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Know
that public speaking is the number one human fear.
So if you have ever been or are a bit nervous about
giving presentations in public, realize you are not alone.
Most people have the same problem.
Continued below is our Top 10 tips to making presenting
easy and comfortable for both you and the audience.
Tip
No. 6: Delivering visuals
So
now you have a nice, clearly designed visual.
How do you mechanically deal with that visual?
What do you do physically to present it to the audience?
Should you look at the visual?
Should you talk to the screen?
Should you not talk to the screen?
We
suggest that you keep the following things in mind when it comes
to delivery with visuals: As soon as your visual is presented on
the screen, whether it be from a laptop, or from a slide
projector, or even from an overhead projector, your audience
will immediately focus one hundred per cent of their attention
on the screen.
So
you effectively disappear from the room.
You vaporize. You
could drop your pants, you can blow your nose – it doesn’t
matter, because until everyone in the audience has figured out
for themselves exactly what all that information means, you’re
effectively not there.
Tip
No. 7: Effects
Keep
in mind: if there are too many bells and whistles, if there is
too much movement, if there are too many sounds, if there are
too many things going on, people will be more interested in
figuring out how to do that with their own presentations then
they will be in the actual knowledge you are presenting.
And
that’s if your dramatic appliqués are good.
Most of the time, effects just add confusion, or worse
yet, disconnection. Make
sure that your message is more important and of value to the
audience than the design features of your presentation.
Tip
No. 8: Pointers
We
still see some people using the old wooden pointer.
We have seen people actually snap that wooden pointer in
half. We have
also seen people play collapsible pointers like an accordion.
The point is, you don’t need a pointer.
An
effectively designed and delivered presentation eliminates the
need for pointers of any kind. Your
data should call attention to themselves.
Laser pointers seem to be very popular these days, but
very rarely does anybody in the audience like them.
In fact, they are pretty annoying to most people and even
a
Beverly Hills
plastic surgeon can’t hold those things still.
Tip
No. 9: Hardware
One
of the things that you definitely want to make sure is that you
show up early to your presentation.
Make sure all of the equipment is in working order, the
overhead projector, the laptop whatever it is you are using.
Check everything out yourself.
Just because the banquet manager came in ten minutes ago
and told you everything was working last night doesn’t mean it
is actually going to work.
We
can’t tell you how many times, and we’ve traveled everywhere
from
India
to
Indiana
teaching seminars, somebody told us something was working, and
it did not.
So
for that reason you have to show up early and make sure
everything is working. Make
sure that you can actually work it.
Make sure that you actually see it working.
It is up to you and it is your responsibility because
when you start your presentation you can’t say say, “Well
you know, somebody in the banquet department told me just a few
minutes ago that this was working.”
Don’t be embarrassed.
Don’t be caught off guard.
Tip
No. 10: The Q&A process
This
process can be very, very difficult because when you are making
a presentation, you are in essence in control.
You have designed that presentation.
You have created some excellent visuals.
You know your presentation well enough to know what’s
coming next.
The
problem with Q&A is that it is the unknown.
You don’t know what is going to happen. Somebody
can throw you a question out of left field.
Perhaps someone can make you look bad.
There is so many unknowns that we need a system to be
able to deal with that unknown, and be sure that you look good
in the process.
One
of the first things you need to know is what to do when somebody
asks you a negative question. Many of us were taught to repeat
the question back to the questioner. Do
you suppose there might be something else we could do other then
repeat a negative question?
If you repeat that negative question, what are you doing?
You are in essence confirming that it might be true.
Now
actually repeating a question is not always a bad idea. It
gives you time to think. It
gives the rest of the audience a chance to hear what the
question is. But if
the question imparts a negative, there is another way.
Instead
of repeating the question verbatim, try this: Listen closely to
the question so that you are hearing not just the words, but the
essence of the question. Ask
yourself what is at the kernel of the question when all the
negative, inaccurate, untrue or personal agenda items are
stripped away. Then
rephrase the question around that kernel, signaling to the
audience that you are actually searching deeper into the topic
that the questioner did!
Because
Q&A typically is the last thing that happens in a
presentation, it is so important and vital you end on a positive
note. We can’t
tell you how many times a presentation which started off well
didn’t end that way, because it all fell apart in Q&A.
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