Speaking and presenting is something I’m passionate
about. Why? Because it’s another way to start
conversations and build relationships. Or, it can be, if
you think about how you present. Here are some
recommendations on ways to turn your bullhorn into a
party hat in the presentation world.
Corporate Storytelling 101 - How To Pick A Story That
Moves Listeners
Business
publications these days sing the praises of corporate
storytelling. But what if you're not a natural
storyteller? How do you pick a tale that inspires and
connects - and still suits a business setting? Here are
nine tips to get you started:
Make
an impact with speeches and
presentation
Like a dog chasing its
tail, the pursuit of
clients and prospects
can sometimes go round
and round with little
more than dizzying
results. Yet unlike that
dog, whose frantic
spinning continues until
exhaustion, agents and
brokers actually have a
chance to profit from
their pursuit.
In many cases, a
successful outcome can
be traced back to the
beginning of the
chase-that moment of
inspiration when both
parties involved decide
that the relationship is
worth exploring further.
Public speaking
engagements-especially
those that put agents
and brokers in front of
an audience of
decision-makers and
prospects-present an
excellent opportunity to
spark that inspiration.
They can enhance your
image, boost visibility
and credibility and show
your target audience
that you are a valuable
resource in the
community.
Give
Participants Something to Flip
Over
Let me start off by saying that
I do NOT like toys or other
distractions in training. I’m
NOT one to provide little
widgets to keep participants’
hands occupied or provide cutesy
pens or such trinkets. I’ve
always viewed them as
distractions that shouldn’t be
necessary if your training is
engaging and relevant. I
recently “discovered” a
technique that simultaneously:
-
Provides
motivational, upbeat phrases
for participants
-
Reinforces
key concepts
-
Ensures that
everyone is paying attention
and following along
-
Allows the
instructor to tell whether
each participant grasps the
concept
Someday, it
is going to happen. You may be
eating dinner, you may be
attending a party, or you may be
enjoying a luncheon; and someone
will interrupt your serenity by
asking you to say a few words.
What do you
do? Here are tips to help you
bring success to the event and
credit to your role as a leader.
Read on …
How to Use
Public Speaking to Attract Clients
When Robert Middleton moved his marketing consulting practice,
Action Plan Marketing, to Palo Alto, California several years
ago, he started his business from scratch. He had left his
well-established client base several miles away and now had to
find strategies to generate new clients.
Because Middleton had always spoken to promote his business, he
turned to public speaking with a vengeance. He researched local
organizations whose members comprised professional business
owners, his target clientele. He called chambers of commerce,
business groups and others likely to be interested in his
three-hour marketing workshop.
Within a few months, Middleton had spoken at over a dozen
organizations, establishing his reputation as a marketing expert
for professional service firms. He quickly became a known
entity, having personally introduced his business and
credentials to hundreds of prospects.
11 Tips for Using Flip Charts
More Effectively
While everyone seems to be
interested in creating high-tech
computer generated
presentations, the flip chart
still continues to be the most
effective presentation media of
all. One should not assume that
investing a lot of money in high
tech visual aids & equipment
will "make" your presentation.
The best visuals have been and
still are the simplest.
Remember, the purpose of using
visual aids is to enhance your
presentation, not upstage it.
Since most presentations are
delivered before small groups of
35 people or less, the flip
chart is the perfect size. I
feel the flip chart will
continue to be the workhorse of
most training seminars.
There are several advantages of
using a flip chart. Here are
just a few:
Speak Clearly - The Top 7 Tricks
to Instantly Improve the Clarity
of Your Speech
“I’m sorry, what?
I can’t understand you.” Have
you ever heard this line? Then
you probably know how
embarrassing it can be to repeat
something over and over again.
Miscommunication can and will
hold you back in today’s
fast-paced, international
business environment. Too many
people are hiding their gifts,
talents and knowledge from the
world due to a fear of speaking
up and being misunderstood. Are
you one of them?
Follow these
simple tricks to instantly
improve the clarity of your
speech.
