How to rock that presentation
We’ve all been there, the sweaty palms, shaking limbs, quivering voice and crippling anxiety that comes with any form of public speaking. We know you’ve heard it before, ‘the more you do - the better you’ll get at it’ and it’s so true, but here are some added tips to make sure you rock it from the start to finish.
Practice, practice, practice!!
Like we said, the more you do something the better you get at it, that’s a scientific fact (read The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle to learn more) Practice makes permanent - the more you do something, the easier your brain will find it, and if your brain finds it easy it will have less reason to get all anxious.
Practice in front of your mirror, in the car, to your friends, even the dog if you have to. The more you get comfortable with what you are saying, the easier, and more enjoyable, the whole experience will be for you and your audience.
Prepare & get there early
There is nothing worse than rushing your morning routine or getting stuck in traffic and arriving to your presentation in a hot mess! Plan ahead of time, even pick out your clothes and pack your bag the night before, check Google Maps for travel time, and allow extra. It’s better to arrive early - depending on the situation you could grab a coffee and compose yourself before you enter your meeting, or if you are presenting this allows for extra set-up time and maybe even do a dry run. This also means you get to greet the audience as the come in, adding an extra personal touch to your presentation.
Get to know your venue
This carries on from the last point, getting to the venue early allows you to test the mics, lighting and make sure the projector is working. It gives you time to find out where you are most comfortable, is there a stage? Will you need a chair? Or is it more of an informal setting? Where are the bathrooms in relation to the room - all these are important to know and also ensure you are more relaxed as your brain begins to feel familiar with the venue.
Create backups
Imagine this, you spent the last week(s) putting together your run sheet, picking the perfect images to compliment your slides and you host it on your Google Drive or as a published PDF, easy! You arrive to the venue and their internet is abysmal! This may seem obvious now, given the Google-outage this week, but you would be surprised how often this happens. By all means host your presentation but also save it to your desktop and to a USB drive. Take it to the next level by printing a copy with slightly more information to give to your audience. This is also a great take-home for them, and means they have less notes to take.
Introduction
This is possibly the part where most people fall down, hopefully not literally! They get overwhelmed and don’t do a great intro which in turn knocks their confidence. The first few moments are crucial to grabbing your audience’s attention so know your intro inside out - perhaps using an anecdote to lighten the mood and be more personable will also break the ice. Which leads us to our next point…
Be yourself!
These people are here for a reason, to hear what you have to say! So be yourself! Confidence comes from knowing your subject, which you clearly do, otherwise people wouldn’t be asking you to present to them. Use storytelling to add some personality into your presentation. Remember that the audience is human too, they don’t expect you to be perfect and want you to succeed, own your mistakes and if you trip up make a joke and keep going. Don’t let yourself get in your own head.
Take notes
Obviously not in the middle of presenting but as shortly after as possible, while it is still fresh in your brain. How can you improve? What parts were they [not] particularly interested in? Where did you stumble? etc. They only way we can improve is by learning and improving as we go.
This is just a handful of tips we found useful in our presentations, comment below what the best advise you got for presenting?
