Over time (by reading and practicing) I’ve accumulated some knowledge on speaking.
It comes from different books and, in part, from my intuition.
This is not meant as a guide, it’s the way I approach speaking and it’s the way I learned to do it. These are things I remind myself when I panic, when I fear any stage or a call. They’re the path I try to follow.
Others might do differently, and that’s ok.
As with all the tips in the world: Take what you need, leave what you don’t.
- Being scared and excited at the same time is a good signal that this is challenging you and you love it
- Always prepare yourself. Learn what you’re going to present.
- Rehearse at max till the night before and on the day of the presentation let it go.
- Don’t aim for perfection, aim for your best.
- Silence is your friend. Breath, take pauses, drink.
- Bullet points and long paragraphs are boring. If anything, use a big flashy phrase and explain it with your voice.
- Don’t read what’s on the screen. People can do that by themselves already.
- If you mess up, be vulnerable. If things don’t go as planned, share it with the audience. More often than not they’ll understand and root for you.
- Starting again from scratch is often an option, even if you screw it up midway.
- Engage your audience with questions, but skip the yes/no ones, closed ended questions won’t get you anywhere.
- This is not an exam. It’s your turn to share your weird vision of the world with other people. Take the leap.
- Most successful presentations are centered on a personal story. Don’t hide yourself.
- Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is a great book on writing, but it also subtly speaks about what you should share with the world (see previous point).
- If you rehearse, record yourself. It’ll be painful to watch, but you’ll understand what’s wrong better than someone telling you.
- Every live demo will fail or have bugs/issues. Plan accordingly.
- Things obvious to you might not be obvious to others. Don’t discount what you know.
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