I’ve been banging on for some time in our  Presentation Skills Course about how creating and delivering a brilliant presentation is like composing and playing a brilliant piece of music.

It doesn’t just happen. It’s not like a bolt of lightning strikes and there you have it – a great oration. You have to do the work to make it happen. Just like you do in presentation training.

I have a Dream…

Martin Luther King had done parts of the “I have a Dream speech…” before.

He had first delivered a speech incorporating some of the same sections in Detroit in June 1963, when he marched on Woodward Avenue with Walter Reuther and the Reverend C. L. Franklin, and had rehearsed other parts.

His background as a Baptist minister gave him a thorough grounding in the form and dynamics of rhetoric. He used his knowledge, experience, and instinct wisely.

From our very early years we use our instincts to communicate and elicit a particular feeling from other people in response. Just watch how persuasive kids can be when they want to!

Maybe it’s not easy peasy to be a brilliant public speaker but, if you’re willing to make the effort, there’s a lot you can learn, there’s a lot you can emulate , and there’s a lot your instincts will tell you if you listen to them.

So it’s a straightforward ABC

A: You need to be aware of what you need to be aware of – the elements that make up the impact you have. Communication Skills training  or Presentation training courses can quickly get you up to speed.

B: You need to consciously choose the impact you want to have – how you want people to feel – and choose how to put those elements together to create that feeling.

C: You need to practice. And then practice some more.

Billy Taylor explains…

The brilliant Jazz musician, Billy Taylor, lays it all out for you here in a far more eloquent way than I can ever do. He let’s his piano explain.