We recently interacted with a client who was nervous about an upcoming in-person presentation. What was unique about the scenario was that this person was not a novice when it comes to presentations — but they felt like a novice because of the lack of in-person presentation experience since the pandemic. They had presented 50 or more times formally via Zoom or Teams, but had not been standing in front of a live audience in five years!

It made us realize that we are now entering a period where in-person presentations are no longer common.

So how can you brush up on your live presentation skills this year?

We offer five simple pieces of advice to follow (in order).

ONE – CREATE YOUR OVERALL PRESENTATION “STORY”

Most people rush to create a long series of Powerpoint (or other format) slides as a starting point. Our advice is don’t fall into this trap. The very first step you should take is to look at your content and determine how to shape it into a high-level story.

Your story should follow an arc of four components created with your specific audience in mind:

  1. Start with a preview of letting your audience know what the presentation is about.
  2. Give them the reasons why this story is important to them today.
  3. Explain the important key details of the story (and the rationale behind it).
  4. Then lastly, leave the audience with the actions that you want them to take.

This sounds too simple — but you would be surprised how many presentations lack some or all of these story elements.

Pro Tip: Make sure to write the answers to the four components above down first to shape a cohesive story and then use that information to determine the slides/images you need to create your presentation.

TWO – PRACTICE YOUR PRESENTATION IN A SIMILAR FINAL FORMAT

Once your presentation has been developed, it is time to go into practice mode. We suggest that you learn all that you can about the actual room/venue where your presentation is going to be held, and determine the following:

  • Will you be standing up for your presentation?
    • Pro Tip: We suggest that you consider standing up if it will help your ability to engage with the audience (even if sitting is an option).
  • Will you have a podium for any notes/materials?
    • Pro Tip: Our advice is to try not to have a podium, as it often keeps speakers in one standing position and gives you less control of the room.
  • Will you need a microphone?
    • Pro Tip: For larger audiences or large rooms, opt for having a microphone. Request one if it’s not standard setup. (You don’t want to have to strain your voice and add an extra stressor during your presentation. If your voice struggles to carry the room, finding that out as you start your presentation will be too late for fixing it.)
  • How easy/difficult is it for you as the speaker to move while speaking?
    • Pro Tip: To keep the audience engaged (and you more relaxed), plan to move around the space you are given at least a couple of times. A stage will offer plenty of opportunity, but if it’s just a small room, try to ensure the furniture is moved at least a couple of feet away from where you will present so you can plan for movement.

When you have the answers to these questions, try to practice giving your presentation in a similar manner. It helps you determine when moving makes sense during your presentation. This action should help you understand the overall delivery of your content and get you more comfortable with sharing your story.

THREE – TEST YOUR OVERALL TIMING

We’ve seen too many issues related to presentation delivery timing vs. presentation timing allocation over the years. Here’s how to avoid that trap.

An ambitious presenter might accidentally create 2+ hours of content when they only have 45 minutes of total presentation time. If they don’t practice their presentation with a timer, the speaker won’t discover this fact until the day of the presentation. When this scenario arises, the speaker is usually faced with a crisis:

  • They are cut off at the end of their timing and aren’t able to share a complete story.
  • Or they realize with five minutes to go that they have more than half of their content left and rush to skip through some slides and fast-talk through a few others to race to an exhausting finish.

Pro Tip: We advise that you get out a timer. (A simple stopwatch function on your phone will work.) Then go through at least one practice run end-to-end to see what your total timing is, and compare that with the actual time allocated for your presentation. Do these timings match? If not, you have some chopping to do.

FOUR – RETHINK YOUR ATTENTION KILLER SLIDES

Beyond timing the length of your total presentation, another important factor is thinking about the length of individual slides or visuals and the “talk track” time you spend on them.

What we have found is most presentations end up with some “audience attention killer” slides or visuals. This can be a scenario where you are talking to a particular slide or visual for a long period of time. We’ve seen situations where a speaker camps out on one slide for 8, 9, 10 or more minutes — which tends to encourage yawning and zoning out from your audience! The challenge is the speaker is focused on their delivery and not realizing they are putting the audience to sleep.

A good rule of thumb is to have any one visual or slide up on the screen for no more than two to three minutes. (One minute is better.) Keep in mind that two minutes goes by quickly, and timing individual slides is the only way to discover the truth.

Pro Tip: When you identify these “audience attention killer” timing issues, you can:

  • Rethink that content to include more than one image/slide to keep attention up
  • And/or look for an opportunity to trim down your commentary.
FIVE – RECORD YOUR PRESENTATION WITH A TRUSTED COLLEAGUE/FRIEND

The final step to success is finding someone who can record your live presentation and watch it with you. Yes, this is going to be painful for you to watch, but it will be so enlightening and help you make final course corrections.

We ask that you bring in a trusted partner here, so they can focus on the recording aspect and you just focus on delivering your final content. You should be mirroring the same format of presenting as the final presentation (noted in Step 2) to give yourself a clear picture of what you will look like.

The reason we emphasize a recording is that it will help uncover some of the nuances that are unknown to you about your innate presentation style and mannerisms. We’ve seen people come out of recording sessions with insights like “I can’t believe I said the word “Um” over 50 times!!” We’ve seen other insights, like speakers realizing that they wander around randomly, fold their arms, stick hands in pockets, look off into the distance or never smile. All of these speaking essences are uncovered in video — even if they are hard to watch.

Pro Tip: We strongly advise having a trusted friend or colleague with you for this last step. Aside from recording, they should give you honest feedback about the two to three things that are best about the presentation and the two to three things that they think could use improvement. While you are fretting over seeing yourself on camera, they can be a better barometer for the nuances that are pronounced vs. those that only you will notice/worry about.

Once you have these steps in place, we guarantee you will be better prepared to deliver the best presentation possible!

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