Plan Out The Details
All too often, novice speakers find themselves derailed by seemingly insignificant mistakes they failed to think of beforehand:
- Technology details
- EXAMPLES: extension cord availability, software versions, video files, DVD vs. Blu-Ray capability, etc.
- Timing
- EXAMPLES: when to advance a presentation slide, arriving early to load a presentation
- Feeling of one’s outfit during the speech
- EXAMPLES: an itchy shirt tag or painful heels
- How the room looks from the speaker’s vantage point.
- VISUAL EXAMPLE:
When anxiety levels run high, even the smallest overlooked detail can easily fluster a novice speaker, detracting attention from the message and/or the audience and instead, causing the speaker to focus on themselves. The best speakers can spend hours considering all of the details, imagining vividly how every moment of a successful presentation will go. Such speakers incorporate all of these details into their practice sessions, which helps them eliminate all traces of uncertainty and the anxiety it often breeds.