There are moments when everyone fears public speaking or feels more anxious. Even the most experienced speakers sometimes get nervous; it can be due to stress or the fatigue of an important presentation.

One trick to deal with nervousness is to start your speech with a smile. Even before speaking, smiling has surprising effects on both us speakers and the audience.

A smile relaxes a significant portion of the facial muscles and the shoulders. This releases tension from your body and signals that there is nothing to fear. This physical feedback also helps calm the mind and start the speech more relaxed.

Another effect of a smile is that it predisposes the audience to listen. Seeing a smile on a person’s face makes them perceive that person as friendly and puts us in a positive frame of mind, making us more eager to listen.

Smiling may seem like a small thing, but I recommend trying it. When you feel anxious before a speech, or even just as an experiment, the first thing to do is smile, and you’ll notice surprising effects.

Want confirmation of how useful it is to start with a smile? Look at the 25 most-watched TED talks (706 million views) and have fun counting how many speakers begin with a smile (spoiler: there are more than you might think).