After you have recorded your speech, watch it. I know you don’t want to do this, but it really is essential if you want to give a pretty good speech and avoid giving a pretty awful speech. If you watch a video of your speech and you feel it’s pretty awful, chances are that you’re right—it is awful! That’s okay, just try again (on video) and do less of the stuff you don’t like and do more of the stuff you do like. Just keep on doing this until you can watch a speech of yourself and conclude that it’s pretty good. You don’t have to make it fantastic or perfect—just pretty good. This might require just one recording, or it might require four. Regardless, this is a quick and easy process. People who make awful, boring speeches never rehearse on video. They might think about it; they might even contemplate it for hours; but they never actually record themselves because they are too chicken. It’s okay to be scared, but preferably, you should be more scared of giving a lousy speech.

The number one rule for giving a pretty good speech is to rehearse on video at least once, and then watch and critique yourself.

This article was taken from my new book “How to Give a Pretty Good Presentation” You can order a copy from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-A-Million or from your local bookstore.