184: How To Defeat Imposter Syndrome As A Presenter

<p>Presenting exposes a lot about us to our listeners.  In this modern age it is more and more important that we can be professionals when we present.  Knowledge is power in the presenting stakes, so the safest course is to develop the skill rather than bumbling along like a loser.</p> <p> </p> <p>This is what caught my attention lately: Religious institutions have been suffering during the pandemic.  Japan has more temples and shrines than convenience stores.  Total revenues fell to around two hundred and seventy billion yen or two point four eight billion dollars in 2020 compared to three hundred and fifty billion yen or three point two billion dollars in 2015</p> <p> </p> <p>Many of the approximately seventy seven thousand temples in Japan don’t have enough local patrons to support them.  Typically around 150 supporter are needed to keep the temple open Ninety percent of funerals in Japan are Buddhist ceremonies.  The costs can be anywhere between one million yen and two million yen, that is between ten thousand to twenty thousand dollars.</p> <p> </p> <p>In 2017 the average number of mourners at a funeral is sixty four and those aged over sixty five accounted for a record high of twenty eight point seven percent.</p> <p> </p> <p>We don’t get the chance to do so many public presentations in business, so it becomes a hard skill set to build or maintain.  The internal presentations we give at work tend to be very mundane. Often we are just reporting on the numbers and why they aren’t where they are supposed to be or where we to date are with the project.   These are normally rather informal affairs and we are not in highly persuade mode when we give them.  We should be clear and concise, but we probably don’t really get out of first gear as a presenter.</p> <p> </p> <p>Obviously, giving public talks is a lot more pressure than the internal weekly team meeting report.  We need to be operating at a much higher level and the complexity index is much, much higher.  This translates into pressure and often comes with