#138 5 Tips To Deliver a Great Presentation at Work Without Nerves

Lucy Gernon (00:01.678)
Recently, one of our 360 members asked me for tips about presenting without nerves. Now, I just love this question because there are so many

Lucy Gernon (00:33.695)
How do you make sure that your presentation goes off without a breeze? That’s exactly what one of our 360L slub members asked me recently. She said, Lucy, I should be okay with the material if I spend time practicing in advance, but I’m very nervous about the Q &A. I either freeze too much or talk too much when I’m put in the spot and I would love to be able to answer confidently or even confidently deflect questions. Any tips?

Well, if you know me, I have some tips that you can put into practice right away. So be sure to listen to this short episode and let me know which one helped most. I really think you’re going to love the last one.

Lucy Gernon (01:12.863)
You know this feeling all too well. You have to speak at an event or present a new idea or solution to senior stakeholders or important clients. And that feeling of nervousness sets in. The sweaty palms, the overanalyzing and the overthinking, the practicing in front of the mirror and the constant self -doubt and the noise in your mind of, what if I mess it up?

In fact, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 73 % of people experience fear when speaking in public in front of people. Like how crazy is that 73 %? So this means there’s a significant number of our audience here today that are likely nervous about presenting rather than showing up, owning your worth and showing your true leadership authority.

So I thought I’d hop on the show and talk about this and give you some tips from somebody who used to absolutely cringe at the thought of speaking in front of an audience to somebody who now feels super, super comfortable. So I’m going to be sharing my five biggest tips to stop your pre -presentation nerves in their tracks. And I promise you, they are so, so good. So before I teach you the secrets, I would love to ask you to rate and review this podcast.

I love Lucy and the 360 Leadership podcast. The content is so valuable to me. Thank you. If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show. This really helps me support more people just like you move towards the career and life that they deserve. All you have to do is go to Apple podcast, click on the show, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars and select writer review. Or if you’re listening on Spotify, simply hit those five stars.

I would so, so appreciate it. Okay. Now, before I get into the show, I just want to tell you a quick story. This episode was inspired by a recent question from a 360 leaders club member. And it’s something that comes up time and time again. Every month in 360, we have various different coaching calls that you can come to.

Lucy Gernon (03:27.007)
And one of our calls, you can submit your question in advance. So I have time to prepare and give you the best advice possible, specifically tailored to your unique situation. You’ve literally got on demand executive coaching, which is so cool. I love being able to do that. And it’s not just me. You’ll also get tips from the group, too. And you’ll always take golden nuggets, which is so fat. So this particular lady asked, would you have any tips for calm in the nerves before a big presentation?

And you would not believe the amount of times I’ve been asked this question. One of our leaders was recently invited to speak in a panel. And since she’s joined 360, she has recognized the importance of really pushing herself out of her comfort zone to step in and step up into her authority. And she’s really starting to really embrace that now. She’s saying that it’s helping her and she’s patting herself on the back because every time you take action out of your comfort zone,

you build confidence. So today I’m going to share with you some of the strategies that I use with my clients to cut the nerves before presentations so that you can step into your worth as your female leader, okay? Cause you’re amazing. So let’s picture this. You’ve been asked to deliver a big presentation. It might be speaking at an industry event. It might be delivering a pitch in work.

It’s something where you’re kind of going, my God, like, I really don’t want to do this because what if it all goes wrong? You put a lot of pressure on yourself to get it right and probably spend hours laboring over your presentation, trying to get it perfect. But there’s a few things that maybe you don’t focus your attention on that would actually make you feel more confident. A big mistake that I see is a lot of us spend time trying to get the slides right.

as opposed to shifting your mindset so that you show up confidently. Because let’s face it, you are an expert. You know your stuff. But sometimes that self -doubt, that inner critic takes over and then you don’t show up the way you want to show up and you’re left reeling with yourself afterwards. Have you ever been there? Or maybe you show up and you’re semi -proud.

Lucy Gernon (05:48.095)
but you know you could have done a better job, right? So whichever camp you lie in, I hope these five tips will help. The first tip is to know your content, but don’t over prepare. I am a firm believer in preparing, but not over preparing because I believe that you’ve got to trust your abilities if you’re an expert in your field and you’re presenting on something.

you know more than you think you know. OK, so it’s about knowing your content, designing your slide deck in a way that is easy, starting with a story so you can bring people along, because we know that people are 22 times more likely to remember data and your content if you tell them a story. Did you know that? And from the science of positive psychology, we know that storytelling is a huge factor in the meaning pillar.

which is something that we need as humans. So make sure that you know your content and that you include stories in it, but just don’t over prepare because you’re just trying to be in control of things you’re not in control of. Okay. You know your stuff. The second thing I would recommend is that, and this is really important. So if you’re multitasking, come back over here to me. Make it all about educating your audience.

less about you and more about them. Okay. I’m going to say that again. Make it less about you and more about your audience. What do I mean by that? Most people show up on stage or to present something and it’s like you feel like you’re naked. You feel like they’re going to ask you something that you’re not going to know. They’re going to catch you out. You’re thinking they know I’m an imposter.

I shouldn’t be here, whatever those thoughts that you’re having in your mind are. OK, but I’m afraid to break it to you. It’s not about you. It’s about you adding value to your audience. So once I made that mindset shift myself, it changed the game for me. When I first started my business and I started this podcast, I was terrified because I thought

Lucy Gernon (08:14.783)
People are going to think she doesn’t know her stuff and people are going to think that and who am I and all those voices, right? No. As soon as I shifted my mindset to I am here to deliver value to you, to support you in your career. I’m here for something bigger than me. All the nerves go away. Do I get it right all the time? No. Does anybody get it right all the time? No.

