Overcoming Presentation Anxiety: The 1 Mistake You Never Knew About

She was bold, confident and outspoken.

But she froze when she had to present anything.

I realized she was making this one mistake.

M was one of my first coaching “clients”.

She was actually a team member that I was coaching to present on behalf of the company.  She could talk confidently 1:1 with clients. But froze when she had to present.

After a lot of deep digging, we realized that she was looking at the situation from the wrong angle.

When she was presenting, she saw a sea of faces. She thought she was talking to a crowd. The crowd became menacing, judging, intimidating. The crowd became faceless.

She felt overwhelmed.

I worked with M to create a mindset shift. From her perception of presenting to a crowd to having a 1:1 conversation with every single person in the audience.

This one small change made a huge difference. She started seeing real people looking at her.

She saw Marie the CEO who liked donuts and good ideas.

Ben the CMO who wanted to know competitor strategies.

Steve the CTO who liked looking under the hood.

Have you ever been intimidated by presenting to an important audience?

I’d love to know (if you’re willing to share!)