Using Stories to Bring Your Audience into Your World
”...Once upon a time…”
“Let me
tell you about the time I spent in the mountains all
night by myself – unexpectedly…”
If you
really want to draw your audience closer to you,
tell a story.
Melding Written Materials with Your Oral
Presentation
There are a number of ways that written materials
can support and enhance an oral presentation.
I do a lot of public speaking,
teaching, and training. I utilize PowerPoint slides
extensively.
I also prepare written materials
which I distribute to participants to take with them
which serve as a reference tool so that when they
have a question later, they can use those materials
to refresh their recollection and clear up any
confusion they may have.
Whether or not you should utilize
such tools in your presentation depends upon a
number of factors.
Tips on Public Speaking - the
Importance of Taking control of your Breathing
acquiring the skill to get hold of, master and
handle your breathing effectively is crucial and an
introductory science to you controlling and
mastering public speaking. Now lets get started!
Have You Mastered These 10 Public Speaking Skills?
How skillful are you at public
speaking?
Have you mastered the public
speaking skills?
If you want to master public
speaking, then you need master the public speaking
skills. There are dozens of skills required in a
talk. These skills are an essential part of the art
of public speaking and are especially important in
persuasive speaking. How do you measure up in just
10 of the skills?
With the information age upon us, and immense knowledge being constantly shared, people are being asked more frequently to address public audiences. The need to define study tips on public speaking is rapidly growing. More and more people are standing in front of their audiences with nothing to say, or it seems that way. These following tips on public speaking will show you why it is important to target you message to an audience that will enjoy it.
Being able to communicate effectively through words has been a much-coveted
secret for centuries. Take the blarney stone in Ireland, for example. The
blarney stone is part of the Blarney castle in Ireland and it is tradition
that those who kiss this stone are given the gift of the gab. If you want to
have the gift of the gab but kissing the blarney stone is out of the
question, maybe you could benefit from the 10 basics of communication and
public speaking.
Why You Should Never Read Your Speech...
Planning on giving a talk?
If you're a nervous speaker, you might be tempted
to write your speech and then read it.
Don't!
Here
are 5 reasons why reading a speech is an invitation to disaster.
Public Speaking Marketing - The One
Hidden Secret To Growing Your Speaking Business
When I learned
what top marketers knew and then simply applied it to my speaking business,
my income literally TRIPLE the next year. This was the smartest, most -
lucrative decision I've ever made for my speaking business and is one
decision that made me a very wealthy speaker.
Improve Your Presentation in Less Than an Hour
As you gaze outside of your window to see the sun peeking out from behind
the clouds on what you thought was a predictable day, your boss walks by to
let you know that a top prospect is coming by the office in about two hours.
You think this is good news for your organization only to hear your boss
say, "I would like you to do a 45-minute presentation."
Immediately your heart rate increases, you start to perspire and perhaps
your head is spinning. Your meek reply in the affirmative reveals your lack
of confidence in your abilities. What if your reply was more akin to, "Sure,
I'll be glad to knock our prospect's socks off with a great presentation."
What would need to change in your approach in the next two hours for you to
deliver a presentation that is your best instead of one that went bust?
Ten fatal flaws
frequently found at the podium
We’re in an Epidemic
and it’s called PowerPoint!
Everyone uses it, but is it
the best way to present your information?
Most people who use PowerPoint
of give Presentations have not had much, if any, public speaking or
presentation skills training. However, we tend to copy what others are
doing. I would like to suggest stop doing what everyone else is doing and
do it right. The following steps will help you stand out above the rest.
Using humor images and cartoons in
presentations
Have you talked in front of many
people? Have you wondered what
to do in order to get your ideas
across?
Any public speaker who has faced
a crowd of listeners knows that
humor has a great effect and
brings out a point like nothing
else. I have talked to many
presenters and all of them say
they have a number of jokes up
their sleeve, as well as visual
gags -- CARTOONS.
You've been asked to speak for an
audience. However, the event organizer or meeting planner tells you they
can't pay you. Your heart sinks knowing that speaking for free will cost you
in the long run. You think of all the expenses you'll incur gas,
parking, photocopying materials, babysitter and speaking for free
means you won’t be reimbursed for these incidental costs.
