Crush your next presentation:
1. Spend more time than you think you should creating the story. Even the most technically dense material is in service of a story. A story you are trying to get us to buy. Spend more time than you think you should crafting that story.
2. Ruthlessly edit. Whatever you have, it needs to be less. Less. Less. Less! One to three salient points. We can’t remember a lot and we get easily confused while listening, so hone it down.
3. Create a great skeleton. Every great presentation has a great skeleton, AKA a structure. Good structure helps us organize your material in our minds. You may know it cold, but we need you to help us out by having it structured well.
4. Practice out loud to an empty room. You should trade your time practicing your presentation before asking other people to trade their time to listen.
5. Reframe nerves. Presentation nerves can be interpreted to mean “run away.” If this happens to you, then reframe those nerves. Instead, when you feel nerves interpret it as a signal that you care and that it’s go time.
Most people don’t choose to crush their presentations, they just endure them (and we endure listening to them). This is the time for you to shine. Make the most of it!
