10 Zen Ways to Nail Your Next Presentation

Your posture, gestures, and facial expressions influence how you feel.

So stand up straight, weight on both feet. Keep your chin up. Chest out, Open up and smile. Those actions make you look and feel good.

Before you speak, look at your audience with a slight smile and take 3 quiet, deep breaths. 

Then, when the silence becomes the blank canvas on which you will paint your masterpiece, begin.

Stick your ideas into the mind of your audience by being vivid and concrete.

 “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” is more memorable than, “The value of controlled assets exceeds by a factor of two those we pursue but do not yet possess.”

... to defeat stage fright. Fear comes when you fixate on the possible problems rather than on the goal you want to achieve or the process you’re using to reach it. 

In tennis, you don’t look at the net. In golf, you don’t look at the sand trap. You look at the ball and focus on hitting through it.

If you use slides, sentence headlines are better because they make a point. 

Phrase headlines just create a category of items and labels and will most likely be forgotten.

Your listeners want variety. That means broad truths buttressed by homely examples; solemn purpose marbled with humor; a voice that is animated and varied. 

Your audience will find it hard to listen if they’re trying to read slides filled with text. To help them listen, show them what to look at: point out what you want their eyes to see while you fill their ears with your explanation.

As Mrs. Humphrey said to her husband when he was running for President in 1968, "Hubert, for a speech to be immortal, it need not be interminable."