Although a free gig can eat into
your bottom line, you don't need to refuse it altogether. If you're still
building your expertise, free gigs can help you to refine your message and
try out new concepts on an eager audience.
Top Ten
Rules for Effective Presentations
I am of the belief that the
majority of people can improve their presentations dramatically by focusing
on eliminating bad habits and presentation skills more than seeking to add
anything on. How often have you come out of a seminar and overheard someone
say, “Wow, she was great! Did you see how effectively she used her hand
gestures?” That said, here are some ideas to help you become a better
speaker.
Using a pertinent activity as an
opening gets the audience's attention because it makes them active. It gives
them the opportunity to move physically which makes them more alert and
comfortable. It lets them learn and participate with one another. Finally,
it put you in charge. That's right, when you cede temporary authority to
your audience you get larger in their minds.
Three keys to using a
pertinent activity
The three keys to make this work are to organize the activity, set the
limits, and debrief the activity strongly and smoothly. Let's walk through
an opening activity you might try out.
Audio
Visual Presentations
Even the best messages can be ruined by a bad presentation. To
get your information across effectively and to generate the right response from
your audience, you need to know how to use audiovisual technology to your
advantage.
Interested in how to improve your presentation? Read on for some audiovisual
presentation dos and don’ts.
How to say More
Than Words
The study of vocalics or
paralanguage deals with the non-verbal qualities of speech. These qualities
include pitch, amplitude, rate, and voice quality. Linguists argue that the way
in which a person says something often means more than the actual words being
spoken. Paralanguage instantaneously conveys information such as gender,
education, origin, mood, and our relationship with the person being spoken to.
Seated Presentations - don't
be a sitting duck
At one time or another, your boss has probably
said to you, "Don't get caught sitting down on this one." The problem is, many
sales presentations are made while you're doing exactly that - sitting down.
It's more difficult to be impressive and in control when making a seated
presentation than when standing, say Judy Stein and Marya Holcombe, principals
of Strategic Communications, Inc., a consulting firm in New Haven, Conn. They
believe sales people who don't adjust their delivery style inadvertently put
themselves in the hot seat.
Fortunately, the problem is easily remedied with a few simple modifications.
Here's what Stein and Holcombe suggest:
Why
Use Handouts?
They allow you to provide more detailed information than you would put on a
slide. They give your audience something to take away from your presentation, to
review later. They are one more way for your listeners to be reminded of you and
your key messages.
What are the Criteria for an Appealing Public Speaking?
In public speaking, you must keep in mind that in
verbal communication there are no second chances for the
audience to catch your remarks. Keep your talk simple
and easy to recognize. Successful speeches contain no
more than three central points. Four points is an
absolute maximum. More will mystify the audience and
waste their time - and yours.
How Can You Convert a Seminar to a Keynote?
In the speaking world, the media stars are the keynote speakers. A lot of
seminar leaders and trainers ask me how they can adapt their material to this
intense, high-profile, and often lucrative specialty.
The Ultimate Contrarian: Six Myths of Professional
Speaking
Many of us either speak professionally as an added
component of our value to clients, or speak because we
must in order to market our services to wider audiences.
Whether we mount the platform with relish to gain
additional revenues, or ascend with trepidation to try
to convert a few more hearts and souls, we should beware
of the myths surrounding professional speaking. As
someone with a foot in both consulting and professional
speaking camps, I thought I'd provide this public
service
.
Create
impact with your speech or presentation - Use Body Language to support
your image.
What sort of image do you want to project
when you are presenting? Who does the audience see?
How will they remember you after this presentation? Are you professional,
poised, articulate? Are you warm, folksy, creative, nurturing? Maybe you want
to be seen as ballistic, confronting, no-nonsense, boot camp material.
This is what the audience will remember of you and this image must work to add
power to the impact of your presentation, not undermine it. Image and message
must work together. Whatever you may be trying to
achieve, don’t let the impact you create with your
image be an accident. In
this article, we look at how to make body language work towards creating
that image.
