You are an expert in your professional field, or you are currently developing your expertise during your traineeship or academic studies. Then you are asked to soon present your project to other experts and an interested audience.

Many people feel anxious before their first presentation, or sometimes even before their twentieth. They feel stressed and think about all kinds of mistakes – which then promptly happen.

So how can you overcome your fear of public speaking?

This blog post evolved from a podcast interview in the Coaching Inspiration series with Marian Bansmann (in German).

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People attending my training and coaching sessions mostly want to learn the essentials of good speeches or reach the next presentation level. Their questions are frequently quite similar. Some people have picked up ideas from literature or the Internet that are not always well thought out or simply not true. Let‘s discuss some of these myths in this blog post.

How many Bullet Points per PowerPoint slide?

I observe two contradictory developments regarding PowerPoint presentations: On the one hand, the vast majority of people delivering speeches browse through a number of bullet points. Here, PowerPoint clearly serves as a cheat sheet. Anyone who spends even a little time on rhetoric and presentations will quickly learn that a high-quality talk requires a different approach. On the other hand, many young people are aware of the importance of reduced information on slides. Read more

Do you lose your audience once you speak up? Or do you carry them along so they keep a high attention level throughout your presentation? A catchy structure is one of the important aspects you should consider. A strong introduction, an interesting main part and a meaningful conclusion are equally important. Guide your audience by transitions such as emphasized pauses and changing your position on stage. Also add interactions using polls, quizzes, and short discussions. Sometimes surprising twists and turns help.

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