Powerpoint presentations – what your audience wants to see

by: Ellen Egan

Geetesh Bajaj

Death by PowerPoint.  It’s a term we have all heard before, representing the excruciating feeling of being bored to death by a too-long presentation, delivered in monotone and at its foundations is a set of PowerPoint slides containing too much text, too many ideas and too much clip art.

PowerPoint was designed as a presentation software that would aid the presenter by providing an easy way to create slides and move away from the dreadful overhead transparencies.  However, people who lacked the skill to present and the desire to create an interesting presentation began to use PowerPoint as a crutch, a flashy way to distract from the fact that they didn’t know or care enough about their topic to make an effective presentation.

Let’s talk about how to use PowerPoint (or any presentation software) properly.  After all, presentation greats like Steve Jobs  use presentation software.  They just do it well.

people want to see presentations that are:

Short:  No matter what type of presentation tool you are using or what topic is at the center of your presentation, stick to the 10- 20-30 rule that Guy Kawasaki promotes.  Your presentation should be no longer than 10 slides.  Keep it short.  If you can’t get your ideas across in 10 slides, then you need to have someone else edit it down to 10 slides.  The “20″ part of the equation is that you should speak for 20 minutes at the most.  We all get distracted after 20 minutes.  This allows time after your presentation for Q & A.

Simple: Keep the ideas focused.  This is true for the overall theme of your presentation and for each slide.  Within the general theme of your presentation, you should have about 3 main points (no more than 5).  you should be able to get 3 main points across in 10 slides.  Keep the slides simple as well.  long gone are the days when audiences will put up with slides filled with text at a 10 point font.  Keep it to a few words per slide,  that express the ideas that you are presenting.

Understandable: Here is where the “30″ part of the equation comes in. Use a 30 point font. Then, even the person at the back of the room has a chance to read the words on your slide.

Appealing: Use words that capture people’s attention, trigger their emotions, mean something to them.  As I always say, keep your audience in mind.  Think of what would mean something to them and build your presentation from that standpoint.

If you follow these rules, your audience will thank you.  You will also find that you are much more effective at presentations  and you enjoy public speaking a lot more.

To your success,

Ellen

PS.  Here is one of the best books that I know of on creating great presentations Garr Reynolds Presentation Zen:

No more tricks to improve your public speaking skills

by:  Ellen Egan

DoubleM2

We have all seen the books and courses on public speaking that tell you of the “Top ten tricks for public speaking brilliance”. When we open up the book or the course, it is filled with advice on removing the “umms” and “ahhs” from your speech. Or, we are told to practice voice techniques and eye contact. While all of this is good advice to polish your public speaking, it does little to deal with the core issues of public speaking fear or the person who wants to seriously develop their public speaking skills.

Training in public speaking is not just a matter of externals like voice, body language and eye contact. It’s not about conforming to standards or imitating the skills of someone you admire. Public speaking is about you speaking in public. I know, that’s pretty obvious but many people miss this critical point. The first thing we must understand is that we have to have something of value to share, to speak about in public. If there is nothing of value to share, then no tricks or training will make the talker anything more than a person taking up space and time.

So, the starting point is here.

1. What do you have of value to share with your audience? Do you have an idea, a product, a service, some information, etc. that will improve their lives and/or solve a problem?

Take a pen right now and write down at least five things of value that you have to share with an audience. You will probably find that have more than five when you begin listing all your experiences, ideas, information, etc.

2. How do you know it is of value to your audience? Take the time to find out as much as you can about your audience so that you can tailor your message so that it is clear to them that it is of value.

Take a pen right now and write as much as you can about your audience. Who are they? What do they already know about your topic wnd what do they want to know? Why are they going to listen to you?

Once you clearly have something of value to say and you know enough about your audience to see how it is of value to them, then you can begin crafting the presentation. At this point we can bring in the important aspects of writing a powerful speech, practicing techniques to deliver a strong presentation and using tricks to capture and hold attention.

Make a great cake (that you know your audience will like) and then add the frosting.

