In the mid-1800's, the Lumiere brothers created some of the first motion picture presentations. These were spectacular events. Audiences would see footage of a train rolling closer on the screen and flee the auditorium to escape the oncoming locomotive. These early images had no soundtrack, no story. They were among the first depictions of life in motion.
But really, these were just a bunch of single images shown one at a time in rapid succession and the brains of the audience connected the pictures to create meaning and respond emotionally. Even today, our audience is primed to link images together. Good presenters continue to use this to their advantage.
Try this. Like a film projector that shows one frame at a time, Do one thing at a time.
It looks like this:
FOCUS YOUR LENS: With your presentation notes in front of you ask, What is the one thing this audience cares about most? Then organize your presentation around only that one thing.
Make a picture in your mind of yourself speaking in front of your next audience, discussing this one thing. Breathe. Say to yourself, "Do it."
CREATE THE PICTURE: Come back to your notes and ask yourself, What story or factual data point supports this one thing? Then insert that one story or data point into the presentation.
In that picture of yourself speaking, insert that part of the presentation that involves that story or data point. Breathe. Say to yourself, "Do it."
EDIT YOUR NARRATIVE: Come back to your notes and ask yourself, What are the transitions in my presentation that lead up to the one thing the audience cares about? Identify and refine how those transitions connect the thing that came before it to the thing that follows.
In that picture of yourself speaking, move to a transition in the presentation where you make a clear connection between one part of the speech and the next. Breathe. Say to yourself, "Do it."
PROJECT THE STORY: With the specific sections mapped out and linked together with logical transitions, make sure that you know where you are going--wherever you are in the presentation. Create pictures in your mind to locate you in the content, and on the trajectory of your presentation. As you say the words associated with each part of the content, feel yourself move from one picture to the next picture--looking ahead for the next piece of the story and taking the audience with you to the destination you have chosen for them.
Experiment with this now. Give yourself a better "next picture" to move to and feel how they link together--like a strip of movie film, where individual pictures are strung together to create seamless motion.