6 Ways to Increase Confidence for Your Next Speech, Investor Pitch, or Presentation

Having the ability to stand confidently in front of a crowd and deliver a presentation can make even the most extroverted people-person get a little shaky. But every now and again each and every one of us has to deliver a speech, pitch deck, or presentation and the most important part, no matter what you are delivering, it is the feeling of being sure of yourself and confident about the information you are communicating.

Here are my top six suggestions on ways to increase your confidence, keep your audience engaged, and maybe even get them on board with the great idea and message you have shown up to share with them. Let’s get to it.

1. Start as Early as Possible

2. Outline Everything you Want to Say

3. Get into the mind of your target audience

4. If possible, have someone you trust who is knowledgeable about the topic read over the content before you finalize it

5. Hire a professional to create your presentation design

6. Practice, Practice, Practice

Conduct your presentations using this format and that you can be guaranteed to feel at least 20% more confident when you stand up in front of your audience. That bit of a boost in confidence might be all you need to ensure the presentation you give is the best that he can possibly be.

1. Start as Early as Possible

Waiting until the last minute is the absolute best way to give yourself nerves that will make it impossible to be as successful as you can be during your presentation.

It’s human nature to feel more nervous when you don’t feel prepared or when you rush through a project.

Without time for fact-checking, you may also have a little birdy of low-confidence whispering in your ear while you’re on stage which can make it difficult for you to feel comfortable while speaking and this can sometimes be picked up by your audience and, without knowing why you’re ‘off-beat’, viewers can become dismissive about what you’re saying and develop a lack in trust simply because you’re not 100% of what you’re saying.

2. Outline Everything you Want to Say

By starting early, you will be able to think through everything you want to say and conduct the research you need to deliver a confident pitch.

At the start of your presentation’s content development, create an outline of the main points you want to make in your speech.

This will help you make sure that everything you want to say or cover in your presentation will get communicated. Making an outline will help you not get lost when you start writing. The hours will serve as a guide to make sure all of your topics are discussed and you can also use the outline to help you enhance the flow of your presentation by moving things around and organizing your topics in the order that they would best be delivered.

3. Get into the mind of your target audience

Instead of focusing on what you want to convince reviewers of, focus on what your audience needs to hear in order to be motivated to take the action that you want.

This really goes without saying and I’m sure you already got it covered.

At the very least, having a better understanding of who you are speaking to will help you connect with them and relate to their needs. This will give your message the maximum impact possible and give you the greatest chance at being victorious and getting the audience on your side.

4. If possible, have someone you trust who is knowledgeable about the topic read over the content before you finalize it

Just for some feedback and make sure it is someone you for whom you have mutual respect. If you do not want to share your content with anyone just yet, try the sleep-on-it effect by making sure you step away from the content long enough to have a clear perspective and a new mind ready to look at your work with fresh eyes.
5. Hire a professional to create your presentation design

Unless you are genuinely a professional presentation designer, if you try to design your own presentation, it will likely not come out looking its very best.

By hiring someone to create a stellar PowerPoint presentation {my ppt page} on your behalf, you will be able to get something designed that will probably be more high-end and visually attractive.

Knowing that you have a beautiful backdrop supporting your words and ideas, you will naturally be more confident about the message you are communicating and the audience will pick up on this confidence, making your work and efforts much impactful.

6. Practice, Practice, Practice

This is, of course, the most important move you can make when preparing for your presentation.

When you practice, you become more familiar with your material and with the flow of your presentation. Depending on the amount of practice time you put in, you may even memorize your entire presentation. This will help you be more enthusiastic when delivering your material. When you are more passionate about what you’re saying, and increases the likelihood that your audience will be more interested in what you have to say.

It will also allow you to focus on your audience and connect with them more freely because you will simply be speaking from your heart and mind instead of trying to remember the order of your presentation steps.

Implement these six tips the next time you have a presentation coming up and you’ll be able to create an inspiring and well thought out presentation that leaves a memorable impression and gives your audience a reason to take action based on the powerful and engaging information they just heard. Happy building!

Not Sure How to Organize Your Content? Let me help!
Need a little more help getting started? Consider downloading my new Pre-Outlined PowerPoint Presentation, Pitch Ready. It is 15 beautiful slides that are already outlined and contain content guides so you know exactly what content to write for your presentation. Just download, follow the writing prompts, add your pictures and you’re ready to deliver a quick presentation that covers the basics of any project or presentation needs.