Part III: Practice Like a Pro – 20 Ways to Rehearse Your Presentation

Practice builds confidence and profits.

Below you will find presentation rehearsal techniques (#11-15) to build your confidence.

11. Avoid perfection. We are looking for progress and success.

12. Be conversation, not presentational. Imagine you’re talking to your best friend over coffee.

13. Practice with your equipment (Both live and Virtually)

• Live. If you are working with a projector and slides, microphone (handheld or lapel,  laser pointer, video, or music) rehearse with the equipment.
• Virtual: You must rehearse with the equipment and the platform (Zoom and Teams are very different!)

14. Practice the presentation in different ways. Avoid practicing your delivery in the same way. Break up the routine.

1. Dedicate several rehearsals to Delivery Exaggerations:
   • Speed Drill. Say the entire speech fast. Double your regular rate.
   • Pause between every word.
   • Energy level: Go over the top! (See the article on my website.)
   • Extremely Loud.
   • Extra soft.
2. Practice Main Points:
   • Opening
   • Point #1
   • Point #2, etc.
   • Close
3. Practice different pieces of your presentation:
   • Stories
   • Directions for training or audience participation
   • Analogies & Metaphors
   • Presenting Data & Statistics
   • Working with Slides

15. Practice Transitions. This will help the audience connect the dots. Additionally, you avoid “Crutch Words” (Like, So, And, Okay, You-know, etc.) or “Vocalized Pauses” (Um, Ah, Er, Uh). If you want to avoid this common mistake, practice your transitions.

We’ll cover the final five rehearsal tips in the next article. Stay tuned!

#pitchdeck #highstakespresentations #businesspresentations #storyselling