Practice, Practice, Practice

Your sense of self-confidence and your ability to persuade will be even further enhanced by devoting sufficient time to polishing and practicing your presentation after you've done your basic preparation. This means Verbalization, one of the essential keys to making your presentation truly effective. Simply put, the more time you allot to Verbalization, and to its vital counterpart , Spaced Learning (the opposite of cramming), the better your presentation will be.

Spaced Learning will help you take command of your presentation and make you more confident when you deliver it. You will be less rushed and more poised. Spaced Learning will also help you give your presentation greater polish. Each time you practice Verbalization, you will find new ways to clarify your story. Finally, Spaced Learning will give you the time to make your presentation more succinct: to trim deadwood, eliminate interesting but irrelevant detail, and hone your fine points. The result will be a finely sharpened message.

Here's a checklist for your practice:

• Verbalize your presentation repeatedly. You can do this alone or into an audio ( not video) tape recorder. Video recorders will make you self-conscious about the way you appear; audio-only recordings will allow you to concentrate on your narrative. You can also verbalize in front of a trial audience of colleagues or friends . In all cases, verbalize with your slides.

• Time your presentation to be certain that it works effectively within the allotted time period.

• Each time you verbalize, use Internal Linkages to connect your ideas and External Linkages to connect with your audience.

• Pay careful attention to your Phraseology.

Make good presentation practices habitual so that you employ them almost without thinking. Verbalization and Spaced Learning are enormously powerful tools that enhance the effectiveness of every other technique you've learned in these pages. Practice them!