Appearing Confident in Front of the Crowd

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Personal organization: notes, visual aids, and handouts

A speaker who fumbles around with his materials gives an impression of poor organization and lack of interest. The audience suspects that such a speaker hasn’t put much effort or thought into preparing for the presentation.

Allow yourself enough time to organize all your materials before you begin your presentation. Being well-organized can also improve your self-confidence.

Remember that there is no reason for the people in the audience to feel anything but well-disposed towards you. Even if they may not agree with what you have to say, as long as you do not say it confrontationally they will accept your right to say it.

One of the most famous strategies to deal with nervousness when addressing an audience is to picture them all in their underwear. However, this is more a joke than a serious strategy. Those who have seriously tried it have found that it distracted them more than anything. It is much better simply to look out into the audience, smile in a relaxed way, and introduce yourself.

The chances are that many of your audience will smile back, and you can then address parts of your speech in their direction in order to feel supported.

The most important thing to remember in order to deliver the most confident presentation you can is to have an awareness of your surroundings. If you move around, bear in mind the positioning of things in the room. If you walk into something, pass it off with a brief joke about people planting things to put you off your stride, and simply allow your speech to flow.


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