As a professional speaking coach, I think about the presentations that have shaped our Jewish history: Moshe trying to convince Pharaoh to free the Jewish people, the spies urging the people not to conquer Eretz Yisroel, and Shlomo HaMelech delivering his verdict in the most famous custody dispute in history. Often these presentations have pertained to matters of life and death for masses of people.

Most of us never have to make a presentation with lives hanging in the balance. I make presentations for a living. I speak before groups of people, sometimes hundreds at a time, almost every day. And I get paid to do this, so you might think of me as a professional presenter. But what if I told you that those presentations are only a fraction of the number of presentations I deliver in a day? How many presentations do you make in a day? What really is a presentation anyway? Do you need a large audience in an auditorium, a podium and a microphone, or is a presentation defined by what you are trying to accomplish?

Maybe every time you communicate with your boss, that’s a presentation. What if every time you send an email or WhatsApp to win over a friend to your point of view, you are making a presentation? Then any time you are attempting to convince anybody, anywhere of anything – in business, at home, on the phone, in person, one-on-one, or in groups – that’s a presentation. In which case, you might actually be making hundreds of presentations a day and your audience can be one person or 1,000! Well, if we are going to make so many presentations each day, we might as well learn some tools on how to be more effective at delivering them.

One student had great content and presentation, but his delivery was somehow not effective. I brought to his attention that he wasn’t smiling enough. This one modification changed his entire presentation. A few weeks later I received a phone call from his wife thanking me for getting her husband to smile more at home; the change had had a ripple effect on his entire life.

Another student was not using effective eye contact and her glance was darting from one person to another, giving off a nervous vibe. I suggested she look at each audience member of her small group for a few seconds, to create more of a feeling of connection. She later shared with me that her new awareness of effective eye contact had not only helped with her presentation, it also changed the dynamics in her family and at work.

One of the most important tools that I share with my students is how to control fear. Aside from politicians and professional speakers, who really loves speaking in public? Not many. In fact, public speaking ranks among the things Americans fear most in the world, according to a Gallup Poll which found the only thing we are more scared of – is snakes!

I have found that many people who are successful in many areas still suffer from fear of public speaking. Even though it may be masked by other activities in their lives, many people don’t have a very strong self-image and when they find themselves in front of any audience, they become very vulnerable.

A grandmother once came to me to help prepare her for an audition to be a tour guide in Yad Vashem. She had no idea how she would ever get the job because she was petrified of speaking in front of small groups – even when the audience was only her children and grandchildren!

“Over the years I had developed a bad case of stage fright, which had actually become a phobia in every way,” she recalled. “If I even had to say my name and address in front of more than five people, my heart would beat rapidly, my mouth would get dry, and my back would hurt so badly that I almost buckled over. But worst of all, my mind would freeze and I couldn’t remember what I wanted to say.”

Nonetheless, she wanted to conquer her fear. After being coached by me, she went on to deliver an eight-minute speech to the judges at Yad Vashem. The usual symptoms that followed her whenever she had to speak were no longer there and she was able to keep the audience’s attention for the entire eight minutes. Best of all, she even enjoyed herself! In the end, she was so happy with her accomplishment that she no longer cared if she got the job at all. Needless to say, she did.

“I feel this was a real breakthrough for me and the beginning of something that I was always hoping for,” she said.

With proper training and practice, most people can control their fear of public speaking. I know because I’ve helped thousands of people control the “butterflies in their stomachs.”

So here are three tips to get you started:

1. Practice, practice, practice. Don’t think that you won’t be nervous if you are getting in front of an audience unprepared. Repeat your talk a few times while recording yourself, or recite it to a trusted friend who will give you honest feedback. Don’t just wing it!

2. Don’t focus on yourself. Focus on your message and make sure that the message benefits the audience. The more you believe in your message, the more passionate and focused you will sound in your delivery.

3. Know that the audience wants you to succeed. They don’t have it in for you. People feel that someone in the audience will know more about the topic than them and ridicule them. Trust me, they won’t.

Controlling our fear of public speaking, learning to be an effective communicator, and presenting efficiently can transform many areas of our lives because life is a series of presentations. The better your presentations are, the better your life will be.