public speaking
The Key Factor for Your Presentation's Success
December 6, 2011
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Angela DeFinis is an industry expert in professional public speaking. As an author, executive speech coach, and founder of DeFinis Communications, she has spent over twenty years helping business professionals communicate with greater poise, power, and passion. Using her signature Line by Line Coaching™ process, Angela and her talented staff have trained business leaders and other professionals to speak with increased skill and confidence in engaging any audience.
When you’re preparing a presentation, who is the most important person you need to consider? The answer: Your audience.
You’ve likely experienced, at least once in your career, what happens when you forget about your audience. Here’s the scenario: You create the perfect presentation complete with solid transitions, compelling visuals, and stellar numbers. You have great jokes planned and practice every element of your speech. Yet, as you stand in front of your listeners and talk, your message isn’t garnering any interest. You know you’re crashing fast. While you may have prepared incessantly before you went to the front of the room, you forgot about the one critical element to your presentation—your audience.
If you forget your audience, your presentation can backfire. That’s why knowing the details about them is critical for your success.
For example, Andrew Winston is a well-known consultant who is dedicated to helping companies grow and flourish by utilizing green environmental strategies. He speaks across the globe to varied audiences. As such, Winston is a master at crafting his presentation to match the needs of his diverse audience.
Winston speaks to audiences of adoring fans, sustainability conference attendees, and even lumberjacks and loggers. Do you think he takes the risk of delivering the same speech to each unique audience? Of course not! The brilliance of Winston is his ability to deliver a compelling presentation every time he speaks because he caters to the specific needs of each audience. When he is in front of his fans, he is bold, controversial, and risk taking. However, when he is in front of an audience of skeptics, he eliminates the controversial pieces and engages with the audience on a personal level.
As a presenter, you must get your audience on your side. If the people in front of you want numbers, give them numbers; if they want jokes, give them jokes. However, if you don’t take the time to analyze what would best suit your audience, your presentation will fall flat no matter how much you prepare.
Therefore, before you begin crafting your speech, know who you are going to be standing in front of. Will you be amongst your cheering, loving fans? Or a caustic, skeptical group of dissenters? Make sure you are prepared to speak to the hearts and minds of the crowd in front of you!
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The End of PowerPoint?
November 28, 2011
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Angela DeFinis is an industry expert in professional public speaking. As an author, executive speech coach, and founder of DeFinis Communications, she has spent over twenty years helping business professionals communicate with greater poise, power, and passion. Using her signature Line by Line Coaching™ process, Angela and her talented staff have trained business leaders and other professionals to speak with increased skill and confidence in engaging any audience.
I recently read a Fast Company blog about a new political party in Switzerland that wants to make PowerPoint illegal. The Anti-PowerPoint Party (APPP) is a new movement formed by Matthias Poehm, a professional public speaker in Switzerland. His goal is to “influence the public to put a stop to the phenomenon of idle time in the economy, industry, research and educational institutions.” To do that, he’s focusing on eliminating PowerPoint entirely.
While this sounds like a bad skit from Saturday Night Live, apparently the APPP is gaining momentum. And while Poehm is making the assault on PowerPoint the focus of his platform, he states that he’s really targeting all presentation software.
So what does Poehm have against PowerPoint? His party has done studies on presentation effectiveness, and they’ve found that 85 percent of participants in meetings think software-based presentations are “killing motivation.” That’s why he wants to get enough signatures to put a referendum on the ballot in Switzerland to outlaw the tool.
I admit that I’ve seen my share of bad PowerPoint presentations. I’m sure you’ve seen them too—slides filled with wordy sentences in teeny font, no design elements, mixed templates, mutli-layered and complex graphs and charts . . . it’s enough to make anyone hate PowerPoint.
But if PowerPoint is banned, what’s a speaker to use? Poehm’s suggestion: Flipcharts! While I agree that flipcharts have their place in presentations, to have flipcharts as a presenter’s sole tool may be just as bad as using poorly constructed PowerPoint slides. So rather than outlaw PowerPoint, maybe we should first focus on educating people on how to use it effectively. After all, the tool itself isn’t bad; it’s just the poor application of the tool that gives it a bad name.
Knowing this, here are a few top PowerPoint tips.
1. Prepare your material before you design your slides: Content development should always come before slide design. Therefore, brainstorm, create, organize and structure your message, and then develop your slides. This simple change of behavior will put PowerPoint where it should be—as a visual aid.
2. Create three separate documents: PowerPoint can’t be all things to all people. That’s why your speaker notes, handouts and PowerPoint slide deck should be three separate entities. Yes, this takes extra time, more organization and a bit more work, but no one said that preparing to give a great presentation was easy!
3. Design a slide deck geared for knowledge transfer: Add pictures, charts, graphs, learning models, audio and video clips and other rich images to keep your audience stimulated and engaged. Visuals are vital to knowledge transfer.
4. Consider the power of staging: Your audience relishes design, symmetry, and powerful and pleasing images. And they also need you to be as polished as your PowerPoint. Therefore, a few simple staging techniques, like making sure that your body shadows don’t block the screen, facing front and using pointers effectively, will help you feel and be more professional and more engaging.
5. Memorize your transitions: Develop, refine and memorize your transitions so that you move from slide to slide with grace and ease. Avoid the distracting behavior of constantly looking over your shoulder to see what slide is coming next.
6. Don’t read your slides: The slide is there to enhance your message and to give the audience a visual stimulus that keeps them engaged so you can pour your knowledge into their heads. You are the message and the messenger. Take heed.
