Seeking to improve your public speaking and presentation skills?
Often, when we think about our communication, we think about our verbal dialogue, our e-mails and how we are perceived in meetings.
When it comes to presentation skills, its not something that you want to just wing. However rest assured, there’s a method to the madness.
Today, I’m going to share a couple of strategies on how you can really nail that next presentation, whether its to a large audience standing on a stage or if you’re presenting a deck to a team.
The key to doing effective presentations is through Storytelling
With every good story, we always want to know what the ending is. So you want to make sure that your ending really hits home. Before you actually draft that outline, (and it doesn’t have to be a lot of slides), I want you to really think about what the “magic microphone message” is that you want to leave your audience with?
What is it that you want them to learn and walk away with? How can you educate them and what action do you want them to take after your presentation is over?
What is the ‘Why’ of what you are presenting?
Okay, so let’s start there. What would be a clear and concise point that you can start your talk or presentation with, so that the audience knows where they’re headed?
I’m actually asking you to start with the ending first and just give them some breadcrumbs up front.
Before I forget, I want to be sure you know about my leadership audio course (it’s free) that’s designed to help you own your authority in your career by applying 5 top strategies and it works. It’s based on two decades of leading in Corporate America and those professionals I coach here at In Our Shoes.
Now onto the second strategy…
Master the Rule of 3
As you’re going into your presentation, I want you to make three points, or share three mistakes that you have learned from. You can also share three benefits on the topic you’re speaking on or three things that you wish you would have known.
Keep it really simple, but step them through 1-2-3 points that you want to make.
Opening up with a couple of funny cartoons can be a nice icebreaker, so that it puts the audience (and you) at ease.
You want to have a strategy. You want to know where you’re taking your audience so that you can back into it and give them a preview of what to expect so you can step them through.
Those three points actually become your anchors, so that you’ll never get off-course and forget what you wanted to say. So it’s also a really good memorization tool as well to have you feel grounded. This especially helps when you get to the Q&A segment! Which leads to my next strategy below.
Confidently Prepare for Q&A
When you’re opening up for questions, you can tie back your answers to those three points should you ever get off-course. This works especially well if for example you get a question that’s out of left field.
Note – you can always say the words: ‘that’s a great question’ to buy yourself some time. If you still don’t know the answer ask them to reach out afterwards to reconnect. Don’t worry about not knowing all the answers. This is a very common fear that all presenters have even those that are very experienced.
Mindset shift: you’re there to serve. You’re there to deliver and give them some results that they’re looking for, but they don’t need to digest everything at once either. They just need a couple of things that’s beneficial to them and which they can hit the ground running with.
This approach could also be framed as a discussion when you’re seeking buy-in. In this case, it’s all about communicating the results – what’s in it for them? Why would they care? Start with ending first and walk them through in that meeting.
“ If others seek your advice, guidance, or strategic eye, this speaks to being compensated and recognized as someone who has valuable assets to share and lead with.” – Own Your Authority
Own Your Authority
👠All right, thanks for stopping in. More to come!
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