If you read nearly any presentation blog or public speaking article published in the past few years, you’ll hear some expert stating you need to become a storyteller. I’ve even seen a shift in speakers now calling themselves storytellers and presentation coaches now training storytelling. Storytelling is a great presentation technique when used properly, but most “expert storytellers” are natural storytellers and do not understand how to teach others what comes so easily to themselves. Also, the really good storytellers don’t let you in on a big secret because they want you to buy their course or workshop and think it is easy. Storytelling is hard and you need to beware the storytelling trap! While I fully support and encourage my clients and SpeakU students to use stories during their presentations, using stories must be strategic. Stories humanize you and allow your audience to empathize with your information, which is the
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Guest post on Visual Impact by Luke Goetting of Puffingston. You work for months or maybe even years on the perfect website design for your company. You go through numerous revisions on your brochures and marketing collateral until you finally land on the elusive edition you’re happy with. You’ve developed and refined a social media strategy so in-depth that every single tweet, “like” or share adequately portrays your brand (fingers crossed!). But what about your business presentations? If you’re like most people, these frequently get thrown together in the eleventh hour without much planning or consideration—let alone help from a professional designer. However, your presentations are an important piece of the puzzle that deserve some thought and attention. Unlike the aforementioned outlets, your presentation represents a unique opportunity to communicate with an audience in-person and deliver your message for minutes and sometimes hours…for better or worse. Use these three tips when creating your
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Presentation remotes provide you the ability to move around the space during your presentation and engage your audience instead of being stuck behind a lectern (podium), or worse having to tell someone to advance the slides. (That is annoying for you as the presenter, the audience, and no one on your team wants to be a human presentation remote.) I always say a presentation is just a conversation and a remote allows you to step away from the computer to share your message and to dialogue with your audience. Otherwise, if you’re using a visual aid like PowerPoint or Prezi, you have to stay near the computer or run back to it to advance your slides. Criss-crossing the stage is irritating because it is a distraction to your audience’s attention span and it breaks your momentum as a presenter. I always suggest using presentations remotes whether you’re a new presenter or a
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Last week I shared some current, hot presentation trends that I’ve witnessed and heard about the past few years. After sharing that blog with my email list and via social media, numerous people contacted me asking me what are the next presentation trends. Although it is impossible to predict the future, these are some future presentation trends that I already see emerging. Future Presentation Trends Utilizing Second Screens – Conferences have used large screens to allow the audience to see the speaker’s visual aid and to see keynote speakers up close for years. Many conferences are now sharing the speaker’s PowerPoints via the conference’s app so that the audience can follow along, or cheat ahead (another reason for brevity in your visual aids). The premise of sharing the visual aid before the presentation ensures everyone in the audience can see the aid, which is important in long or odd-shaped rooms.
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I’m excited to share my thoughts with the Puffingston Prezi Presentation Design & Training team. I recently wrote a guest blog for them entitled How to Prepare a Presentation — Focus on the Audience. Here is a snippet from it: Imagine you’re chatting with your grandfather One of the best pieces of advice I ever received about public speaking didn’t originate from a presentation book or presentation coach but from a librarian. Following one of my presentations years ago, I was told, “If you have any hope of improving your presentations, you must talk to the old people.” It took me a bit to comprehend what she meant and quite a while to fully understand the meaning of her unique advice. It hit me one day when talking to my grandfather — the elderly require a specific amount of simplification in order to ensure their understanding. Even when imagining an elderly crowd,
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Communication evolves, so it makes sense that presentations change as society changes. One of the biggest drivers in public speaking over the past 20 years has been technology. I’m excited by many of the presentation trends that I’ve witnessed and researched. I’m sure you’ve seen some of these presentation trends first hand too. Today’s Hot Presentation Trends More Visual Visual Aids – No, that isn’t a typo, audiences want better looking visual aids like PowerPoint. Presenters are upping their game when it comes to their slide decks. A rule of thumb, use fewer words and no bullet points, which I’m so happy to see happening. (I suggest 5-7 word titles max with strong pictures.) Having fewer words on the screen keeps the focus on you, the presenter, and prevents audiences from disengaging because they read faster than you can talk. I’ve always said if you have everything you’re going to
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I received the best compliment yesterday about my book, Speak Simple -Art of Simplifying Technical Presentations. A reader recently emailed me to say my presentation book was “different”! She said that she is a long-time, self-help presentation hobbyist so she reads a lot of presentation books and they all sound alike – speak up, eye contact, and don’t “umm”. I love getting feedback like this about my presentation book and it is so true that I’m different because that is my personality and my background. I didn’t set out to write a presentation book (or even start a presentation coaching company), I had a message that I wanted to share about simplification and being understood. One of the biggest challenges technical professionals have is communicating their expertise so their clients and prospective clients can understand them (and hire them); that is where Speak Simple came in and why I wrote
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I’ve said for years that presentations have evolved from doing a well-scripted, rehearsed presentation over and over for years to more modular presentations that speakers customize to each audience. Now, with the aid of technology, we’re going back to the repeated presentation. However, you only have to deliver it once. One of the struggles of presenting live and in-person is the cost, time, and hassle of traveling for the speaker and the audience. Webinars allow presenters to share their message across the globe while sitting at their desk. Many people think webinars have to be live, yet many savvy presenters and marketers are now utilizing evergreen webinar technology (or automated webinar software) to reuse webinars over and over, sometimes 20x a day. With programs like EasyWebinar and WebinarIgnition, you can record a presentation or replay a webinar you’ve already done over and over. This tactic allows you to multiply your message while
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The biggest mistake a presenter can make is skipping speech outlines. Without an outline for your presentation, you will go off topic, waste time, and lose your audience in a “spider web presentation” that changes topics widely. These repercussions frustrate your audience and lead to a poor ROI of your presentation. Never start developing a presentation in PowerPoint! Whether you’re new to public speaking or just trying to improve, start every time with speech outlines to ensure your success. Presentation Preparation Process: Brainstorm Speech Ideas – Think of all the potential things you can say about your topic and write them down in a list, or I prefer to use notecards. Don’t worry about silly ideas or thoughts that don’t fit just yet. Flesh out each idea and random tangent your brain has and document them in this process. It is okay, and even a good idea, to grab a
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I get this question from audience members nearly every time I present – how much time should I spend to prepare for my presentation? Although it really depends on your presenting skills and comfort level with the information you’re sharing, I do have some rules of thumb when it comes to presentation practice. I call it the Speak Simple Presentation Time Breakdown. For every hour you present, you want to spend 10x that preparing! Preparing your presentation includes your strategy, brainstorm, outline, walk through, visual aid, practice, dress rehearsal, and even your debrief afterward. When you break out the steps, my 10x suggestion sounds more realistic. Unfortunately, most people spend a 1:1 ratio or less. Many speakers spend less than an hour to create a visual aid for their hour long presentation, and they skip the strategy and have no rehearsal either. I see this as disrespectful to your audience who gives
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