I’ve obviously presented and watched a lot of presentations (and every episode of Shank Tank). Based on my rough estimation, I did over 1,000 presentations during my 5-year tenure at the zoo and I’ve coached hundreds of presentations since starting Speak Simple. The key to a great presentation is proper preparation and you owe it to your audience to come prepared. They give up a lot to see you present; specifically their time, which they can never get back. Also, I find that preparation can cure 80% of stage fright. So you’re probably wondering, what do you mean “proper preparation”? Do you have a presentation checklist I can follow? Yes. Your presentation checklist: Presentation Logistics – Ask the event organizer (or prospective client if a bid presentation) about the time you’ll be speaking (start time & allotted time slot), where you’ll be speaking (building location and room layout), who you’ll be
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It may surprise some of you in today’s culture where nearly every business (and school) presentation seems to be a PowerPoint that you don’t need a visual aid to speak. Yes, public speaking is about speaking, not about visual aids; that is called reading. Even if you want to use a visual aid, it doesn’t have to be a PowerPoint (Prezi or Keynote either). Your visual aid can be a poster, diagram, sculpture, model, video, or as the name implies, anything visual that aids in telling your message. When asking yourself, “Do I use a Visual Aid or Not?” I suggest thinking about what the audience needs first. I call this thinking being Audience-Centric, and it is usually the difference between a mediocre and an amazing presentation (especially when people can’t put their finger on the difference.) Think about how you will share your message and what is the best way for your
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I’ve been on a marketing and lead generation kick lately with my blog because it is just as important for many speakers as improving their presentation skills. Most of my clients and SpeakU students fall into two buckets: bid presentations and thought leadership. Both types of presentations can generate significant revenue for business and increase a presenter’s worth and salary considerably, so I wanted to make sure we cover not only presentation skills but also how to generate that larger income. This week, we’re talking about lead generation from speaking engagements. 10 Ways to Maximize Your Lead Generation from Speaking Engagements Presentation Calls to Action – Simply asking your audience to do something, such as give you their business card or download a guide from your website is one of the best and most overlooked, ways to generate more leads. This step is so important; I wrote an entire blog post
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My past few blog posts have been about the great ROI from presentations and the benefits of speaking engagements, so you’re probably wondering how to get speaking engagements. First off, check your ego at the door because you won’t get well-paid keynote speaking opportunities immediately and if you happen to have stumbled upon a paid speaking gig your first time out the gate, then you got lucky and don’t expect that to be a trend early on. Getting paid good money to speak is rare and most keynote speakers spend years building up to that point. Sorry to burst your bubble, but practice does make perfect, and you don’t want to blow your big shot by not being prepared. Also, many of professional keynote presenters regret their new found employment a few years into it because they start living in hotels 250+ nights a year saying the same thing over and over. Keynoting
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The past couple of weeks, I’ve written about the ROI for Presentations as well as Presentation Calls to Action (CTAs) to maximize your ROI [and next week I’ll give you tips on scoring more speaking engagements]. If you’re still not on board with the value of presentations, here are numerous benefits of speaking engagements. In my post on the ROI of presentations, I cited a recent study that found presentations were two of the top three best marketing methods for ROI [see the chart on the right]. Let’s dig into why speaking engagements are so powerful! 9 Amazing Benefits of Speaking Engagements: Lead Generation – This benefit is probably a no-brainer for most of you reading this blog, but don’t overlook it. Make sure you don’t make lead generation your presentation goal though because it will be transparent and feel like a sales pitch to your audience. Keep your presentations educational and if you incorporate
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Many speakers’ goal for a presentation is to get more work or to make money. When coaching presentations, I advise my clients to take a step back and think about the audience, to be audience-centric. As a presenter, you are not there to sell anything, even in bid presentations. You want to educate your audience about something. In bid presentations, you’re educating the selection committee about the best way to select a vendor for their project that happens to align with your best characteristics and differentiation. Especially in content marketing (thought leadership) presentations, you want to make sure you have a clear next step, otherwise known as presentation calls to action. For some of you, presentation calls to action, or CTAs as marketers will call them, are old hat, and it is second nature for you to include them. I bring this topic to your attention because my husband recently attended four presentations
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If you’ve followed my blog or read my book, Speak Simple, you know that I’m a huge proponent of being prepared to speak. Most presenters mess up because they did not prepare enough and you can overcome the majority of your stage fright with proper preparation. That means spending more than an hour to prep and you should absolutely never “wing” a presentation! My suggested preparation time is 10:1, meaning you spend 10 hours preparing for a 1-hour presentation. Yes, that is a lot of time, but you have a lot at risk when presenting and a lot of potential benefits too. So what is the ROI for presentations? Your ROI (Return On Investment) depends on a lot of factors including the type of presentation, your business, your role, and how large is the audience. I’ve coached many bid presentations where winning the project will change the company, and millions of
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One of my favorite questions during my interview about Winning Bid Presentations by Matt Handal for his blog, Help Everybody Everyday, was “How do you know when you are ‘dumbing it down’ versus when you are ‘simplifying’ it. How do you recognize the difference?” I’ve had a lot of responses to this questions from “aha moments” to people asking me to dig deeper. I love that we’ve created a conversation about this, and I’m going to explain why I hate the question “How do I dumb it down?” First off, your audience isn’t dumb. When working at the zoo, I spoke to many third years in preschool. They weren’t dumb; they just didn’t know yet. My job was to educate them and as a presenter, whether doing bid presentations, content marketing presentations, or sermons, is to educate. “Dumbing it down” connotates that you’re better than the people in your audience.
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One of the biggest (and hardest) requirements for an executive is the ability to communicate, not just via email or in the boardroom, but also to the entire company in a presentation (or video). I’ve seen business owners afraid to talk in front of just five employees, and it is a shame. During generational transitions, many executives fear speaking to employees or other executives older than them, especially when they are twice their age. I understand the hesitation, but a lack of executive presentation skills can’t hold you and your company back. This lack of confidence in oneself to talk to your employees erodes your best qualities and makes you doubt yourself elsewhere, and it is entirely preventable. 8 Tips to Improve Executive Presentation Skills: Know what you’re going to say – Before you start rehearsing outline your speech in your head, brainstorm your thoughts and create an outline. Having a lean
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If you’re in the A/E/C (Architecture/Engineering/Construction) industry, you’ve probably heard of Matt Handal’s blog Help Everybody Everyday; it is a must read. [Even if you’re not in the industry and still get new clients via proposals, you need to read his blog.] Matt was in New Orleans recently and we got a chance to meet face-to-face, share some stories, and pick each other’s brains. Matt interviewed me on the topic, Win More Shortlist Presentations and shared it on his blog. Here is a snippet from the interview: How do you know when you are “dumbing it down” vs. when you are “simplifying” it. How do you recognize the difference? When a person says dumbing it down, it connotates one person is better than the other. That is derogatory, faulting the audience for not knowing what you know. It does not showcase a friendly, trustworthy, team-minded viewpoint the selection committee or project owner
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