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Workday Playdate

310: Nervous While Presenting? How to Calm Nerves in the Moment

Oct 1, 2025 · 19 min · Episode 356 · 19.1 MB
0:00-19:25

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In this solo episode of Workday Playdate, Erin breaks down a five-step, improv-inspired framework to help you calm your nerves in real time whether you’re stepping on stage, leading a meeting, or speaking up in front of a room. From understanding how your amygdala triggers fight-or-flight to learning simple techniques that regulate your nervous system, Erin shares practical tools to transform performance anxiety into focused, confident energy. If public speaking makes your heart race or your mind go blank, this episode proves that calming nerves is a skill you can build with the right mindset and methods. Inside This Episode:

  • Your Brain on Nerves: Why the amygdala sends you into fight, flight, or freeze — and how to interrupt the cycle.
  • Breath Is Your Superpower: How box breathing can instantly cool your body’s stress response.
  • Anchor With Intention: The simple positivity exercise that shifts your energy before you speak.
  • From Me to We: How focusing on your audience transforms anxiety into purpose.
  • Confidence as a Practice: Why calming nerves isn’t a talent — it’s a trainable skill.
Who This Episode Is For:
  • Professionals who dread public speaking but want to build confidence.
  • Leaders, facilitators, and presenters who want to deliver with clarity and calm.
  • Anyone ready to turn nervousness into energy that serves rather than anxiety that sabotages.
Tune in to learn how to regulate your nervous system, reframe your mindset, and show up as the most confident version of yourself — no matter how big the room. Blocked time, made lists, promised yourself this time will be different—and yet by 5 PM, the work that actually matters is still staring back at you. Enter The Ready-Made 90-Minute Focus Kit: your done-for-you reset for ditching distractions and finally making progress on what matters most. With this simple framework, you’ll reclaim your brainpower, protect your energy, and actually finish the work you care about. Download it now and turn “Where did the day go?” into “Wow, I crushed that.” No, You Hang Up First (Let’s Keep Connecting)
  • Did today’s episode resonate with you? Leave us a review sharing your favorite insight and we’ll send you a free signed copy of I See You! A Leader’s Guide to Energizing Your Team through Radical Empathy.
  • Have another question that we can answer? Leave us a Speakpipe audio clip and we’ll answer it in an upcoming episode.
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Connect with Erin Diehl x improve it!

For more information on improve it! visit www.learntoimproveit.com.

Connect with Erin Diehl

🌟 Learn more about Workday Playdate: https://www.learntoimproveit.com/podcast-page
🎤 Book Erin to speak: https://passionstruckspeakers.com/speakers/erin-diehl/
📚 Workshops & Team Experiences: https://www.learntoimproveit.com/experiential-training
💌 Learn more about Erin: https://www.itserindiehl.com/meet-erin
📱 For more information on improve it! visit www.learntoimproveit.com.

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