How do you manage anxiety when pitching?

1 Understand your audience

Before you craft your pitch, you need to know who you are pitching to, what they care about, and what they expect from you. Research your audience's background, goals, challenges, and preferences, and tailor your message accordingly. Use language, examples, and evidence that resonate with them, and avoid jargon, assumptions, and irrelevant details. By understanding your audience, you can anticipate their questions, objections, and feedback, and plan how to address them effectively.

2 Structure your pitch

A clear and concise structure can help you organize your thoughts, deliver your key points, and keep your audience engaged. A common framework for pitching is the problem-solution-benefit model, where you start by identifying a problem that your audience faces, then explain how your idea, product, or service can solve it, and finally highlight the benefits and value that they can gain from it. You can also use a hook, a story, or a question to grab their attention at the beginning, and a call to action, a summary, or a memorable phrase to end with a strong impression.

3 Practice your pitch

Practicing your pitch can help you improve your delivery, timing, and confidence. You can practice alone or with a friend, colleague, or coach who can give you honest feedback. You can also record yourself and watch or listen to your performance, and identify areas for improvement. Practice your pitch out loud, using the same tone, volume, and pace that you would use in front of your audience. Pay attention to your body language, eye contact, and gestures, and avoid fidgeting, crossing your arms, or looking down. Practice until you feel comfortable and confident with your pitch, but not so much that you sound robotic or scripted.

5 Seek feedback

Feedback is essential for learning and improving your pitching skills. After your pitch, ask your audience for their opinions, suggestions, and questions, and listen attentively and respectfully. You can also ask for feedback from other sources, such as mentors, peers, or experts, who can offer you different perspectives and insights. Be open-minded and curious, and don't take feedback personally or defensively. Instead, use it to identify your strengths and weaknesses, and to set goals and action plans for your future pitches.

6 Keep learning

Pitching is a skill that you can develop and refine with practice, experience, and knowledge. You can keep learning from your own pitches, as well as from other successful or unsuccessful pitches that you observe or analyze. You can also learn from books, courses, podcasts, blogs, or videos that offer tips, techniques, and examples of effective pitching. By keeping learning, you can expand your repertoire, enhance your creativity, and adapt to different situations and audiences.