There seem to be dozens of books and products out there that promise to make giving a good presentation or speech easy. They offer a simple formula or some feel good advice and assure you that everything will be fine. Just pay the cashier on your way out. But it won’t be fine.
The famous photojournalist, Eugene Smith, used to teach a photography seminar called, “Photography Made Difficult”. His point, I think, was that to master photography, you have to complicate it first. It’s a complicated process, with dozens of variables, and you need to first understand the implications of the choices you make. In time, if you master the technical aspects, they become second nature. Photography then becomes quite simply a matter of translating your vision to the film, or these days, the CCD screen.
Effective speaking is hard. That doesn’t mean you have to do it the hard way. If you are reading this, you probably know that there are hundreds of books, blogs and training courses that can speed you on your way towards competence, if not mastery. There are training courses like Dale Carnegie that will provide you with training and feedback on the technical aspects. There are groups like Toastmasters that provide a sympathetic audience to practice on.
But you still have to go through the hard process of learning to control your body, eyes and voice. You have to learn how to discover, shape and polish your message. You have to create an experience for your audience that will give you the best possible chance of achieving the purpose behind your presentation.
It’s not easy. If it was, everyone would do it well and I’d be out of a job.
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