Okay, brace yourself…. I’m going to rant about something that’s been bugging me for quite a while now.
Obviously, as I’m a presentation skills trainer I make a point of keeping track of a number of other blogs and fora like this one - many of them more sucessful in terms of the number of people participating and so on. The one single post that I see again and again (and again) is this:
I’ve got a presentation on XXX in YYY days. How do I do it and what’s the magic bullet that will cure my nerves?
Here’s the bad news, folks. There’s no magic bullet. Everyone (who’s not an idiot) goes out there nervous. If there was a simple “do this and you’ll not feel scared any more” solution, don’t you think everyone would know about it by now?!
These numpties (translation for American readers: numpties = people of limited common sense) seem to think that there are a couple of simple rules. Okay, there are some ‘rules’ (things like don’t write anything in less than 28pt 
) but not the sort they want to put to the test. What we’re being asked to do for them is the equivelent of this:
I’ve got to do a piano recital next week and I can’t play even a G major scale yet. What is the single trick which means I don’t have to do the hundreds of hours of work that other pianists have done to mean I can play the Chopin C# Polonaise without any mistakes?
Sorry folks - if you have to ask the question like that, it’s too darn late!
Presenting, like many things, is a practical (as well as intellectual) skill. You can’t ‘just do it’ without any effort and without putting in the equivelent of hours at the keyboard. Fortunately, it’s not as hard as playing Chopin, but even so you can’t go from zero to hero in no time at all.
If you have found yourself in that position, here’s my advice - forget the presentation and worry about doing the work instead!
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