Tongue-tied? Find the Beauty

Would you make it a point to go and listen to your presentation? Is your message even interesting? Is it useful? Do you really WANT  to deliver your presentation or do you HAVE TO ? The answer to this last question is crucial!

Indeed, your desire to share your message is essential. I know this might sound trivial, but the truth is that if you yourself would never sit in the front row to listen intently to your own speech, how can your message be of any interest to anyone else?

The secret is: Find the beauty.

Find out what is beautiful (interesting, profound, useful, new, enriching …) in the message you have to deliver, because the magic ingredient of every beautiful presentation is the DESIRE – the authentic desire – to communicate that message; the authentic desire to tell others what you have to say, the authentic desire to share something that you consider worth sharing. Without this ingredient, you will be the first who can’t wait for your speech to end. Imagine your poor audience.

Here is another little secret: if you really WANT to deliver your speech, if you are the first to fall in love with its beauty (interesting-ness, usefullness, novelty …), then a bit of the anxiety of public speaking will  fade away. Because at that point the desire to communicate (literally “to commune” with others) will be stronger than the fear of doing it.

Do you have to present boring data and tables? Find the beauty in them. It’s hard, I know, but find it. Or create it! After all,  even the best and most elaborate recipes are made of the simplest ingredients. Why should someone listen to you? What value does your presentation bring to them? Is it the content? Is it your particular approach to that content? Is it the way you present it?

Find the beauty.

Find out the one reason why your presentation is worth your attention and your audience’s attention, and fall in love with that reason. That will be your secret weapon in the match between your presentation and the smartphones in your listeners’ pockets.

Find the beauty … and share it.