was quite a good presenter before, the improvement was dramatic. - - PDF document
1 Ace that presentation How to define, di ff erentiate and distinguish yourself This was a breakthrough for me. Even though I felt I was quite a good presenter before, the improvement was dramatic. Your workshop has been the
for me so far in my professional life. Previously, I became paralyzed when asked to speak publicly.”
This was a breakthrough for me. Even though I felt I was quite a good presenter before, the improvement was dramatic.”
How to define, differentiate and distinguish yourself
Let’s start off with six quick tips to help you ace your next big presentation or speech.
1. Be yourself. Don’t hide behind big words, or behind a persona you think the audience wants. Don’t use gestures that are foreign to you. Don’t try to use words that you would never use in conversation with a friend. 2. Be passionate. Be comfortable displaying your passion. Passion engages and inspires your audience. 3. Be focused. Don’t try to cover too much ground or cram your presentation with information. For your audience to receive a clear message, you have to be clear about the message you want them to get. 4. Be clear. Use simple words in simple sentences. The simpler you are, the more powerful you
clarity and ensure your message sticks. 5. Be engaging. You need to pause for the audience to reflect on what you say and for dramatic effect or emphasis. A strategic pause is a great way to let the audience reflect on the point you made, or draw their attention to a point you’re about to make. 6. Be a storyteller. Stories define us, inspire us, comfort us and teach us. Well-chosen and well- told stories resonate with different audiences in different
it prompts us to respond ‘that could be me’. Facts tell, stories sell. Now let’s dig a little deeper.
Halina St James
Founder of Podium Coaching and creator of TalkItOut™
It all comes down to this
Let’s look at those elements. Have something to say This is harder than it sounds. Think
presentations you’ve listened to. They are like a journey into the
the speaker wants you to take away from the session. And sometimes it seems the speaker doesn’t know what the destination is, either. Having something to say means focusing your ideas. Really
business or organization. Can you express what you are all about in ten seconds? That’s 30 words. That’s one long sentence or two short sentences. You must find that defining sentence at the outset.
Believe in it You have to believe in what you are selling - whether it’s a product or a philosophy. Your passion is your strongest tool as a speaker. But it involves figuring out a few other things - like knowing your core values. We’ll come back to that later It involves knowing your audience - and figuring out what YOU want THEM to do differently because of your presentation. Say it simply Simple, everyday words are vital if you want to be a powerful speaker. Later we’ll look at what I call message inflation: the more important the message the more we try to dress it up in fancy language. Shut up An awful lot of problems in speeches and interviews happen because we forget to shut up. We like to offer a little more, so we elaborate - and in that elaboration lies disaster.
best language is silence. We live in a time of a terrible inflation of words Eduardo Galeano (above) “Be sincere, be brief, be seated” Franklin D Roosevelt “Let thy speech be better than silence, or be silent.” Dionysus
A lot of people - most people in my experience - prepare a speech like our friend on the right.
keyboard
fingers
screen, and send message back to brain
What’s missing? Two vital absolutely organs don’t get a look-in during this critical process. The mouth and the ears. You’re not supposed to be writing to your audience. You are supposed to be speaking to them. But if you prepare like this - in silence, thinking great thoughts quietly - your speeches will almost always suffer. You’ll be reading at the audience. You see, we all use two vocabularies.
