Change Your Life and Advance Your Career: Become an Award-Winning Presenter

Introduction

Want to Wow Your Superiors and Everyone You Work With? Want to Advance and Become a Leader? You Can Truly Accelerate Your Growth...

Become an Award-Winning Presenter.

How many of you have sat in a large venue and watched a presentation that you loved, and wished you could learn to do that as well. It was a presentation where everyone looked wide awake. You got globs of useful information. It was very entertaining, and you would have loved to spend hours with the presenter to get more exciting information. You can be that presenter!

There are many online videos and books written about becoming a great presenter. This article spells out the steps you need to take to become that person. You will open doors you never considered possible. You will be seen as a new person. Your superiors, co-workers, and large professional audiences will see your high level of confidence. They will appreciate your knowledge and expertise like never before. You will feel globs of confidence. You will feel like you can accomplish anything. It will help your success in one-on-one conversations and workplace negotiations. You will improve how you communicate every day. You will instantly gain respect by everyone around you. Communities of people in your industry will see you as a can-do leader. The only thing in question is...are you ready?

Here are the steps that helped me win many presentation and keynote speaking awards, changed my career, ignited fabulous opportunities, and gave me truck-loads of confidence. Whether in front of one decision maker or 50,000 people. The method and preparation should be the same. You too can achieve award winning killer presentations. Forget B-school training, mass market books, or "presenting for dummies" tips. Focus on the basics, and your presenting abilities will rise way beyond your expectations.?Being a great presenter will open doors you never imagined.?It's one of the three top reasons why job opportunities develop and promotions happen. It builds more personal brand and credibility than anything else, and gives you skills to knock an interview out of the park. You are about to blow away the world!?

Get the topic into your veins for all to see.??

Become the most passionate person in the world on the topic you will present.?You need to be overflowing with passion and drive on the topic. You need to shout it out to the entire world over and over in front of everyone. Shout it out when alone and before bed.?Shout it out alone in your car, or when you wake up.?Practice creating and showing your enthusiasm in front of people close to you. Do more and more practicing and knowing your topic exceptionally well. This will fuel the passion. Research the topic over and over again.?Read, and read, and read everything you can find on the topic.?Research, research, and research some more. No matter what the topic is, you need to become as expert as possible on the subject. This takes knowing all you can learn about the topic from every source you can find. Use research, antidotes, blogs, vendors, users, books, creators, supporters, general public, your child...every source possible. Use data and input from as many sources as possible to create trends and predictions on the topic. Become the topic's expert, ambassador, and advisor. No matter how mundane or boring the topic may seem to you, if it's worth creating a pitch to communicate, then it's worth doing it right and making yourself an over-the-top success doing it.?Every pitch you do should be thought of as a gateway to your career goals.?People can feel your passion.?They can smell your knowledge. They will get excited about your comfortable and expert-like body language. They will consider you well-versed on the topic, and will trust what you're saying. People will stay alert and listen once they know you know your topic well, and you are important to listen to.

Practice becoming an entertainer.

You can do this by practicing being an entertainer and by using entertaining tools, visuals, and music. Never feel that you need to see or read the slides being shown. It turns people off, puts them to sleep, and makes them bored.?Your job is to entertain them, no matter what the topic is.?Actors do not need their script while filming, because they became experts in how the part was written, as well as memorizing the words. They memorized the lines and portray the person their playing with huge amounts of confidence and expertise.?They show no fear in failing and they draw people into their part. You must practice this over, and over, and over.?Just as any good actor does. The best novel writers do globs of research and they read tons of books, so they can come across as credible and real. They also do it in order to learn styles, word uses, structures, and more. Practice humor as though you're a stand up comic at Improv. Create humor through funny antidotes, a joke to kick it off, and even a dash of sarcastic humor about a topic or event.?Part of entertaining is also being expert with the part and?topic and throwing in a few of the latest technology toys.?It entertains people when done as though it flows easily and it all looks like well rehearsed entertainment. ?This can include: using a body motion-driven remote, a special and motion controlled music synch, short videos seamlessly integrated into slides,?custom AI-developed animation, a hologram, 3D developed AI in the pitch, pulling data from multiple sources to visualize results in real-time, and so many more.?The key is that any of these need to look like they're well integrated and all part of a seamless display of entertainment and learning. People also love seeing multi-channel feeds of two or more. You can use animation, since it captivates.?You can use Adobe After Effects, Final Cut, Automate, or AI graphic apps to create it. Using some twitter, FB, LinkedIn, and other online feeds help too.?

