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If you're giving a talk in front of an
audience, you've

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got slides, notes, a script or whatever,
just remember these two things.

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You're going to make a mistake at some
point and

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when you do, don't freak out, right, it's
always gonna happen.

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But you know, of course one thing to help
you with these mistakes.

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Make sure you spellcheck, right?
Just like I'm doing right there.

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You're gonna make mistakes but don't make
obvious,

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silly mistakes that are really gonna
[LAUGH] you

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know, eat away at the effectiveness of
your presentation.

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Now beyond that there are lot of reasons

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that people get nervous before and during
presentations.

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One of the top things I've found is that
some people

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believe that just one mistake, any mistake
will cost them their credibility.

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As if saying something wrong even the
littlest

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thing means that everything they say is
wrong or

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that people will immediately tune out or
they'll leave.

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They'll walk right out, say get off the
stage you said that name wrong.

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It's not gonna happen.

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There are other reasons too.

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But what everyone should remember is that,
if you've been

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asked to give a talk, it's because people
already trust you.

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You know, they wanna hear what you have to
say.

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Whether it's a big keynote address or it's
a five minute

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talk in a staff meeting, you've been asked
to say something.

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They trust you, and they wanna hear from
you.

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So you've already got some, some good will
stored up there.

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But you don't have to be perfect.

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You know, you just have to sort of be

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honest with the way that you give a
presentation.

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A way that's true to who you are.
Now if you over prepare.

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You try to be perfect.

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When you do make a mistake it's going to
distract you.

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Don't try to memorize every single line or
word of a script

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and think that you're gonna get it 100%
right, because you won't, right.

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When mistakes happen, just own them.
Everyone is human.

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One of the stories that I like to, to

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share with people when they talk about how
they

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might be nervous giving a presentation or
they imagine

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like the worst thing that could happen to
them.

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I tell them about a story of maybe about
10 years ago, I

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was working at an event and this company
was running a, a conference.

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A lot of breakout sessions, a lot of, a
lot of

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sessions where different people from big
million to billion dollar companies,

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big important CEOs were getting up there
and talking about

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their companies or talking about this or
that in the industry.

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In this particular example this CEO got up
there and gave his talk.

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He was really good, and you know, real
solid,

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and he went to sit down, and his chair

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was just a little bit too far back on

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the dais, and that dude [SOUND] just
spilled right off.

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I mean, he just fell right off and it was

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me, it, it kind of shook everyone up in
different ways.

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At first there were people in the front
row who jumped up, oh no, are you okay?

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And then other people were like oh, man,
I'm glad that wasn't me.

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And other people were just like oh, man,
that's great.

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I wish we had YouTube ten years ago.
And but what this guy did was great, okay?

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He didn't let

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this whole thing affect him.

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He got up, and waved everyone, and even
took a bow.

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He said, I'm cool, I'm good, right?

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And then when the next person spoke and
they did their thing and they were about

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to sit down, he leans into the mic, he
says let me get your chair for ya.

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And then it like the whole crowd loved it,
it was great.

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And it was a great way to save kind of
this you

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know, this from this big mistake this
total accident that happened.

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And it's because he was human and he owned
it

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right, he didn't worry too much about it,
he didn't get

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nervous, he didn't get totally red faced
and think I'm

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a failure, this ruins me, I'll never be
asked back again.

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You know, he was okay with it, right?

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And the rest of the crowd was too.
So he came up with a great way to

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overcome that and it's something that, you
know, that's

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like one of the worst-case scenarios I can
think of.

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Where you fall off a stage or something
like that.

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That's pretty bad, but you can always save
your presentation.

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You can always save yourself and your
reputation.

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And you will get asked back because they
can

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see that you're cool, and you're a human
being.

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And it's you know, and it's all good.

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Alright.
Now, at the same time

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you don't wanna rely on the technology
that

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you've got in front of you as a crutch.

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Anytime you read directly from your notes
for too

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long or, you know, you might lose your
train of

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thought because you're trying to, to get
something to load

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or, or you're in here and on your laptop
and.

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And you're not making eye contact.

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And, you risk losing the audience's
attention.

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Now, put it another way.

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A good friend of mine, C.C.

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Chapman, also replied to my Twitter
request wanting to ask people for tips.

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C.C. has spoken all over the planet,
literally.

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He's all over the place The TEDx talk and
has keynoted many times.

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And he says, know your presentation.

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Know, all caps.

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Know your presentation so well that if the

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power goes out you can still 100% deliver
it.

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And this

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is great advice and it's a great indicator
of if you actually know your stuff or not.

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When accidents happen can kill your slides
or you know, keno

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crashes or the projector fails you can
plan for it and recover.

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And you know, there are a few things that
you can do in

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case some kind of worst case scenario pops
up you know, for example.

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Carrying a portable copy of your slide
deck is a fantastic idea.

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Don't just have the only copy on your

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laptop and think that that's going to save
you.

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Because if the laptop fails, keynote
fails,

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your presentation dies, whatever, you've
got nothing.

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Now years back, having a hard copy might
have

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helped you and it still might in meetings
where

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you've got say a small group and
particularly some

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data or things that you can pass out
amongst

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a group.

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So yes, you could fire up the copy machine
and you

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can print out multiple copies of your
notes and your presentation.

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But these days, the more convenient
approach,

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the more logical one is to have a

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cloud copy of your presentation, and that
might

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even be for some people, the first option.

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For giving a presentation, and who was
ever, whoever's running the show

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with their laptop, just link to that, and
we

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can run it right off of there instead of

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monkeying around with your own technology,
do I have

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the right connector for your projector and
all that stuff?

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Avoiding disaster, if you can do any of
these three things, You will be much

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more prepared, and there, and you won't

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be as nervous when you're giving your
presentation.