The Ultimate Guide to Recovering If You Lose Your Place During a Presentation
It was the final of my Public Speaking Group’s annual competition, and I had successfully made it through all the earlier rounds.
I was proud of my speech — inspiring, engaging, and one that I was genuinely excited to deliver.
I stepped onto the stage with purpose, took a deliberate pause, and connected with the audience.
I had only uttered a few sentences, when I locked eyes with someone with the most bored and morose expression I’d ever seen.
In a split-second, my mind went blank.
There I was: this startled deer caught in the headlights. Every speaker’s worst nightmare…
To this day, I’m still not sure how I pulled myself together — it felt like an eternity before I could gather my thoughts and continue.
One of the most common fears people face when speaking in front of an audience is forgetting their lines or losing their place.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone.
Even the most confident and well-prepared speakers occasionally stumble or draw a blank.
The key is knowing how to recover, calmly and confidently, without losing momentum.
In this post, I’ll share 8 practical strategies to help you if your mind does go blank.
1. Don’t Panic — Pause and Breathe
If you lose your place in your presentation, the most important thing is not to panic or rush to fill the silence.
That instinctive urgency only fuels anxiety.
Instead, slow down.
Take a deep breath — or two — and remind yourself it’s perfectly okay to pause for a moment.
Give your brain space to reboot.
Deep breathing calms your nervous system and re-oxygenates your brain, helping you think more clearly.
The pause also gives you time to collect your thoughts — and it won’t feel nearly as long to your audience as it does to you.
2. Acknowledge it.
Remind yourself that you’re only human.
Everyone, repeat Everyone, makes mistakes.
If you’re unable to recover quickly, it’s OK to acknowledge what happened, and say out loud to the crowd:
“I just forgot my train of thought. Please give me a moment to get back on track.”
Remember the audience is on your side! They are cheering you on, and want you to succeed.
Your frankness and transparency will both endear you to your audience, and help ease your own tension.
3. Don’t Beat Yourself Up
It’s easy to dwell on the moment you lost your place and feel like a fool.
But instead of criticising yourself, treat the experience as a valuable learning opportunity.
Reflect on what you can take away for next time. For example, ask yourself:
Were you adequately prepared?
Did you have notes available for reference?
Did you rely too heavily on memorisation? (As a side note: memorising an entire presentation is risky. Unless you're a trained actor or TED speaker, it's one of the quickest ways to lose your place under pressure.)
4. Stay Present and Focused
Losing your place can trigger frustration, embarrassment, or even panic.
But it’s important to remember — you can recover, and you will.
The best way to regain your footing is to stay present and focused on your audience, not on the mistake.
Your listeners are there for your message, not to judge a brief stumble.
By remaining engaged and focused on delivering value, you show professionalism and composure.
If blanking out happens often, consider practising mindfulness techniques to stay grounded.
Simply becoming aware of your breath, the feeling of your feet on the ground, or the sounds in the room can help calm your nervous system and bring you back to the moment.
5. Use Humour
Having a few humorous, light-hearted lines ready-to-go, can help break the tension and serve as a bridge to re-enter your presentation.
Humour not only helps you regain composure, but also makes the audience more sympathetic to your situation. After all, who hasn’t had a moment of mental blankness?
Here are some quick “saver lines” inspired by the tech world — something to which we can all relate these days:
“Oh no! — the Wi-Fi between my brain and mouth just cut out.”
“Please give me a minute or two… my brain just started buffering...”
“Oh-oh - Looks like my brain just hit Ctrl+Alt+Del on that point.”
As an exercise, craft some saver lines to have handy in case of an emergency, that resonate with you.
6. Ask the Audience a Question
One of the smartest and most underused ways to recover from a mental blank is to turn it into a moment of audience engagement.
If you lose your place, ask a question - say with a show of hands, or in the form of a partner exercise, related to what you just said.
This does more than buy you time — it also strengthens your connection with the audience.
While people think or respond, you can glance at your notes, take a breath, or recall your next point.
This is a win-win: you get a reset, and your audience feels seen, engaged, and included.
7. Reach for Your Notes or a Prompt
It’s reassuring to know that if your mind goes blank, you have notes or an outline within easy reach.
These can be a lifesaver if you lose your place mid-presentation.
Keep your notes nearby, whether on paper, cue cards, or a digital device like a tablet or laptop.
That way you can glance at them discreetly when needed.
For a more subtle approach, consider using prompts that include only your main points or a few key phrases. .
8. Ask the Audience: "Where was I?"
In point 6 above - Ask the audience a question - I discussed the value of asking the audience a question to both create engagement, and to also help jog your memory.
Another similar strategy on the question front, is for you to ask the audience where you were:
“Can someone please tell me what I just said. I’ve just experienced a blank?”
You could even make this a humorous saver line, smile cheekily, and say something to the effect of:
“Now - Who has been paying attention to my presentation. What did I just say?!”
As discussed earlier, most audiences are on your side, invested in your message, and keen to see you succeed.
Asking the audience where you left off humanises you and creates a stronger rapport - You come across as adaptable, authentic, and as someone who is upfront to acknowledge your mental blank, and to enlist the audience’s help to recover.
In Closing
Forgetting your lines or losing your place during a speech is a normal part of public speaking.
I’ll never forget that public speaking competition final when my mind went blank.
What felt like an eternity to me was in reality, just a brief pause.
I recovered. And you can too!
The key is to stay calm, have a few recovery strategies up your sleeve, and remember that your audience is on your side.
By using the techniques we’ve covered, from pausing and breathing, to injecting humour, asking questions, or having your notes within easy reach, you’ll be well equipped to handle any unexpected glitch with confidence and grace.
And as a great bonus, you will be perceived as someone who is authentic, relatable and resilient.
© 2025 Susan Weser. All rights reserved.
Susan Weser is the Founder of Speaking2Win, a boutique public speaking and presentation skills consultancy, based in Melbourne, Australia.
Susan’s mission is to demystify public speaking and presenting. She loves to fast-track her clients’ public speaking success, empowering them with the skills and confidence to excel in all their public speaking endeavours.
