If you asked numerous professionals, worldwide, if they relish having to present to people, there’s a high chance that they’d give a less than enthusiastic response!
Some of the negative feelings towards talking to the audience during an online event come from the stress and worry about something going wrong.
And that stress and worry inevitably contributes to them presenting poorly!
However, there are ways in which you can reduce this, feel more relaxed and become a more natural speaker.
Here are 7 tips to give you a helping hand:
1. Learn from the past
This tip is particularly useful if you’ve presented during a webinar before, if not, better skip to tip two in that case!
Learning from the past is essential for success in all aspects of life, especially in business.
Performance and speaking during webinars can certainly improve by looking at things retrospectively.
Listen and watch back any past events you’ve been involved in and look at things you did wrong and, importantly, don’t forget about the things you did right.
By looking to learn from past errors and build on former successes, you’ll become an improved orator and presenting will become more natural to you over time.
2. Do your research
Doing background research should be paramount in your list of tasks in the run-up to a webinar, particularly if you’re responsible for creating the slide content too!
Building your knowledge about the topic you’ll be speaking about should be a no-brainer.
And, by having more insight into what you’re talking about, you’ll hopefully become more relaxed about presenting about it to your audience.
If you’re facing a Q&A session during your event, this tip will prove very useful indeed.
When people fire questions at you and you’ve got the knowledge in place to give a definitive answer, that should be a real confidence booster.
Plus, you won’t have to worry about seizing up when it comes to responding!
3. Rough notes, then expand
This is an easy one and it’ll make a huge difference when it comes to creating a more relaxed and natural narrative to your presenting, make notes!
We’re not talking about writing down every single word you’ll be saying, just rough notes.
These should cover the broad points you wish to cover, then be expanded upon in greater detail during your webinar.
How in-depth your notes are, is totally up to you, but is dependent on your experience as a speaker.
If you’re relatively new to presenting, you might feel more comfortable having a greater amount of detail down beforehand.
More experienced, a few bullet points will do.
Either way, to create a less-scripted feel to your webinar, use this method.
4. Segment transitions
Whilst we’re working on creating a more natural narrative, another tip is to have some casual dialogue in-between segments.
Rather than abruptly shifting from one segment to the next, segue into the next section by just allowing yourself to relax and talk naturally to the audience.
Remember, even though webinars are web-seminars by nature, don’t feel like you’re giving a lecture. Having more informal speech will improve the flow of your webinar.
And, even though this benefits the audience mainly, it’ll hopefully make you feel a little less tense about presenting too!
5. Practice makes perfect
This one is just good practice really!
Conducting rehearsals beforehand is absolutely essential, if you want to have a successful event.
But, they’re also extremely useful if you’re feeling slightly nervous about how the session will play out.
By rehearsing, you’ll have an accurate representation of how the webinar will go.
This usually removes many of the anxieties people have about presenting, as you’ll no longer be stepping into the unknown and going in blind!
It’ll also allow you to make any dialogue changes you feel necessary and make the speech more natural as a consequence.
6. Keep it slow
Many people who have speech impediments have to use techniques to slow down their speech.
Now while overcoming obstacles in webinars aren’t as serious as this, slowing down your speech will help you relax and become more confident and natural whilst speaking.
Slow your delivery down and don’t rush through your content.
Doing this will ensure a smoother presentation and will likely aid the audience in their comprehension of what you’re saying.
7. Relax before showtime!
Finally, take a few moments beforehand to calm down and relax before you begin!
Webinars aren’t something to be afraid of. Let’s face it, presenting in general shouldn’t be either.
Think of it this way, if you’ve made all your necessary preparations beforehand, then you can afford to relax.
Remember, you’ll have a couple of hiccups in your speech. Everyone does when they’re speaking!
Hollywood actors attempt several takes sometimes to get their dialogue out, so you’re in good company!
