One of the most common questions I get about presenting is: “I’m nervous, how do I get over it?”

And my answer is: “Sorry man, you’re never going to get over it.”

I know, it’s not the answer anyone wants to hear. But I’m not very good at blowing smoke up someone’s a**, so I have no choice but to tell the truth.

After all, we humans are social animals, which means that when a bunch of people stare at us, we get nervous. There’s no way around it.

Here’s an example:

The other day, I spoke at a LinkedIn Live event hosted by Jennifer and Rick of Sales Force Europe.

(Rick is a member of the email list, so Rick if you are reading this, hello!)

Before the event, I was so nervous I couldn’t even eat. Not just for an hour or two. The whole day. I could barely think straight. I was scared out of my gourd.

Afterwards I thought, “Wait a minute Matt, you do this all the time. You and Alper have been hosting a podcast for three years now. You appear on LinkedIn, in video form, almost every 24 hours. You’ve been speaking in public for over 20 years. Certainly you can do a half hour event on LinkedIn, no problem.”

Anyway, that just goes to show you that there’s no getting over the nervousness. If someone with my chops is nervous before a LinkedIn Live podcast, there’s no hope for any of us.

As I like to say, public speaking training isn’t about learning how to not be nervous, it’s about learning how to be nervous and do it anyway.

Here’s a link to the recording in case any of you want to watch, it’s about storytelling for business: