Tamara was nervous. In two days, she had to give a presentation to 400. Her first really big one.
It was Day 1 of Mastering Virtual Presentations and it was difficult for Tamara to practice without her teeth chattering.
The problem with being nervous is it makes you lose touch with everything good about you. Sometimes to the point where you can’t see anything good about yourself. The things you tell yourself at these moments tend to be dreadful.
Tamara was doubting whether she could speak without forgetting what to say, without everyone seeing how nervous she was, whether she could present the new product launch in all its glory, so that the 400 Salespeople would be excited enough to sell it.
There was a lot riding on how well Tamara did. If the Salespeople got excited about the new product, the revenue it would generate would be tremendous. But they had so many other products that they were selling, one new one often didn’t register. Tamara was one of many speakers throughout the day that would all turn into a blur.
As one doubt piled on top of another, Tamara doubted even her own ability to speak coherently.
She was a nervous wreck.
Underneath that nervous wreck was a beautiful woman. A good person. Intelligent. Well spoken. Lovely, interesting, delightful. A smile that lights up a room.
It was a truly exciting product she was going to present. If only the Salespeople understood what it did.
In Tamara’s case, it was not a matter of adding anything to her presentation. It was a matter of subtracting.
She needed to subtract words – she had way too many, not just words she was saying, but too many words on her slides.
She needed to subtract excess words until she had a crystal clear, compelling and irresistible Key Message that was easy to understand, easy to remember, easy to communicate to others.
She also needed to subtract self-doubt and discover the buried trust and belief in herself.
Confidence in one’s self shows up in all its glory when the doubt is subtracted.
Then a person blooms and blossoms, and fills the room with their presence. That’s when they communicate clearly and captivate the audience.
Tamara was in a group of extremely supportive participants who coached her well. That’s how our group workshops are. She visibly relaxed and her smiles got bigger and bigger and bigger. I took many screenshots to show her. As she saw her own beauty, her INNER beauty that inevitably shines through when you’re at your best…and when she saw her own radiance, Tamara relaxed even more and smiled even more. She lit up the virtual room even more.
As Tamara developed one skill after another, she relaxed even more and the incredible strength that was inside of her kept unfolding, revealing itself.
We finished the workshop with everyone in the group 100% confident that Tamara was going to hit it out of the park and Wow the audience. We told her, “Please email us immediately after you are finished and let us know how it went.”
The next day, we all received an email that said:
“I just finished the presentation! I was offered a job from the head of Sales immediately after 😂. I guess that means it went well. It felt really good. Several people came up to me afterwards and said they loved the presentation, which I honestly don’t think would have happened without this course. Thank you Ingrid for very valuable input and knowledge that I will take with me forever.”
Tamara
We were all in our separate locations reading this, but I know we were all smiling as we read it. And everyone in the workshop wrote back to her, “I knew that you would.”
My message to Tamara is the very same as my message to you:
You have a potential that is far beyond anything anyone has ever let you believe.
You can activate that potential at any time with the decisions that you make. And, if you like, the help of some good coaching.
The secret is that less is more.
Subtract, subtract, subtract anything that is counter to your belief in yourself. Anything that makes you feel less. Anything that gets in the way of your certainty about what you can accomplish, your self-belief in your own abilities.
What you tell yourself about you is the most powerful influence on you there is.
It is literally the foundation of your future success.
Be the cause!