Whatever you do, be yourself. Don’t try to replicate the performance of a speaker you saw recently. The main thing is always to behave naturally.
Don’t stress over unimportant things
When we are under pressure, we make mistakes. That is natural. So don’t worry about whether you have too many slides or too few. Also don’t wonder if you will be saying too much or too little. None of this is important and you are only putting unnecessary pressure on yourself. So relax and simply prepare your presentation well. Then step up to the podium and say what you have to say. And there you have it.
Your slides may look good but there must be some substance behind them. Always make sure your presentation stands on its own. If it doesn’t, slides are only a weak shield for a shallow delivery. These reminders appear in an article on the presentationblogger.com website.
Focus on how you can help
To be confident and relaxed, never focus on what might go wrong. Instead, make your mindset positive and focus on how you can help your audience. What can you tell them, how can you help them? This outward focus will improve your delivery as well as make you more confident.
Know your stuff
In order to be able to help someone, you certainly need to know what you are talking about. This is also the very best ground for a confident delivery. If you are an expert on a particular subject, you will be able to talk smoothly and deliver what you have prepared with confidence.
You don’t always have to be a storyteller
Stories are indeed great for engaging an audience; if, however, there is no story which would be relevant, you should not force one in just for the sake of it. Added to which, preparing a story for a purely business presentation may mean a lot of unnecessary work.
-jk-