4 Key Things to Focus on When Practising Your Presentation or Speech
How many times should you practise your presentation or speech before you deliver it? Five… ten… twenty times? Surely the more, the better - after all, practice makes perfect…doesn’t it?
But who wants to be “perfect” anyway?
It is important to practise before every speaking opportunity, but perhaps not in the way you might think.
Not all practice is “good” practice
When I recommend “practising” your presentations or speeches, what I really mean is becoming familiar with your content.Not:
❌ Learning it by heart
❌ Learning it by rote
❌ Repeating or regurgitating the information
If you're totally dependent on a script when you stand up to deliver a presentation, it won’t sound genuine because it's not coming from the heart. It also means that if you lose your place for a moment, there's a danger you’ll panic because you’ve got to mentally jump back to the part of the script where you left off.
When you internalise your content, so you’re truly familiar with it:
You know what your points are
You know what you're going to say about each point
Each point follows logically from the other
This makes for a much more conversational and natural presentation and a far better connection with your audience.
The formula for effective presentation practice
So “not practising” doesn’t mean speaking without preparation. I’m definitely not advising you just to wing it on the day and say whatever comes to mind. You do need to have some structure and a broad outline of what you’re going to speak about. If you need further help with this, take a look at my blog post - Your 5-Step Guide to Planning Powerful Presentations
Now let’s talk about the elements of your speech or presentation that you do need to practise before you deliver it.
#1 - Practise your content
The content or information you want to share when you speak is the heart of your presentation and your starting point for practice. Pay particular attention to the opening and closing of your speech. These are the parts of your talk you need to be most familiar with because they’re your best chance to make an impression on your audience.
● How will you get their attention with an impactful opening or hook?
● How can you finish speaking to make sure they remember you and your message?
To get comfortable with your content, don’t always start at the beginning and work through to the end. Instead, try practising it out of synch. For example, you could start from the third point you want to make and go from there. This way, you’re not just relying on the structure to signpost you to the next section but really getting to know the material you’re speaking about inside out.
A final tip on practising your content - if there’s a lot of material you need to become familiar with, try recording it as a voice note on your phone and listen to it when you're out for a walk or driving the car. It can really help the information to bed in, particularly if you're an auditory learner.
#2 - Practise your slides
If you’re using slides in your presentation, take time to practise the delivery of them. If your presentation is in-person, make sure that you’ve tested everything beforehand and that you know:
How your slides will appear on the screen
When you're going to use the slides
When to blank off the slides so that the attention is on you rather than the screen
Similarly, if you’re going to speak virtually on a Teams or Zoom call, make sure you're familiar with how to share your slides and move in and out of those slides from your presentation. Set up a dummy meeting for yourself and trial it beforehand so you’re confident that you can do all of that smoothly and professionally.
#3 - Practise for the unexpected
I know this one sounds like a bit of a contradiction. But you need to practise how you’ll respond if things go wrong… because sometimes things do go wrong.
Let’s say someone arrives late and distracts you for a second. You might welcome them, pause for a moment to re-orient yourself, and then continue.What if you’re presenting virtually from home and the doorbell rings unexpectedly? You could say something like, “Oh! There’s my doorbell- I hope there's a nice delivery for me,” before taking a second to glance at your slides and get back on track.Whatever the interruption, you might just need a moment to take a discrete look at your notes. Don't draw your audience's attention to it by apologising! Instead, glance at your notes, and then resume your presentation. The key thing to remember is that it’s ok to pause, in fact, that’s the best thing to do. Take a breath, gather your thoughts and then continue speaking when you’re ready.
It’s also worth considering what you’ll do if technology lets you down during your speech or presentation. Let’s say your slides don't work or there is a problem with the sound or the internet connection keeps dropping. How will you deal with that to avoid becoming flustered and getting panicky or stressed?
People will accept blips, technical glitches and other unexpected interruptions when you speak. As long as you stay calm and relaxed, your audience will know that you’re professional, well-prepared and in control.
#4 - Practise out loud
Last tip - practise speaking your presentation out loud. Something that reads well could be a tricky stumbling block for you when you try to speak it out. Maybe it’s as simple as a certain word combination that you trip over every time, so you need to change it.
So, say it out loud. Get used to the sound of your own voice - speaking the words and phrases, experimenting with different tones and testing out what your vocal variety will be like. All of these elements help to create a great presentation.
Suggested reading:
This blog is the second of a 3-part series.
Part 1 - Your 5-Step Guide to Planning Powerful Presentations
Part 3- How to Get the Feedback You Need to Boost Your Speaking Confidence
If you need some extra help…
And if you’d like more tailored advice and 1:1 support with putting together a confident, polished presentation or some expert guidance and feedback on the delivery of your speech, then I’d love to help. Click here to book a complimentary intro call to talk about how we can work together to unlock your speaking confidence.
