To Rehearse Effectively You Need to Say it Out Loud

We all know how it feels to have a big presentation looming – like a cloud threatening rain it
hovers on the horizon. For some it is just a grey smudge of a cloud, while for others it’s an
ominous brooding nimbostratus!

Important client meeting, pitch, board update or conference speech… the pre-presentation
nerve cloud is normal and actually quite healthy for gathering focus. Often some of the worst
presentations have come from those who’ve shrugged their shoulders and claimed it’s not a
problem.

Preparation is the presenters best friend. This is one of the huge flaws of having AI involved in
working life. Your chosen agent can spit out a 20 page report or 15 slides in the time it takes a
kettle to boil – fantastic! But you have absolutely no personal connection with any of that
content and that intimate relationship is vital when it comes to presenting it to an audience. You
need to know your stuff.

Which brings me to the next point – what to do with it. Yes, the thought of it is rather tedious, and
there are several arguments you can have with yourself about it not being necessary, but time
invested in rehearsal is time extremely well spent.

Rehearsal does not mean silent preparation. Reading through your notes in your head does not
prepare you for what happens when you open your mouth. What looks crisp on paper often
sounds convoluted when spoken aloud. Rehearsal means speaking it out loud – at least two or
three times.

What’s the benefit? Practising aloud will alert you to sentence irregularities such as clunkiness,
unnaturalness and lack of rhythm. Practising will also wheedle out that pile up of jargon that
looked fine on the page but now sounds like the worst David Brent ramble.

Crucially, rehearsing out loud will also give you a proper indication of timing. Words in your head
take double time when spoken out loud and this is why the silent read through is so illusory. An
audience will forgive a presentation that finishes two minutes early, but one that runs even five
minutes late is never appreciated.

Rehearsing out loud also helps you to focus on your breathing – a consistently underestimated
discipline in presentation. Controlled breathing brings relaxation and time to deliver with
emphasis, provide punch to your points and poignant pause to your thoughts.

So how do you rehearse? Well, I’d do the first one alone. That way you can encounter all the
clunky obstacles and start to smooth the edges oP your sentences. I also suggest honing your
intro and committing this to memory. It’s OK to glance down at notes or prompt cards during a
speech but if you can launch note-free and wholly embrace your audience, that creates real
impact.

Then I’d do the second one in front of somebody. Yes, I know it’s easier said than done – it’s
painful for you, but it’s all worth it in the end. Everyone around you is busy and nobody’s eyes are going to light up at the thought of playing the passive audience member. Inevitably some
negotiation/incentivising will be required.

At home that might be a trade off on doing the dishes and with friends or colleagues it might be
a trade off along the lines of hear me out now and I’ll return the favour. To soften the blow, it
doesn’t have to be the whole speech – even having them hear the first five minutes should give
an indication of the direction of travel.

Feedback is useful, but sometimes a false friend. You need to trust your instincts and be
attuned to the signs – if their eyes glaze over or they become distracted, this is likely the point
you will lose your oPicial audience

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Finally, I’d do a third run through under ‘battle conditions’, if it’s a big presentation try to get into
the conference room before to get a feel for the room, acoustics, staging and lighting and where
possible record yourself. It is the only way you will actually see and hear yourself delivering your
presentation and you can look for all the things you like and all the things you want to change.

Never forget that speaking to an audience is a physical performance. To gauge how you will
perform, you need to step into that physical space. You can’t do this for every presentation you
give as there isn’t the time, but for the significant ones which would you leave it to chance. As
someone once said – ‘the harder I practice, the better I get’.