Hello, hello, hello. everybody thank you and
welcome back to food for thought thoughts if
it were you my name is neogentrics i'm going to
cover a we're going to switch gears here for
a second yeah we're going to cover presentation
skills okay now typically i would go ahead and
talk about whatever it is and just jump right
into it but this time this is just going to be
a working intro here and i'm actually going to
have someone else step in with me and we're going
to talk about this topic so here we go All righty
then, what's up? Hello, hello, hello. Yeah, I'm
here. Welcome, Gloria TP5. This is Food for Thought,
Thoughts If It Were You. So I have a guest here
with me. She's going to be talking with me about
coping with presentation nerves. And well, actually,
let me go ahead and get started with that. How
do you feel about that? Like, how would you go
about doing this? How would I? Depending on what
it is, honestly, you need to know your presentation.
You need to know your material. Do not memorize
it. Have cue cards and put points on it, not
full sentences, because you'll be tempted to
read off of it. If you don't know your presentation,
you're going to be a lot more nervous than usual.
And with that being said. Seeing how you just
brought up the fact that, you know, nerves, it's
entirely natural to feel nervous before, you
know, making a presentation. Even many seasoned
teachers, lecturers and other presenters, they
feel nervous despite having like given hundreds
of presentations. The same is true of actors
and actresses, celebrities, politicians, preachers,
you know, basically like people in the working
media or public eye. You know, being nervous
isn't actually a problem. It's not a weakness.
You just have to, you know, channel nervous energies
wisely. On the other hand, being overconfident
and not nervous could actually be a weakness.
How do I put this? Symptoms of nerves or stage
fright. You can go ahead and throw in your ideas
on this. I'm just going to give my few here.
It could include having butterflies or a queasy
feeling in your stomach. I've heard that sweaty
palms and dry throat is a problem. What about
you? Well, for me, ever since I was in elementary
school, I remember show and tell. I would always
get nervous. But my mama always told me, if you're
not nervous, it's not going to go as well. Because
in the pit of your stomach, you're thinking,
okay, I'm not going to do well. I'm not going
to do well. It's like a little choo -choo train
going through your brain. But you have to think
positively, number one, regardless of how...
old you are how much experience you have how
big or small the audience is you need to know
your material and it's nothing wrong with being
nervous because since elementary school all the
way up until now and i'm 36 and i've had plenty
of times where i had to do presentations um perfect
example church I am at a church two blocks from
my house and I'm a soloist and I'm in the choir
as well. And I have to do worship sometimes and
read Bible verses that the pastor would give
me. Believe me, I would think about it weeks
before it happened. The Christmas cantatas that
we do in the Easter cantatas. I would always
think to myself, OK, you're not as good as they
are because obviously you can't read music. But
the thing is, you cannot doubt yourself. Don't
enter into your mind any negative thoughts because
it's going to it's going to take over your your
presentation. So make sure you get enough sleep.
You get your food. Do not overdo the caffeine
in the morning. Because when it's time for your
presentation, you might crash and burn and look
sleepy and pitiful. And you don't want that.
Makes sense to me. The reason I bring this up
is that because preparing for a presentation,
like you said, it can be irritating. One of the
things that helps with that, other than being
well rehearsed and well prepared. Excuse me.
is not fixating specifically directly on its
delivery at the expense of good preparation.
I mean, if you're prepared, then there's no need
to fixate on how it's being delivered. You know,
spending time to prepare, knowing your subject
well enough, at least so that you can fill in
gaps or give little tidbits here and there as
like, you know, side notes or something. You
know, think of, well, here's a good one. Think
of your presentation like an iceberg, you know.
what your audience sees, the delivery, okay?
It's a small percentage of the whole thing. What
goes on out of sight, the planning, preparation,
should be made up, it should make up the bulk
of the work in the first place. Rehearsing isn't
that big of a deal. It's great. You know, you
can practice your presentation, rehearse with
family, friends, in front of the mirror, assuming
you can stand staring at yourself. Listening
to any feedback. checking your timing, speaking
slowly, recording yourself and listening to it.
Well, that might actually make you more nervous.
I wouldn't recommend that. You know, if possible,
visit presentation venues, see how other people
do it, see the layout of the room that you're
going to be in, check out the facilities, things
of this nature. And one of the things that was
brought to my attention the other day was, you
know, nervousness can be heightened if you're
not feeling 100%. So one of the things that I
like to stress especially is avoid alcohol, especially
the day before or the night before your presentation.
Reduce or avoid their caffeine intake from coffee,
tea, and other sources if you can help it. Exercise
enough regularly, but not before your presentation.
