I've done many talks in front of people and every time I get nervous as hell. Yes, practice is good but also practice can be bad. In that, by practicing in a mirror can re-enforce bad habits that will betray you in the moment of the speech. For instance, I practiced for a talk so vigorously that I failed to see that my demeanor became robotic. This is not to imply that practicing will make you robotic but rather that too much practice can make what you're saying lose value in your own mind.

Instead, I learned to have milestone or bullets that I wanted to cover and allow myself to be more loose with transitions.

My most well received speech was in front of a bunch of NASA scientists. Yes, I was so god damn nervous that I would look stupid that I couldn't sleep for days.

When the day came I had a sort of calmness wash over me. The stakes were high for me but for my audience they wanted nothing more than for to me to succeed. They were on my side no matter what.

So I changed my original, very dry talk, with a more loose, matter of fact, method. While awaiting my turn I saw so many speakers being undeniably nervous, flop sweats in all. So went to the bathroom and splashed water on my face and looked in the mirror and decided that no matter what I was actively striving for the thing I wanted. I got this far and there is no way I was gonna let a little brow sweat to stop me.

I got up on stage with my transcript and powerpoint presentation let it fly. As I started to speak I looked out at the crowd and saw the eager faces of my mentors and well-wishers and instantly relaxed. I stood back from the podium and transcript and just talked to them. I had spent the last 9 months understanding the material and now it was time to show them what I learned.

The talk ended in cheers and adulation. Nothing will ever beat that feeling.

As a side note: Months later I did another talk at a commemoration for a new science building at my school. I didn't know that the mayor, dean, and a congressmen was gonna be there. They really down played it when they asked if I would do it. Anyway, I got lost in that speech, got flustered and nearly said the f-word. That was embarrassing.