When people ask me how they can improve their public speaking skills, they sometimes follow it with, How do I memorize my entire speech so it’s absolutely flawless and everyone hangs on my every word?

I’ve spent a lot of time working on becoming a stronger public speaker. Practice and preparation go a long way, no doubt. But there are a few other things you can do to ensure your success for speaking in public.

I’ve gathered my top 10 easy tips for becoming better at public speaking for this blog series, How To Be a Great Speaker. With each tip, I’ll explore in detail how to become a confident, effective and powerful speaker.

Let’s get rid of the idea that you need to strive for perfection to be a great public speaker!

Tip 7: Let Go of Perfection.

Many people feel nervous when they are about to speak because they want to be perfect.  In these situations, I think back to the countless presentations that I have attended. Have I even paid that much attention when someone is speaking?

The sad reality is that the audience is always very interested in their phones, their notes, their computers and who is sitting next to them. People focus on themselves more than they’ll ever focus on you—that’s just human nature! When you shift your perspective to realize this, it alleviates some of the pressure to be perfect.

The bottom line is, you don’t have to be a perfect speaker to be a great speaker. You just have to be good. If you touch just one person in the room during your speech, you’ve done your job, and that is enough.