Members of my career mentoring site tell me that while they know that good presentations are a key to career success, they fear public speaking. They are not alone, speaking in public is a very common fear.
It’s no wonder that there is a whole industry devoted to helping people become better presenters. Some of the advice is solid, some of it is bunk. This article lays out seven common public speaking bits of advice that fit into the latter category.
All of these seven are bad advice, but the second one “spontaneity is lost if you rehearse” is truly terrible. Practice is the key to delivering a powerful talk. The more you practice the better your talk. Practice allows you to be smooth in your delivery. It also allows you to recover quickly and get back on track when weird things happen (and they will) during your talk.
I have done my talk on self confidence a couple of hundred times. Yet I practice it the evening before I am scheduled to it. I want to make sure that I’m in sync with my slides and I want to hear myself saying the words out loud. This gives me a feeling of confidence during the talk.
There’s no two ways about it. Practice is the key to delivering a powerful presentation. The more you practice the less fearful and more confident you’ll be. The more you practice the better your talk.
Your career mentor,
Bud
PS: I write this blog to help people create the life and career success they want and deserve. Now I’m going one step further. I’ve created a membership site in which I’ve pulled together my best thoughts on success. And, as a reader of this blog, you can become a member for free. Just go to https://budbilanich.com/join to claim your free membership. You’ll be joining a vibrant and growing community of success minded professionals. I hope to see you there.
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