Most people are not confident about stages or performing in public. But unfortunately, that becomes a professional requirement for most of us and having stage fright can really put in difficult situations. The truth is that the fear stays there all through life even for the most successful stage performers. But once they get on to the stage and starts performing everything is left behind and they simply ride upon their fear for much better performance. Believing your own abilities and knowing that whatever you are going to do will be well accepted by the audience have always been great confidence boosters. There are only a few natural performers who are perhaps more comfortable on stage or in their field of work than their real life. But most of us need to work on our abilities to cope up with the pressure and expectations and perform at our best every time our services are asked for.
Look for and focus on a friendly face
Whether you are making an office presentation or delivering a speech in an auditorium, always try to find a familiar face in the audience and focus on it and that will certainly make you feel a lot more comfortable. But maintaining your focus particularly on that face can be embarrassing for the others and a better performer is always capable of turning impassive faces into interested and approving ones. But this ability comes with time and after a number of performances and it is always possible to keep improving.
Know the audience is actually rooting for you
It is important to have confidence in your audience since there is certainly no reason to believe that they are going to disprove you. Instead, they have actually come only because they are interested and you better try to meet their expectations that wasting your time on situations with little probability to take place. The first time is always the most difficult of all and again there are only a few who were at their best in their first performances. After the initial fear disappears, you always feel a lot more confident and continue to have better control over the situation.
Break it down into sections and practice each section
Good performances are never possible without a lot of practice. Focusing on the whole presentation is often difficult and it is always better to break it into several sections and practice them. Even during the actual performance focus on one section at a time and that will certainly make performing a lot easier for you. Making your audience more involved in your presentation is a good way of understanding what are they actually feeling and for good and experienced performers this can be extremely valuable to better impress his audience by providing them exactly what they were actually looking for. You must have tried hard to reach a position when you will be performing in front of an audience and that is good enough motivation to overcome your stage fright and perform at your best in public.
Linda, this is very good advice. As an introvert, I have learned how to control my nerves while speaking in public. The one thing I still tend to do is speak very quickly.
Great simple, practical presentation tips we can all use. Thanks!