Phone calls, emails, clients in your office--so many demands on your time and energy that are right in front of you. So the work you should do on your upcoming speech or presentation continues to get pushed to the bottom of the list. Finally at the very last minute you carve out a few hours to pull your thoughts together. Since you're stressed and exhausted, you cross your fingers and hope for the best.
Is this fair to yourself, or to your audience? You know it's not, yet you emphasize how busy you are and how you simply could not have done it any other way. As the advocate for the audience, I say to you: "sorry, but if you couldn't make time to prepare for us, why should we make time to listen to you?"
A great 30 minute presentation can come together in 3 hours if you make smart choices about the topic, the audience and the content.
When you accept (or volunteer for) a speaking appearance, you must take these three steps immediately:
1) Calendar one hour in the early morning (block all other demands) and in that hour design your speech or presentation. Design includes call-to-action closing, 2 key points, leading materials for the key points, and an attention-getting opening. When you make a list of these on paper in short notes to yourself, you've designed your speech or presentation. Included in this list should be any visuals you'll need, plus stories, quotations, props and handouts.
2) Add another hour to your calendar and spend it collecting the various items you've identified in your design phase. There is no slide or set of slides that will be more important than you, so keep the slides simple and to a minimum. Put all your items in order of appearance into one digital folder.
3) Schedule one hour for practice. This hour must be written in your calendar days before your appearance and must be sacrosanct. Nothing takes over this time. During this hour, you'll talk through your speech or presentation, standing up, moving about and speaking out loud.
Since you have all your content in order in a folder, you simply get it out, start talking and keep going. You will have time for one practice and one rehearsal of your 30 minute speech.
Give yourself a pat on the back, and know that you're well-prepared and ready. You'll probably find yourself running through your speech in your head as you do other things--this is good as it helps you gain confidence.
How much better is this approach than putting off your preparation and practice until everything squished into a few harried hours just moments before you appear? No one has ever failed at a speech that was prepared in advance, with a relaxed and open mind.
How do you make time to prepare for your presentations? Share your suggestions through our comment link.
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