The document provides tips for overcoming stage fright and developing strong stage presence when presenting to an audience. It outlines common fears around public speaking and cognitive distortions to avoid, and recommends practicing techniques like scripting presentations, using visual aids to tell a story, including personal anecdotes, and building in audience interaction. The key is to practice frequently in different ways until comfortable ad libbing in order to feel prepared and confident presenting skills.

1. How to rock an audience:
from stage fright
to
stage presence
by Tara Hunt

2. Outline
• Intros
• The FEAR
• The Preparation
• The Presentation
• The Gigs
• Presentations!

3. exercise 1: introductions. pick a topic (any topic)
and pitch it to us for 30 seconds.

4. the fear

5. Our instinctual brain thinks that a group of people
looking at us silently means they are about to eat us.

6. they are.

7. Well, they are about to devour our words and our
lessons.

8. Train your brain to stop self-sabotaging...
Situation -------> Thought ---------> Feeling
“The Event” “Your reaction” “How it makes you feel”
i.e. He says, “Well, that was interesting.” i.e. “He didn’t like my talk” i.e. “bad”
“worse”
“Nobody liked my talk”
THE SPIRAL
“I should never speak again” “like running away and crying”
stop the spiral of negative thoughts/feelings here by recognizing cognitive disorders

9. 7 Common Cognitive Disorders
Catastrophizing: taking an event you are concerned about and blowing it out
of proportion. (EVERYONE is going to HATE me!)
Arbitrary Inference: making a judgment with no supporting information. (“He
was giving me stinkeye the entire time” when he was trying to read the slides,
so squinting)
Personalization: taking someone else's behavior personally. (Audience
member falls asleep and you take it personally)
Selective Abstraction: focusing in on one bad comment in 10.
Overgeneralization: basing future outcomes on current. (“This talk was a
disaster, therefore EVERY talk in my future will be a disaster”)
Dichotomous Thinking: two extremes. No grey. (They love me/they hate me)
Labeling: making a feeling into a label. (“I answered that wrong, therefore I am
incompetent.”)

10. exercise 2: get up and tell us the story of the
scariest thing that ever happened to you.

11. the preparation

12. Ways to practice
• TECHNIQUE ONE: script it: read over that script until you memorize it
enough to be able to ad lib (note: do NOT use a script on stage)
• read it to yourself 10x
• read it out loud 10x
• record yourself in garageband 2x
• listen to it on your ipod 5x
• THEN present it to someone else

13. Ways to practice
• TECHNIQUE TWO: let your deck tell the story
• ‘Lessig Style’ - create 300+ slides that talk as you talk (it’s artsy and,
consequently, shows well on slideshare)
• TECHNIQUE THREE: story time
• Personal stories are easier to remember. Put LOTS of them in.
• TECHNIQUE FOUR: build in tons of audience interaction
• get your audience to participate (warning: some audiences do not
participate)

14. tip: practice silence instead of fillers. (listen for your
“ums” “uhs” “likes” “you knows” and practice
replacing them with dramatic silent pauses)

15. remember: the more you practice, the better it will
go.

16. exercise 3: blah blah blahs. yadda yadda yaddas.