If you’re giving a presentation — whether you’re pitching a client, reporting to your CEO, or headlining an industry conference — here are two simple tests you can use to make sure you’re ready:

First - open your presentation on the first slide and say out loud what is on the next one. Then move to slide two and repeat, until you go all the way through your deck. Repeat this process until you know exactly what’s on the next slide throughout the presentation.

Knowing what’s coming next at any point in time will boost your confidence, especially if you’re terrified of public speaking, and will allow you to recover gracefully if something goes wrong up there.

Second - when you feel ready, rehearse the full presentation three times (ideally in close succession to build stamina). Your three completion times should be within a minute of each other and within your time allowance on the day (preferably 2-5 minutes shorter incase the program is running late). If they aren’t, keep rehearsing until you’ve nailed it.

Good luck!

See this post on LinkedIn