And remember to get some sleep. Eating healthy
also may help as well. What do you think? Definitely.
With my presentations, I found that I had to
eat well, not only the night before, but a few
days before. Because some people's bodies react
differently. It might take a day or two if you
ate something. Say, for example, if you had way
too much caffeine, you might not crash and burn
then. your blood pressure is going to go up and
down, up and down because you're already nervous
about the presentation. But you really have to
make sure you have enough water because that
is so important with a lot of people when they
get nervous and worried, they get headaches,
they get dehydration and water is one solution.
And I find that eating berries and kiwi and bananas,
things like that have a lot of vitamins. It's
like having a multivitamin together, just putting
in a bowl of fruit and you're good. So watch
your diet. Don't overload on caffeine or alcohol
and make sure you don't have something that's
going to help you to crash and burn. Don't think
that you can stay up all night and have two hours
of sleep and still be cool for your presentation.
Doesn't work like that. Yeah. It's one of those
many things that, you know, people underestimate
their body and how they're how it works and what
it's able and capable of doing. Right. I mean,
here's something we'll move on to the next topic
here. Immediately before the presentation, you
know, when you feel nervous immediately before
the following, I have a few strategies and exercises
that could help. I mean, feel free to give your
feedback as always. I enjoy feedback. It's always
great. When I have other people on this channel,
it makes it a lot more fun. Different things.
I mean, when it comes to, like, presenting, like
doing this podcast, for one, there's a lot of
things that have to be taken into effect. For
one, practice deep breathing. You know. And it
helps out drinking water, chewing gum, visual
techniques of that nature. They all work out
really well. What do you think? Definitely. Number
one, if you're not breathing properly, a lot
of people, when they get on that stage, they
some people don't realize that they stop breathing
because they're like, oh, my God, this audience,
you don't breathe. You're not going to get oxygen
to the brain, into your organs. Number two, me,
I was definitely I always pray the night before
and right before I go on stage. You have to definitely
have visualization. You got to visualize yourself
doing well. And I find that having ginger tea
or chamomile tea really calms my nerves before
I do any kind of presentation. And we're back.
We went on a short break there. Everybody needs
a little interlude every now and then. We were
talking about different things that could help
with your presentation immediately before it.
Gloria gave a couple of her examples as far as
things that helped out with her. Everybody's
different. This is the reason why I invite people
on here so that you can get different viewpoints
so you know it's not just me speculating and
throwing out ideas everywhere. I do research.
I like looking up information, making sure what
I'm telling you is actually legit. This is just
a thing that I do. I mentioned before, practice
deep breathing, drinking water, chewing gum,
using visualization techniques. Another one would
be self -massaging and relaxation exercises.
They also help. Now, for everybody, this isn't
exactly a thing, as you heard from Luria's example.
but one thing that is for sure and it doesn't
matter who it is uh breathing taking deep breathing
exercises and drinking water every so often or
at least having some with you helps out a lot
with the deep breathing adrenaline it causes
your breathing to shallow so by deliberately
breathing deeply your brain has a chance to get
some oxygen this slows the pace down allowing
your body to relax and stay calm It also helps
your voice to stop quivering. You know, shallow
and irregular breathing is never good. As far
as drinking water, well, I mean, this should
be understood. It's understandable. No one having
dry mouth and trying to talk doesn't help. Plus,
with your adrenaline running, it tends to dry
your mouth out already. Now, here's something
that I found interesting. I'd like your opinion
on it. Chewing gum. It said that... Chewing gum
before your presentation can also help you feel
more relaxed. While a lot of research shows that,
you know, it can increase your alertness, help
to reduce anxiety. Honestly, from your position,
how do you feel about that? Well, I personally
don't really, I'm not a big fan of gum. But I
definitely love to have, when I'm doing a presentation,
I always have a lemon throat lozenge. um right
before number one a lot of people may not know
this but lemon helps to balance your blood pressure
um lemon um once it touches your tongue regardless
if it's lemon water or actual lemon it helps
to clear your throat better for the presentation
and it helps you with your digestion so the feeling
of being nervous That will bring it down. Your
throat will be nice and moist and you'll be all
right most of the time. That makes sense. There's
a lot of different things that people can try,
especially relaxation exercises. Maybe you've
heard a couple of these. They're really effective.
It helps me out every so often, as odd as that
may sound. Although you may not feel relaxed
before you give your presentation, Relaxation
exercises can help. I have a couple ideas here.
But the thing is with them, how do I put this?
Some of them can cause actual pain or discomfort.
