Learning to Laugh at Yourself

21 Dec Learning to Laugh at Yourself

There’s nothing like humor to warm up an audience. I don’t mean telling a joke. Comedy is best left to professionals. Besides, if you’re like me, you can never remember the punch line—it’s embarrassing to set up a joke and then screw up the ending. But when you poke fun at yourself, you not only relax, but also put your audience at ease.

What happens when you make a mistake? Does your face turn red? Do you lose focus and stumble through the rest of your material? Do you apologize and ask for forgiveness—or all of the above? Of course, as empathic human beings, the audience then feels uncomfortable and feels bad for me. Let’s be honest. The audience really wants you to stop punishing yourself, so they can relax. And they want you to quickly go back to what concerns them most, which is receiving valuable content.

So what can you do when you trip up? First, don’t let your presentation be overshadowed by your blunder. Mistakes happen to everyone. Speak long enough, and they’ll happen to you—no matter how prepared you are. Get over it and poke fun at yourself. Say something like, “In English that would be . . .” or “Rewind” or “I absolutely need to switch to decaf . . .” Let your audience laugh with you, and they’ll quickly warm to you.

“Learning to Laugh at Yourself” is an excerpt from my new book, Out Front: How Women Can Become Engaging, Memorable and Fearless Speakers. You can pre-order your copy of Out Front here.