How Do You Prepare for Presentations?
Preparing for presentations isn’t easy. Even team meetings with your colleagues can be stressful and challenging. Few of us are true extroverts, and even fewer of us are comfortable with public speaking. Awhile ago, I joked a bit about things you shouldn’t say in a presentation but really, it’s no laughing matter.
One of the most anticipated parts of launching Standout Jobs at DEMO is the 6-minute presentation you have to give on-stage. The DEMO people are great at preparing you and letting you know what to expect, but ultimately it’s up to you. And for most presenters it will be the most important, most stressful, and biggest presentation they’ve ever given in their lives.
Some people have asked me, “What about all the VC and angel investor pitches you’ve done? Those must be pretty tough?” Yes, they are. But once you’ve done a few of them, you learn what to expect fairly quickly, and often they’re more conversations than presentations. You’re hoping to engage the potential investors in a healthy discussion. The format is typically less formal than going on-stage in front of hundreds (if not thousands) of people and doing your thing.
So how do you prepare for a big presentation?
There’s no straightforward answer. And there’s lots of great advice on public speaking and presenting out there. Some people recommend memorizing a script and practicing it intensely for as long as you possibly can. Other people suggest having key talking points and riffing on those. I’m not sure anyone would suggest going totally unprepared, because that would be tantamount to presentation-suicide … but from heavy-duty preparation to minimal preparation, you’ll get it all, and everything in-between.
Here’s my suggestion: Do what you need to in order to feel confident and comfortable giving the presentation.
If you’re not sure what to do in order to feel confident and comfortable, then I’d lean towards being more prepared than not.
Here are some tips for things you can do:
- Start with your key talking points. There’s no point writing a full script or presentation until you know what points you want to hammer home. Then, you can stick with a standard format: (a) tell them what you’re going to show them; (b) show them; and, (c) tell them what you just showed them.
- Write a script. I think this is a good idea. It lets you write everything out and start massaging the words the way you want. It also gives you a benchmark against which you can practice and refine things.
- Don’t get hung up on specific words. It’s unlikely that missing or changing any one word will totally ruin your presentation, so don’t worry about perfection. The only person that knows you “screwed up” is you…
- Find your speaking style. Over time with enough practice you can learn to speak and present in any style, but if you’re in crunch mode and don’t have enough time, just try and find your own speaking style. Find your groove. Some people are ultra-enthusiastic. Some are much calmer. For DEMO, I’m aiming for calm confidence. I’m not a flashy guy. I want people to see the practice I’m putting in, my enthusiasm and my confidence - but I’m not going “Tony Robbins” on them.
- Practice in front of people. I haven’t done this yet, but I’ll be doing it soon. If you haven’t given a lot of presentations this will feel awkward but it’s better to get over those feelings now rather than when you’re on stage. So practice in front of others. But be careful about taking their advice, especially if the presentation is fast approaching. The risk is that you try to incorporate changes you’re not really comfortable with, whether it’s in the actual script or in your presentation style, and you end up causing more damage than good. Given the opportunity you should seek expert help with your presentation, but be careful about how you take any advice, especially late in the game.
- Practice with distractions. It’s great to sit in a bubble with no distractions whatsoever and practice. You need the quiet time to memorize things and get a feel for what you’re doing. But I’m also practicing while distracted - be it by other sounds or visually (people walking by my office door, for example) because it makes me feel more confident that I can pull it off. On the DEMO stage there will be distractions. One person told me there’s a huge clock facing you counting the seconds menacingly. There are big lights, TV screens and oh ya … the people. I have to be prepared for anything, and practicing with distractions is helpful.
- Practice piece by piece. I’ve found it quite helpful to practice each section of my presentation in pieces. I’ll focus on one part, memorize the core elements, run through it till I’m comfortable and then move to the next piece. Then it’s just a matter of stringing the pieces together, which is easier.
