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TIP #1:
When you speak, are you making meaningful eye contact with each listener? Or is your eye contact short and fleeting? To truly connect with your listeners one person at a time, you need to maintain eye contact with the same person for ONE WHOLE
THOUGHT OR ONE WHOLE SENTENCE. You need to be looking at the same person for at least three full seconds in order to make
a genuine connection.

TIP #2:
Do NOT begin your talk with, “My name is...” Instead, grab your audience’s attention with a story, a question, a quotation, a startling statistic. Starting with “Hi, my name is…” is boring and predictable.

TIP #3:
Remember why you are speaking: to SERVE your audience. If you remind yourself that you are there to help your audience, and that
your content will truly benefit them, it will greatly cut down on your nervousness.

TIP #4:

Everyone has a “home” position for their hands; what’s yours? In your pockets? Behind your back? The “fig leaf” position? Your home position should be HANDS AT YOUR SIDES. A trick to getting comfortable doing this: raise both hands; touch your thumbs to your pointers; then drop your hands to your sides. This will meet your need for tactile contact.

TIP #5:

STAND STILL at the beginning of your presentation. Don’t move yet. Your audience needs to get a good look at you, so let them have it. Stand tall with confidence. Own your space. Stay there for a good 15 seconds before you start to move.

TIP #6:

Drink ROOM-TEMPERATURE water. If you speak for a while, or if you’re nervous, your throat will get dry. Sip room-temperature to lubricate your vocal chords. Never drink ice water when you speak; it constricts the vocal chords.

TIP #7:
Don’t look at your watch when you speak. Looking at your watch makes you look as if you’re bored, or uncomfortable, or you’d rather be somewhere else. Instead, remove your watch and place it on a surface where you can glance at it.

TIP #8:
Humor is important, but avoid telling a joke. What if no one laughs? Or what if someone is insulted? The best kind of humor is self-deprecating. It’s safe, and it doesn’t threaten anyone. Don’t try to be funny. Instead, HAVE FUN.

TIP #9:
One of the best ways to cut down on stage fright is to KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. Find out the makeup of your audience: size, gender, age, race, level of experience, etc. What have they come to learn from you? What are their expectations of you? Tailor your talk to meet their needs, not yours.

TIP #10:

What if you blank out during your talk? Chances are, the lost thought will come back to you. When it does, seamlessly weave it into your presentation. If it doesn’t come back to you, someone will probably ask a question related to it. If no one asks, it wasn’t that important!

TIP #11:
PowerPoint Guideline: no more than 30 words of text per page. Five lines of 6 words, or six lines of 5 words. Do not fill your slides with long, drawn-out sentences! Anyone can read off slides. Only YOU can talk about your interpretations, feelings, experience, what the slides mean to YOU. That’s what your audience came to hear.

TIP #12:

Remember: long after your audience forgets what you said, they’ll still remember how you made them FEEL.