Take deep breaths. Place your hands on your stomach, breath in and feel your stomach filling with air. Then, breathe out slowly. It will de-stress you. Do this as many times as you want throughout any day that you feel you need to rid yourself of stress. It is also a correct breathing technique that yoga masters will teach you.
Pop a chewing gum a few minutes before you speak; but, remember to get rid of it just before you go up the stage to address the crowd. It will assist to keep you and your cheeks relaxed.
Make sure your stomach is not too full or too empty. Eating too much before you address a crowd makes you feel tired and sleepy due to the energy spent digesting the food. Too little food will make you feel less energetic and even anxious.
Be early and get to know some of the people who are going to sit in and listen to your speech. Know your space - that is, the room, the seating arrangement, the equipments, etc. Get to the stage, the rostrum, the microphone - to get familiar and comfortable.
In your script, mark out places in which you want to pause. Underline words you want to emphasize on. Insert jokes into your script if they are appropriate and you are confident of delivering them. It will allow the audience to warm up to you. Their response will help you warm up to them and reduce your fear. Delivery of such jokes can be verbal, audio or visual. So, choose your medium according to your comfort level and the equipment that will be available to you on your big day.
Go through your script and familiarize yourself with its content and where possible, an extended understanding of the subject area. Familiarity with the subject will make you ready to address any questions that your audience may have. Your subject knowledge and readiness will also give you more confidence.
Wear comfortable clothes that are suitable for the occasion and your body shape. You do not want to worry about how well you fit in to the occasion or connect with the crowd while you speak. You also want people to pay attention to what you have to say and not to how poor your dress sense is or how badly matched your tie is to your shirt and pants.
While your heart may be thumping away, make an effort to keep your head straight and looking at the audience. If you are looking down at the script all the time, your voice does not get projected clearly. And, together with the thumping heart, it is going to sound nervous, broken and muffled. This will either lead the audience to engage in their own conversations or the room to be filled with absolute pin-drop silence in which your lone voice is going to sound worse and add to your nervousness.
Part of the communication process includes body language. Have appropriate gestures to emphasize on key points you are making. Practice this before the actual event and, if possible, in front of the mirror. If you are using presentation slides, please make sure you are familiar with the entire sequence, any animations and whether they fit in to the time slot allocated to you. If someone else is clicking through the presentation with you, please ensure that you have already had a dry-run with this person to ensure proper synchronization between the speech and any audio-visual materials. Practice keeps fear in check.
In public speaking, you address a large crowd that consists of people with different experiences, expectations and mannerisms. You can't please every one of them. But, know the objective and goal of your speech. There may be some people who flout the rules of being a good audience by conversing with the person beside them, answering calls on their mobiles and sending SMS messages. Learn to shut out this "noise" and stay focused on your delivery and objectives. When taking questions or feedback, listen carefully and note that some of them may add value to your speech/presentation and others, may just be digressions from the objective. Thus, staying focused on your objective will enable you to be selective about your questions and reminding the audience accordingly, without coming across as defensive or rude.
