knowledge is no substitute for hard work

i wrote not too long ago about the keys to an effective presentation. it's strange how sometimes you don't listen to your own advice, though, john... seriously.

guilty as charged.

i found myself this week in a situation where i had three briefs to deliver to three different audiences all within the span of a few short hours. it's hard to 'get up' for those kinds of meetings, have a short break in between, and then recapture that tough mental focus again. (oh, and then repeat that once more for the last brief of the day) i was feeling confident, however (i usually do), especially since i was closing it out with the same marketing brief i had given dozens upon dozens of times already. but i should have known better than to take things lightly.

just because a quarterback knows how to play football doesn't mean he can skip film sessions to prepare for the week ahead. and just because a hockey player knows how to shoot a puck doesn't mean he can skip off-ice conditioning. you need to be prepared. you need to work hard at being good; it doesn't just happen.

my first brief—which was luckily the most important since it was with the client and not my own project team—actually went rather well. i hit my major points, i handled questions, and i kept to my time limit. i did, however, prepare for that one. i spent about a day working on my slides and building my story. what was i going to say? how was i going to say it?

my second brief started off a bit like bambi standing on the ice for the first time. i did regain some fluidity in my presentation once the audience began asking some questions, though; overall it was an effective brief. was it the best? certainly not, but i got the job done. i prepared for this presentation as well, but didn't spend nearly as much time as i should have to storyboard everything and prepare a voice track to go along with it.

then it was time for my last brief, and i was stumbling all over myself. i repeated far too many words and phrases making everything i said seem disjointed, i unintentionally skipped all over my slide bullets with no regard for flow, and even a few times didn't even remember what slides i had used in the brief. i left that meeting thinking, "wow! could i have done anything else to mess that up even more?"

perhaps if i showed up late... or without any pants on.

knowledge of a topic is no substitute for hard work. if you want to play with the pros, you're going to have to hit the gym—every day. sit in those film sessions, and ride that stationary bike. you never know when you're going to have to go into overtime in a game 7, so are you going to rely on your knowledge of shooting free-throws, or are you going to spend 15 minutes in the morning shoot-around knocking down baskets from the stripe?

hopefully i won't be blogging in response to this lesson any time soon.