Cam Beck asked me this question the other day in response to my post about your worst public speaking fear coming true : "So how do you know the difference between preparing and over-preparing?" First of all, here's what it looks like to be unprepared . Also, here's a post I wrote about how I prepare for a presentation . I've read lots of articles that say you can never be too prepared, or that it's better to over-prepare. I

Part of preparing for a presentation is anticipating the possible challenges to your message. Be prepared to back up your facts and your opinions. Try reframing the way you look at audience questions, and be prepared for the tough ones, and you'll experience a lot less stress and discomfort at Q&A time. Tags: Do you ever feel like an audience member is attacking you when they ask challenging questions during your presentation? Hopefully, your audience doesn't actually try to discredit you or prove you wrong, as a client recently mentioned to me, but sometimes a particular

Is it possible to be prepared and still be spontaneous? I'll share my method of preparation just as an example. Each of us has our own method for preparing and practicing, so I'm not saying you should do what I do. If I'm lucky, I get to research my audience in advance and can start my preparations already knowing something about what their needs are. I've heard many speakers say that they create their presentation at the last minute, don't practice, and basically wing it , all because they don't want to lose spontaneity. They're afraid that if they practice,

Athletes, of course, are experts at mental preparation , as I've talked about here and here . This is when mental preparation and a healthy perspective can have the greatest benefit. "It's kind of difficult to go home with no hardware, but you know, I'm gonna suck it up and cheer on the rest of my teammates." ~ Tyson Gay, after the U.S. But athletes aren't just prepared for winning. How's your attitude? It's not just in the content, delivery, props and equipment that a speaker delivers a complete package.

However, you can find out as much about your audience as possible before you speak. As I've mentioned in several posts on preparation , learning about your audience in advance can partially protect you against making these kinds of mistakes. Tags: Preparation Public Speaking Techniques and Strategie We make assumptions all the time, about everyone. Mostly, we assume people are like us , share our beliefs, our interests, our tastes, our background, our likes and dislikes, and our sense of humor.

You run the risk of negating all the good work you've done in preparing your content by tripping over your PowerPoint and making your incompetence the center of attention. ...Tags: Tags: Speakers Preparation Pet Peeves Public Speaking Techniques and Strategies PowerPoin Oh dear. I

Tags: Quick Fixes Preparation Public Speaking Techniques and Strategie Driving down State St. last week, hubby and I spotted a sign in the window of a soon-to-open Pinkberry: "Pardon our dust as Santa Barbara awaits Pinkberry's flagship store." Did Pinkberry really need to remind me that the store is opening in Santa Barbara?

Tags: Quick Fixes Preparation Public Speaking Techniques and Strategie Here's a quick tip to make your audience more receptive to your presentation: use their names in your talk! Last week at my networking group meeting, one of the speakers managed to mention five or six people in the room as he went through his ten-minute presentation. Whether it was to illustrate a point,

Tags: Quick Fixes Preparation Public Speaking Techniques and Strategies Communicatio A friend of mine works for a community service organization. A new staff member in the program recently gave a talk to a fraternity on why they should get involved.

Last week a workshop participant came to me after my presentation to tell me that she was very embarrassed to speak publicly because of her heavy accent. (Even If I were speaking in Italian, French or Russian, I could speak with almost a perfect accent. When I speak in the deep south, my New York accent can sometimes get in the way of the message. Even though she spoke 3 languages fluently, she was embarrassed because she spoke one of them with an accent!) I told her to begin her next presentation like this: Good morning.