Prepare your ‘event of a lifetime’ with no time

You have little time, a presentation to deliver, and you have negative experiences with public speaking. I recently took on a coaching client who presented this situation to me. ‘In 20 days I have the event of my life’ and the task was to get them ready to deliver at their best.

It got me thinking of countless presentations where I ran out of time to prepare or I actively avoided preparing because it was hard and I didn’t want to deliver the presentation. Sound familiar? This situation is more common that it first sounds.

Although learning to speak effortlessly is a long term process, there are some short term things you can (and should) be doing to prepare for your ‘event of a lifetime’ even if you hate public speaking or don’t feel like you are any good at it. This should not be a substitute for building the foundations of a good public speaker but it will help get you over the line when you need it most.

Deliver on the audience promise

Everything in your presentation should be about the audience, not you. This shift begins with ensuring you deliver the thing that you promised you would give them. Sometimes that can be as little as finishing on time. Often it will be delivering the key messages.

Stand in the shoes of your audience. Think about what they want and how they want to receive it. If you were sitting in your audience how would you like it to be presented?