There’s the one we use in conversation:
And the words slide easily off the tongue And then there’s the vocabulary we use when we are writing:
When we are in ‘writing’ mode, seeing words rather than hearing them, our style changes. Generally, sentences get longer. We slip in more subordinate clauses, those pesky little thoughts in parentheses (a word we rarely use in a chat). We worry about repeating a word, so we start looking for synonyms - and before you know it a simple fire has turned into a blaze, and the blaze has turned in to a conflagration, and the conflagration has become an inferno. The other thing we do in writing mode is inflate our words. When we write we reach for some of those words off the top shelf that we seldom use in conversation (like parentheses, and conflagration). Before you know it we are writing: ‘High‐quality learning environments are a necessary precondition for facilitation and enhancement of the ongoing learning process'
when we really mean something like: ‘Kids need good schools if they are to thrive’ Sometimes, in ‘writing’ mode, we play tricks with our sentences - like inverting them. Originally from England, Bill has called Nova Scotia home for 25 years. In print, the inverted sentence is common - and works well. But we rarely use it in conversation. We’re more likely to say: Bill was born in England. But Nova Scotia has been his home for 25 years.’ Our TalkitOut™ technique is about talking the words on to the page. Speaking them out loud before you write them out. It’s you rehearsing a conversation with the audience, rather than writing an essay. It takes discipline. It’s easy to ‘think’ the word out loud, or to mumble it under your breath. That helps, of course. But it’s not as good as actually speaking the word
When you speak out a word, phrase or sentence you are testing its usability. You are checking that it’s easy to say. ‘Indomitable’ looks like a good word on paper. But if it comes out as ‘indomitabubble’ you probably want to change it to ‘strong’ or ‘brave’ or ‘steadfast’. TalkitOut ensures that you make the discovery in the preparation stage, rather than introducing 300 strangers to ‘indomitabubble’.
So the first big tip is this: if you are preparing a speech or presentation, get in the habit of talking it out. Say the words - try the words - before you write them down. The second big tip is this: Set the words out differently on the page. Let me show you what I mean. If I was preparing a speech about Talkitout using the conventional way of setting out the script, it might look like this: TalkitOut is about talking the words on to the page. Speaking them out loud (really speaking them, not just thinking them) before you write them out. When you speak out a word, phrase or sentence you are testing its usability. Try it. See how easily it slides off the tongue. Change it if necessary. Then - and only then - write it. Using the Talkitout™ Technique, I would set out the speech very differently: TalkitOut is about talking the words on to the page. Speaking them out loud (really speaking them, not just thinking them). Saying them
before writing them. When you speak out a word, phrase or sentence you are testing its usability. Try it. See how easily it slides off the tongue. Change it if necessary. Then - and only then - write it. The first, conventional, version looks like a paragraph from a book. It’s really hard to lift those words off that page with feeling. And if the sentences are long you are trying to figure out where you get to breathe, rather than concentrating on helping the audience understand the meaning. The second version, using TalkitOut™, is much easier to perform. It’s much easier to see where to put emphasis. You can put key words and phrases in bold to help get the meaning over clearly and strongly. And did you notice that I changed the words slightly between the two
Speaking them out loud (really speaking them, not just thinking them) before you write them out doesn’t flow off the tongue. The thought in parentheses gets in the way. It may work on paper, but it feels clunky when I try to speak it. So it has to be changed.
Make sure you have a sound structure for your presentation This is one I like:
Before you can start structuring your speech or presentation, you need to define your controlling idea, or focus. Narrow it down to
It’s the big idea you want the audience to take away from your presentation. To figure out your focus, you have to be absolutely clear about the core of your message. If you were writing a movie you’d call it the controlling idea. In Rocky,
and ingenuity help the underdog triumph’; in Finding Nemo it’s ‘love helps you learn to trust’. The controlling idea is the one sentence that controls a two-hour
your speech or presentation. Once you’ve defined your focus, move to the hook. Hook The first few sentences are critical. You want the audience to lean forward, to engage. They’re wondering what’s in it for them. They’re wondering if they should have stayed home and cleaned the car So I’d advise against opening lines saying how pleased you are to be
presentation I will tell you this, this and this’. Hook them. Grab them. Surprise
Context After a strong hook, move to the
information people need in order to follow your arguments. Without a little bit of background your presentation may not make sense. (But don’t get carried away and start offering a history lesson. A little context is vital, too much can be boring). Content Now you can unfold your
the longest part of your script. Conclusion Finally, wrap it all up elegantly and dance off the stage.
