How to give a great presentation every time…

A funny thing happened to me on the way to this presentation.  Sorry, in over 28 years of being a full time speaker, NOTHING ‘funny’ ever happened to me on the way to a presentation. Instead of opening up with a trite line and throwing in a joke that chances are, many in your audience have heard, here is a really simple formula we use in our Public Speaking as Easy as ABCD! public seminar to ensure your next presentation is magical.

It’s as easy as ABCD…

A stands for Attention. Get their attention by calling to mind a significant even in their recent past or one they experienced just that day. At a recent speech, I waited and waited for my spot to speak after what seemed like 100 awards were being presented. Also, about 6 people received over half the awards. I threw out my planned opening and started with, Next time you all could save a lot of time by just having (naming those 6 people) sit at a table right on stage. You’d save all that time of coming and going!  It got a huge laugh and then applause. Then I added,  If you ever need a fund raiser, just start an awards factory. You’d make a fortune just supplying your own awards!  Again, a lot of laughter and a second applause…great way to start a talk.

B stands for Blueprint.  The Blueprint is the plan or pathway you are leading them through. You have to tell them after you get their Attention, what they will learn, hear, experience. It puts their minds at ease and makes the rest of the talk understandable, even if you digress or get into a long story.

C stands for Coaster, the roller coaster ride of emotional ups and downs you put them through during the talk. A friend and man I really admire never does this. He’s a really good speaker. IF he did it, he would be a FANTASTIC speaker. His methodology is just FAST, LOUD, HARD all the time. He wears people out after 15 minutes. Instead, lift them up and then slow it down. Get them up with laughter and fun and then get serious. The HIGHS are what help the LOWS sink in.

D stands for Destination. Ya gotta bring them to a definite Destination at the conclusion of your talk. This is when they can say, having reached the Destination, THAT’s what it was all about. Your Destination may be a repeat of what you shared earlier, a surprise ending, an incredibly moving or emotional story or a rousing, Let’s all stand and shout together… kind of ending.  I remembered at IBM in Malaysia, I concluded with a story about spending a weekend with Steven Seagal, the movie actor and martial artists. It involves a true story of a six-year-old boy with cancer who asked Steven Segal, How can I have the courage not to die?  By the time I concluded the story and applied it back to them at work and what we just learned, several people were crying, including the MC. Not tears of sadness necessarily, but tears of hope and realizing, they, like that boy, CAN have the courage to live right and to give it their best.

If you learn and apply your ABCs and D to speaking opportunities, you can always give a quick, easy to understand and deliver talk that will make a profound impact upon your audience!

I will conduct a fantastic course and one-on-one coaching on public speaking this July.

Public Speaking as easy as ABCD!
Public Seminar in Singapore (22 – 23 July 2010)

Learn to Give a Great Presentation every time…

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3 Key Public Speaking Touch Points

When speaking to an audience, consider the touch points. These are points when you touch their hearts. Even if you are sharing a highly technical subject, do not forget you are STILL talking to human beings. We ALL have hearts and emotions. In sales, we say they ‘justify’ with logic, but ‘buy’ with emotion. In public speaking, this rule applies too. They come for the data, but they remember the story. They remember the time you touched their hearts, their emotions. These are touch-points.

Public Speaking Touch Point #1: As our example, let’s say you are speaking to engineers, VERY data-intensive people. After 10 slides of data, they are tuned-out from your words and are thinking deeply about the data you have presented.

Instead of giving them another 10 slides of data, at the end of the first 2 slides, ask them a question requiring them to reflect on their past. Something like, “Do you remember the first time you were taught XXX? Was it in secondary school, poly or university?” The interactive question wakes them up and simultaneously gives them an emotional response to the current information. It also aids memory as it connects past, present and future to make a memory that lasts (We cover this in our courses in public speaking and training in great depth.) This touchpoint is an emotional connection to their past, usually a warm and pleasant feeling from their life.

Public Speaking Touch Point #2: Later, ask them to share their greatest frustration with the subject matter or some problem they have incurred with it. This brings out a very powerful emotion of anger or frustration. After recognizing their frustration or anger, either share the solution for them (ideal) or at least empathize with them and you win them over… another key touch-point.

Public Speaking

Public Speaking Touch Point #3: Finally, at your close, rather than just summarize your presentation, ask THEM what were the most important points of the talk. If you are afraid you will get silence, take a tip from our Facilitation Skills programme and ask them to write down the 3 most important take-aways from the speech. Ask them then to quickly share their 3 points with someone next to them in less than 1 minute. Then simply ask, “How many of you had a similar point to a partner, please raise your hand.” All the hands raised are ‘volunteers’ to share their points. The audience summarizes FOR you. They are engaged and they believe the message more as it comes from their colleagues. The touch-point is the BELIEF in what you shared, not just the data itself.

