How to Eliminate Nervousness

• 00:04 Are you nervous before giving a speech or presentation?
• 00:09 Would you like to get over your nervousness before speaking?
• 00:14 Well let's look at the first question.
• 00:16 If you're nervous, that's completely rational.
• 00:19 In fact, that's normal.
• 00:20 Most people are nervous before giving speeches.
• 00:23 Studies show its the number one fear many people have.
• 00:28 So you're not alone, but you gotta ask yourself.
• 00:31 Why are you fearful?
• 00:33 Well chances are you're about to give a lousy speech,
• 00:37 a boring speech, and you're not gonna communicate anything.
• 00:41 I know that sounds harsh, but think about it come on.
• 00:45 Think of how many presentations you have to hear in a year.
• 00:49 Business meetings, conferences, conventions, academia.
• 00:53 How many of them do we really remember?
• 00:56 So if you're nervous about a speech, you may have a very good reason.
• 01:01 You may be about to do something that's awful, that's boring.
• 01:06 The solution isn't to somehow feel better about boring your audience.
• 01:12 There's so many bad solutions people have, visualize a standing ovation.
• 01:17 Well, if your speech is awful and
• 01:19 you're doing a boring data dump, and you're gonna put everyone to sleep.
• 01:23 What does it matter if you visualize a standing ovation?
• 01:28 Bad idea.
• 01:30 So how do we actually eliminate the nerves we have when it comes to speaking?
• 01:37 It's not by these superficial things, visualization, hypnosis,
• 01:42 drinking green tea, tensing, and relaxing muscles.
• 01:48 I'm not discounting all of those completely,
• 01:51 but it's really avoiding the source of our problem.
• 01:56 The source of our problem is, we might have a lousy presentation.
• 01:59 We might be about to do an awful presentation.
• 02:02 The solution then, is to give a great presentation.
• 02:08 That will eliminate your nerves.
• 02:12 Think of it this way.
• 02:13 If your boss came to you and said okay,
• 02:15 you've now gotta dictate in 60 seconds our entire corporate strategy.
• 02:20 It's instantly going to go as a transcribe
• 02:23 text on the front page of the New York Times.
• 02:26 Every investor will see it.
• 02:28 Everyone at the company will see it.
• 02:30 The CEO, the board of directors, that would probably make you nervous.
• 02:33 I know that would make me nervous your I gotta get it right in the first breath
• 02:37 coming out of my mouth.
• 02:39 I can't review it, edit it, refine it.
• 02:42 That would make anyone nervous.
• 02:45 But if your boss came to you and said, okay you have a month to write a paragraph
• 02:50 that's going into the annual report that could be seen by all of these people.
• 02:55 Probably wouldn't instill panic in you, because you would write it,
• 03:00 rewrite it, edit it, review it, have others look at it, give you feedback.
• 03:05 So by the time you sent it to the CFO,
• 03:08 or the CEO for inclusion into the annual report.
• 03:13 You have tremendous confidence that this is the best you can do, that you've
• 03:17 put thought into it, you've edited it, refined it, and gotten rid of defects.
• 03:24 Well guess what?
• 03:25 You can do the very same thing with your presentations.
• 03:29 If you want to completely eliminate nervousness
• 03:33 keep practicing your speech on video.
• 03:37 You remember our trusty friend,
• 03:39 whether it's a smart phone, whether it is an iPad, whether it's your webcam.
• 03:44 By the way, you can buy really, really inexpensive webcams now for less that $10.
• 03:50 So I'm not talking about some huge investment in expensive cameras.
• 03:55 You don't need it.
• 03:57 You need to practice on video, but here's the key.
• 04:00 Practicing on video and looking at it, if you do that once,
• 04:04 chances are you'll only see things you don't like.
• 04:08 You'll only see the flaws.
• 04:09 You've got to look at it, figure out what do you like, what do you not like?
• 04:15 Do more of what you like.
• 04:16 Do less of what you don't like.
• 04:19 Keep doing it, record it, look at it again.
• 04:23 Ideally, the pile of things you don't like is smaller,
• 04:26 the pile of things you like is bigger.
• 04:28 Keep doing it again and again and again until you love what you see, or
• 04:33 you're convinced it's the best you could possibly be.
• 04:37 Then, it actually becomes extremely difficult to be nervous.
• 04:43 I'm speaking to you right now, and I couldn't be more relaxed if I were
• 04:48 sitting by the pool, and enjoying an adult beverage with friends and family.
• 04:53 Why? Is it because I'm convinced no one's ever
• 04:55 been better looking?
• 04:57 Well, no, I have physical flaws.
• 05:00 But it's because I'm convinced this is how I want to come across.
• 05:02 Because I've seen myself on video give similar lessons countless times.
• 05:09 So I know this is how I want to come across.
• 05:13 This is the best I can do.
• 05:15 So if you want to get over nervousness you gotta practice on video.
• 05:20 For some of you, it may take three takes.
• 05:22 For some of you it may take 33 takes, or 133 takes.
• 05:26 Guess what?
• 05:27 Your audience doesn't care.
• 05:29 You need to keep doing it until you're happy with it, in the same way
• 05:34 if you were writing a press release or a page for your annual report.
• 05:39 You wouldn't stop after you eliminated half of the spelling errors,
• 05:43 you would get rid of all the spelling errors.
• 05:46 Same thing with your presentation.
• 05:48 Just keep practicing until you can look at the video and
• 05:51 say wow, I can be half as good as that guy or that woman.
• 05:55 I'll be the star of the event.
• 05:58 Keep doing that and guess what?
• 05:59 Your nervousness will completely melt away.

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