Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Being a "Great" Presenter

Being an excellent presenter is one of the most important skills you need to have to be successful in your career. Excellent presenters:
  • Make more money.
  • Have larger social and business networks.
  • Have more opportunities brought to them.
  • Have more opportunities to positively impact other people.
At the same time, when lists of top fears are shown, public speaking is always number one on the list of top fears. Public speaking is always at the top of the list ahead of cancer, dying in a plane crash, etc. There are so many excellent ways to develop your public speaking.
  • Starting small at a local ToastMasters would be a great way to meet others that present.
  • Practice giving a ten minute presentation and video taping your presentation is a good way to practice privately.
  • There are lots of great books on developing your presentation skills.
  • Joining local business, social and technology user groups is another way to get an opportunity to present.
  • There are excellent online resources. Below I have a few sites to look at.
  • Watch other people present. See what they do well and don't do well. You can attend local business and social user groups, business chambers, etc.

If you practice by video taping your presentation, keep improving it until you see someone you would enjoy listening to. Networking groups are always looking for speakers to present to them. Just make sure you find some ways to practice your presentation before speaking in front of other people.

Here are some good sites for learning more about delivering presentations:

Developing your presentation skills is one of the more important career decisions you can make! Try some of the above sources to develop your presentation skills and start finding ways to start presenting to different groups. The key is to start small and slowly build to presenting to larger groups.

Good luck and I'd love to hear some success stories on how you got started on presenting!

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