by Gilda Bonanno LLC
One of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to presenting is not spending enough time preparing and practicing. That’s true for formal presentations and it’s just as true for the informal moments when you’re speaking up in meetings, interviews or conversations that matter.
When you have to present, practicing out loud matters. The goal isn’t memorization for its own sake. The goal is internalization. One of the clearest ways I’ve found to explain this comes from my experience in driver’s education.
I took “driver’s ed” in my senior year of high school. I grew up near a state parkway and that’s where our class practiced driving. The parkway was not exactly beginner-friendly. It was a narrow road with two lanes in each direction and only a small shoulder at the edge of the road. And people usually drove faster than the speed limit.
After sitting through some classroom sessions and some time in a driving simulator, it was time to get into a real car and drive. There were four of us students in the car and the instructor sat in the front passenger seat. He didn’t have a second steering wheel. He only had a brake for emergencies. That was it.
Before that day, my total driving experience consisted of my dad taking me to an empty Kmart parking lot a couple of times. I had never driven over 20 miles an hour. And now I’m sitting behind the wheel and the instructor says, “Pull out of the school parking lot, take a left, take a right and merge onto the parkway.”
The speed limit was 55.
I remember thinking, We’re going to die. I’m going to kill all of us. And even if we survive, I have no idea how we’re getting back to the school because I don’t know how to get off this road.
But somehow, we survived. All of us. I managed to drive the car on the parkway and even back to the school. I eventually passed my driver’s test and got my license.
The driving test proctor told me, “I probably shouldn’t pass you, but I will. You just need more practice. A lot more practice.”
I did get that practice and I’ve been a good driver for many years now. I don’t think about each individual step anymore because driving has become automatic. I automatically put on my seat belt. I automatically check the mirrors. I automatically look out the window for oncoming traffic. So it has become internalized. And if something unexpected happens, I can fully focus my attention on that in the moment.
That’s exactly how I want communication to feel for you.
When you practice a presentation enough, you stop thinking about every individual word. Your opening, your transitions, your timing, your close, even your answers to likely questions become part of you. It flows. You’re not scrambling in your head asking, What do I say next?
That level of preparation doesn’t eliminate nerves. Nerves may be inevitable. But it gives you the bandwidth to manage them. It lets you focus on your body language, your presence and your connection with the audience instead of just trying to survive.
And like with driving, riding a bicycle or any skill you've learned that has now become part of your muscle memory, when presenting becomes more automatic, you can stay fully present and handle unexpected moments with confidence.
Practice isn’t about perfection. It’s about internalization. So when it’s time to merge onto the metaphorical highway, you can drive with confidence instead of white-knuckling the wheel.
© Gilda Bonanno LLC - Gilda Bonanno serves as a trusted advisor to executives and entrepreneurs to transform their communication, presentation and leadership skills. She has worked with companies on 4 continents, from Chicago to Shanghai and Rio to Rome. The instructional videos on her YouTube channel have received over 1.5 million views and her e-newsletter has reached subscribers in over 45 countries since 2008. For other articles or to receive Gilda's e-newsletter, visit www.gildabonanno.com