Google: this is how to present a good idea

Public speaking isn't easy. It's even more nerve-racking for folks trying to woo investors or partners or for employees pitching the next great idea to their CEO.

Google's Adam Green, who leads the company's Toronto agency team, provided a primer for best public speaking practices in a class through the company's G2G (Googler-to-Googler) program. You can read a rundown of his class on Google's blog.

Green offers these five tips and tricks to try in your next presentation to your boss, or a venture capital firm, like say, Google Ventures.

• Pace yourself--try speaking a sentence, walk to the other side of the room, pause and then walk to the other side and deliver your next sentence;
• Unfreeze--When you get stuck just start to describe what you see on the slide in your powerpoint presentation or the page in front of you. Once you get going, the words will come back to you.
• Fidget and fiddle no more--hide this distracting habit by standing behind a chair or podium or try planting your hands on the podium so you appear confident, Green writes;
• Get physical--walk around the room or even among the audience to keep them engaged;
• Stop staying "um"--Replace that annoying um with a small, physical movement, like moving your pen, Green suggests.

Some of the world's top CEOs can offer up some lessons on how to (and how not to) present the next great idea. Steve Jobs was a master at storytelling. His presentations are the stuff of legend and a quick perusal of YouTube offers thousands of videos of the former Apple CEO's presentations. Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh is another one worth watching or any one of the hundreds of speakers who present at TED events. Study up.

Photo: Google

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com