Designing Effective Slides Using PowerPoint
Used wisely, PowerPoint® and
similar programs can be an effective tool to help audiences remember your
message, while allowing you to prove, reinforce, and support your claims.
Used unwisely, PowerPoint becomes a
distraction that upstages the presenter and buries the message. With its
tumbling, whooshing, flying, singing and screeching graphics, PowerPoint can
take on a life of its own.
All these bells and whistles can
disconnect the slides from the presenter and destroy the reason for using them
in the first place--to provide an audience with at-a-glance comprehension to
support the presentation.
PowerPoint
Tips: Create invisible buttons
From Mary-Ellen Finkelstein
In a recent
discussion with Dr. , a
professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, the topic of
invisible buttons came up. I had encountered them before, so I thought I
would explain.
Invisible buttons
are AutoShapes with no fill and no line that have a hyperlink attached
to them. You use them for two purposes:
-
If you're navigating through the presentation,
you may want your navigation to seem invisible to create a magical
effect. The button may be small or may cover the entire slide.
-
If viewers are navigating themselves, you may
want them to be able to click anywhere on a slide to execute the
hyperlink. In this case, the invisible button covers the entire
slide.
For example, let's
say you create a quiz that students will navigate by themselves. You may
add hyperlinks from a question slide to a Correct and Incorrect slide,
depending on which answer the person clicks. Then, you can hyperlink the
Correct slide to the next question and the Incorrect slide back to the
original question so viewers can try again.
By covering the
entire Correct and Incorrect slides with an invisible, rectangular
AutoShape, students just click anywhere to get to the right place.
To make the process
easier, attach the hyperlink to your rectangle before you make it
invisible. Then double-click it and use the Format AutoShape dialog box
to change the line to No Line and the fill to No Fill.
Your presentation doesn't end once you've
finished what you have to say. The question period often is the part of the talk
which influences the audience the most. After all, you've had time to practice
the rest of the talk. This is the part of the presentation where your ability to
interact with the audience will be evaluated. Since you can't always predict the
what you'll be asked, how can you prepare for the questioning? Here are a few
guidelines:
Audiences Are Your Friend
For the rank amateur to the ignorant
professional, audiences create the same effect no matter how small they are to a
speaker. Fear and anxiety.
From a single person to a crowd as big as
the fans in the Super Bowl, speaking in front of a serious listening audience is
the true test and baptism of fire.
Despite this, audiences are predictable.
Audiences listen to you because they want to learn something from the speaker.
Following this logic, the speaker would do
well to follow the strategy of making it informative as well as interesting to
listeners to see your speech through till the end.
Here are some tips on how you can have the
audience listen in rapt attention.
-
Designing presentations without bullets is
easy, but involves layout, thinking about your content and the
processes you're describing, working with images that function as metaphors,
and more.
-
I recommend Cliff Atkinson's book,
Beyond Bullet Points. It's a complete system for designing and
organizing presentations without bullet points.
Now for the shortcut....
Why
(Teleclass) Audiences Won't
Speak: And How To Get Them To Respond
You've just finished your teleclass or workshop
and you're moving on to question stage.
And then comes the moment that you think you'll be
flooded with questions, so you ask, "What questions
would you like to ask me today?" And all you hear
is the chilly wind of silence.
So how do you get the audience to respond anyway?
Giving presentations can be a complete
and utter thrill. Too bad attending them can be a
complete and utter bore. If you are on the giving side,
I want to offer you up a collection of my best
presentation tricks to date.
Give a Great Talk, Part 1
By
Bob Bly
One of the ways you can market your product or service is through public
speaking.
For instance, you'll often see financial seminars advertised in your local
newspaper. The ads invite you to come for a lunch or evening seminar ...
typically just an hour or two ... on a topic like estate planning,
retirement planning, or mutual fund investing.
The seminar, sponsored by a local brokerage, financial planner, or other
financial services firm, is free.
So
how do they make money? By converting some of the attendees into paid
clients for whom they manage money, prepare estate plans, or provide other
financial servicesThis "give a free talk" strategy can work in many fields
and venues.
The
Interactive Approach to Doing a Presentation
