I hate practicing my presentations. So does everyone else. Here I am arguing withe Sid The StoryParrot about putting it off until my wife’s gone out. Why? Because it’s embarrassing to get things wrong in front of people.
In my defence, part of that is because the last time I did that for a Big Gig, she said “Some great ideas, babe, but this is a car crash”. Harsh, right?
Annoyingly she was right.
Fortunately I’d found out she was right in front of her and only her, rather than a big audience of other people.
The thing is, even with 20 years of doing this it’s almost impossible to get your presentation right first time – or even to know if it’s going to be a good presentation.
There are exceptions to this rule, of course, but far, far fewer than think they’re exceptions. Most are just fooling themselves… but rarely do they fool the audience.
Why should you practice your presentation?
The obvious first point is the one I’ve hinted at before. Presentations are tricky beasts and it’s almost impossible to know what makes a good one unless you’ve tried it out.
Secondly, even just a few run throughs (not the best way to rehears) will make things flow much better and that’s a good thing for everyone – both you as the presenter and your audience. You’d be amazed at how much impact just going over things a few times can help (and see below to make it even quicker!)
Third – it handles a lot of those nerves! Familiarity helps put the butterflies back in place. Additionally you’re more confident as a speaker because you know what’s coming up next (a huge one!) and you already know it’s good stuff. The anxiety of “is this any good” has gone away.
… but not totally. This isn’t witchcraft!
What should you avoid when you practice your presentation?
The big one, I find, is that people want to go over their presentation in their heads. It’s less embarrassing that way. The problem is that doing that doesn’t address the first problem above.
Secondly, you’ll not find out which bits will trip you up. In your head you never make a mistake, mispronounce something, stumble over a phrasing or mess up handling the remote control! Presenting is a physical act and so needs to be practiced physically. (In-your-head is better than nothing though, ‘cos at least you get a little more familiar with the content.)
Third? Well you can think a looooooot faster than you speak. That means that unless you’ve got more experience than most readers of this blog, you’ll have no idea how long your presentation actually is. I’ve seen people reading through their presentations on the train from Newcastle, where I live, to Durham, where their presentation was. The journey takes 12 to 20 minutes and they thought they’d nailed it… only to discover when they stood up to speak that their presentation was actually closer to two hours!
That’s an extreme example, but still…
Oh, and don’t just go over and over it. The old adage of “practice makes perfect” is tosh. Practice makes permanent. That means you need to make sure your presentation is right before you start the process of rehearsing it. Test it a few times before you start doing the stuff below. …and by a few times, I mean as many as you can 😉
How should you practice your presentation?
Let’s differentiate between rehearsing and practicing. Rehearsing is the overall process and practicing is the process of going over specific things/moments/etc.
This video explains how professionals do it. (There are subtitles, so you can watch with the volume down if you need to 🙂 )
The beauty of this is that it not only gives you a better presentation, it gets you there faster! What’s not to love!?
One final presentation practice tip
Practice the tech.
Nothing flusters you as a presenter quite as much as the tech not working. It’s not hard to practice putting a few cables together and knowing what plugs into where – and how to get your computer to talk to the projector!
What’s more, nothing undermines your presentation audience’s confidence in your content! It’s not logical, but the subconscious assumption is that if you can’t be trusted to plug in a laptop or control your slides, you can’t be trusted with cyber-security, their money, or whatever. How can your projections for the organisation be valid if you’re such a muppet?!
