Today the Uncluterer website posted an excellent article on giving presentations. I do quite a bit of presentation work and following years of hard knocks I’d have to agree with just about everything the author says. Especially the part about practice. Presentations don’t happen magically. Unless you are some sort of freak, the only way to come off smoothly is to practice. Believe me. I’ve tried it the other way and it always turns out ugly.

So when I know I’m about to give an important presentation, I practice. No one and no thing is safe from my practice. Mirrors, co-workers, traffic, family members, unsuspecting door to door salesmen: They are all liable to be dragged through an opening statement, a presentation, or a particular analogy that I have yet to get just right. It is good to know I’m not alone.