your presentation and 2. You know your stuff, just take the beat and pick up where you feel most comfortable. A great presentation should feel like a conversation, not a robotic list of bullet points being shot out into the audience. Be more like David Attenborough and less like RoboCop

Mindset is key

The physiological effects of feeling nerves and excited are pretty much the same. The only difference is your interpretation and the meaning that you assign to it. So if standing there you feel an increased heart rate, sweaty palms, dry mouth and butterflies in your stomach, just tell yourself that you are excited and go out there and just focus on having fun

It’s not about you, it’s about them

Sometimes the simplest shift in focus in that it isn’t about you, or how you are feeling, or how nervous you are or how worried you are that you might make a mess of it all and crash & burn live on stage in front of everyone and die slowly and so dismally that hundreds of thousands of people will be talking about it for centuries to follow as the single worst event in the history of time… It’s not about any of that… It is about them, your audience. It is about their needs, the hopes and fears and if you are standing in front of them today, well then somebody along the way thought that you might be the right person to help them a little. Somebody thought it would be a good idea to wheel you out, because they thought that you might have, just at least one piece of valuable information that could help at least one person in the audience be better, simply by listening to you and what you had to say. So don’t think about you, think about how you can help provide something of value and make it as fun and engaging as possible for them, because you are worth listening too

I hope that this list helps you and if you would like to learn more or talk about how you can lift your game further, don’t hesitate to schedule in a 45-minute Present Like A Pro Strategy Session, where we will help you uncover which of the 3 key areas could be holding you from killing it on stage…

Bookk in a Free45-minute Present Like A Pro Strategy Session here >>> https://b2bapp.io/booknow/gApYNRgjYn8o/bulletproof-sales-strategy-session