Oops, this became a very long post and a real trip down memory lane for me. If you want practical tips on speaking in public, you can scroll down to the last part of the text. Sorry, but like I said, I have promised myself to press publish.
I remember the time in middle school when I would give talks in front of the class. I was super nervous and scared. It certainly wasn’t something I wanted to do, I would rather sit at the back where no one noticed me. I was very shy as a kid so to stand in front of the class wasn’t exactly my greatest desire. It was never fun. But useful/instructively.
In college, just over 12-13 years later when I was studying to Information Engineer at the University of Kalmar, we practiced a lot on talks in front of a audience. We hade courses in presentation techniques and was taught how to give a presentation to an audience. But I had the same feeling then, it was never fun and I was really nervous before every presentation.
A few years later, just before I started my own business, I got the opportunity to hold a course (a small one) at the University of Kalmar. I jumped at the task at very short notice. The course I would teach in was called “Web Development with XML” and focused on the basics of XML and partly also HTML. I think I follow some of the students on Twitter nowadays (this was 2008, before Twitter was big in Sweden). Those who listened to me back then include @erikfalk, @jarnesjo, @erikssonandreas and @joacimstahl. Am I right?
The lecture room at the University of Kalmar
I remember how I came to my old school and the town I lived in for three years. It was a very strange feeling to be back. And the day after, I was in the teachers room and talked to the teachers I had previously had been taught by. But this time it was my turn to teach.
Due to short notice, there was not much time to do my own stuff, I had to start from the previous lectures and try to make them mine. It was hard. But I solved it. I survived. No harm done.
Fast forward the time for another five years and we have arrived at today’s date.
Tomorrow is a big day. It’s the finishing in STING FastForward{.broken_link}, the coaching program I joined in the fall with my startup RevRise. STING FastForward is a program that gathers Stockholm’s most promising Internet startups in 4-month batches (we are in the first batch ever). In short, the Swedish version of Y Combinator (without funding).
Tomorrow all participating startups present what they had done during the 4 months the program been going.
And this time, I haven’t thought to make the same mistake again. This time I been practicing. My colleague and I have probably performed the presentation 25-30 times. At least 10 times on stage where we’ll be tomorrow. Even practicing with microphone. And I have finally understood what it is that works for me. To practice, not to write about what to say, just talk, rehearse what you will say. Go through your presentation a few times, ask for feedback from others and adjust. But then you stop, no more changes. Instead, keep practicing. Polish and practice, practice, practice. Repetition is the only one that provides results.
Maybe it helps that this is something close to my my heart. We’ve been working on a product for just over 2 years. In the fall, I’ve been questioned more than ever before in my career. And recently, we launched version 1.0 of our product.
So I’m quite keen to do well.
Plus I’m very very confident in what we have accomplished. I’ve experienced everything we talk about. It makes everything much easier. And now I realize how much fun it is if you’re prepared. If you can the stuff you talk about.
In the past, I have always been filled with anxiety the days before a presentation. That isn’t the case now. The only thing I know is that it’ll be really fun. A fun end to a very rewarding program.
Demo Day tomorrow will be awesome!
A few tricks about public speaking
- Be prepared
- Practice, practice, practice. Repeat (easier to find your way back if you get lost)
- Find the dynamics and timing
- If possible, practice on the location
- Go up on stage when there is no audience and “know the scene”
Two links worth reading
- Speaking.io (by Zach Holman)
- A few tricks about public speaking and stage technology
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Follow me on Twitter @jonashyse