Practice Makes Perfect ? 7 Tips for Making the Most of Your Presentation Practice

Believe it or not, preparation is a better determinant of presentation success than knowledge, experience, or even talent. The best presenter is almost always the presenter who is the most prepared. Even so, there are a lot of conflicting ideas about what constitutes thorough presentation preparation.

So what exactly is thorough preparation?

Here are seven straight forward tips to increase the effectiveness of the time you invest in your practice.

1. Practice Delivery Out Loud. Practice is NOT mentally rehearsing your presentation on the drive over to the presentation or even thinking about your presentation while tossing and turning at night. Both of these are something, but not practice. A lot can happen between thinking about what you want to say and actually getting the words to come out of your mouth coherently. If you don't actually practice speaking out loud, when the time comes, you may struggle to articulate your mentally well rehearsed thoughts. To the audience, this struggle will appear to be lack of preparation.

2. Try to Conduct Your Practice in a Situation Similar to the Real Speaking Venue. Whenever possible, conduct your practice in a situation that closely mirrors the real presentation. For example, if you will be speaking in front of a large group in an auditorium or large conference room, try to practice in a large room filled with as many audience recruits as possible. Why? Research indicates that if your practice closely mirrors your real presentation, once you are in the actual presentation your brain will think you have done this before. Besides practice, the next most important ingredient in your success is experience.

3. Practice in Front of Real People. If you can't find any audience recruits at work, ask your spouse, best friend, or if all else fails, your pet to listen to your presentation. Interacting with a live audience is an important part of your practice. It helps you not only rehearse your delivery, but gain experience reading and reacting to the silent messages your audience is sending you about their understanding, their likes, and their dislikes.

4. The Mirror is Your Friend. Even after you've practiced in front of an audience, continue to rehearse in front of the greatest critic of all, yourself in the mirror. The mirror is a WONDERFUL if underused presentation practice tool. It will allow you to see and hear your delivery live and make decisions about how to enhance your style. Remember, when it comes to practicing your presentation, the mirror really is your friend.

5. Practice From Beginning to End Without Stopping. Practice all the way through the presentation without stopping-even if you make a mistake. Most presenters have a tendency to stop their practice each time they make a mistake. Besides reinforcing this negative practice, when you continually stop and start over you get very good at the beginning of the presentation, but can't deliver an effective conclusion because you've rarely made it to the end of the presentation. As the second most remembered part of your presentation, it is important to have a strong, well-rehearsed close.

6. Practice With Your Props. If you are using visual aids such as a PowerPoint slide show, make sure you practice with your slides. Visual aids of any kind add another layer of complexity to presentation and require practice to use effectively. Practicing with your slides will help prepare you for the things that inevitably go wrong and help you avoid unprofessional behaviors such as not knowing how to advance your slide show or how to put the slide show in the proper view for display.

7. Do it One More Time. After you feel you've done it well in practice and are happy with your performance, practice one more time to make sure your success wasn't just a happy accident. All in all, depending upon you and your content, you may need to practice your presentation delivery out loud 5 to 10 times. Yes, that's right, you might have to practice out loud up to 10 times, but don't worry, your audience's thundering applause will make the effort worthwhile!

Debbie Bailey is a well-known Presentation Skills Consultant and author of the book "15 Presentation Secrets - How to WOW Even the Toughest Audience," available at trainer2go.com/ebooks.html. For more information about Debbie, go to http://www.trainer2go.com.

---

Fading into Sameness: How Too Many Slides Can Ruin Your Presentation

"I have a love/hate relationship with PowerPoint. In the right... Read More

Six Marketing Tips for Trade Show Success

A trade show is an ideal way of showcasing your... Read More

Give Your Audience Something to Talk About

There is an old saying: "The first thing to do... Read More

Planning a Group Meeting

CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EFFECTIVE FACILITATOR: As chairperson, focus on the... Read More

How to Teach: Lecture vs. Discussion

WHEN ONLY A LECTURE WILL DO: Under certain circumstances, of... Read More

Keeping Meetings Productive

KEEPING MEETINGS PRODUCTIVE: Whether participants approve or disapprove of an... Read More

How to Convert PowerPoint to Flash Manually

Converting PowerPoint to Flash would be absolutely a good choice... Read More

Projector Hire - Choosing the Right One for Your Presentation

Calling a projector hire company will often get you confused... Read More

Polishing Your Sales Presentation

Summer is here! It's time to bring out your summer... Read More

Powerful Presentations: How to Write and Deliver a Presentation to Remember

If the mere thought of standing up in front of... Read More

Coaching Tips for Powerful Presentations

Tip #1 The purpose of your speech is to get... Read More

After the Speech

Usually the emphasis on making an effective speech is what... Read More

Present Statistics In Context

"I didn't have 3000 pairs of shoes. I had only... Read More

How To Make Your Best Ever Presentation

The most important tip...EVER!Make sure that you always think of... Read More

Group Meetings: Being Prepared Makes a Difference

MANAGING MEETINGS--BEING PREPARED MAKES A DIFFERENCE: You can schedule all... Read More

Business Presentations - Use Power Pitching - Get the Personal Edge

Whenever and whatever you're pitching, dozens of factors will figure... Read More

Super Preparation ? Keys to Getting a Great Start to Every Presentation

Super Preparation ?Keys to Getting a Great Start to Every... Read More

Media Training 101: Where To Look During A Television Interview

Ever had that uncomfortable feeling of not knowing where to... Read More

Tech Tips: PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts for PowerPoint Slide Shows

Whether you use a mouse or a remote control to... Read More

Grand Opening: The Key To Great Presentations

Whether you are speaking in front of a civic group... Read More

How to Prevent Presentation and Speaking Disasters

I just got back from my whirlwind speaking engagements and... Read More

Media Training Tips: Maximising Your Media Moment

Media training is a 'must do' professional development program for... Read More

The Who, What, Where and When of Color In Your Documents

This article will help you to assess and maximise the... Read More

The Missing Link in Presentation Skills Training

Imagine you are the most amazing figure skater who ever... Read More

Networking: How to Network Within Your Organisation

Although there are any number of different networking groups and... Read More

Close Deals in Record Time!

Remember back when the ability to create a slide show... Read More

The Upside to an Auditory Rehearsal

Many experienced trainers feel that there is something lacking in... Read More

Your Unique Point of View

I had a chance to go to one of those... Read More

Trade Show Victory!

So you're going to have a booth at a trade... Read More

Tough Talk: Bad News Delivered the Right Way

Communicating Bad News The Right WayIt's the rare executive who... Read More

How You Can Save On Conference Calling

In recent years, companies have recognized the need to expand... Read More

Guidelines for Rehearsal Criticism

It is both good planning and considerate to provide auditors... Read More

How to Attract New Business Like George W. Bush Wins Elections

THE LITTLE-KNOWN SPEECHWRITING SECRETS THAT WON GEORGE W. BUSH THE... Read More