Become a Better Presenter by Learning from Others

“We learn from each other. We learn from others’ mistakes, from their experience, their wisdom. It makes it easier for us to come to better decisions in our own lives.” –Adrian Grenier.

Why not learn from others’ presentations, too, and become a better presenter?

One of the best learning opportunities in Toastmasters is not just giving speeches or getting evaluations, but listening to other speakers and their evaluations to learn techniques you can apply to your own presentations.

In this article, I will share the key takeaways in an evaluation I recently provided for a workshop presentation at my Toastmasters club, PowerTalk Toastmasters, a club for professional and aspiring professional speakers.

Below are:

1. The video (4:39, longer than the typical 2-3 minute evaluation, but the presentation was much longer than typical). Like to watch or listen rather than read or thinking of hiring me? Then, watch the video.

2. Key take-aways from the evaluation (you can skip the video, and just read the tips, if you just want the ideas). Some concepts are linked to posts that provide more depth.

3. The transcript of the evaluation (if you prefer to read vs. watching a video).

FYI, The workshop presenter, whose video is not included, was speaking on the topic of money, attitudes about money, and becoming better at dealing with money.

1. The Video of the Evaluation

2. Key Take Aways (applicable to many presentations):

–Dress for your audience. Generally, slightly dressier than your audience, but not intimidating.

–Minimal use of notes will allow you to increase eye contact.

–Don’t hold a lot of notes, they are distracting. Consider using key words on just one page.

–Remove physical barriers between you and your audience. Come out from behind the lectern if you can.

–Let your personality come through. People want information on your topic, but they also want to know you (and like you) as a person. Interject some fun!

–If something unexpected happens, roll with it. In this example someone’s phone said, “I’m sorry I missed that.” The speaker treated it like it was a response to what she had just said.

–If you are an expert, mention your work as it is relevant to the topic to add to your credibility

—Engage your audience with questions, both rhetorical questions and questions that you want people to answer. If the question is not difficult or controversial, you can ask specific people to answer it. In this case, the speaker asked, “What comes to mind when I say the word, ‘Money?'”

–Be clear on your main message. Don’t make people wonder what the focus of your presentation is or how they will benefit from listening.

–Start strongly. Don’t waste time with fussing with notes or, heavens forbid, saying, “I have a lot of information.” Start with a question, story, or quote, for example.

–Use the 3 Ps approach to open many presentations: Start with PEP (get their attention with a question, story, quote, creative prop, etc.). Then PROMISE them some benefit or alleviation of pain. Finally, give them a PATH–preview your upcoming points.

–Have at least one story that touches the emotions. Such stories need to have a conflict/problem and some dialogue (not just narration)

–In a workshop, have one or more activities in which your audience can interact with a concept, beyond just asking questions.

–Use analogies or metaphors to help your audience understand a concept, such as “working out your financial muscles,” comparing building financial competence on a regular basis to working out at a gym regularly.

–If you are trying to persuade people on an idea, provide “proof of concept.” Why is the idea great? What evidence of success is there? What results might be expected?

–If you have a handout, include your contact information on the handout. People may want to contact you, so make it easy for them.

3. Transcript of the Video

Kathryn, thank you for the information. In my evaluation I’m going to cover what I think went well and some areas that could be different. What really worked was your presence, your presence up here. You had a nice casual but dressy appearance that was not intimidating. So, you’re a financial person and if you had come in a black suit that might’ve been intimidating. Very friendly manner. You had no barrier between us because you weren’t behind the lectern. You had a minimal use of notes which allowed you to make eye contact with people. You also, we could tell you were fun in part because of your phone response when you said that “shame is one of the more powerful emotions,” and then the phone went off: “I’m sorry I missed that.” And you played with that. That was set up right? Yeah. That was a perfect setup and it was kind of funny–you got our attention.

When you said, “Women talk more about sex than about money,” so we could tell you weren’t the stiff financial person. You are also very credible based on your background and you gave us some insight into the type of work you do. Your content was very relatable. “The bank of mom.” You helped us understand concepts by using an analogy with working out our financial muscles. And you have a little bit of research in there from your company, USB, I believe, which also added to your credibility. Youur audience interaction . . . You started right off with asking a question and having specific people answer involving us and you did that again later where you, I think you kind of missed the side of the room a little bit, but you did involve people. What could be different? And I’ll go a little bit in depth on this only because this is a higher level of club. Number one, you could start stronger. You started out here and then you ran back to the lecturn, like to get your notes and then you said the most terrible thing you could say, “I have a lot of info.” Oh, yay!

Instead you could have just started with your question, “What comes to mind when I say the word ‘money?'” That would have been a much stronger start. I also was not clear on your message. Consider message clarity. I wasn’t sure exactly the point you were making or the benefit to me as an audience member to listen to you. So one approach is to use what I call the three Ps opening where you start with a little PEP, which could be your question, or it could be a story. Then, you PROMISE your audience something for listening: benefits, some alleviation of pain. And then you give us the PATH, where are you going to be taking us? I don’t think you needed all those notes. One page would have been enough with just key words that they were kind of floppy cause you had more than one page. So starting stronger would be a big area for improvement.

And I would say have at least one story that really touches our emotions. And the way you do that is have a story that has a conflict in it and have some dialogue. You sort of went there a little bit with your mom. You could’ve gone a little deeper about, you know, feeling like this little kid again at your mom’s kitchen table and have a dialog with your mom. On the workshop involvement . . . Consider how you could involve your audience more to actually interact with concept, beyond just asking rhetorical question. Then I would suggest on a handout, definitely have your name and contact info so people have your info if they save the handout. And finally, on the mastermind concept . . .Even though this will be a new thing you’re trying, I would have liked to have seen some proof of concept. Why are masterminds so great? What kind of results could I expect? Why would I really want to be in a mastermind? Show me the money!

You have a lot going for you with your presence and your content. I think if you just tighten it up a little bit, focus more on the audience and what they’re going to get, that you will take it very far with this concept. Thank you.