Do you "feel the stage" before your presentation?

I just came back from Johor Bahru, Malaysia a few weeks back to speak a conference (Saturday 12 Nov 2016) for members of the Toastmasters community.  Honoured to be invited share excerpts from my book, "The Stage Fright Antidote!".  At the conference, I asked the delegates if they "recce" the stage before they take the stage and speak.  Only about 20% raised their hands.  I recommended the rest of them to do so in their next presentation.

The plus point of doing a "recce" (or in theatre terms, I call it "feel the space"), is to feel relaxed before your presentation and to get comfortable with the presentation area.  One of the ways to do that is to familiarise the stage.  For presenters and speakers, the stage is the "playground".  When we are comfortable with the playground, we will be even more motivated to present and share with the audience.  The results of doing that:  The audience will see your passion and energy in your presentation.  And that will rock the room.

If this is not a habit yet, I would recommend you to start doing it.  Before your next presentation, come to the venue early.  Walk on the stage, cover each inches.  If there are steps, use it.  Feel the space.  Look for obstacles on stage and identify their locations.  Also, from where you are on stage, look at the audience' seats, identify if there are angles which you are not able to see the seats; because if you can't see the seats, chances are that person sitting there won't be able to see you too.

Keep walking and "feel the space' until you are feeling comfortable with it.  Do this action and you will notice that your confidence will shoot up; and your presentation will improve.

Hazriq Idrus
Author,  The Stage Fright Antidote!
Founder, The Speaking Factory Pte Ltd

~ Hazriq Idrus is a Business Creativity and Speaking Strategist.  He is the author of "The Stage Fright Antidote and co-authored two other books.  Hazriq founded The Speaking Factory Pte Ltd with a mission to empower professionals maximise their potentials, performance & productivity at the workplace through his signature high-energy, transformational theatre-based & experiential corporate training programmes.