It’s not as easy as it sounds to concentrate, marshal all your faculties, focus on what you’re saying, read the signals on the faces of your listeners, and when they drift off, pull them back into the moment.

I often remind myself that audiences could be somewhere else, but they’re not – they are here with me. And as the speaker, it’s your job to make this the best hour they are going to have all day.  There’s only one way to do that to my way of thinking and that’s to be there for them.  Serve your audience.  Remember it’s not about you it’s all about the audience. So look out into their eyes and smile at them and connect. Then engage in a conversation with them. Interact with them if you can – that really helps you be present.  That’s what they are there for – give love!

Next time you present, take some time beforehand to plan what you’ll do to be in the moment with your audience.  Happy Presenting!

There are lots of little traps that speakers and presenters can fall into when they lack experience.  A.A. Milne is right when he says disorganisation can produce surprising discoveries. But whilst the surprising discoveries can be interesting they can also mean we never get booked to deliver a business presentation again!

Something we often underestimate when we present in business is the amount of preparation and organisation that goes into delivering a successful speech.  A disorganised speaker is a speaker most people won’t want to work with.  So I thought I’d share some thoughts to help you fast track your speaking success!

It’s important to do what you can to have your presentation prepared and rehearsed well before you stand up to present to an audience and make sure you create a checklist of all the things you need to do in advance to ensure the presentation goes smoothly.

I was speaking at an event a few years ago at a conference.  There were a number of speakers presenting, one of whom was the Business Development Director of a major corporation.  He was the second speaker of the morning and he got up on the stage and (in an attempt to build rapport) told the audience about how he’d had a big night out on the town with his brother the night before and as a result he had a really bad hangover so ‘please bare with me’.  Later in the presentation it emerged that he hadn’t prepared his speech prior to turning up that day.  You can just imagine what the audience thought of this guy!  I can only imagine how many people cancelled business with that company as a result of the complete disrespect and arrogance of this guy.

Here’s a checklist of things to think about:

• Has travel been organised?
• Do you have a back-up copy of your presentation slides?
• If you use notes, do you have a copy of your speech printed out?
• Will you bring your laptop?
• Is your version of the slides compatible with the laptop at the venue?
• Will you need any other equipment like flip chart stands, paper, pens – will you bring them or ask the conference organiser to do that for you?
• Do you need to bring your own slide changing remote?
• Do you have your on microphone or will you be using the one that the venue provides?
• What kind of microphone does the venue use?
• Are you suitably dressed to accommodate their microphone? Do you need to wear a belt so they can clip the microphone on to your clothes?
• Will you be taking any resources for sale?
• Do you need order forms and credit card facilities or will you gift the resources to the audience?
• Do you need someone there in case people want to buy your resources in droves?
• Will you film the event?
• Is the organiser filming the event and do you need to find out the colour of the backdrop to the stage and wear certain clothes (so the audience can see you clearly).
• Where are you in the order of speakers and who else is speaking?
• Do you need to organise refreshments or meals for yourself if you are speaking later in the day?
• Have you sent through a layout of your preferred room set-up to the organiser to be sure the audience isn’t seated in straight, parallel lines (a curved, or U-shape is nicer for your audience)
• Would you like some water placed on the stage? Who is going to put it on the lectern for you?
• Have you rehearsed your presentation so you know you know it?

I’m sure these tips will help you so you to avoid some of the mistakes most business presenters make.  Anyone can be an exceptional presenter, it’s just a matter of knowing what to do and doing it!  Happy Presenting! Mx

I’m sure you already know that body language plays a critical part in the communication we engage in each and every day.  All it takes is for you to tip your head a certain way, with a certain facial expression and you will convince your audience you are as daft as they come!  All it takes is for your mouth to make a pouting movement just once and your audience could instantly lower their opinion of you.  All it takes is for you to forget to warm up your lips, cheeks, jaw and tongue and if you ‘slip’ over a word then your audience could start thinking you’re not as credible or ‘expert’ as you claim to be.

