How To Best Prepare For A Public Speaking Presentation

In the previous blog post I talked about the benefits of public speaking. Today I would like to explore what it takes to prepare a great presentation.

PREPARATION IS EVERYTHING

Like the heading states: Preparation is everything. If you don’t prepare, you will be less confident because you will FEEL unprepared. Things are more likely to go wrong, as you haven’t considered scenarios and probable quick solutions. And the worst: people will actually know that you are not prepared which will have an effect on your confidence. In other words: A good preparation will make you less nervous.

WHAT TO PREPARE

There is probably more to prepare than I will list in this section but hopefully it covers most points. Through practice and actually through things going wrong, you will improve more and more over time.

LOCATION

Know the location that you are speaking in. Can you go inside before you start or even a few days before? Have a look around and get a feel for it. Where will you stand? What will you see? How will people see you? It will help you to come up with some solution to problems that might arise before you even start.

AUDIENCE

Get familiar with who will come to listen to you. I will go into more detail about this in the next section.

WORST CASE SCENARIO

What is the worst that can happen? Think about it and think about possible solutions. What if your presentation doesn’t work? What if the microphone doesn’t work? What if too many people show up or not enough? How is this influencing your talk and how can you handle it?

HANDOUTS

What material do you want to give out? How many do you need? What other things do you want to bring with you? A banner? Business cards?

OBJECTIVE & TASKS

What is the objective of your talk? What is the task you were given? Make sure your presentation is build around that.

DRESS CODE/PERSONAL APPEARANCE

Do you know what to wear? What do you feel comfortable in? What is the dress code for the occasion? ALWAYS wear something that you like and is representative of who you are.

QUESTIONS

Prepare for questions. What kind of questions could be asked? What is your answer? How are you handling questions that you can’t answer (we will look at this in step 6)? When is the audience allowed to ask questions? Mention in your opening when questions can be asked.

YOUR PRESENTATION

And of course, you have to prepare your slides if you have any.

If you want to learn more about how to become a better presenter and get into public speaking, check out my book ‘The Public Speaking Formula’.