Do it Kenny's way.

When I'm coaching, either in 'walk and talk' sessions, over the phone or in my Business Manager capacity, I'm working with wonderful women in business who need to present ideas in meetings or communicate projects, developments at conferences. Some are just concerned about how they tell people what they do in a simple and clear way.

My philosophy is 'why reinvent the wheel' when others have explained how you do this so well. In this case, a dear friend and colleague Kenny Harris http://www.headsurfing.com/ who is writing here about staying on top of your material– without over-reliance on notes or (hopefully not!) a script......

Hard Work warning. You have to learn it, and you have to rehearse it. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve shared a stage with an ‘internal’ or industry speaker who stumbled over their material, or lost their way. Afterwards, they’ll often say something like “but you make it look easy”. It may look easy, but only because I’ve put the work in (and the same goes for most other professional speakers).

Here’s how you make the hard work a bit easier.

As soon as you know you have to speak, put a few pages in your notebook aside for that event. Start with an outline of what you want to say, do, or achieve.

Over the weeks or days before the event, keep notes in your book whenever an idea comes to you about a point to make, or a story or example to use.

When it comes to writing, start with the opening, and the ending, and learn those off by heart.

Have a full rehearsal during the weekend before. And whenever you have a moment (in the car, on the train, or while grabbing a coffee) have a run through of different parts of the speech in your head. Do a full walk through (yes, on your feet) the day before. And then again during the evening before (and early in the morning of the event too if it’s possible).

Finally, by all means use short notes or bullet points, or a mind map – but don’t get tied to them.

Kenny's an inspirational and entertaining speaker, consultant and workshop leader on creative thinking, innovation, and humour. He works with leading companies, public organisations and small businesses to help them get more ideas and better ideas, more of the time. He's the creator of HeadSurfing, a radical programme of creative thinking for individuals, teams and organisations.... and he's a brilliant guy too.