Do These 5 Things for Enthralling Presentations

Knowing how to run a presentation with authority is your ticket to rapid career advancement.???

Leaders need to make presentations all the time – whether the occasion is announcing policy changes at a departmental meeting, inviting potential members to join a nonprofit organization or discussing financial results with analysts and media representatives.

The better presenters see the better career track!?

That’s because elite presentation skills:?

• Reinforce the audience’s perception of you as an authority.
• Communicate your personality as well as your knowledge of a topic, which increases the impact you make on the audience.
• Help you to look more majestic – like a leader!?

So with that, here are 5 important things to know about reaching presentation audiences:

1?? PROBLEM: You’re competing for attention with whatever thoughts were in their minds before you began.?

They can be thinking about a fight they had with a boss, feeling hungry, feeling sleepy, or hearing lawn mowers operating outside if the talk is being held over a Zoom call.

SOLUTION: Use an emotional opening that grabs attention instantly.?

Questions (rhetorical or otherwise), stories, humor, local references and anything that gets the crowd with you is fair game – there are no rules; whatever works, that’s it!?

COACH'S TIP: Look closely at how street magicians, jugglers, street performers and musicians emotionally arouse passers-by not just to pay attention but to fork over their dough at the end of the performance. That’s engagement!?

2?? PROBLEM: The audience will forget half of an average business speech 10 minutes after it is given.?

Yep, you can spend hours planning, writing, shaping, rehearsing and battling nerves to deliver the talk to a crowd. But after the talk ends, you will be lucky if 50 percent of it is still in their minds within the time it takes to reheat a leftover slice of pizza.?

After 24 hours, retention drops to 25 percent and after one week, 5 percent, according to research.??

SOLUTION: Stimulate the crowd with stories so they remember you.?

Stories stick because the brain works differently to process language, literary elements and narratives differently than it does simple facts and figures.?

COACH'S TIP: Make your stories emotionally arousing through ...

• Analogies (comparing things familiar to new ideas, like “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry selling the idea of the TV series as “Wagon Train to the stars,” referencing a then well-known TV show about the migration of a wagon train westward across the US);?
• Statistics (“Strokes kill one American every 4 minutes”);?
• Wordplay (Barack Obama’s use of "We are the change we seek" in his 2008 US presidential election victory speech, suggesting that ordinary citizens have the power and responsibility to bring about the change they desire).

3?? PROBLEM: You must work for their attention.?

As I learned as a professional musician, audiences are both needy and fickle.?

They rely on you to guide them to knowledge worth knowing, but they aren’t going to bond with you simply because you’re in front of them – you need to prove you are worthy of their attention.?

SOLUTION: Try my 4-phase framework for getting any audience to buy-in (explained below).

COACH'S TIP:

1. Arouse them emotionally by showing how your ideas relate directly to their work and lives.?
2. Spend the first few minutes (or seconds if you’re speaking online) arousing curiosity through some of the methods mentioned above.?Then roll out big ideas that speak directly to the audience’s needs in the moment.?
3. Next, allow your own passion for this topic to show.?
4. By now they will have bonded with you, paving the way for you to become so inspiring they will have no choice but to join you in the world you are opening to them.?

4?? PROBLEM: Those at the other end of the webcam – not visible on your screen – can be battling distractions without your knowing it.?

This situation became a major problem during pandemic-era lockdowns.?

Despite the availability of a mute button, sounds and images of dogs barking, garbage trucks rolling by, lawnmowers roaring, colleagues eating and kids running into the screen view all occasionally disrupted the audience’s focus on the speaker’s message.?

SOLUTION: Keep things moving briskly to hold attention.?

COACH'S TIP: Act as if your presentation could be disrupted at any moment.?

Besides using slides, also consider conducting polls and votes (via shows of hands or tools in the system), and asking the audience questions – rhetorical and those calling for a show of hands – during the presentation.??

5?? PROBLEM: They expect you to reveal your personality.?

The small screen, like TV, magnifies your visible and audible traits.?

On the one hand, it’s easier to display your confidence, friendliness, folksiness and naturalness to viewers.?

On the other hand, your nervousness, aloofness, distance and woodenness are all easier to see.???

SOLUTION: Let them see who you are without holding back, quirks and all.?

COACH'S TIP: Take advantage of the fact the audience has a limited view of you and your remote workspace.?

• Post talking points all around you on surrounding walls, and on the computer frame next to the webcam so you can spontaneously make a point or pull out an answer to question on the fly.?
• Considering turning a talk into a brief introduction followed by a Q&A where audience questions are posted in chat. Then just talk naturally to the questions.?
• The more you come across as someone who is comfortable speaking on camera, the more the audience will move toward you.
• Practice. Use the recording tools on your phone and laptop to get accustomed to being uninhibited in front of the camera.

SUMMING UP

Mastering these 5 points will boost your confidence as a presenter.?

You’ll become stronger in talking up your brand at a conference, telling stories that enhance the impact of a message, inspiring teams to increase productivity, attracting clients, attracting favorable media coverage and being a leader whom people want to follow.?

For a quick tutorial in motivating audiences to follow calls to action, click on the link under my headshot on my LinkedIn profile that says, "Watch the Free Training Video!"

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If you missed the original LinkedIn live show, the finale of this 13-episode season, click?here?for the recording.?

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You’re afraid.?

Deep down inside, you feel you’re not good enough.?

You feel it’s unacceptable that her work is of only passable quality.?

But you really don’t know how to be with her.?

Find out more on how to speak with confidence as a new leader in the post below:

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Invest in helping them LEARN.

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They said they would stay at a company longer if it put resources into helping them learn.

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MICHAEL'S MOTIVATING MISSIVE

Our finest moments often happen when we are uncomfortable.

It’s by having these moments that we are pushed out of our comfort zone and routine and start exploring different ways and paths to find the clarity and purpose that we seek.

Keep pushing forward and never stop, even slow progress is still progress.

THANKS FOR SPENDING TIME READING THIS NEWSLETTER! LET ME KNOW HOW YOU LIKED IT.

And remember, as the US business consultant and author Price Pritchett says: "If you must doubt something, doubt your limits."

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COPYRIGHT 2023 MICHAEL BARRIS

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