8 Guidelines for Presentation Practice

“Visualizing is great, but it doesn’t replace the actual out-loud practice.”

Here are my 8 guidelines for perfect practice:

1. Practice out loud.Say the presentation out loud; three to six times should do it.
2. Practice with variety.
   Every time you say your presentation, say it differently – the goal is to keep it conversational, not memorize exact phrases.
3. Be aware of timing.
   Leave time in your practice session for audience interaction, questions, etc.
4. Practice in front of a real audience, similar to your target audience.Practice in front of people who are similar to the “real audience.” If there are words that you are using they don’t get, or concepts that aren’t clear, it’s better to find out in front of this group, rather than the “real audience.”
5. Incorporate spontaneous Q&A into your practice.
   If you anticipate getting questions, or being interrupted during the presentation, make sure your practice audience is doing the same.
6. Spend more time on the speech opening and closing.
   Practice your opening and close more frequently – commute time is great for this.
7. Practice your timing.
   If the entire presentation is to last for 30 minutes, the practice should go no longer than 18 to 25 minutes, depending on the amount of interaction or questions you anticipate.
8. Practice by recording yourself.
   If they are very critical presentations, videotape yourself. The new Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera is easy to use. You can immediately connect to a computer via its USB port to analyze yourself.
   A good question to ask is, “Would I want to sit through this?”
   If the answer is, “No,” then what do you need to do to change the presentation?