I quite enjoy public speaking, and I think it’s an important part of professional development, but it also terrifies me. I reckon it’s mostly Epictetus vibes (“he not only wants to perform well, he wants to be well received – and the latter lies outside his control”) but knowing I’m scared for no good reason doesn’t really stop me from being scared.
One thing I’ve found to help is going up to the river and saying whatever I’m planning to say. Compared to anything else I’ve tried this has been ruthlessly effective, and has allowed me to change how I view presenting, towards being something I can actually feel comfortable about beforehand.
One advantage is that I actually pronounce the things I’m going to say. It can be easy to put together a script only for it to sound terrible when actually spoken, and saying it all out loud is an easy mitigation for this.
It also forces me to create a narrative in my head and memorise what I’m going to say to some degree. My process is usually creating slides which act as key checkpoints, and then having a broad, unwritten plan for how to bridge those gaps. If my slides are in a bad order, or my bridges are unsound, this is where I figure that out.
Something I hadn’t thought of until I started doing this, is that practicing with my slides in front of me is a terrible idea. I shouldn’t be looking at my slides when presenting: why should I see them when practicing?
Finally, it’s a version of the performance which exists in a calming environment. It feels like I’m giving the presentation, but it also feels like I’m looking at a beautiful scene, because I am. A bit of peace on a presentation day can only help.
Now that I think about it, I guess it’s not dissimilar to rubber duck debugging, except with more alive ducks.