- Think ahead. While practicing my DEMO presentation I’ve found my comfort zone when I can think of the next 1 or 2 sentences while speaking. So I’m on sentence #5 but my mind is already bringing up sentence #6 and #7. I don’t have to think too far ahead but just enough that the transition from sentence-to-sentence is ultra-smooth and simple. Each sentence triggers a reminder for the next one.
- Practice hand gestures. If you’re giving a “naked” presentation (with nothing in front of you like a table, etc.) then you need to be aware of what you’re doing with your hands. And your feet. So think about your hand gestures and how they relate to what you’re saying. If you plan to move around, pace in sync with your words. I’ve been practicing this for a few days with great success. The hand gestures and where I’m walking are triggers cuing what I should be saying.
- Find your comfort zone. All the advice in the world won’t help if you can’t get comfortable with your preparation, practice techniques and ultimately, the presentation itself. Do whatever makes you feel comfortable. The more comfortable you feel, the more confident you feel, and the better things will go.
How do you prepare for presentations? Let us know!
Photo from katrinaCS.
Great tips - especially the one on practising with distractions, as it’s so easy to lose focus when you’re distracted.
One silly mistake I have made in the past was not checking the time beforehand and therefore not knowing whether I was risking going over the number of minutes allowed. It was a very basic, silly mistake - I know, but definitely worth remembering - especially when you’re feeling nervous to begin with.
Thanks for the shout-out to Customers Rock!, Ben. These are great tips as well. So much to remember!
Actually, the best thing to do is get a good night’s sleep the night before (no alcohol or caffeine), be at the speaking venue early to check out the area where you will speak, and go get ‘em!
Ben, thanks for including the original 10+ tips and then the 50 tips followup. Your additions are terrific. Thank you for sharing them. Happy 2008!
@CatherineL: In my case the timing is critical. You have to be under 6 minutes. At some point they just play the music and drag you off the stage! I’m using a timer on my computer to track it. And in fact, I time it section by section, so if a section is too long I know where to cut.
@Becky Carroll: You wouldn’t recommend heavy drinking to calm your nerves before speaking? Hhhm… *grin*
@CB Whittemore: You had some great tips. I’m glad I could link over in your direction.
I do speaking exercises prior to presentations. I take a book pert to the subject matter I’ll be presenting and read it aloud (that means loud) while walking around my flat. I may do this for an hour or more projecting my voice while using hand movements. Do this until you begin to feel horse. Guy’s Kawasaki’s “Art of the Start” is particularly good for infusing “enthusiasm”, cut-to-the-chase messaging layered over solid entrepreneurial themes. Works like magic!
@Stanley: Interesting technique. How often do you do this before a presentation?
@Ben: Treat it like any form of exercise. Obviously you don’t want to overdue it the day before your big meeting. During the few days prior I would recommend a light workout.
In general though, I think sonic training should be part of every entrepreneur’s verbal fitness program.
The one thing that impresses me in good presentations is the amount of preparation that has gone behind it. This becomes obvious particularly if there is a question and answer session after the presentation. If one’s heart and soul has gone into the subject being presented, all that you say will work like magic. The words will flow confidently and your confidence in your knowledge will be obvious to the listeners.
Ben, I just finished reading the book, Presentation Zen. It’s really good and answers a lot of questions about how to prep and , more importantly, how to be prepared
I enjoyed it.
Hi Ben,
I like the tips you have shared. They made sense and when effort is applied to them, they work!
Straight forward useful points to presentations you’ve got there.
Excel Beyond Excellence always!
@Stanley Miller: Sonic Training. Now that sounds cool…
@Mitch: If I had the time to read Presentation Zen it would probably be a good idea. But…I’ll be winging it as best I can!
Thanks again to everyone who has commented so far.
Nice and useful post.
I agree with Stanley, go get Kawasaki’s “Art of the Start” and read carefully what he says.
My humble experience of 2 presentations in 2 days (not as big as DEMO though) says that I was among the few who dealt with the allocated 7 and 5 minutes respectively saying exactly what I wanted to say.
