Preparing for an Important Presentation? Get in the Gym!

As a leader, you are responsible for a range of high stakes speaking opportunities. You give presentations to clients, investors, analysts and have conversations with your team, your partners, and the media. What is the most effective way to prepare? Get in the gym!

Athletes who are preparing for a high-stakes competition dedicate time for the gym. In each workout, they refine a specific skill, strengthen specific muscles, and simulate specific game-time situations. They enter the competition ready to deliver the best performance of their lives.

To deliver the best presentation of your career, get in the gym. At the Heroic Voice Academy, we've designed our Presentation Gym workouts based on the professional practice routines of world-class athletes, musicians and performers.

In the gym, we facilitate a 3-part microlearning workout where our participants learn, activate, and elevate a specific message delivery skill.

(1) LEARN a Connection Triangle Skill

Microlearning is an approach to learning new information in small chunks and activating the information over time.? This approach allows us to maximize knowledge retention, elevate confidence levels, and accelerate skills mastery.

Contrast this approach with the traditional workshop intensive, where a lot of information is taught, but little is retained. According to Hermann Ebbinghaus' Forgetting Curve, students typically lose 80% of new knowledge after one month.

When we follow the gym workouts of world class athletes, we find that they are able to successfully avoid the forgetting curve. It is unrealistic in one gym session to learn multiple skills, workout the entire body, and simulate an entire game. As a result, an athlete will design workouts that are specific, targeted, and focused.

In the presentation gym, we create a microlearning workout, focused on ONE message delivery skill from the Connection Triangle.? In the first 10-15 minutes, we introduce the purpose of the skill, identify where it can be applied, and provide a brief demonstration.

Microlearning Example: Relatability

"The purpose of relatability is to create connection with your audience. Before they can open up to your content, they must first open up to you. In the beginning of your presentation, give the audience the opportunity to learn who you are.

Here's how to apply this skill. In your introduction, share the vision of the world that you are created to committing. Your vision communicates where you are going, and audience can determine whether you both are going in the same direction. Share the values that you are elevating in the world. Your values will resonate with those in the audience who care about the same things. Finally, share your vows, your personal commitment to achieving your vision. You vows help your audience determine whether they can count on you.

When your audience knows your vision, likes your values, and trust your vows, you have successfully connected with your audience. They are now fully prepared to receive your content."

(2) ACTIVATE Your New Skill

Each workout participant takes the stage to practice the new skill.? Practice is the best way to achieve a basic level of mastery and turn a theoretical tool into a practical one. After every presentation, our facilitators provide precise feedback to help each participant lock in best practices and eliminate inefficiencies.

Take The Stage

In the presentation gym, we ask our participants to select a portion of their presentation, a segment that can be delivered in 1-3 minutes. Our participants take the stage to practice delivering their message with the skill they have learned.

Whether you are practicing alone, or practicing with your peers, follow our presentation gym guidelines for a successful workout:

• Use Drawings, not scripts. For your practice sessions, draw a simple version of your slide on an index card. Let your drawing guide the conversation.
• Be Bold. Make lots of mistakes and learn from each of them. There is no failure, only feedback. Learning happens outside your comfort zone.
• Honor the Time. ?Use a clock to time your presentation. Stop when the time expires. Professional speakers are masters of both their content and the clock.
• Stay Connected. Create and maintain connection with the hearts and minds in your audience. Use a conversational tone to speak with (not at) your audience.

Receive the Gift of Feedback

Learn to love feedback. Whether you are evaluating your own talk, or receiving feedback from trusted peers, we recommend the following framework:

What worked? While it may be tempting to jump into corrective mode, start by identifying everything that worked: your content, your delivery, audience reactions, audience engagement. Everything! By identifying what worked, you can lock them in as a best practice, making them available for future presentations.

What didn't work? Receiving negative feedback can be challenge. Learn how to not take it personally. Think like a programmer. When a line of their code doesn't work, they simply take it out and replace it. Identify what didn't work in your presentation, and replace it with something more efficient or effective.

Creative options? During your presentations, you will often get real-time feedback that inspire ideas for future presentations. We are not looking for corrective feedback. We are looking for creative ways to deliver you message. For example, we can include a story or a metaphor to accelerate comprehension. We can ask more questions or facilitate an exercise to elevate audience engagement

(3) ELEVATE Your Skills Mastery

Taking the stage in the presentation gym is one step towards mastery of a skill. When our workout participants leave the gym, we assign homework that elevates the mastery of their new skill.?

Spaced Repetition: The Key to Long Term Memory

Hermann Ebbinghaus believed that forgetting curve could be avoided by using spaced repetition of newly acquired information. How can you use this strategy to learn and master new communication skills?

In a presentation gym workout, our participants learn a new skill and then take the stage. This is their first repetition of that skill. As we close our gym workouts, we invite our participants to create their own spaced repetition strategy by finding additional opportunities to practice.

Where can you find these opportunities? Look on your calendar and you will find team meetings, sales presentations and client trainings. In addition to your scheduled speaking events, use everyday conversations to practice with friends, family, colleagues, or even strangers.

Microlearning Example: Vision, Values, Vows

"During our gym workout, you learned how to use 3 elements to relate to your audience. Vision express the big picture of the world you are creating. Values express your brave stand for what is most important. Vows express your bold promise to fulfill your vision.

On the presentation gym stage, you practiced sharing these three elements as the introductory section of your conference presentation. When you leave the gym, consider using these 3 elements in your everyday conversations. When you meet someone for the first time, instead of asking "What do you do?", ask them 3 questions they would be thrilled to answer. Listen carefully and you will discover their vision, values and vows:

• "What have you created recently?" People are usually excited to share something they've designed, built, wrote or painted. Follow up with "What are you creating for the future?", and learn about their vision.
• "What have you celebrated recently?" People love to celebrate. Listen carefully and you can hear the values that are embedded in their celebratory events.
• "What do your friends and family appreciate about you?" This question gives you insight into their vows and character traits. If these show up with friends and family, they are likely to show up in professional relationships.

Expand the Capacity of your Heroic Voice

To accelerate your mission and magnify your impact, consider joining our?Presentation ROI MasterClass. The program prepares you for your most important presentations and conversations. Compose 7 leadership presentations, elevate 6 essential message delivery skills, record your signature presentation.

Schedule an appointment?with one of our executive communications coaches, and learn how the MasterClass will prepare you to generate money, support and reputation from all of your leadership presentations.