So I mean, again, with this, like I do with any
examples that I give on this channel, you know,
use at your discretion. Don't keep using these
things or bother with them if it's going to cause
you pain or any discomfort. The last thing I
need is you hurting yourself and saying, oh,
well, the guy on this podcast said to do this.
No, no, no, no, no. These are suggestions. Everything
I gave her suggestions. And the first one would
be standing in an easy position with your feet,
you know, one pace apart. Knees bend. You don't
want them locked because you can hurt yourself.
And not rigid, you know, not rigidly pushed back
like in like you're standing up ready to hit
somebody or something position. You find that
funny, huh? You might want to speak up a little
bit. That way I can actually hear you. Keep your
spine straight. Your shoulders are not tense.
Keep them relaxed. Keep your head well balanced.
And while I say that, I mean, try to keep your
head straight, not leaning at a side or cocked
at some weird angle. You will hurt yourself.
And try to keep your face muscles relaxed by
not clenching your jaw, clamping on your teeth
together. Once you get that set. you know now
you can stretch slowly upwards aim to touch the
ceiling you know but keep your feet flat on the
floor and then flop forward from the waist bending
your knees slightly as you as you go okay you
are you're basically like hanging forward like
a rag doll your arms and head totally unsupported
and relaxed everything should just move in one
motion okay and then straighten up but not quickly
slowly okay if you come up too fast you'll hurt
yourself it'll be like uh a puppet master lifting
up a puppet keeping the strings and everything
organized where everything just comes up slowly
and at ease and once you're back in your regular
position you can relax and do this multiple times
over and over again this keeps your body loose
you know and if that doesn't work for you you
can always relax in a chair a lot of people do
this they sit comfortably with your lower spine
pressed into the back of a chair You know, they
raise their arms above their head, stretch as
high as possible, release your arms and your
sides, bend forward with your legs, stretch out,
you know, stretching your arms and your legs
as far as they go, you know, and then return
back to normal. A lot of these different techniques,
there's like tons of them online, different things
and so on and so forth. So, next thing I want
to cover is during the presentation what you
should and should not do. Many people find that
once they are actually giving their presentation
or speech, they feel a lot better and more relaxed.
But it's important to remember a couple of things.
First things first, pause. Just before you start
talking, pause. Make eye contact with your people,
smile. The last moment of peace is very relaxing.
It gives you time to adjust being the center
of attention. They don't expect you the second
you step up there, you have to say something.
And if they do, they'll help you. More than likely
they don't. Hopefully. Next is smile. It's a
natural relaxant. It sends a positive chemical
message through your brain and everyone else
looking at you. Smile and maintaining eye contact
also helps you build rapport with your audience.
Let them know you're actually paying attention
and you actually care to be up there. You're
not just there. Next thing, speak slowly when
you start speaking. Speak like you would in a
normal conversation. Leave longer pauses between
sentences to help people understand what you're
saying. The slower pace will also calm you down.
It'll make it easier for you to be heard. And
you can hear yourself as you're talking as well,
so you can make a difference. about that this
thing has a couple of bugs in it but hey it's
a work in progress so what do you think about
what i'm saying so far i mean other than that
i mean with moving around being like one of the
major issues and you know with with being up
on stage it's a tendency for people to just you
know like rock back and forth or start pacing
and i mean There's nothing more distracting or
irritating being in the audience than watching
a person move around like that, and it's not
part of their presentation. Definitely. I actually
went to school for communications, and I took
a few classes on speech, basic speech, advanced
speech, and many of the classes that we had.
All we did were presentations. And I felt that
taking an exercise class actually helped me throughout
the whole time I was there. Because when I went
up, the teacher could tell I was more relaxed
than most students. And she asked me, how do
I keep myself relaxed? I took a Pilates class.
I did meditation before I did my presentation.
I did it. when i woke up in the morning before
i went to bed so i was more naturally prepared
than the regular student and also being in the
speak speech class the advanced class i found
that you need to start looking like you're happy
regardless of how nervous you are You got to
look happy because if you're not happy, the audience
is not going to be happy. And they're not going
to want to pay attention to you because if they
see a frown, they're going to be like, oh, they're
not happy. So why should I even listen? And it's
the same thing with looking around. You have
to look around when you're doing your presentation.
Do not face one person all throughout. the presentation
because it makes yourself look like you don't
know what you're talking about number one you're
stiff number two and number three you're not
engaging with your eye in so it looks like you're
only interested in one person and everybody else
is not there um definitely pronunciation speak
slowly so you don't stutter and pronounce your
your um Words slowly, not too slow. You don't
want to sound like you're slowing down like a
robot and you need to be recharged. And also,
when you do any presentation, regardless of what
it is, unless you're performing as an artist,
you need to make a list of frequently asked questions
and have your answers ready. Because when you
ask at the end, do you have any questions? Most
likely they're going to have them and you already
have the information right there. And you should
look at that before you go into the presentation.