Good post, & good luck with the presentation.
I usually write financial articles for my website http://www.fastguaranteedloans.com
And writing is a thing, but speaking in front of people be it its 5 or 100 listeners, it requires, in my opinion, some previous preparation: you don’t want to be asked a question and stay in “mute status”.
I have difficulties on “Find your comfort zone” tips. When I need to deliver presentation on some highly ranked people (read: angel investor :mrgreen:), I was forced to act so formal, while in fact I am not. Being formal isn’t my comfort zone. Thus, I can’t deliver presentation by being myself. In the end, I found it helpful to convince the angel investor in some informal occasion
Nice tips
. I assume the tips was sorted in order of importance. By that I mean you can’t practice the hand gesture if you haven’t practice your script and how to deliver your script in distraction. We can only practice our gesture if we have already memorized what we are going to say. In further extent, if we are too busy with our gesture, we could end up not paying enough attention to our audience. So balance is important.
[…] How Do You Prepare for Presentations? […]
I consider myself a semi-experienced speaker. My weakest point is probably that I seldom practice my speeches in front of other people. I tend to improv instead. Another thing I would like to improve is not to think too far ahead. I’m working on that.
Great tips. Thank you Ben!
@Maximillian: You do what works. But in some cases there are obviously going to be restrictions on format, style, etc. DEMO lets you do and say what you want - the only limitation: you’ve got 6 minutes. And you’re on stage in front of 700+ people *smile*
@Gunady: I certainly wouldn’t get overly caught up in hand gestures and the such — but — I’ve often heard it said that a very high percentage of how you’re perceived is body language, not what you’re saying. In this case, people will be focused more on the demonstration itself and less on me … so I’m less worried about how I move around, except to stay as comfortable as possible.
@Dennis: I haven’t done a ton of practice in front of people yet for my speech either. That starts tomorrow and Monday, although I did a run through the other day with a small audience.
Hi Ben
Thanks for sharing. Nice tips you give here - I´ll use them tommorrow in school
Greetings, a dansih guy
I like your orignal post and the followup comments by others, but will add one other point:
*** Be sure to use your eyes in your presentation ***
Casually, look at different people in your audience as you give your presentation. Don’t scan the audience too quickly or it will appear you are seeking someone out for reassurance. Make a personal connection with each person you look at, sometimes for affect (if you are talking about a target customer an he/she appears to reflect one) and other times to get feedback (it is amazing what seeing an audience member smile back at you has on your confidence). Be sure to look towards the back rows too, even though in a space with 700+ people it will be hard to see them individually. Just don’t stare at the back wall because your eyes will look like they’re staring at the ceiling. Good luck!!!
Presentation adwise:
Imagine that everyone in the audience have no clothes on - then everything dosnt seem so important
Hi all - thank you for all the continued feedback. I’m catching up like crazy from all the feedback, but it’s great to see people continuing the discussion here without me! Thank you.
great tips ! however, i must say that different people have there own tricks. and some are just born leaders… they speak and people listen.
[…] like DEMO, then you have even less to worry about because the initial push of buzz, marketing, preparation for a presentation, etc. is lessened. So the focus remains on product development. Raising capital is also a major […]
These are great points. I’ve given a number of speeches, but I’ve never really given much thought to the preparation. I did a lot of tutoring through high school and college, so I just pretend like I’m going to sit down and explain something to someone else and it usually flows pretty naturally.
@Stefanie: Glad to hear it’s so easy for you! For most people that’s far from the case…but you’re one of the lucky ones.
In my case..I always make it a point that I’m comfortable with myself..days before the actual presentation..I would always practice infront of the mirror and imagine myself standing in front of the crowd..also I try to ask some of my close friends or family members to watch me while I’m doing my speech..so that they can give their advice on what else should I do to improve it.
#22
I lost concentration right away, and kept focusing on one particular girl, and couldn’t stop imaging her with no clothes 
I tried the tip with the “no clothes audience”, and it didn’t work for me