Liam Sandford

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How to prepare for public speaking

Liam Sandford

Imagine you were delivering your TED talk. How would you prepare for that event? It could be a game changer for your brand, your business and bring in lots of opportunities. So how do you deliver at your best every time?

Well there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach. What works for one person might not work for another, yet education teaches you to prepare in a certain way. This might be the reason you don’t feel ready sometimes, or you spend too much time in the wrong areas during your preparation.

Maybe you were taught to write a script, putting prompts to help you in your slides, or to spend the hours before your presentation rehearsing. All of this is unhelpful advice. It’s time to learn what works for you.

Gaining vs draining

Are you actually gaining from the preparation you are doing or are you draining your battery and making it harder for yourself?

If you like working in an office environment, do not get distracted by noise, and are energized by people, this is the ideal environment for you. This is where you should spend your preparation time. If you prefer working from home, have a specific setting for deep work and feel tired after a lot of interaction, preparing away from people is what works best for you.

If you gain your energy from people, you might want to bounce ideas around with others to decide your key points. You may also want to spend the hours before your presentation talking to others. If you gain your energy from time out, you may want to schedule some ‘focus time’ to reflect on what your key messages are. You may also want to block out the time before speaking in public to collect your thoughts, relax your mind and ensure you have the necessary energy to deliver.

It seems obvious that you should steer into where you get your energy from and stay clear of what drains your battery but implementing it is much harder. Be intentional about understanding your preference and build your preparation around it.

Delivering the audience promise

What have you told the audience you are going to deliver? What is the specific outcome of your talk that the audience is expecting from you?

Both important questions which need to be addressed in your preparation. It may be that you have been asked to deliver a presentation on how to make a good first impression at a job interview. If that was the ask, and you agreed to those terms, that is what you have promised the audience.

It is easy during your preparation to drift away from delivering what you have promised the audience. Your brain goes on a tangent and all of a sudden you are off track, and not quite living up to what was promised beforehand.

Alignment to the audience promise is something you should keep coming back to in your preparation. When you have a specific promise to deliver you can shape everything around it during your preparation. You know what you need to deliver on and your preparation can become more focused.

The preparation checklist

The goal of preparation is to spend time where you are not comfortable, rather than where you are comfortable. Everyone has the tendency to go over what they know again and again, but do not quite scratch the surface in the areas they are uncomfortable with.

To do public speaking well, you need to reverse that. You can do that with the preparation checklist:

Answer the following questions:

  • Are you comfortable with the content?

  • Are you familiar with the environment?

  • Do you know your audience or not?

  • How many times have you spoken on the topic previously?

  • Do you know the venue? Have you spoken there before?

  • Are you familiar with the technology you need to use?

  • How comfortable are you speaking in public?

Once you have answered them, it is time to rank each question based on which gives you most anxiety about speaking in public. Work your way down the list starting with what you are most uncomfortable with. This makes sure you tackle your biggest gaps and areas that might trip you up. Spending time in those areas will make sure you are ready when it comes to deliver your presentation.

Actionable takeaways

  • Figure out what gives you energy and what drains your battery. Spend time preparing in the environment that gives you energy.

  • Specifically define what you are promising the audience. Spend your preparation time focusing on delivering that one thing.

  • Use the preparation checklist, rank the categories and spend time where you are most uncomfortable.

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