The sooner everyone masters these points, the better our chances of preventing the Anti-PowerPoint Party from establishing roots here. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but . . . long live PowerPoint!
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How to Pitch a Speaking Engagement
June 24, 2010
by Shennandoah Diaz
You’ve been blogging and interacting to build your author platform, and now it’s time to get out there and connect with your audience live and in person—but how do you get those speaking engagements? It takes a combination of three things: relevant speaking topics that can be honed to a specific audience, a speaker’s press kit, and a customized pitch.
Relevant Speaking Topics. Before approaching an organization or event coordinator for a speaking engagement, you need to know what you will be talking about. It’s best to develop several different key speaking topics that are relevant to your platform. Once you develop your presentation materials for each topic, you’ll always have them on hand. Then you only need to tweak them to meet the needs of a specific group or update them to keep them current. This keeps you from drafting a brand new presentation every time you speak. Also, it helps you develop and hone your message by consistently presenting on the same topics and lets others identify you as a potential speaker based on your topics.
A Speaker’s Press Kit. Similar to your author press kit, a speaker’s press kit should include the following:
- A professional, quality headshot
- Both a short (50–100 word) bio and a full length bio
- Credentials—education, certification, experience, track record, etc.
- Speaking history (Don’t worry if you don’t already have many engagements under your belt; you can build on publishing credits and other experience until you build your speaking history.)
- Speaking topics—the list of talking points and topics of expertise you identified above
- Menu of services—the types of speaking you do, plus your rate for each type
- Speaker’s reel—an edited, high-quality video montage of you speaking
- Contact information
Your speaker’s press kit should be both downloadable and available in print. Make sure that it is always packaged in a clean and professional manner. A bad first impression can kill your pitch, no matter how timely your topic or amazing your speaking abilities.
A Customized Pitch. Most pitches are made in writing, either through email or snail mail. You want to customize your pitch for each event or organization. Personalize the address line to the organizer or chair. Research the organization and their attendees to find out what their needs and concerns are so you can identify how your speaking topic(s) can help them. You may need to slightly alter your topic to make it pertinent or more appropriate for a specific audience—be willing and able to do so. If there are posted guidelines for speaker pitches, follow them to the letter and, above all, be respectful.
Remember, you may not be a good fit for every speaking engagement you go for. Also, don’t be quick to decline no-fee presentations or small-fee presentations, as they often lead to bigger and better opportunities.
For more information on pitching speaking engagements check out:
Speak and Grow Rich by Dottie and Lilly Walters
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Public Speaking Basics For Authors
June 15, 2010
by Shennandoah Diaz
Not all authors are natural speakers, but it is becoming more and more necessary for authors to develop their speaking skills. Presentations, appearances, interviews, and other speaking engagements are an increasing part of how authors build and connect with their platforms. To make the most of those opportunities, you—the author—need to develop your speaking skills.
No one is born a stellar speaker. It takes time and practice to become skilled enough to not only deliver a presentation but also handle the questions and unexpected circumstances that come up in public appearances. Though in no way a comprehensive guide to public speaking, the following tips will help you get started on your way to becoming a better speaker:
Know your audience: Before every speaking engagement, take the time to learn about your audience. Who are they? What do they do for living? What is their experience with your topic? What do they want to learn or hope to gain from your presentation? Answering those questions will help you develop a targeted presentation that will have a greater impact than a cookie-cutter template speech.
It’s not about you: Yes, you likely got the speaking engagement because you are an important person in some respects, but no one goes to a workshop or luncheon just to hear how great some stranger is. They want information, to be entertained, or to somehow improve their lives. Your presentation should provide value to the audience, not just promote yourself.
Practice, practice, and then practice some more: You can almost never be too prepared for a presentation. Develop your materials ahead of time and practice your delivery. Time yourself, see how long it takes for you to get through the material uninterrupted, and then allow time for questions and banter from the audience. Film yourself if possible, and look for nervous tics, lengthy pauses, or other distracting habits you may not notice while you are talking.
Make a checklist: You don’t want to show up to your presentation without important handouts, computer files, or—in the worst case—your speech itself. Make a checklist of all the items you need for your presentation and mark everything off as you load your vehicle so you don’t miss anything.
Have a way for them to find you: The point of public speaking is to connect with potential readers and clients. Don’t show up empty-handed. Have business cards with your contact and book buying info (e.g. website) with you. If you are able, have copies on hand for back-of-room sales. Just don’t turn your speech into a sales pitch. If you provide value, they will buy—and they will also want to seek you out for other information and additional speaking engagements.
Be on time: Plan on showing up at least twenty minutes early. This way you can familiarize yourself with the space (if you haven’t done so already) and make sure everything is in working order and set up the way you need it to be. Plus, it’s a sign of respect for the presenter to be on time. If you are late, you disrupt the whole schedule, which is not good for your reputation.
Meet with your audience beforehand: Don’t hideout backstage while people are filing in to their seats. Take that time to shake hands and learn a few names as people are walking in the door. This helps you break the ice and warm up the audience. Plus, it helps cut your own nervous energy, since you will have established a rapport with the audience.
Also, don’t forget to smile, be gracious, and by all means say thank you! You are not the only speaker available on your topic (unless it’s a super niche topic). Don’t burn bridges or do anything that could hurt your reputation. After your presentation, follow up with the organizers and any contacts you met while there. Cultivate those relationships and ask for feedback. Each time, you’ll get great tips and insights as to what worked and what didn’t so you can continue to improve as a speaker.
For more resources on public speaking check out:
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