You might have people's attention, but at the end of the day it's their buy-in that will make or break the idea. Andrew Ng, Co-Founder of Coursera and Assoc. Professor at Stanford University, knows how important speaking and teaching are. So, whether it’s a sales pitch, a lesson plan or a presentation, try his 30-second deliberate practice exercise to improve your skills:
- Select a 60 second portion of a presentation that you made recently, or that you plan to make.
- Record yourself making that 60 second presentation. Use a webcam, camcorder, or your cellphone video camera to capture video and audio.
- Watch your presentation. If you haven’t seen yourself on video much, you’ll be appalled at how you look or sound. This is a good sign; it means that your speaking ability is about to improve dramatically.
- Decide what you’d like to adjust about your presentation. Then go back to Step 2, try again, making any changes you think will improve your speaking.
- Repeat the cycle of recording, watching, and adjusting 8 - 10 times.