BlueJays2591 profile picture
BlueJays2591 profile picture

BlueJays2591

Federal Business Dev Director

Politicker
Executive
Valued Contributor
+9

Presentation Skills

I've never been great at presenting. I can connect with people and do the small talk and get them where I need them to go, but I'm just not a strong presenter. Anyone have advice to get better at presenting/public speaking?

🥎 Training
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14 comments

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CoorsKing
WR Officer
2
Retired King of the Coors Knights
There are tons of classes and books out there, but in the end it just comes down to practice. 

I personally used to be terrible, but have improved over time from repetition. 

My advice is to over-prepare, if you go into it knowing everything there possibly is to know about the topic, it is hard to feel off-guard and you by default come across as more confident.
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
2
Agency Recruiter
Practice and confidence. The mirror is my best friend. 

Everything is sales. If you can sell, you can present. You just need to convince yourself of that. Gotta carry over the same mindset you have when you're crushing the phones.

CuriousFox
WR Officer
2
🦊
Practice does help. It sucks, but it works. 
Ace
Arsonist
1
CEO
Practice. I had severe stage fear and still kinda have it but 70% is gone. The more I practiced and did it, the lesser scared I got
Bittersweet0326
Politicker
1
Digital Business Associate
Everyone has already said it. Practice, practice, practice. Since you have a good way to connect with people I'm sure you can get away with a lot of minor things. But eventually that's going to get harder unless you get better on the presenting side.
MMMGood
Celebrated Contributor
1
Senior Account Executive
Take a drop-in course at a community college. 
BlueJays2591
Politicker
0
Federal Business Dev Director
I've thought about doing this. might make sense. i've just got a face for radio and a voice for local newspaper so presentations aren't my best skill
MMMGood
Celebrated Contributor
1
Senior Account Executive
...yet 👍🏻
looper1010
Celebrated Contributor
1
Solutions Specialist
Practice.  If you wanna mix it up and have fun, learn magic and how to perform! 
ButWaitTheresMore
Politicker
1
Senior Sales Engineer
Not sure how it's running during COVID, but Toastmasters International is a great organization that's basically a public speaking club. It kind of has a franchise model where there are different independent clubs, at most universities and cities. Low membership dues that cover the cost of renting out an IHOP backroom or WeWork type space, and you met around once a week for a lot of the clubs.

Super supportive groups all focused on becoming better public speakers - the standard meeting will have activities like impromptu speeches where you're given a random topic to talk about, and within 30 seconds you have to come up with a 2-min speech on the topic, focusing on proper speech structure like hooks and conclusion, inflection, vocal ticks like ums and uhs, and so on.


We also had a rotating calendar of longer, 15-20min speeches, where you prepare in advance and a few people go per meeting to talk about whatever they want, again focusing on good speech form. Could be explaining the mortgage crisis or could be talking about how garbage Red Delicious apples are.

Different people in the group each day will be assigned roles like counting the speaker's vocal ticks or evaluating body language, and at the end you get feedback forms.

It definitely helped me catch my ticks, structure my speeches to drive home the main points, and get more impactful inflection. 10/10 recommend Toastmasters!
Trinity
WR Officer
1
BusDev
Practice in front of a mirror, control your pace and be yourself.
Blackwargreymon
Politicker
1
MDR
Everything is sales. If you can sell, you can present. You just need to convince yourself of that. Gotta carry over the same mindset you have when you're crushing the phones.
Clashingsoulsspell
Politicker
1
ISR
My advice is to over-prepare, if you go into it knowing everything there possibly is to know about the topic, it is hard to feel off-guard and you by default come across as more confident.
MR.StretchISR
Politicker
0
ISR
Practice. I had severe stage fear and still kinda have it but 70% is gone. The more I practiced and did it, the lesser scared I got

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