5 Tips To Prepare Presentations In Record Time: Lessons on what it takes to make great presentations in less time

You may get to do presentations often or they may be a rare honor.

Regardless of how much you present it’s an excellent idea to have a process to get your presentations together.

And not only do you want a great presentation - but you want to make the process speedy and efficient.

Most busy professionals simply can’t drop everything for any one speech.

Well I am here to help. Here’s key tips I’ve learned from pulling together hundreds of presentations and interactions with many other speakers.

Tip 1: Don’t Overthink It

The first key to a great presentation is to not overthink it.

I see many new speakers, and some experienced speakers, spend way too much time thinking about their speech, it’s importance and the process.

Your speech should be important or you shouldn’t be speaking. Of course the importance to be thinking of is the importance to the audience not the importance to you.

So put you on the back burner and think about what you’ll be delivering to your audience.

Your job is to put your expertise into a form that serves the audience. It’s really simple.

If you just focus on that - transferring information and transforming your audience - there’s not a lot to think about. Speaking becomes simple.

Tip 2: Let Your Outline Control

I am a big fan of having an outline for a speech. Not only does that allow you to collect and prioritize your thoughts it also drives your speech.

My speech outlines do almost all the work. They show what I will be talking about, when, and what slide or visual to use at a given time.

I let it do all the heavy lifting.

As an example here’s the preparation I did for a speech on Sales in the Era of Artificial Intelligence:

I pop this on the podium or in front of me (if I am doing a webinar) and it guides the presentation.

If I am co-presenting I can add a column on who speaks for which part.

In live presentations some of my slides are blank - this lets the audience focus on me and not reading/watching. Some of my webinar presentations have slides with only a few words on them.

But you can see how this timed outline is basically the control module for my whole speech.

And I print it out and carry it with me. No room for technical errors and when I glance down at it during a speech it causes very little distraction.

Tip 3: Embed Your Value Added Into The Presentation

There’s a reason why you were hired to speak. There’s some reason the conference organizer knows you need to be talking to their audience. (NOTE: Even if you aren’t being paid to speak you were still entrusted to help the audience).

All of those tidbits of expertise should be embedded in your outline.

Think about what your audience needs to learn and know and build that into that outline that will control the flow of your speech start to finish.

The value should be embedded into the speech in the way that is most valuable for your audience.

Tip 4: You Don’t Always Have To Memorize

Some speakers love to memorize speeches. I don’t.

I did memorize my TEDx Speech because the venue and the format didn’t allow me my usual podium for my timing marks/outline.

But in most speeches you aren’t going to be left in the middle of the stage with nowhere to put your notes unless you choose that (that’s a conversation for another article).

I find that speeches where there is some interaction with the audience and tailoring to their feedback is the most powerful. Pure memorization can get in the way of this. Sometimes it’s actually a disservice to stick to prepared remarks when the audience is showing you it needs changes (based on questions, reactions or the like).

If you’ve got a powerful and organized outline and know your stuff you can make it without memorizing. You just need to control your time and use your prompts to keep your speech on track. The trick is to get all of your key points in while adding pieces for audience needs. It gets better with practice.

Tip 5: Your Outline Drives Your Visual Aids Too

A lot of speakers spend a lot of time on the PowerPoint or visual aids to go with their speech. And I think a lot of this energy is wasted.

If you know what you need to convey to the audience and what order you are going to do it your visuals can be used to mirror your speech.

You aren’t there to give a PowerPoint. You are there to give a speech.

All visuals and content should serve that mission.

While the visuals and the content should be coordinated the first key is to focus on your audience and what you must deliver. Then let the extras follow that mission.

If you take the attention off the support (the visuals) and focus on the mission (the message you must deliver) you won’t be over distracted by the supporting elements.

What To Do Now

Use this the next time you need to give a speech. Make a strong outline - based on audience needs - and let it drive your mission to serve.

I’d love to hear about what you are doing with your presentations. Don’t be afraid to comment below or send me a note.

This Article is from The Our Shawn McBride - The Planning Done Right Guy(TM).

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