Can people understand you when you speak?

When we are tired, over worked and time poor it’s often hard to make a commitment to warming up before we present.  One way to warm up your articulation – the clarity of your words is to practice some tongue twisters.  This is another way to both warm up your voice and brain and also it helps you test how warm you are already.  It’s a great idea to find some tongue twisters that have a mix of different consonants and vowel combinations so you are warming up a variety of different sound combinations.

Here is a sample of some of my favourite tongue twisters:

A proper cup of coffee in a proper copper coffee cup!

I need unique New York, but does unique New York need me?

Rush the washing Russell, Rush the washing Russell.

The bootblack brought the black boot back.

Lift the ladder later, lisped Lester, Lester lisped, lift the ladder later.

The big black bug bled black blood!

If you do these warm ups before a sales meeting, internal presentation or any other important event you’ll sound credible and authoritative and you may just get what you want.

Happy Presenting!

Analysis

1. Do you know how to work out what you’re trying to achieve?
2. Can you think about your presentation from your audience’s shoes?

Design

1. Do you know how to structure a presentation with your audience’s needs in mind?
2. Can you design your presentation in a minimum of time?
3. Do you deliver your opening in a way that builds rapport and motivates your audience?
4. Do you prepare for and manage objections?
5. Do you deliver compelling facts, figures, and data?
6. Do you plan to tell stories that link to your content and help bring your data to life?
7. Do you use a variety of presentation aids such as whiteboard, PowerPoint, video, handouts, props?
8. Can you present with limited use of speaker’s notes?
9. Do you rehearse?
10. Do you eat well and rest yourself before presenting?
11. Do you warm up your body, voice and mind before presenting?

Delivery

1. Is your clothing smart and appropriate?
2. Do you groom your hair and nails?
3. Do you smell great?
4. Do you stand tall with a straight back?
5. Do you allow your natural facial expressions to show?
6. Do you look at people?
7. Do you let your hands move freely when you speak?
8. Do you move around in the space?
9. Do you allow your voice to exhibit a variety of pitch, speed, and volume?
10. Do you sound the same presenting as you do when you speak normally?)
11. Do you speak clearly?
12. Do you minimise rambling
13. Are you able to stay on track with your message?
14. Are you able to avoid filler words like “um”, “ahrr”, “you know?”
15. Do you engage your audience?
16. Do you remember to explain the boundaries for the presentations (agenda, timings, questions, phones)
17. Do you tell stories and link to your content?
18. Are you able to present with PowerPoint as an aid instead of letting the PowerPoint take over your presentation?
19. Do you summarise key points towards the end?
20. Do you remember to call your audience to action and ask for what you want?
21. Can you manage a Q&A session effectively?
22. Do you know what to do if you can’t answer a question?
23. Do you know how to manage ‘difficult’ audience members?
24. Do you stick to the time allocated to you?
25. Is there anything else you do well?
26. And what else?
27. And what else?

If you want to improve your ability in any of these areas subscribe to my magazine called How to Present or grab yourself a copy of Don’t Picture me Naked at www.michellebowden.com.au – it explains all of these areas in details. Or consider attending one of my upcoming public programs where numbers are limited to ten (10) people and where you will dramatically improve your ability to present and influence people.

Happy Presenting!

Trap: Looking at your watch

Although you do need to keep track of how you are progressing through your presentation, be careful of how often you look at your watch. It can be helpful to have the watch on the lectern rather than on your arm. The audience likes to believe that you are there for them and you that you are enjoying being there with them. If you constantly look at your watch, it makes it look as though you cannot wait to finish the presentation and get away. It can also cause the audience to start looking at their watches too!

Consider rehearsing the presentation so you know roughly how long each section takes. And be sure to add some group interaction and use those moments to check the time. Consider using a screen view that shows you the time and your slides at the same time. Or you could even use a little travel clock that sits neatly on the lectern.