It doesn’t make you any less of an expert. It doesn’t make you any less of a leader. OK, so I invite you to make it all about how can I add value to this audience? How can I educate them, inspire them, entertain them, motivate them, whatever your reason for your presentation is and less about you? Because when you make it about them and what you can give to them, as opposed to how you’re feeling, you’re going to show up with a different energy.

The third thing then is I invite you to make a very important mindset shift if somebody asks you a question. If you’re the kind of person that dreads Q &A after a presentation in case you don’t know something, I invite you to consider this fact. If somebody is asking you a question, actually, they are in a vulnerable position because they don’t know the answer.

Right? So instead of you thinking you’re the one in the vulnerable position, I invite you to actually think, well, actually they’re in the vulnerable position because they’re asking me the question.

So I invite you to meet them in the vulnerability and even make a joke about it, right? Say if you don’t know the answer and somebody asks you a question, you can, that brings me on to the next one. It’s point number four is you just own what you know and own what you don’t know. I remember when I was doing my PhD, which I ended up doing a master’s because I just couldn’t stick it any longer. I was supposed to do a PhD when I did a master’s in the end. And I remember I was at a conference.

Lucy Gernon (10:25.695)
in UCD, I think it was in Dublin. And I was asked to deliver a presentation on my thesis, which was all on here’s a fun fact. I was trying to make a genetically modified variety of clover, which was going to support the natural fertilizer because it is what was it around? It was a fixation of nitrogen in the in the grass.

which was going to help the farmers basically to reduce the there’s a particular fungus which was spreading around the fields. And I was trying to develop a variety of clover, which would help with that. Fun fact. So I was a scientist for many years, but my passion always laying the stuff that I did today. So I never I was always a people person, very strategic, but like I’m not a very analytically minded person. I had to train myself to be. So I was terrified getting up on that stage. And I remember I said to him, like, what if somebody asked me something that I don’t know?

I was only in my 20s and he said to me, this is what you say. Great question. That’s not my area and direct it to somebody else. Or that’s a great question. I’m not entirely sure, but I’m happy to take your email and follow you up later because I want to make sure I’m giving you the correct information. Whatever way it is, don’t try and spoof something. If you don’t know the answer, just say, I’m actually not sure about that.

I need to check it out. I’ll come back to you later or deflect to somebody else who’s there who might be better positioned to answer it. But you do it in an energy of ownership as opposed to, God, that’s not my area. More of a great question. That’s not my area of expertise. But Dave, you have been working on this, right? Can you give your insights on this? And you say it with confidence if you don’t know. OK, because I always tell you on the show confidence sells.

And then the fifth tip I have for you is to set an intention to speak slower and trust you will say the right thing. You might be a seasoned pro at communication, but in my experience, I know for me, if I’m nervous, I speak fast. So set an intention to speak slower knowing that your audience wants to hear from you.

Lucy Gernon (12:51.455)
They don’t know that you have all these doubts. They see you as an expert. So set an intention to just speak slower because it’s going to slow down your thought process as well. And it’s going to give you space to be able to get the right words out. And leave strategic pauses when you’re speaking. So you can speak fast if you’re a fast talker like me. But then you have to leave a little pause.

so that the brain of your audience can actually digest what you said. Don’t just rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit. You’ve got to leave those little pauses to allow the penny drop moments and just trust yourself. You know what you’re doing. So there are my five tips for getting rid of the nerves. I’d love to hear from you. Which one did you find most valuable? Which one were you like, I’m going to try that one. Or maybe you were doing them already.

I always love hearing from you guys, so feel free to send me a DM. I’d love to hear if you use something and it worked. It would give me a lot of energy back because my team and I put so much into this podcast for you. It would be super to hear from you. And if you have enjoyed this episode of the show, there’s another couple of episodes I recommend you check out. The first one is episode 118, which is how to conquer imposter syndrome in leadership.

If you are having nerves because you’re doubting yourself, you have imposter syndrome, I think this episode will be useful for you. Episode number 98 then is with the lovely Gina London, which is leadership communication mastery. And episode number 96 is what to do if you lack confidence as a senior leader. Recommend you check those one out. So that’s it for this week’s episode of the show.

Just quickly summarize the five tips I’m giving you is number one, know your content, tell stories, but do not over prepare. Number two, make it all about your audience and the value you’re bringing to them and less about you worrying about what they’re thinking about you. Number three, shift your mindset if somebody asks you a question and remember it’s actually them in the vulnerable position, not you because they don’t know the answer.

Lucy Gernon (15:13.951)
Number four, own what you know, own what you don’t know. And if somebody asks you a question you don’t know, great question. That’s not my area. Dave, can you add some light on this? With confidence, okay? And number five is set an intention to speak slower, leave strategic pauses and trust you will say the right thing. So that’s it for this week’s episode of the show.

Like I shared earlier, we are opening up 12 spots in 360L Club to start with us on the 1st of October. Now, I know these spots are going to go fast and the waitlist will always get first refusal. So if you’ve been thinking about reaching out and you’re ready to advance your career with confidence, you’re ready for coaching, you’re ready to change your freaking life by investing in yourself so that by the end of 2024, you are going to be well on your way if not already there to where you want to be.

go to 360LeadersClub .com forward slash waitlist, pop your name down there on the waitlist and I’ll be in touch to arrange a call to make sure it’s a good fit. And then you can start with us on the 1st of October. There are so many amazing women in there. I cannot wait to introduce you to. And if you’re listening to this and it is not October right now, you can reach out to me and I can let you know when we will be taking on new members again.

So that’s it guys. I hope you enjoyed the episode. I hope you’re well. I hope you’re ready to go and rock that presentation the next time. Until next time, next Wednesday, same time, same place. Bye for now.