Unlocking Presentation Success: Overcoming Insecurity

What's the number one reason most presentations don't go well? It's not moving your hands too much. It's not the ums and the ahs. It's not bad eye contact. It's not lack of preparation. The number one problem that destroys most presentations is insecurity. It's when you and others say, gosh, I want these people to think I'm smart. So let me put all these data points in, let me build all these slides. It's gosh, I don't want to leave anything out. Someone could accuse me of not being hard working enough. Let me put more in and more in and more in and oh, wow, I might forget something. So let me play it safe and read the speech word for word, or read bullet points. All of those things destroy your ability to actually have a conversation with people. So, yes, try to improve your vocabulary. Yes, make sure you're understandable. But the starting point for any great presentation is you have to acknowledge that you are capable, you are confident, you do know your stuff, and you're able to just speak to people to make a set of ideas come alive, understandable and interesting and memorable for people. If you conquer these insecurities, your presentation can go from okay to actually great.