There are dozens of touch-points in a great presentation and literally HUNDREDS of ways to make them. These are just 3 key touch-points you should incorporate to make your next presentation not only memorable, but one where the information gets USED. Enjoy connecting with your audiences using touch-points.

I will share dozens of great secrets like this in our  programme, Public Speaking as Easy as ABCD!. Hope to see you there so I can share more with you.

Public speaking is something everyone has to do from time to time. For some, it is a joy and an opportunity to shine. For others, a torment and a drudgery. Here are 3 quick tips to help you overcome the FEAR of public speaking.

First, remember FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real. We think they, the audience, is not on our side. RUBBISH! I have never gone before ANY audience that was hoping I would be bad. Every audience wants you to be GOOD and wants you to be effective and interesting. In other words, they are on your side!

Second, NEVER EVER speak to a CROWD. Crowds are tough audiences. Speak to INDIVIDUALS. It is easy for most of us to speak to one person at a time.  That is, speak to just one person in the audience at a time. Speak to a friendly face for 30 seconds. Then look towards another friendly face and speak to him or her for 30 seconds. By speaking to just ONE person at a time, you minimise your fear and maximise the impact upon your audience.

Third, look at those who smile more. Happy, pleasant people feed you energy and relax you. Never look at those who appear to be sucking on a lime. They are the black-holes of your energy and enthusiasm.

If you focus on these 3 suggestions,  you are instantly a more confident and capable speaker. In future blogs we’ll cover dozens more ideas for speaking and presenting as well as ideas for career development, sales, time and stress management, leadership and team building.

Smile Maker: How can a wife tell when her husband is dead?

The TV is still on but no more beer is getting drunk.

You still don’t see him but the pay checks stop.

He starts to smell worse than his socks.

He no longer breaks wind.

You finally get caught-up with the dirty laundry.

You get your first good night’s sleep in years!

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To be an MC, I asked the masters, Ty Boyd CSP, CPAE and Joe Larson CSP, CPAE back in the mid 80’s.

Here’s what they told me:

1. Prepare well ahead of time and talk to everyone before hand to know what they will share, how long they will take, what AV they will need, etc. Get a feel for them as to speaking ability.

2. Develop a block of material to go with the theme, the titles of the speakers talks and to keep the energy up, without you becoming the whole show.

3. Know every piece of equipment and AV to guarantee their are no problems, it’s part of your responsibility.

4. Put all your notes for each intro and outro on index cards and number then so you can change on the fly. Practice so you don’t really have to have the notes.

5. Plan jokes, segways, stretch breaks into your sections to keep energy up.

6. Practice with any event organizer or show provider for lighting, cueing AV and where presenters will enter and exit from.

7. It’s helpful if you have some material planned in case of a no-show or some short presenters.

8. Refer back to previous speakers when introducing the next speaker. Help to weave a thread so its one continuous event rather than just separate speeches.

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One of the biggest myths about public speaking is the whole notion of stage fright. Stage fright DOES NOT EXIST! If you doubt me, have you ever seen anyone go into a meeting room, auditorium or lecture hall and come out screaming, “Oh no! There is a stage in there. Run for your lives!”??? Never! What happens is, when people start speaking, they never are afraid of ‘the stage’. They only get afraid of people. It is not stage fright, it’s people fright.

ONE: How many people do you need in your audience before you get ‘afraid’? If you speak one-on-one, are you afraid? No? two on one? Five on one? How about 10 people in your ‘audience’? 20? 50? 100? 1000? There comes a point for most people when the NUMBER of people is what makes them nervous.

TWO: Sometimes it is WHO is in the audience. If you are with your best friends, are you nervous speaking? No? What about your top 5 bosses? A critical group of peers? A group of top clients? Celebrities? Sometimes people are afraid of individuals in the audience, another form of people fright.

THREE: Another common fear is from not knowing the subject matter. You are speaking to your church, temple, mosque, school or some other group of friendly people but you did not prepare your remarks. You think you will make a fool of yourself. Again, that is not stage fright, it’s people fright.

Get rid of the myth of stage fright and you can begin to work on what is REALLY the matter, your fear of people. In future blogs, we will address how to cope with people fright when speaking.

SMILE MAKER: 5 Little Known Facts
1. It is impossible to lick your elbow.
2. A shrimp’s heart is in its head.
3. In a study of 200,000 ostriches over a period of 80 years, no one reported a single case where an ostrich buried its head in the sand.
4. Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over a million descendants.
5. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.

To your success and find out how Michael Podolinsky will help you and your organization by browsing through the links below:

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