We hope you enjoy this article reprint from professional speaker Ken Okel.
As a professional speaker, I’ve learned that while most audiences want you to succeed, you will lose them if you’re not properly prepared. No matter your skill level, follow these tips and take your talks to a new level.
Start and Finish Strong:
As a broadcaster, I only had about 10 to 15 seconds to grab the viewer’s attention or they’d change the channel. While your audience won’t have a remote control, they’ll tune you out if you’re not holding their attention and capturing their curiosity. Studies have found that you can only focus on a presentation for about eight minutes before your mind will wander. If you’re talking longer than that, you need to make sure that your conclusion sums up the main points of your presentation. If it’s good information, there’s nothing wrong with saying it twice. In order to start and finish strong, you need to spend extra time rehearing your opening and closing and really have it down cold. Your first and last impression will stay with the audience so make it count. It’s also a great way to get rid of any pre-speech nerves.
Believe in What You’re Saying:
Enthusiasm feeds an audience’s interest. Never treat a topic as if it’s not the most interesting thing in the world. Don’t fake excitement but rather show that you like what you’re talking about. Remember as a child how you’d light up when you’d tell your parents about an exciting part of your day? If you can make the ordinary interesting, you’re on your way to being memorable.
So Make the Ordinary Interesting:
How many times have you heard the pre-flight safety messages from a flight attendant? I bet most of the time, you blocked it out. But every once in a while the flight attendant might throw in a joke or a funny observation and suddenly you’re listening. Think about your material. Is there a shared experience that everyone can relate to like oversleeping your alarm clock, losing your keys, or finding less than a cup of coffee left in the office coffeemaker when you need some serious caffeine? Your audience can immediately identify with those situations. Your challenge is to relate it to your topic. This will play a key role in letting the crowd know why they should care about what you’re saying.
Ken Okel is a communications expert who uses real life broadcasting experiences to help successful organizations communicate better, reduce stress, and laugh more. For his free newsletter and special report, 7 Communication Mistakes that are Costing You Money, go to http://www.kenokel.com
February 10th, 2010
While it’s true that the most critical part of a presentation is a riveting opening, what you’re most likely to be remembered for is actually your closing. Here are some tips for creating a killer closing.
Grabbing your audience with a stellar opening is essential for getting their attention early on, leading your listeners to sit up and take notice. But the closing of your presentation (also called “the takeaway”) is your opportunity to drive home your most essential one to three key points.
Here are our top 3 tips for nailing the takeaway:
1 – Create a simple yet memorable summary slide.
Too often, presenters try to cram their top 8 or so points onto a single summary slide or — worse yet — use multiple summary slides. Remember that in most cases, your summary slide will remain visible longer than any other slide, so take full advantage of that extended screen time to really drive home your key point (no more than 3 key points). If possible, find a humourous or remarkable image to cement the point into their memories.
2 – Begin with the end in mind.
Before sitting down to draft your presentation, ask yourself this question: If I could only give my audience one key point as a takeaway, what would it be? Build your presentaion around that key point, and be sure it’s front and center on your summary slide.
3 – Repetition is key. Repetition is key. Repitition is key.
While it would certainly become annoying to simply repeat the same statement sequentially, repeating a key statement (short, simple, easy to remember, all-encompassing) throughout your presentation will make it that much memorable once the meeting is adjourned. We are bombarded with so many bits of information every day that repetition is usually necessary to make something stick with us. Create a simple summary statement that concisely and effectively makes your point. “Upsells create more revenue for all of us.” “In sales, repeat the positive and immediately dismiss the negative.” “Women are our largest buyer market, so we must market to women.”
Now you should be equipped to nail that all-important summary slide and really drive that takeaway point home. Go get ‘em, Ace!
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February 8th, 2010
It’s no secret that the first 30 sexonds of your presentation can make or break your whole relationship with the audience.
How about when YOU read that opening line? Did you notice that we typed “sexonds” instead of “seconds”? The element of surprise is one way to get your audience’s attention right off the bat. Here are our top ideas for killer openings:
1. Create the element of surprise.
This can occur with a impact statement, a shocking image, a gesture, immediate audience participation, anything. It tells the audience straight away: “I’d better pay attention because I’m not sure what’s going to happen next.”
2. Create curiosity.
This is easily accomplished with a peculiar prop, article of clothing, gesture, statement, etc. It puts the audience on alert and gets their right and left brains engaged — their left brain starts asking, “what is the logical reason for this?” while their right brain is beginning to concoct ideas “why.”
3. Open with a question.
In order to create maximum impact, we recommend opening with a shocking question (“Why is THIS company content to rest on its laurels instead of completely dominating its field?”) or a non-rhetorical question that invites audience participation (“What are the top 3 changes we could make right now to skyrocket our sales?”)
4. Create drama.
No matter what anyone says, people of all walks of life love drama. If that weren’t true, box office sales wouldn’t be where they are today. You can create drama with a single word followed up by a personal story (“Bankrupt. That’s where I was, at the age of just 32.”) or with a single impact statement (“Nobody can hold you back — nobody — without your express permission.”) or an odd statistic (“In South Africa, road accidents cause the most deaths among children between 4 and 15 years. Nearly every day two children die on these roads, and half of these children are younger than age 8.”). Your impact statement should be startling (in a positive or negative way, depending on the nature of the rest of your presentation) and relative to the subject matter at hand.
These are just a few ideas, but they should give you enough creative ideas to get you started. Remember to prepare for your presentation by renting a projector from Projector123.com. Reserve yours today!
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