Rehearsal Techniques

Philipp Humm

How to rehearse for your Presentations like a pro?

July 20, 2022

Imagine: You’ve an important presentation coming up. That presentation will decide whether you’ll get your promotion or not! 

I know, big stakes! You’re probably getting anxious just by the thought of that ;).

How can you rehearse for your presentation so that you deliver it with maximum impact?  

Let me share what you should avoid (don’ts) and what you should try (dos). The rehearsal techniques are collection techniques that numerous professional speakers use.   

Rehearsal techniques you should AVOID

  1. Trying to ‘wing it: Plenty of people have told me that they prefer to not rehearse their presentation so that it appears more natural. While I like the idea behind it, I wouldn’t recommend it. By not rehearsing, there is a high chance that you’ll get lost in the weeds or forget about crucial information.    
  2. Rehearse in your head only: Often we go through stories and presentations thinking what we want to say. By only thinking about it, you won’t get a representative picture of how your presentation sounds in real life. You won’t know how long it will be, where to pause, or how to use your body effectively.   
  3. Rehearse in front of a mirror: The worst tip in public speaking is to rehearse in front of the mirror. What’s wrong with it? Tell me when will you ever be in a situation where you give a presentation while seeing yourself? Never! Exactly! It’s completely unnatural to see yourself while speaking. The only thing that you’ll accomplish by rehearsing in front of a mirror is to become more self conscious about how you look. Suddenly, you’ll notice all the small imperfections you weren’t even aware of before.   
  4. Practice without focus: Most people rehearse while moving their gazes randomly in the space, making it look as if they were daydreaming. This is a missed opportunity to train yourself to have more intentional eye contact (something extremely important for when you deliver your presentation).

Rehearsal Techniques you Should TRY

  1. Rehearse presentation 3-5 times: While the number of times you rehearse depends on your learning style, I’ve noticed that most of my clients need to rehearse their presentations minimum three times to remember the exact flow and the most of the details. Sure, it won’t be perfect, but it will be a satisfactory delivery. If you give the keynote in front of hundreds of people, you may want to put in a few extra repetitions to be 200% certain about your script. For my TEDx (The Secret to Building Lasting Confidence), for example, I rehearsed the full speech 14 times.
  2. Rehearse speaking out loud: The most effective way to rehearse your presentation is speaking out loud — in the same way you would speak during the presentation. If you can get a friend to listen to your presentation and give you feedback that would be even better. Bonus: When you mess up, don’t stop your presentation, but go on. That way you train your mind on how to deal with any ad-hoc problems that arise.   
  3. Practice in the street: The most common way to rehearse is in a private room. And that’s totally fine. I do that for most of my presentation. But in case, you want to take it up a notch, you can try to rehearse while walking in the street. Yes, in street, speaking to yourself in front of other people :D.  Why would do you that? If you can manage to deliver your presentation in this awkward situation, you’ll be more comfortable in any high-stake environment. As you’ll feel judged by strangers (e.g. stranger:  “why the heck is he talking to himself?”), you’ll learn how to deal with uncomfortable emotions. It’s a little tough at the beginning, but super powerful.
  4. Practice deliberate eye contact: Imagine specific objects in your space as if they were people in your audience. For instance, your desk light is one imaginary listener, the cactus another one, a photo another one. When you speak, move your gaze deliberately from one object to the other, having eye contact with each object for a full thought.   

Conclusion

That’s it. These are our tips to rehearse for your upcoming presentation or speech.

Give it a try and try out a few of these techniques the next time you’re preparing for your presentation.

If you still get quite nervous on stage, despite your impeccable rehearsal, you may want to check out this next article. There, I’ll share How I’d Learn Public Speaking (If I Could Start Over). 

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