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Are you a confident speaker or performer who commands the stage, or do jitters get in your way? Here’s how to overcome your nerves and speak with confidence.

When dealing with anxiety and stress, one question you could ask yourself is why does it matter?

Why does it really matter if people can tell that you’re anxious?

Does it really matter if you’re understandably nervous during a big presentation or event?

The answer is probably not but the reason it impacts us is that it undermines our social standing. When you sound anxious or nervous, it suggests that you don’t have confidence in what you’re saying. In turn, this makes other people less likely to trust you and it makes them less likely to think of you as a good leader, as a good employee, or as someone they’d like to date. If someone is nervous around you, it suggests that they perceive you as their superior.

So you don’t necessarily need to be able to completely remove nerves – you just need to sound as though you don’t have any!