Does public speaking make you anxious? If the mere thought of giving a presentation makes your hands sweat and your heart rate increase, don’t worry, you’re not alone! Many TED Speakers have stage fright — and some have even come up with a few tricks on how you might tackle it. In this TED-Ed Club Workshop, six-time TED Speaker Rives provides a few tips, tricks and cheats on preparing a presentation for those TED-Ed Club Members who are about to present their own big ideas for the first time.

Fifteen TED-Ed Club Members and Facilitators from countries around the world (including India, Canada, Malaysia and the United States) joined the workshop to hear Rives discuss the four points he considers when preparing a talk: audience, stage, speaker and subject.

With these four points in mind, Rives offered a few recommendations for activities that can help along the way.

For instance:

Tip 1. A tip for figuring out a presentation topic: Take a selfie. Then, look at what is in the background. Something that you may not have noticed initially could be the topic of a great presentation!

Tip 2. A suggestion to help you memorize a presentation: Present your talk to the TV. Turn on the television set, and present over the noise of whatever television show is playing. If you can make it through that, then you’ve got it memorized!

Tip 3. A trick for learning to stand still when giving a presentation: Practice with quarters on your shoes and don’t knock them off!

The biggest takeaways? Breathe on purpose, maintain eye contact and always smile.

For all of the tips, trick and cheats, watch the full workshop here:

Want more? Check out this TED-Ed Lesson on the science of stage fright. >>

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