Our recent blog, Look For The Sharks – One Way to Avoid an Attack of Presentation Anxiety, discusses a preparation technique that will ensure you won’t get eaten by nerves during your presentations.

Another preparation technique to morph negative nervous energy into positive adrenaline energy is to understand the elephants.

Meaning – The Elephant(s) In The Room.

As you face your team, your prospects, your support staff, your board… what’s really going on in your organization? What are the subjects that are taboo? What can’t you discuss?

Figure out what these issues are. Understand how these issues are affecting your relationship capital and your financial capital within your organization and externally.

The more intel you know, the calmer you become. You may not be able to address the elephants, but being prepared with this knowledge will increase your comfort zone and decrease your freak out index.

By doing this advance work the elephants won’t step on you. You will have the finesse to do your solid messaging.

PS: Thank you to my client, a CEO of a multi-million dollar corporation, for being the inspiration for avoiding the sharks and understanding the elephants. As we worked on his ability to channel his presentation nervousness into a positive outcome, we came up with these analogies.

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© Karen Cortell Reisman, M.S., author of 3 books and President of Speak For Yourself®, works with decision makers on how to speak with gravitas. It’s all in how you speak for yourself. Karen also speaks about her cousin, Albert Einstein, in a message about hope, resilience and brassieres.

Read more at www.SpeakForYourself.com/blog.