Public speaking can be nerve-wracking. Jesyca Hope of Hope Communications Consulting delivered a bevy of powerful, practical tips to master that anxiety and present in ways that make you appear cool, calm, confident and connected to an audience during an education session at the ASI Show Fort Worth on Feb. 5. Here were some of her top tips:

Hate #PublicSpeaking? Well @jesycahope has some great tips for you right here!

Via @ChrisR_ASI at #ASIFortWorth pic.twitter.com/bTfw5Xaz3H

— ASICentral (@asicentral) February 5, 2020

Transfer nervous energy into an object: The session’s unique title was “Paper Clips Work, Naked People Don’t: Public Speaking Prep for Success.” The title referred to the common trope that you’ll feel less nervous if you picture your audience naked. Doesn’t work, says Hope. Instead, find an object like a paper clip and bend and unbend it, wrap it around your fingers, or even make a little spring with it. Similarly, you can wrap a piece of cardboard around you thumb and fiddle with it, or even make little rips on your note paper or a book of matches. Such mechanics will help slow you down, steady you, prevent stuttering and more. “It’s about how you use your energy, and it works,” Hope says.

Jesyca Hope

Plan distinct transitions: Break your presentation into segments. This helps keep you on track, giving you guidance points along the way – like road signs that let you know you’re 100 miles from your destination, then 50 miles, then 25 and so on. It can help to tell your audience at the outset what you’re going to talk about and that you’re going to break it down into the particular topics you’ve planned around. Then, during the presentation, let the audience know you’ll be transitioning to the next topic.

Practice out loud:  Public speaking doesn’t just involve getting the message from your brain to your lips. It involves your whole body. That means there’s a lot going on – a lot that can trip you up. You need to hammer out the potential kinks in advance. “If you don’t practice out loud, it’s like trying to run a marathon without training,” Hope says.

Share strong stories: With your audience in mind, tell engaging, authentic stories that feature a character, a plot, a conflict and a resolution in a setting that ties directly into the plot.

Avoid eye contact:  Eye contact with strangers can make you more nervous. Instead, stare at the top of the heads of audience members. It will appear that you are making eye contact, which makes you more engaging and personable – and thus more attractive to an audience. And yet, you won’t be thrown off by actual eye contact jitters.