It’s been mentor mode over here the last few weeks.

Lots of convos about showing up on video, presenting case studies…and the biggest question that keeps popping up–how do I prepare?

Let’s start with how not to prepare:

• Open up a deck and start typing
• Write out a script and start memorizing
• Don’t. As in, you can wing it and read over your notes a few times and you’re good to go.

One way to prep is to start to get our words around what we are going to say.

This would require us to talk things out.

Imagine you have worked your Land Your Point outline and you’ve got your points down and have a strong sense of where you are going and the moment is coming up.

My strongest tip for prepping is to start speaking.
Talk it out.
Say it out loud.

(At least) two things happen:

1. If you have written a script (do not recommend) and you start to talk it out, you soon realize that how we write isn’t necessarily how we speak. So your words change up. The outline is there but the vernacular is different.
   ​
   Overheard in a group coaching session last week… “Additionally, we’re going to work on improving our talent pool…” Would you, for real, ever say “additionally” in a conversation?
   ​
   “What did you do this weekend?”
   “Mike and I went to play mini golf. Additionally, we got frozen custard.”
   ​
   No one in the history of anyone would say that! When we talk out our outlines, word choice might change, flow might shift, and perhaps a point you had in one spot is better served somewhere else.
2. The talk gets tighter. Well, in theory. One of my prep partners is always chanting, “Be economical with your words!” when I am doing test runs.
   ​“What am I really trying to say?” and “So what?” are two of my favorite ways to keep it on track and on point questions.
   ​
   The more you talk it out, I find the less you end up saying “on stage.”
   ​
   You realize when you’re presenting, pauses and breathing are helpful. (One might argue they’re helpful all the time.) You DO get economic in your words. AND you’ll find that you say things different ways during different run throughs. I find this extremely helpful because if we’re not memorizing (WE’RE NOT) and we’re speaking and being conversational (WE ARE) we don’t have every single word planned out.
   ​
   So if you’re walking and talking it out, when you say things one way, and then say it different the next round, when you’re up on stage and it comes out yet a slightly different way, you’re not going to stumble and say, “OMG WAIT SORRY WTH LET ME START OVER I SAID THAT LINE WRONG.” Or less dramatically, stumble and stutter and get in your head. You quickly think, “Oh, that’s how that came out…” and you move on.
   ​

I’m in prep mode myself and just recorded my talk and watched part of it back and I lol’d. (Notice I didn’t throw the camera out the room, go off on myself, get super critical, etc. as one tends to do while watching oneself. Watching yourself on video is data. Don’t take yourself personally.😉)

I lol’d because one of my most said pieces of feedback is, “Mind the pleading in your voice.” OMG DUDE I WAS FULL ON PLEADING LIKE NO ONE HAS PLEAD BEFORE.

I wouldn’t have realized if I hadn’t watched.
I watched. I lol’d. I adjusted.

Now I’m having a conversation in a completely different tone about that point.

Because I said it, out loud.
Because I’ve prepared by talking it’s clocking in at exactly five minutes.
Because I’ve prepared by speaking it out it changes up slightly every time, but it’s in my bones now that I can go with the flow.
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Hmmmm, I just realized there are approximately a ton of other techniques–USEFUL techniques one can use to prepare. Let me know if you want more like this and I’ll keep ‘em coming.

For now my final pro tip of the day is that not-preparing is never the answer.
Winging it is for amateurs.
Preparing is for pros.
You’re a pro.