Speaking - Practice, Practice, Practice!

13 Jan 2019 by Keith Elder

Have you ever been in a play, musical or played an instrument? Maybe you've never graced the stage to perform in any capacity, but you've probably seen others perform live. No matter the performance, they all have something in common - practice, practice, practice!

Speaking is performing in public and requires practice. Performers (musicians, comedians, actors, etc.) understand this because it's drilled into them early on. The ones that go on to be great have learned how to practice better than others. While talent will get you far, hard work and dedication will always beat out raw talent in the end.

How to Practice

Practice starts with you standing in a room looking at your slide deck or notes and doing a run through of your entire presentation from start to finish while using a stopwatch. Typically these are called "run throughs." If you mess something up, write it down or make a mental note and keep going. Run throughs should always be timed because this gives you a baseline for how long your presentation takes. It may take several run throughs using notes to get through your presentation with the goal or not using any notes. You created your slide deck and transitions so your goal is to get comfortable enough that you know them by heart. You shouldn't ever have to look at your computer screen or even have the slides projecting in the room. Engage with the audience even if one isn't there while you practice.

If you're showing a code demo, learn how to zoom in natively on your computer and set your IDE to display larger fonts. You should also think about and practice your backup plan in case you aren't able to use the demos. When utilizing demos, it's good to have a plan B and be able to quickly pivot, as needed.

Borrowing a Practice Technique

After you've made adjustments from your first run through, go back and practice the parts you messed up. No one does this better than musicians, so apply their techniques. A musician will play a passage and if they are unable to play a few notes or a segment of the song they'll practice those notes over and over again until it becomes automatic. Then they'll back up and play more notes in that passage to get into the phrasing. When practicing your presentation, apply the same technique. Don't go back to the beginning when you know the transition from slide three to slide four is what you're struggling with. Find the part that's hard and run it over and over again until you master it. Doing this probably won't build self confidence and you may start to get frustrated. The ability to practice hard parts is what separates great performers from average ones. Great performers are willing to feel uncomfortable for a long period of time until they figure it out. If you continue to struggle with a section, dig deeper to understand why. Ask yourself if this fits the flow of the story. Is this relevant and impactful to the audience or something I feel like I just need to say? Depending on your answer, it might make sense to change the message or remove it from the talk.

From Run Throughs to Dry Runs

Once you've completed enough run throughs so you're able to do it without notes, understand your transitions and build your confidence. It's time to schedule a dry run. A dry run is where you do your presentation in front of some peers or team members that'll be honest with you. You're looking to get better and their honesty about what works and doesn't work is necessary to get to the next level.

The goal of your dry run is to:

Put yourself under pressure in a performance scenario. (Nerves do amazing things!)
Check your timings.
Practice your staging and presence.
Work out any technical difficulties (demos, transitions, etc).
Make sure the story flows and is relevant to the target audience.

Be sure you find a space that gives you a sense that you're performing. The larger the room, the better. After the dry run, sit down with your audience and have them provide feedback. Capture that feedback and make adjustments where it makes sense. Then practice those parts so they're incorporated into your presentation. This may require unlearning what you've already practiced.

Small. Medium. Large.

Now that you've completed a dry run in front of familiar and friendly faces, it's time to branch out. At this point, you should be comfortable with the material, transitions and slides. You'll want to find a small audience that represents your target audience. This shouldn't be the same friendly faces from your dry run. A great place to start may be one of the IT Communities where you have a small audience of internal team members. These team members will have a similar knowledge base as your target audience and can provide feedback on if you're resonating with the audience. Speaking in front of less familiar faces should amp your nerves a bit more. Remember, it's best to make mistakes in front of a smaller audience than a larger one.

As you continue to get more comfortable, continue to do dry runs increasing the audience size, decreasing the number of familiar faces and diversifying the audience knowledge level. Each time you do this you're more closely simulating the audience at the conference where you'll ultimately be giving this talk. After every dry run you should capture feedback and make adjustments where it makes sense. Bullet Time, local user groups and tech meet-ups are all great places to do dry runs to master your craft before the conference.

Pro Tips for Practice

Practice with distractions
Practice in front of a mirror
Film yourself so you can re-watch yourself. If you find it painful to watch, so will the audience! Examine your eye contact. Really listen to your pacing and movement on stage.
Study great speeches by looking at the construction and set-up.
- How does it flow?
- What's the closing?
- How did the speaker engage the audience?