So you're not reading off of it looking like
you're not you don't know what you're talking
about. It's important to focus on the positives
of your presentation, you know. with that being
said based off of what you just mentioned you
know experience is the single most effective
way of overcoming presentation nerves delivering
better presentations in the future you know when
you get feedback when possible you know ask as
many of your audience members that you've had
either whether you know or you don't know for
constructive feedback on your presentation you
know listen to what they have to say focus on
the areas that need your improvement and try
to see any negative points not Not as a measure
of failure, but as a learning opportunity for
your future presentation so that they're better
and you're more comfortable. Use reflective practice.
Basically, it's a useful technique to help you
think about and analyze your experiences. They
can be used for many aspects of life. The use
of reflective practice for presentation can be
particularly useful for helping to minimize feelings
of nervousness for future presentations as well.
And like Gloria said before, don't beat yourself
up if you can't get it perfect the first time.
Like most things in life, presentations are unlikely
to be perfect. There's always going to be something
that you can improve. When you get feedback from
others and reflect on your own performance, it's
important that you understand this. You give
yourself a break. Think about the positives and
what went well. Learn from any mistakes and elements
you feel unhappy with. Treat yourself to something
that you'll enjoy as a result of what you've
done. Say, hey, I did okay this time, or I could
do better next time. Maybe a glass of wine, an
ice cake, or go soak in the tub or something.
Something special to recognize your achievement
and even getting through this in the first place.
You know, nerves can be hard to deal with. There's
a lot of things that go into it and a lot of
things that affect it in presentations. And not
everybody can handle them the same way. You know,
between prepping before your presentation and
things during your presentation or even after
it, anything can happen. Anything can go wrong.
It doesn't mean that you hope for the negatives
that occur. You instead try to move forward.
You know, say your computer fails. Your presentation
is out of whack. The best thing about having
notes there is that you can still continue talking
and going on as if nothing is happening. And
the audience won't be any different to you as
they are with everything else. I mean, technology
fails. It's man -made. Anything can go wrong.
But as long as you manage to maintain what little
professionalism you have that you're able to
maintain despite being somewhat nervous, everything
should go out fine. This being said, though,
if the lights go out or the power goes out, I
still want to say retain your professionalism
unless you're scared of the dark. At that point,
God help you. Just don't scream like a little
girl in the negative context of that, not saying
that to be sexist. Any comments? I'm sitting
here laughing to myself. Definitely. Quite a
few times when I was at Howard University, we
had power outages during a presentation. And
you're right. You have to have a backup plan
because many of the time we had to use PowerPoint.
What we had to use the system at the school.
But the professor always said, have your cue
cards, have your notes, have the presentation
printed. out like with the visualization so even
if the power runs out you can always pass it
around the class and they can see it as well
but you really have to you can't don't ever beat
yourself up because a lot of people are beginners
with uh presentations some people are on different
levels you don't know what level you're going
to be at unless you present The best way you
know how don't give don't do a half job because
then you're failing yourself. Why? Because if
you don't give yourself 100 percent with the
presentation, then you won't know for sure what
you need to correct the second time. So you just
have to be ready. Try to be relaxed, breathe
and focus. A lot of people cannot look. an audience
what you need to do is if you cannot look at
people look beyond the people but focus on something
around the room in a clockwise position focus
on something in the room that makes it look like
you're actually looking at the audience if you're
that nervous about it but other than that it's
practice makes perfect that's all you need to
do And that is that. So like with before, guys,
I thank you guys for listening. It's always great
being able to do these podcasts. I know I haven't
been heard in a while. Today I figured for my
first podcast in a while, I'd invite a friend
of mine who also has her own personal podcast
on this station, Gloria TP5. You got to check
that out. You want to give yourself a shout out
here. What's the name of your podcast, sweetheart?
Grown Up Eruptions. And I post adult poetry on
Tuesday nights at 9 p .m. And I also post on
Saturdays for deep discussion at 12 and prayer
and meditation on Sundays at 4. Hear that? She's
as productive as I am, if not more. You can also
find her podcast on anchor .fm. You can also
find it on Google Play and Apple Play Music as
well. And that is all as far as that's concerned.
Again, this is food for thought. Thoughts are
fit for you. This is NeoGenTricks. I'll talk
to you guys later. Enjoy the rest of your day.