message in a sentence, you can’t say it in an hour.” Dianna Booher
Every time you speak, you are using the 3 Language of Communication simultaneously. And in this order:
Body language speaks first and
you, even before you speak, they will judge you… and often they’ll do it in 5 to 7 seconds. They will like you or not, depending
and movement. Then you speak. Your Spoken Language will either reinforce the first impression of Body Language
pausing strategically, using emphasis and telling stories? Or are you laboriously reading from a script, in a monotone? The third language to kick in is Inner Language. You can’t see it or hear it, but it exists. Inner language is expressed through your energy, the tone of your voice, how authentic you appear and, most importantly, through your passion. The more you believe in your topic and express it, the easier it will be to connect with your audience. Once you’ve made that connection, you can persuade, sell and lead them.
Be aware of all three languages of communication, and use them strategically to deliver your message. You may be nervous. You may be
day for all sorts of reasons. But when it comes to the speech or presentation, you have to be pumped. Your enthusiasm is your audience’s greatest turn-on. Let’s go back to spoken language. Here’s an example of a presentation one of our clients prepared (BEFORE she learned how to TalkitOut™). It was the goal of the MPA group to initiative a radical and innovative shift in the way information and knowledge are created and leveraged by the members. Jargon like that is confusing and alienating to anyone who doesn’t speak the same code. And it’s not the way we talk to people we care about. We have a foolproof tool for making sure you don’t use jargon and bafflegab. The tool is just two words: Hi Mom. Put Hi Mom in front of anything you propose to say. If the words still sound like you talking to a friend, great. But if it sounds strange, you know you have to simplify and be more conversational. I mean, can you keep a straight face when you say: Hi Mom. It was the goal of the MPA group to initiative a radical and innovative shift in the way information and
knowledge are created and leveraged by the members. What the client was talking about was developing an effective way of exchanging information within an
TalkitOut™ she created a much more engaging and persuasive speech. She simplified the language, threw
presentation round a metaphor of a street market. By making simple changes to her language and style, and telling a story rather than simply dumping data, she greatly increased the chance of getting buy-in from her audience. Body language Body language, or non-verbal communication, is all those gestures, tics, facial expressions, body positions and eye movements that we seldom think about. We barely notice that we are folding our arms, or clenching our fists, or staring blindly over the heads of our audience. We don’t notice. But our audiences
about us, even before we start to
how we stand, how we dress, how we look. And they come to a conclusion about us… in a nano- second. Here are five tips to help ensure that your body language reinforces, rather than contradicts, your
words, but they feel your attitude." John C. Maxwell (above) “What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
subtext that your are a leader, an expert, trustworthy and competent. Stand straight Not rigid, but comfortably straight. It’s important that your spine is straight from the top of your head to the bottom of your bottom. We recommend that you stand, even when making a presentation to a small group. In addition to giving you all the advantages above, it’s a sign of respect. Watch your eyes Your eyes are, as the old saying goes, ‘windows of the soul’. They will alert the audience to your inner
constantly look down, the message is nervousness, uncertainly, lack of
the eye. Have a strong, steady gaze. Look around the room. Don’t focus on
sure you scan everyone. Draw energy from those who look
people who are looking down or
how good you are. Let your heart direct your hands Don’t think too hard about what you should be doing with your
be guided by your heart. If you focus on your message your hands will move naturally. If you focus on hand movements you may appear contrived and your message may get lost. Embrace the audience Not literally. Don’t run round and hug everyone. But if you make expansive, open gestures with your arms, you will open yourself up to the audience. It’s like a hug. If you keep your hands, arms and body closed you may seem to be isolating yourself. Plant your feet Give yourself a stable foundation. Don’t lean, slouch, hop from foot to foot or generally turn yourself into a
focused on your message. Now go ace that presentation.
info@podiumcoaching.com 1 902 826 1009 www.podiumcoaching.com
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