You might start getting nervous the night before you present in front of the public. If you are pitching ideas to potential investors, it is even worse. There are consequences for your actions. You need to prepare well for the presentation, and don’t let your nerves get the best of you. These are the things to do to feel confident before your presentation.
Sleep early
Even if you did not finish preparing or you feel like there are other things you need to finish, you have to sleep. You can’t let your nerves or other emotions prevent you from getting good sleep. You still have time during the day to make it up anyway. Relax and get a good sleep. You will also have an alert mind during the presentation if you slept well.
Double check the things you need
If you are using an A5 folder to aid in your presentation, you need to read it once again. You might have ideas that are not the same as what you included in the folder. Since you can no longer change the folder, you can somehow tweak your speech. You also need to check if the facts that you are presenting are similar to the ones on your slides and the presentation folder. Otherwise, the people listening to you will feel confused.
You can also ask someone to check if the computers and projectors are working if you need them. Check if the sound system works perfectly and if the farthest person from the stage can hear you when you speak. You don’t want to worry about these technical problems on the day of the presentation as it could make you feel even more nervous.
Prepare a backup
You need to know what to do if things don’t go your way. If you forget what to say next, you need to have a piece of paper hidden in your pocket containing the keywords. If you can’t open the slides, you need to have another way of presenting that won’t bore the audience. If you cracked a joke and no one laughed, you need to look for a way to move to the next topic seamlessly. Even if you do your best, you can’t make everything perfect for the presentation. Having a backup helps a lot.
Run through the speech one last time
You don’t need to memorise everything that you want to say or practise all the details up to the gestures you are going to make. You have to act naturally. It helps if you go through the speech again so you will know it by heart and remember the ideas before you go to bed.
Believe in yourself
To succeed in your presentation, you need to believe in what you are saying and in yourself. You can’t convince others to listen to you if you don’t believe the words coming out of your mouth. If you can’t trust yourself to provide interesting information, no one else will.
