2. Craft a thoughtful plan based on what you want the
audience to achieve. Do this in a setting where you feel
creative. The garden. The shower. The coffee shop.
Anywhere but the computer.
The Godfather, 1972
3. Revise your speech. Make it half as long. Keep trimming
the message until it’s blood simple.
A River Runs Through It, 1992
4. Steve Jobs rehearses tirelessly for his presentations. That’s
why they look so effortless. There are no shortcuts: Great
presentations take lots and lots of practice.
Napoleon Dynamite, 2004
5. Why distract your audience? Keep a clean desktop
that’s free of background images, application shortcuts,
folders and files.
American Psycho, 2000
6. If you’re using slides, keep a second copy on a flash drive.
And a third copy online somewhere.
You never know, you know?
Multiplicity, 1996
7. When you don’t really care much about your
topic, it shows.
Your audience can smell a phony a mile away.
Sideways, 2004
8. Here’s a great way to avoid making mistakes when
presenting software: Visualize every keyboard and mouse
movement before you start clicking away.
Searching for Bobby Fischer, 1993
9. Attempting to memorize an entire speech word for word
is a tall order. Don’t be afraid to keep visual cues handy.
Memento, 2000
10. Great things happen when you loosen up and
enjoy yourself.
Real Genius, 1985
11. After all the planning and preparation, after all the
writing and rehearsing... you should have no trouble
believing in your ability.
You’re going to give a game-changing presentation.
Fright Night, 1985
