Public speaking is not my natural talent. When I decided to improve this skill, I did tons of research. I read about various advanced techniques to handle pressure. Unfortunately, nothing worked for me - I still felt nervous and struggled during presentations.
A few months ago, I was invited to speak about IoT at some conference. The planned presentation should last only 12 minutes. That is when I realized that I have to prepare HOW I want to talk about the topic. Knowing the subject itself was not enough to cover it in 12 minutes in any meaningful way. I spent hours preparing the delivery (the HOW) for that 12-minute speech. As a result, I did not feel any pressure during my performance. My brain was not struggling to invent the HOW during the presentation, and I felt way more relaxed.
I realized that knowing WHAT I was talking about was not enough to confidently speak about it in public.
Currently, when I prepare my presentation, I spend more time on the delivery (the HOW) than on the topic (the WHAT).
That is probably obvious to most of you, but it was eye-opening for me. I hope my example will help some technical professionals to become better speakers.
PS. Do not get me wrong. You still need to know WHAT you are talking about. Knowing the topic is mandatory, but not sufficient, to confidently speak about it in public.
