The other day, a friend and I were talking about whether he could do work outside of his genius zone.

You know the kind of work I’m talking about. The kind of work you can do, but others can do it too.

My answer was “Yes, but don’t.”

Why not, if you can?

Because you need your creativity for the genius zone, for the things that only you can do, but no one else can.

You know the things in the genius zone. They are the things that only take you 10 minutes, and they come so automatically you don’t even think about them. They aren’t even work for you. It’s like they come from god or something, and you are just the mouthpiece.

Say no to everything else. It’ll feel ridiculous at first. That’s okay.

Filling up the empty space with work outside your genius zone puts you at a competitive disadvantage. You can do it, but someone else can do it better, with less effort.

There’s no physical reason Elon Musk couldn’t use his downtime to flip burgers at McDonald’s. But he needs that whitespace to dream up the next SpaceX.

What does this have to do with presentations?

Only present on subject matter that is in your genius zone. Give everything else to someone else.

The presentation becomes a format for you to show off the words god put in your mouth. Others will see that, and they will know you are the one who can do what they can’t.

It doesn’t matter where you put your hands. It doesn’t matter if you are sweating nervously. It doesn’t matter if you are a stick of wood. If you are in your genius zone, your audience will think, “I wish I could do that.”