6 steps to becoming a better presenter

I delivered my first presentation at age 24 to 10,000 people at Wembley Arena. I was giving a short business training and have never been so nervous in my life. I was seated right at the very back, which made the dark walk through the audience up to the stage on wobbly legs, even worse.

With soaking palms and a bone-dry throat, I finally faced the audience. People tell you that making eye contact helps, but if all you can see is bright lights, it can feel incredibly vulnerable.

I looked down at my note cards, and as I placed them on the lectern, my hands were shaking so much I didn’t trust myself to pick one up.

I took a deep, fully focused breath and in that instant, my mind went completely silent. I drew my shoulders back and thought about my audience, and the message I was there to share, smiled and started talking.

If the walk to the stage felt like the longest of my life, the talk felt like the shortest. If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you’ll know that I hate labels of any kind, however it’s worth mentioning that I also dislike the limelight until I have a valid reason to be in it.

A good reason to be in the limelight is if the message you’re delivering is bigger than the fear of delivering it.

Over 30 years later, I have continued to speak in public very regularly, having delivered keynotes, training, talks and speeches to well over 8,000 clients and delegates all over the world. This is what I’ve learnt;

• Be prepared. For some this means rehearsing, for others scoping out the room and setting up their equipment early. Some public speakers have rituals, mantras, and music playing. Testing my equipment is paramount for me. Once I’m satisfied the tech is working and any tabs I need are up, I take a minute or two to arrange the seating, walk round the room, set a cooler temperature and get a feel for the space. Staying hydrated is important and I have hot herbal tea and tepid water ready. 

I never have a heavy meal before presenting because running a days’ training can feel like a marathon event. You should work with your body, discover its optimal state and give it what it needs to perform. Mine works best on something light and healthy. I never have sugar as I don’t want the highs and lows.

90% of people believe that a strong narrative in a presentation is critical for engagement.

• Keep it tight! No one wants to be ‘talked at’ or sit through a monologue of boring theory. People want to be engaged, involved and inspired. Use your body to full effect to achieve this; posture, expressions, tone, pitch, words, movement, stillness, hands, pacing, long and short pauses, short sentences, questions and quickly distilling complex material into simple concepts.

Fully inhabit your body and you’ll achieve a state of flow when you present that will make you feel elated. Amy Cuddy will back me up here in her excellent TED talk.

People want to be engaged, involved and inspired. If you’re going to think about anything, think hard about this. Then test out your delivery until your feedback regularly reflects it.

• Make your message memorable. Meaningful. In other words, believe in it. Many people I’ve coached don’t believe in themselves however they can be taught to speak passionately. That’s contagious – and interesting. Clearly, it should be meaningful to you, that’s why you’re there.

However, in the whole equation, respectfully – you don’t matter. To your audience, you’re just the messenger. You must have a strong, memorable message that’s tailored to your audience. For this, you need emotional intelligence; empathy and rapport. You need advanced listening skills. You need to think ahead then read the room.

55% of people say a great story is primarily what holds their focus during a presentation. Presentations with visual aids are 43% more persuasive than the same presentations without visuals.

In The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, Steve “transformed the typical, dull, technical, plodding slideshow into a theatrical event complete with heroes, villains, a supporting cast, and stunning backdrops. People who witness Steve's presentation for the first time describe it as an extraordinary experience.” Carmine Gallo

• Setting the scene. Your opener. You must set the scene so that your delegates are receptive. This means building trust early on. I have listened to trainers spend 20+ minutes giving me their life story and it’s too much. During this time, your audience is either thinking “get on with it!” Or “what’s in it for me?”

You’ll need to address and satisfy this question throughout your presentation, you should have a sharp, emotive opener. But first, establish credibility.

My opener goes along the lines of “Hi, I’m Alison. I have 30+ years’ experience delivering training worldwide, and have a background in Learning & Development, Sales and Marketing. I’ve also run 6 successful businesses.”

This does a few things; it shows I have speaking experience (so am ‘qualified’ to be standing there), that I’m not ‘one dimensional’ - and if I’m lucky, I’ll earn a bit of respect with the ‘6 businesses’.

If you’re a trainer, read the 5 Leadership Traits of Outstanding Trainers for more inspiration on presentation skills.

If I’m delivering to a STEM audience, I’ll add in “And my dad was a scientist, so I love to talk about (insert personal and professional development topic) using hard facts, data and the latest research”. In this way, they know I’ll be talking their language. And who doesn’t love a bit of data?!

70% of marketers believe that presenting interactive content is key for engaging your audience. 68% of people believe that interactive presentations are more memorable.

• 3 x 3 is key. Three bullet points memorised, with each divided into a further three. This is your key message and the backbone of your talk. It’s what you want people to remember. And they will if you weave them in repeatedly throughout your presentation.

The brain loves 3’s. It means you’ve given me enough choice to make me think it’s been researched, but not too much that I’ve got too many choices. Relate everything in your delivery back to these three points and your delegates will not only remember but make their own connections. Two years on, many of my delegates on a business writing course I ran still remember the 3 key points of ‘clear, concise and correct’, for example.

Do not use bullet points in your presentation – they make information more difficult to remember.

54.9% of people say that less than 25% of their presentations contain text.

“The single most important thing you can do to dramatically improve is to have a story to tell before you work on your PowerPoint.” Cliff Atkinson, Beyond Bullet Points

• Pay attention. If you’re fully immersed, time goes fast so you must listen. Listen to yourself (be clear, authentic) and most importantly, to others. If you do this, you’ll remember their objectives, examples and discussions and can continually weave them back into the material to bring it alive and meet their expectations.

To summarise, by taking a deep, conscious breath and focusing on your audience, you make it about them. Prepare yourself well and inhabit the whole space with your body. Believe in your message. Even if you’re not a naturally confident speaker, your passion will shine through. Have a sharp, short, relevant opener. 3 x 3. Listen. And finally, enjoy yourself!

Icebreakers.

Draw a grid horizontally on your flip chart to correspond with the number of delegates. Down the left-hand margin write everyone’s names in a box. On the vertical at the very top of the flip chart, write as many or as few of these as you want; favourite colour, place, food, time in history. A superpower they wished they had… think time travel, being invisible, mind reading. Go round each person in turn and fill in their answers. It’s fun, humanises people and does what it says on the tin – breaks the ice.

Update: From next month I will be posting monthly instead of weekly. Thank you for your continuing support.

Alison Roberts is an ex-entrepreneur with 35 years’ experience as a Global L&D Leadership Consultant, Sales Director/Trainer, Account Manager, Executive & Business Mentor and Public Speaker. She is passionate about Women in Leadership and specialises in developing and empowering future leaders and high-potentials. She is at her best when solving complex problems and challenging the status quo. Connect with Alison on LinkedIn and Facebook