My Journey
I’ve been presenting in front of groups my whole life. I grew up in a religious household so church performances were a part of our lives. I then went on to perform spoken word poetry for over 10 years in front of large groups. I must say, those experiences were easier than the presentations I do today.
As an academic, my job is to present ideas to people. My audience usually consists of people who are brilliant in their own right (i.e. professors, authors, experts, etc.). I use to get intense butterflies in my stomach when I had to present in front of people I thought were “smarter than me.”
Thoughts such as “I hope they think I’m smart,” “I hope I’m right about this,” “I hope I’m able to answer their questions,” use to clutter my mind. At my first philosophy conference, I presented a paper with Josh Knobe in the audience. As a person who does moral psychology that was very intimidating.
The Truth
I’ve come very far from those feelings but I think having those feelings makes us human. There are things I tell myself today that help me get over the anxiety. Presenting is already a challenging task. We should not work hard at trying to create and convey our ideas and add to that the burden of “impressing” someone we think is smarter than us. I credit that worry to professions that value a “I’m smarter than you” culture over a knowledge production and civil think tank space.
The fact is there are people who may know more about a particular subject or know different things than you. They may have a huge reputation. But we should not allow this to distract us from being awesome. We are all smart in different ways, so technically no one is really smarter than you.
When it comes to presenting, we have something better to do than to worry. We have been blessed with the opportunity to present our brilliant ideas (yes, they are brilliant) and give value to the audience. We should focus on doing our best and have confidence that we have something to offer even to those who are smarter know “different things” that we do.
10 Tips
I want to share with you 10 Tips for presenting in front of people you ‘think’ are smarter than you. I hope these tips will remind you of how smart and awesome you are and how you have no need to be intimidated or worried about anyone in your audience.
Tips
#1 You are Smart Too. If you weren’t, you would not be in the room
#2 Preparation makes you feel smart. Get ready now.
#3 Your audience may know things, but you are the expert today.
Check out the slideshare below, to see 7 more tips.
What is your biggest anxiety around public speaking? Let me know in the comment section below.
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