1. You will likely never not be nervous about speaking in public. Nervousness is normal. Just accept it.

2. Your audience is on your side. Since they’re probably terrified of public speaking, too, they respect anyone who does it. They want you to succeed.

3. You don’t have to have confidence in yourself to do a good job of speaking in public. But you do have to have confidence in your message. This means you need to truly and deeply know what you’re talking about.

4. Showing your enthusiasm, your belief in what you’re saying, your passion for your subject, is the best way to engage your listeners. Passion perks people up.

5. As counter-intuitive as it may sound, the most effective way to calm your fears is to look directly at your listeners and talk to them, individually. Their bright shining faces will give you the courage to go on.

6. Making a mistake (dropping your notes, stumbling over your words, forgetting a point) can actually endear you to an audience. So don’t make a big deal of it. Smile, apologise, correct yourself, and carry on.

7. Don’t memorise your speech. It will feed your fear that you’ll forget something. Plus it’ll put pressure on you to be “perfect,” which is both impossible and a recipe for anxiety. Be your genuine, courteous, engaged, humble-but-knowledgeable self.

8. Know your audience. What do they want to hear about? What are their priorities? Focusing on their concerns instead of yours is another good way to lift yourself out of your pit of anxiety.

9. The most effective messages are the simple ones. Don’t bury your audience under a mountain of data. Two or three key points are about all most groups can easily digest in any one sitting. They will thank you for this.

10. Know your purpose. Why are you speaking? Normally it’s to inform, educate, or entertain. However, you may have a hidden (even to yourself) agenda: to impress people. This is natural but if you are speaking only to impress, it’s going to show and your listeners will be turned off. Impressing an audience is the result of doing a good job of informing, educating, or entertaining (see Nos. 1 through 9). That’s the key to effectively speaking to anyone.

Karen Burns is the author of the illustrated career advice book The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl: Real-Life Career Advice You Can Actually Use, recently released by Running Press. She blogs at www.karenburnsworkinggirl.com.