Preliminaries are as important as the act — Part II

So, it’s a “sexual” quote. True. But apply the idea to a public presentation. Most people don’t give the appropriate importance to the preparation (preliminaries) and just focus on the presentation (the act). But the most important tasks for a good presentation don’t happen during the event itself.

About 4 years ago I wrote an article on this topic, preparing a presentation. It was called “Preliminaries are as important as the act”. This one is the sequel and it’s about improving your presentation skills.

The sequel

Jerry Seinfeld, in one of his stand-up shows, used to joke that speaking in public was the number one fear of the average person:

Although part of a stand-up comedy act, it’s somehow true. Do you ever get anxious before a big public presentation? Always feeling you could have done much better after the presentation? Well I did too. And that’s ok: some people are natural speakers. I wasn’t. So I had to work (a lot) to get where I am. If you ever been part of a sports team, you certainly witnessed that most of the work is done in practice, during the week. It’s not when the game is on that one can improve a lot, it’s when “nobody’s watching”. Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t…