It’s not about you! I used to be a burlesque performer in a past life, and appreciated some deep life lessons learned during that time. One of my mentors taught me one of the key elements to an excellent performance: Know how you want the audience to feel, then build your routine around that emotion.
When I performed my signature routine, it would make me cry. Live. Onstage while in front of 5-1000+ people. That authentic emotion allowed the audience to feel EXACLTY how they were supposed to feel. Because that was the plan all along. Teaching is no different. We have to know how we want the students to feel.
Then we build and facilitate the learning to support those feelings. There’s no focus on me. I only care about how I can help the students get to that goal. Being nervous happens when the focus is on us as the instructor, and shows little direct regard for the students in the room.
Of course, being nervous doesn’t mean you don’t care about the students. And it comes from a variety of factors. Just consider that if you are prepared for the topic and for the session, all of your effort should be focused on creating the experience for the students. On stage or in a class. No difference.
Well… except that I keep my clothes on while teaching 😂 At Haland Learning, we build our courses to evoke Curiosity, Passion and Confidence. ❤️