On Marketing

Still creating confidence, this week, we are going to use a presentation’s preparation time to make it easier to deliver. This will be a load off your mind!

It is a simple trick: practice as you go. Practice as soon as you draft each new section, each new gimmick, or even, each new sentence.

Whether you are giving an informal presentation or a carefully scripted one, simply stop writing and read or try your latest piece out loud, complete with intonations and gestures. Several things will happen:

• You’ll get a sense of how long it takes to say it
• You’ll get a sense of whether it’s working
• You’ll find yourself falling over bits
• You’ll notice opportunities

This is great. It will help your timing, give you ideas, and save you wasting time flogging a dead horse. But the most powerful bit for strengthening the content is stumbling as you say it out loud.

What seems perfectly fluent as you write, often has problems – and your subconscious knows this. It will try to tell you by tripping you up, and it will do this as you give the presentation, or as you practice it: it’s your call!

What does your subconscious know?

• It knows there’s a piece missing.
• It knows there’s a flaw in the logic.
• It knows you’ve got something wrong.

That’s why you must practice as you go, to catch the problem early while you have time to put it right. And that’s why you must take notice every time you stumble.

Never try to force the issue. If you make the mistake more than once, change the text.

• Try changing the word you’re too proud of.
• Try putting the whole thing into a more comfortable speaking order.
• If that doesn’t work, try mentally explaining to someone what’s going wrong, and what you really want to say. That will pinpoint the problem.

What’s in it for you: you’ll finish up with something that is easy to get your mind and mouth around. You will deliver with flare and confidence, and you will definitely seem to know what you’re talking about!

Tags: marketing //