Roy Arpol was at it again.

He had a presentation to do later this afternoon and he was in the process of ruining it… Before he even stepped on stage.

The topic was straight-forward enough: Give a project overview and progress update.

It was familiar territory. It was Roy’s project. A long-term assignment he knew well. He could talk about it blindfolded… But that wasn’t going to stop the convoluted process of preparation Roy was going through now.

You see, Roy hated public speaking. He hated it with a passion. He would rather do anything than speak in front of an audience. This negative passion was the key factor driving Roy to prepare like a mad man.

Roy was trying to mind read.

He had a simple message to share, but he was spending his time guessing what message would be best received by each audience member. How could he best give an update on his project to an audience of competing interests and keep everyone happy?

How could he make sure everyone liked him?

Roy was stressed. Roy was surrounded by balled-up pieces of paper. Roy couldn’t think straight.

…And his presentation was just a couple of hours from now! The countdown was on.

Roy was making a mistake that was set to sabotage his confidence and turn his audience against him.

His mistake? Trying to please everyone. Trying to control the reception of his message. Trying to control how the audience feels about him.

Delivering a presentation or speech is tough.

You’re putting yourself out there. You’re standing there with no protection, talking about your topic.

Challenging. Uncomfortable. Nerve-wracking.

Stop sabotaging your confidence, like Roy. Here’s how to radically boost your confidence when speaking on stage.

Control

Stop trying to control how the audience sees you.

When you have a presentation to do, a sure-fire way to destroy your confidence is to get caught up in keeping everyone happy, worrying about how people will see you.

Worry about how people will see you is a complete waste of time and a huge confidence killer.

Here’s the thing: no matter what you do, what you say, or how you look you can’t control other people’s reactions and thoughts about you. People will do what they want to do. People will think what they want to think.

Intense pressure

Worrying about what people think of you is stressful.

When you give up trying to control other’s responses, you release an enormous amount of unnecessary pressure. Giving up this control is freeing and confidence building.

Next presentation, give up your need to control. Focus on doing your best job (from your perspective, not from the audience’s). You’ll be amazed how much more confident you will be.

Don’t be like Roy: Give up your need to control.