Public Speaking Skills For Dummies

Chapter 16

Ready, Set, Go!

IN THIS CHAPTER

Getting mentally and physically prepared to speak

Thinking positive thoughts

Making last-minute checks

Presenting is a performance, and a performance is a production. These facts extend well beyond public speaking.

Most Olympic athletes have a regimen that they follow before their performance. Some of it may be based on superstition, but a lot of that is about being comfortable during their whole day before they perform. They might eat the same thing, take a nap at a similar time, might listen to the same music. It’s all in an effort to not upset how their body and mind are working.

Not preparing and just winging it may work sometimes, but usually it’s better to be prepared. You want the audience to come away thinking that you were so at ease and your speech came so easily out of you. You want to be so prepared that you look like everything is spontaneous. You want it to seem like this is the first time you’ve presented your speech and it didn’t take any work at all. Little do they know, right?

So why blow it after you’ve practiced your presentation to the nth degree just because you ate or drank the wrong thing the night before, or ran ...