Step 4. Practice, Practice, Practice

Once you have your content created, the next step is to practice. The more you practice, the more polished you will be.

Do you need to practice for an hour? Two hours? Five hours? There is no set answer. It depends on many factors—for example, how important the presentation is, how comfortable you are presenting, and how familiar you are with the material. For some people, with some presentations, practicing for an hour is enough. For other people and other presentations, 6 hours of practice might not be enough.

Practice the Beginning, End, and Transitions the Most

Make sure that you have the opening—that first 30–60 seconds—memorized. You need to deliver that part with full confidence and passion. You need to be able to deliver the first 60 seconds without any “umms” or pauses and without looking at your notes. After that amount of practice, it’s a question of how much of the rest of the talk you want to be able to give that smoothly.

Memorizing the entire presentation is not the goal. Unless you are an actor in a performance, it’s probably not necessary to memorize the entire presentation, and it might even be a bad idea. You don’t want a “wooden” presentation, and unless you are a good actor, reciting from memory might make you seem stiff. Memorize that critical opening. For the rest of the presentation you can refer to your notes for cues of what comes next.

Other places to focus your practice are on the ending of the presentation and the transitions. What are the last two sentences you will say? Don’t leave it to a spur of the moment “Well, that’s everything I have to say” or “I think that’s it!” Polished presenters have great openings, great endings, and smooth transitions between topics, sections, and slides (if they are using them). So focus your practice on these critical areas.