Preparing For Your Public Speaking Gig

The past blog posts already started to prepare you for your public speaking gig, but wat else can you prepare to feel more confident and be a better presenter?

YOUR OBJECTIVE & TASK

What do you want/have to achieve with your presentation? Was there a certain task that you were set? Is there a goal that you have by doing this? Before even thinking about the content and structure of the presentation, you need to know that. What do you want people to do afterwards? How do you want them to feel afterwards? Is there any action they have to take as a result of attending the presentation?

PERSONAL APPEARANCE

You will make a first impression during the first few seconds that someone sees you. What image do you want to portray? How can you ensure your appearances matches the real you? Physical appearance is not only the way you dress, it is also facial expressions, gestures, words and body language.

THE STRUCTURE

What structure will you use that is appropriate for your audience and that meets your objective? How will you start your presentation? What will be on the slides? Do you actually need a presentation? How will you end your presentation? We will look at this in more detail in step 3.

PRACTICE

A big part of preparing yourself for a talk or workshop is to practice. And that means not just to read through your slides and notes but also to actually speak them out loud. Stand up and pretend to speak in front of the audience.

If you can, rehearse the presentation in front of people that know nothing about the topic. They will give you great input and ask questions that you might not have thought of and will help you to improve the presentation.

And then present it in front of people who have a better understanding about the topic. They will have different input to the ones that didn’t know anything about it.

Another great way is to present and film yourself whilst doing it. You will discover so many more things to improve when it is filmed rather than relying on feedback from others. You will pick up on words that you use too much, weird body language habits. One tip: Don’t try to eliminate all things at once. Take one of the things you would like to improve. Do it and then choose the next one.

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’.