And of course, be sure to finish on time. It’s the cardinal sin of speakers – going over your allocated time and cutting into someone else’s time – so please don’t do this!

Happy Presenting!

Welcome to ‘How To Present’ Magazine (February 2012 edition) – we invite you to hold your curser over the magazine image until ‘View in full screen’ appears.

1. What do you have to offer? In other words, what is your unique selling proposition?
2. How will you market your offer for best results?
3. Which networks to you need to cultivate to accelerate business opportunities?

Once you know which networks or relationships to nurture, the next thing to do is think about how you’ll do that. What do you need to do to influence them to your way of thinking?

Well one way to create humour is to either expand or reduce the details of a situation.  We call this exaggeration. You know how cartoonists do this don’t you? They give Julia Gillard a huge pointy nose like a crazy bird. And they often made John Howard’s eye-brows look like a ferret was lying across his forehead!  The point is that the character is/was still recognisable with these exaggerated features.

That’s how you ‘do’ exaggeration. Let me give you an example to illustrate the point for you.

I deliver a keynote presentation quite regularly these days on presenting in business and influencing skills at work – it’s called Speak Up and Influence People.  I ask people: “Who would like to open a presentation or meeting so that everyone is sitting on the edge of their chairs, completely engaged and so they can’t wait to hear what you have to say next?” Then I ask “and who would like to be able to speak up and influence people at work, at home, in fact all the time, every day of the year?” and then I inquire: “and who would like to have permission to never have to speak in public again for the rest of your life – in infinity!”

Get it?  ‘Infinity!’ Exaggerating like this is funny to most people, as long as you’ve built rapport first. So I don’t recommend this as the opening to the presentation. It’s something you do once you have credibility and know the group are ‘with’ you – so to speak.  The point is that because I am exaggerating a little bit for the first two questions it just gets funnier when I say “infinity”.  It’s funny (well actually it’s tragic really – but that’s where humour often comes from) that some people really hate public speaking and by exaggerating it you drive the point home.

The key to using exaggeration is to inflate or deflate whatever you are talking about so much that it is obviously an exaggeration otherwise it’s not always obvious and that’s not very funny.

So try this in your next formal presentation at work or at home.

Happy Presenting!

You’ve got 5 minutes if you’re lucky!

Audience members typically give presenters less than 5 minutes to prove themselves before switching off.

When asked about workplace presenters they had seen in the last 12 months;

• Only 38% of respondents thought presenters understood their needs as an audience member.
• More than half  the respondents said that presenters generally read from their PowerPoint slides.
• Only 40% of respondents found presenters to be engaging.
• Only 28% of respondents said that they were moved to action after seeing presenters.

We know we need development

When asked about presenting they do at work:

• Over 60% of respondents admit to using their slides to help remember what to say.
• Nearly 60% of respondents admit to being frequently nervous prior to presentations.
• Only 37% of respondents feel that they are influential, persuasive presenters.
• 75% of respondents believed that they would gain more respect for their knowledge and expertise if they were better public speakers.

Death by PowerPoint isn’t working!

When asked about workplace presenters they had seen in the last 12 months;

• 50% of respondents thought presenters were a bit boring.
• Only 38% thought presenters understood their needs as an audience member.
• Only 52% of respondents thought that presenters delivered their presentation so that audience members could relate to their message.
• 70% of respondents said that workplace presenters generally relied heavily on PowerPoint slides.
• 55% of respondents said that, in general, presenters read from their PowerPoint slides.
• Only 40% of respondents found presenters to be engaging.
• Only 28% of respondents said that they were moved to action after seeing presenters.

So what does all of this mean?

We are going to too many boring meetings and workplace presentations where the presenter is not enjoying themselves and the audience is enjoying themselves even less!  Anyone can be an exceptional presenter. It’s just a matter of knowing what to do and doing it. Take action today to improve the way you present in business.