Public speaking tips – Whatever happens is normal

by:  Ellen Egan

SuperFantastic

I was just reading an article about leadership and the author was talking about the concept of approaching each situation with the understanding that “everything is normal”.  I thought that was a great concept to share and to apply in public speaking.

One of the fears that people attach to public speaking is that “something terrible” will happen while they are speaking – something that will throw them off their well-planned-out speech and leave them babbling like an idiot,  or worse, silent in front of the room.  Does this fear sound familiar?  Often if you ask people what they think could go wrong, they have difficulty defining this thing that would throw them so off-track.  But, the fear is firmly in place, nonetheless.

Now, we all know that when it comes to public speaking, I am all for preparation.  Can’t be too prepared, I always say.  But, at the same time you must expect the unexpected and know that “whatever happens is normal”.  If you can approach each public speaking experience with the attitude that whatever happens is normal, and more importantly, that you can handle it – you will sail through every presentation with style, and enjoy yourself a lot more.

Remember this tip when you are stepping up for your next presentation and you will be able to approach every little “glitch” with a smile and a calm demeanor.

To your success,

Ellen

Numbers that talk in public speaking

By Ellen Egan

In public speaking, we often use data to support our main points.  This is good, right?  No.  Data is boring.  Data is something that “experts” who don’t like talking in front of other people use as a prop to hide behind.  Think of it.  Who likes to listen to an hour of data,data,data.  I fall asleep just thinking of it.  But wait, what if I’m delivering a presentation that has to use data to support the main points?  What do I do then?

Data is interesting for the people who went through the trouble to gather the data.  Not to your audience.  Your audience wants to hear a story.  Your audience needs number that tell a story.  That is intruiging.

I just read a story about water in San Francisco.  The tap water in San Francisco comes from a nearby national park and is so clean the city is not required to filter it.  As a result, tap water costs approximately .0021 cents per ounce compared to 7.9 cents per ounce for bottled water purchased at the store.  The data shows a big difference in cost, no?  But, when you hear that you could take a bottle and fill it from the tap once  a day, every day for 10 years, 5 months and 21 days before it cost the same as one bottle of water from the store – now you have a story that sticks in someones mind.

If you want your data to have an effect on your audience, you need to use it to tell a story.  You need to use it to create an image that is within the audience’s grasp of understanding.  Use your data to tell a story and it will breathe life into your presentations.

To your success

Ellen

Public speaking in business – preparing to deliver a proposal

by: Ellen Egan

Public speaking is important in every business setting.  Very often in business, you will need to deliver a proposal or a pitch to a potential client.  In these situations, you will want to do more than just display your technical expertise, you will want to persuade your audience to take some action. Certainly, you will want to include some technical information to inform your audience about the product or idea you are presenting.  but, keep in mind that the ultimate outcome you want  is to sell a product or an idea.  By preparing your presentation properly you can achieve your objective of informing your audience and encouraging them to take action.

There are four important questions to answer in your preparation:

1.  What is your purpose?

2.  Who is your audience and what are their needs?

3.  What is your main message and how can you best support it?

4.  What definite action do you want the audience to take?

It is important to start by defining your desired outcome.  Do you want the audience to buy your product or service? Do you want them to take a specific course of action? Are you looking  for agreement or approval? Be specific about what you want your proposal to accomplish.

Analyze your audience.  I have written a blog series and several articles about the importance of audience analysis and the steps to do this successfully.  Audience analysis is the cornerstone to successful presentations.

Design your main message around the wants and needs of your audience. Frame the features and benefits of your product, service or idea around the wants and needs of your audience.

Be sure to tell your audience exactly what you want their course of action to be.  This is where presentations often fall flat.  The presenter doesn’t tell the audience the action they want them to take.  Be very clear about this.  Tell them exactly what you want them to do – it will be much easier for them to do it.

The classic advice in delivering a proposal is

1.  Tell them what you’ve got.

2.  Tell them what it’s going to do for them.

3.  Tell them what you want them to do.

If you prepare for your presentation with these ideas in mind, you will be on the road to delivering a successful presentation.

If you would like to learn even more about effectively getting your message across Click Here

To your success,

Ellen