Don’t Just Practice Your Talk Alone

The last time I winged a talk, I thought I knew what I was doing, after all I had spoke hundreds of time prior. What could possibly go wrong?

EVERYTHING.

I hadn’t test the slides and had one of those spiffy web fonts. Of course I forgot to give them to the A/V person before my talk. So when the slides came up they looked like a mess on the projector.

I spent about 5 minutes fixing the slides. By the time I was done fixing them, my audience had tuned out.

Needless to say I learned my lesson: always practice!

While practicing for your talk by yourself is a great place to start, it’s not enough. Especially if it’s a really important one.

Once you’ve practice on your own a few times, you’ll want to practice in front of what I like to call a mini-audience.

In today’s quick tip I’m going to tell you what a mini-audience is, how to assemble one, and how it can help you improve your talk.