Butterflies, clammy hands, frozen legs, tight voice... these are all symptoms of stage fright.  I don’t know about you, but when that one person says, “Oh you’ll be fine, just get over it,” I simply want to punch them--and let them get over that!  But as a more positive response, here are some tips from SpeakingAboutPresenting.com for overcoming stage fright.

• It’s not about you, it’s about the presentation.  You are just it’s mouthpiece, it’s presenter.  It’s the main event, what everybody wants to hear, and you can safely relax behind it.
• Things will go wrong, this is a fact.  If you know there will be problems, you can prepare and think about how to deal with them.  Fear of the unknown is perhaps our worst fear, but the unknown doesn’t apply to a problem you’ve anticipated.
• “What if they don’t like me?”  Guess what, it doesn’t matter if they like you or not; what matters is you like yourself.  Trust that you know what you are doing, that you are capable of presenting well, and realize the presentation can be a success whether people like you or not, (see the first tip).
• This one is surprising: “You should be making mistakes.”  What this means is that if you aren’t making mistakes, then you’re not trying hard enough, or you’re playing things too safe.  There will be mistakes--see the second tip--but it’s how you handle them that makes or breaks you.

Eveyone has heard the stage fright tip, “Picture everyone in their underwear.”  I always thought that would make things worse, because then I would worry that I had overdressed to the occasion, or that the thermostat would be set too low.  Tell us about how you get over stage fright in a comment.

So it’s best to get back on the horse that threw you as soon as possible, that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and practice makes perfect.  This is especially true when it comes to public speaking, or more specifically the fear of public speaking.  And I found some other tips to improve your presenting that may at first seem counterintuitive.

Minimize nerves with larger audiences - While it may seem that more people would make things worse, it actually helps to spread around the nervousness.  On top of that, you’ll have better chances finding people who think your jokes are funny, are willing to participate, or ask questions.

Clear words from slides if you think you’ll forget them - This is more prevention than cure, but if you’re worried you’re going to forget what to say, you can minimize damage by not having words on your web conference PowerPoint.  If the words aren’t there, your audience won’t know if you skipped a point--or paragraph--to keep things flowing.

If your audience wants reading material, don’t give them anything - This is a sneaky one.  Emailing a PowerPoint summary or somesuch may seem like a good idea, but it can be distracting to participants, or they may just read instead of listen.  Instead, wait until the end and direct them to an article you will post on your blog or company website.

On an audio-only conference call, stand up to present - What’s the point you ask?  Well, standing from a purely physiological standpoint aligns the diaphragm to give support for your strongest, most confident speaking voice.  And like how people can “hear” your smile, they’ll recognize your authoritative stance.

It’s tough enough to run a conference call, and even tougher with people that seem to love interruptions, naysaying, or just plain heckling.  I wrote a post not too long ago about handling hecklers and the like during a conference call, and I just read a post with more tips for dealing with disruptive participants.

The best defense is a good offense, with war and troublesome participants.  Odds are you know the probable heckler you’ll face in an upcoming conference call.  And whether it’s an employee, co-worker, or even a superior, your best offense is to speak with them before the conference starts.  But what do you say to them?

You tell them about a specific part of the conference that they know something about.  Then you ask them for their opinion, input, thoughts and ideas.  Then you tell them you’ll be handling the questions during the conference call, but would like to direct inquires and such to them afterwards.

The reason this will help you with your heckler during the conference is they are now part of the show.  And when you acknowledge their contribution--and their availability for questions later--they won’t want to interrupt.

Try this and my other heckler tips with your next disruptive participant.  Know any other that work?