Let your hair down.?

Get yourself as loose as possible and always look totally professional. Strut out onto the stage and podium. Maybe even a few dance steps. Always, always, always look professional and business like.?People who present using torn jeans, open shirts, etc., are not as respected by others. No matter what others in the venue are wearing. The S.F. Bay Area dress code does not work in other countries or other parts of the U.S., and it especially does not work when you're trying to sell an idea, trying to fund a company with a fund manager, or status of a project, product, or service.? Gaining trust is critical to delivery of information, selling an idea, or delivering a status or trend. Develop a love for the high you get from being in front of tens of thousands people at one time. This comes from practice and often doing another activity that requires being in front of crowds. Go do open mike or Improv somewhere. No matter how it comes off. Build it into your mind that you're an entertainer and the crowd will love you. Build a presence and build the most important thing of all - confidence.

Questions from the audience must wait until you are finished presenting,

Once you are finished, you may take a few questions. People will get bored if there are too many.?If you do a great job of conveying all the right content, you will not be overwhelmed with extreme and broad questioning. Make absolutely certain to repeat the person's question before you answer it, even if there are audience mikes for people to use. Those in the audience can come up to you after the presentation to ask more questions.

Depart from the B-school thinking of bullet slides.

Use bullet slides only when absolutely necessary. Contrary to the belief of some, load your slides with tons of useful data and information.?Use thoughtful geometrics, graphics, charts, and other methods to deliver data.?Do not make the font of your letters and number too small.?Fonts need to be large enough for the people in the back to read without needing binoculars or brighter lights.?Make the audience want your slides, want your knowledge, want your data, and make them believe you know a great deal about the info on the slide...and you do! Make them feel like they're drinking from a firehose while you're presenting.?Load up the entire presentation with the information you know they will want and feel is highly valuable.?Do not put anything in your presentation if it has little value to the audience. Keep from being wordy. Only use words that add a lot of value - every single one of them.? Edit, edit, and edit until words that are not mandatory in each and every phrase, sentence, or title are gone. Keep in mind that 60% of the words we use in written form are unnecessary. Speak slightly fast, and keep the speed and volume consistent throughout every word, sentence, and pitch. Speak loudly and clearly. Do not slur or drop your volume at the end of sentences. Make sure the people in the extreme back can hear you. Don't ask them, but do this by making like there is no mic.?Do not change your speech speed or voice pitch by slowing down, dropping your volume, or speaking high pitched when nervous. No one will like it, and the audience will lose their attention. You will sound like this is your first presentation, and you will be far better and well rehearsed. If you speak too fast and don't keep the volume up high enough, they will think that you don't believe those last words of a sentence are important. Practice, practice, practice. Never, ever. read your own slide. This causes audiences to fall asleep and they will become turned off quickly.? Use references and substantiate as much of your information as possible. Use antidotes to show examples.

You can do it.

Practice, practice, practice to anyone who will listen. Volunteer to speak every single chance you get. In front of your dog, friends, family, or at work. Everyone can always improve their presentation abilities…everyone! Never feel you are as good as you can be. Even award winning presenters do not stop trying new things, methods, tools, or props. They continue to practice very often, even if it's to themselves. It's like tennis, golf, or running. You keep at it, and try new tactics, shoes, racket, or method. Tennis pros, baseball pros, musicians, and other professionals practice, practice, practice, and keep trying different ways to improve even further.

You're a fiery, cool, entertaining, and credible evangelist who each person in the audience is going to want to meet, learn what you know, and they want to get your autograph!?They will ALL want a copy of your slides! Knock them off their feet and rock their world! You're a professional and an entertainer! Good luck! Everything is possible, and YOU can do it!

Lou Marcoccio is a highly recognized corporate and government advisor, AI/Digital/enterprise software thought leader, mentor, motivator, previous Deloitte Director/Partner, most quoted Gartner analyst, keynote speaker, and advisor to the U.S. Congress.