3 Tips to Improve Your Stage Presence

3 Tips for Speaking on Stage

Do you have a big presentation coming up? Getting your slide deck ready is only part of preparing for the big day. Your stage presence could make or break you. If you want to look cool as a cucumber while delivering your presentation with confidence, proper preparation and practice are key to speaking on stage.

1. Days Before the Presentation: Prepare Yourself
2. 10 Minutes Before: Prepare Your Voice
3. Onstage: Exaggerate Your Body Language

1. Days Before the Presentation: Prepare Yourself

First things first: Be prepared. Practice, practice, and practice some more. Video yourself presenting and play it back to look for weak points — and then practice again. Get comfortable with the nonverbal parts of your presentation; your body language and facial expressions speak volumes, and you need to get used to unfamiliar territory like exaggerated hand gestures (more on that in #3). The goal is to know your content inside and out — leaving you so confident in your delivery that you won’t even need a confidence monitor or cue card.

Not only does proper preparation make you more confident and relaxed on stage, it also helps you navigate any technical glitches that may arise. Slides failed? Lights don’t work? Video not playing? If you’re prepared and confident, the show can go on.

2. 10 Minutes Before: Prepare Your Voice

To keep your voice clear, phlegm-free, and ready to speak aloud for your entire talk, drink room-temperature lemon water about five to 10 minutes beforehand. It will help keep you from having to awkwardly clear your throat during your presentation and also help you pronounce words more clearly.

It’s a trick that many singers swear by. Other singer secrets include:

• If lemon dries your throat, try ginger tea instead; add honey if your throat is scratchy.
• Don’t overlook good old-fashioned plain water to get yourself properly hydrated the day before and the day of your presentation.
• Avoid milk (oh, the phlegm), and beer and wine, too, unless you plan to burp your way through your presentation. Plus, being tipsy is probably not a good look for your presentation.

3. Onstage: Exaggerate Your Body Language

Getting onstage in front of any number of total strangers is nerve-wracking and can make you want to pull yourself in — crossing your arms, keeping your hands close to your body, or putting them in your pockets. All of these gestures make you look “smaller” on a big stage and send a message of uncertainty. To exude confidence, make yourself look as big as possible with these tricks:

• Imagine you’re holding a soccer ball in between your elbow and your body with each arm. This keeps your elbows away from your body and makes you more animated and inviting to your audience.
• Now imagine you’re holding a potato chip in between your middle finger and your thumb that you don’t want to “break.” This gives you something to do with your hands and forces you to be more lively as you speak.
• Overexaggerate your hand gestures — almost like you’re directing traffic. It may feel awkward at first, but in the environment of a big stage, far from your audience, it will look natural and appropriate.

The point is to fill the space with your energy. If you use your body language effectively, people will see you as a confident speaker and be more engaged.

These tips should help you feel better about presenting and lead to increasingly powerful performances — whether you’re running a huge conference or fielding questions from stakeholders in a meeting room. Practice makes perfect, and the more you present, the better you’ll get at it. And conquering fears along the way will make you more confident whenever you find yourself at the podium.

Feel free to learn more about my presentation design and storytelling services, or message me if you’d like to discuss any presentations you’ve got in the works.