public speaking - Pivotal

Public Speaking Tip: Add Weight

No I'm not promoting obesity.

I'm referring to outdoor presentations.

If you are ever forced (I say "forced" because you should try to avoid outdoor presentations at all costs) to do an outdoor presentation, then make sure you have several different kinds of weights handy to help control your presentation.

You might need a sandbag or dumbbell to hold down the easel of your flipchart.

How about taping some heavy coins to the bottom of the sheets and clamping the edges to keep the breeze from lifting up the pages?Paperweights, or in a pinch, plain old rocks are great for holding down papers you have on a table on stage.

What else do you commonly have with you on stage that could blow around in a breeze? Make sure it's secured.

Ties and scarves that look gorgeous in a no wind hotel room look terrible and distracting when flapping in the wind.

From Tom Antion Photo by Maria Molinero on Unsplash

Public speaking

Three essential body language tips

"For anyone who has done some training with me, you’ll know that I don’t focus on body language when presenting. People can get obsessed by trying to look convincing or slick, and neglect the content of their presentation. They perform all the textbook hand gestures, and what comes out of their mouths doesn’t match up. A bit like watching 100 chavs pour out of a limo. It just doesn’t seem right.

Sometimes however I do give advice on body language for presenting - especially when it detracts from the message. Here are the 3 biggest body language presentation pitfalls, and what you can do to avoid them:

1. EYES

Sharing eye contact around the room is one of the best presentation delivery skills you can have. Meeting people’s eyes is crucial for maintaining audience interest. As an audience member we feel that you are actually talking to us - rather than talking to the PowerPoint screen or to the table.

So, what prevents you from maintaining eye contact with everyone? Well one of the reasons could be the Sympathy Nodder - the only person in the room who is nodding and paying you attention. When you’re presenting you usually gravitate towards attention and recognition. Even if you suspect someone is sympathy nodding, you probably don’t care. You will choose the Sympathy Nodder over the guy making a pen pyramid any day. So you direct your attention almost solely to that one person. This means that you have alienated the audience in favour of the Sympathy Nodder, who is probably concentrating more on nodding than listening.

In the name of research from the audience side, try the Sympathy Nod Experiment during your next boardroom presentation. Look the presenter dead in the eye and nod a couple of times. Repeat about 5 times per minute, or whenever they look at you. You will undoubtedly find the presenter draw their attention towards you, almost as if you are the only person in the room. A cruel experiment perhaps, but one which will prove to you that as a presenter you must resist the one person who seems to be giving you the attention and maximise your eye contact with everyone.

2. HANDS

One of the greatest problems you might have is knowing what to do with your hands. Quite strange really given that you never have to worry what to do with your hands when you are chatting to friends. Suddenly they become a big issue when presenting.

You have two options. You can spend thousands getting personal coaching and practicing 20+ hand gestures, such as the ‘chop’, the ‘opera singer’ or the ’sweep’, until they seem natural. Or you can hold a pen, with one or two hands. This sounds very simple, but it does the job, keeping your hands steady, professional and relaxed. With the money you save on personal coaching, you can buy yourself a better pen.

3. STANCE

There have been many books written on stance and posturing. Most of them are of little use. The best thing to remember is to stand with your feet pointed towards the audience. This solves a very big presentation skills problem, which is turning your back on the audience - such as when you are reading off PowerPoint. If you keep your feet pointed towards the audience then you be naturally inclined to twist back to face them.

The premise behind Natural Training is simple: we have fresh, relevant, practical training in presentation and sales skills that works with your natural personality rather than crunching against it. We ensure that our training focuses you on the things that matter in your role, always working to complement your natural style.

Public speaking

Public speaking tip – the value of Icebreakers

Icebreakers are little exercises that help relax tension and loosen up a formal atmosphere in a meeting where you want to have creative ideas and group participation.

This icebreaker will have everyone laughing:

Break everyone up into small groups of 2 or 3. Give each group a made-up punchline. Each group now has 5 minutes to come up with a joke or story that uses that punchline at the end. The crazier the better!

