I don’t know what designers need to hear this but when I started presenting my work I sucked. I was almost debilitatingly anxious. Even today after presenting, I can do with a lie down afterwards. But here’s the thing, I knew it was part of the job of being a designer so I made a conscious effort to get better at it.

For five years or so for every meeting I literally wrote out a script for myself. Word for word I wrote down what I wanted to say and I practiced it many times over until it sounded natural and I no longer needed the notes, though I also used notes and sometimes re-wrote the notes based off the script in a much shorter form for reference.

This was the “wax-on, wax-off” stage of me developing the skill of presenting my work. I did that for a good 5 years for nearly every meeting, even when I was presenting only 10–15 mins. Fast forward to today and now I can get by with no prep and no notes.

If you ever observe someone who appears to be very capable at presenting then please do not write yourself off because you’re “not a natural”. I certainly was not. Make a habit of doing the extra work to prepare for each presentation and in 5-10 years time you’ll be able to present clearly and confidently with little effort.

N.B. I still suck a short-form video content, that’s a different skill entirely.