Here are some example punchlines:

1. And that is why you never let a cat go fishing!

2. That proves that elephants don't like hot dogs.

3. Finally he said, "Sir, your computer doesn't have a cigarette lighter."

4. The moral of the story is, "Always wear socks!"

Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash

Public speaking

Public speaking tip: Shock ’em

When I was planning for my recent all day presentation I was considering the post lunch sleepiness that most audiences experience. I wanted to do something totally different that I knew would shock them out of their afternoon low.

So I bought a muskrat trap. I was talking about the "traps" AKA deep trouble you could get into by spam email marketing.

I set the trap with great care. Then I put a pencil into the trap to set it off. The pencil snapped showing the trap to be real . . . This got their attention.

I then reset the trap and talked about how learning what I was going to teach them in the next section would keep them from getting hurt in the email spam trap.Then, with lots of suspense building as I approached the trap, I set it off with my bare hand, I let out a fake Karate-like scream, the trap slammed on my hand and I held it up hanging from my fingers. . . . Believe me this got their attention!

DO NOT TRY THIS! DO NOT TRY THIS! DO NOT TRY THIS! I know how to do this without getting hurt. I am not responsible if you break your finger or get hurt in any way !!!

There are many other ways to shock people. You could put a needle through a balloon, you could stick a knife through one of their coats. Stop by any magic or gag shop for tons of ideas. Just don't get too outrageous and scare people unnecessarily.

From Tom Antion Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Public speaking

Public speaking – Adding Golf To Your Topic – even if you’re not a golfer

I'm not a golfer, but I can tell you one thing for sure.

Many people in your audiences are nuts over golf.

I've seen some speakers do their entire presentation using a golf metaphor. They would say things like, "In golf if your swing is off, you'll hit the ball into the woods . . . just like if your leadership technique is off you'll be in the "rough" .. . and a lot more is at stake than just a bad scorecard." etc.

I've seen speakers carry their golf bag on stage and pull out some clubs just to have something to do with their hands.

I've seen speakers get audience members on stage to have a putting contest.

I've seen one speaker at a resort ride into his speech on a golf cart.

You don't even have to like golf to add a little bit about golf to your speeches.

I tease the golfers in the audience about all their crazy gadgets.

Tom Antion, Publisher "Great Speaking" Photo by Igor Ovsyannykov on Unsplash

Public speaking

How to wow ’em like Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs was the charismatic, driven CEO of Apple Computers and well known for his dynamic presentations.

Carmine Gallo has analysed Steve Job’s presentations in an article titled How to Wow 'Em Like Steve Jobs.

“Jobs,” he says, “learned a long time ago that a leader must be a company evangelist and brand spokesperson.”

He has distilled Job’s success into five tips, and I include here just the skeleton of what he wrote.

Sell the Benefit

Steve Jobs … sells an experience… “It's not about the technology, but what the technology can do for you.”

Practice, Practice, and Practice Some More

Jobs takes nothing for granted during product launches. He reviews and rehearses his material…. ‘Truth is, the sense of informality comes only after grueling hours of practice.’

Keep It Visual

… there are very few bullet points in a Jobs presentation. Each slide is highly visual. … Simple and visual. Take a cue from Jobs and help your listeners visualize the message.

Exude Passion, Energy, and Enthusiasm
Jobs has an infectious enthusiasm.

"And One More Thing..."
At the end of each presentation Jobs adds to the drama by saying, "and one more thing." He then adds a new product, new feature, or sometimes introduces a band. He approaches each presentation as an event, a production with a strong opening, product demonstrations in the middle, a strong conclusion, and an encore -- that "one more thing!"

It's Your Turn

Gallo is the author of 10 Simple Secrets of the World's Greatest Business Communicators. Visit him online at http://www.carminegallo.com/

public speaking, Public speaking

Speaking to ESL audiences

When speaking to an audience that includes people who speak English as a second language, you may notice that some people keep whispering to the person sitting next to them.

They're probably not being rude or inattentive.

Indeed, the whispering may be a compliment: it is likely that the whisperer is translating for the person next to him or her.

When several people start whispering at once, it's your cue to rephrase whatever you just said.

-- Resli Costabell(Resli@Costabell.com)

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash