Yes you are an expert in your field. Yes you can present mountains of information. But it will not impress your audience, nor will it create an impact … unless you make it relevant. Make it relevant to your audience. How will it solve their problems? How will it make life better or more profitable? Choose the pieces of information that will be of most use to them. Each piece of data or fact should be couched in a point about its usefulness. Use stories and case studies to further make an impact.
Think about your favourite speaker, or perhaps about a speaker you admire hugely. Chances are they use humour. Humour is certainly one of the elements of success as a speaker. Many successful speakers use it. That does not mean, however, that we should all use humour in every speech we give. It may not be our personal speaking style, and it needs far more skill and finesse than just throwing some good jokes into our speeches.
What may be a “good” joke on one occasion may be an absolute insult on another. And that will depend largely on the audience. Before you speak at any occasion, you need to know about that audience so that you do not insult them. Research their interests, their political persuasion, beliefs, this customs and their history. If you want to avoid insulting your audience be very aware of their culture.
Robert Orven said “I’m beyond being shocked – but I’m not beyond being offended.” Questionable humour may suit one audience but not another. So be very sure of your audience when you choose your humour. Be sure you are aware of your audience’s mores and beliefs and their humour buttons.
While you are researching your audience you are also gathering material that you can use to create humour. Imagine being able to share a joke with your audience about the event or the venue – something that they find humorous or ironic about their situation. It will be powerful because they are already open to the humour in that situation. Perhaps there is someone within the group who is already using humour in some way and you can call back to that and share in it. Maybe there is someone who has a particular character trait that they are used to being ribbed about. Be careful! If you can turn the humour against yourself because you share that same character trait it will be so much better.
So research your audience to mine possible situational humour. Find out their favourite sports teams, their home town, well-known people within the group and its history. You can send a pre-presentation survey or questionnaire. You can interview the program coordinator or event organiser or the person who invited you to speak. Read the organisation’s own publications and those of their particular area of involvement in the world or their profession. Talk to people who have been members of the group for a long time. Gather the stories. What are their idiosyncrasies? Find out what they think is funny. Uncover any running gags. There you have a source for humour customised and tailored to work for this group.
And that means you don’t need to bring in generic jokes that someone else has written, unless you re-write them to suit the situation. Being able to relate your humour to the people in your audience is a powerful way to connect with them and to take them on the journey of your presentation.
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© Bronwyn Ritchie … If you want to include this article in your publication, please do, but please include the following information with it:
Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian, writer, award-winning speaker and trainer. She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk, a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years’ experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. In just 6 months time, you could be well on the way to being admired, rehired as a speaker, confident and sucessful, with the 30 speaking tips. Click here for 30 speaking tips for FREE. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com
The introduction to your speech should
– Build credibility
– State your objectives
– Overview the elements
– Lead into the main point
and give a short background for the points to follow
101 Secrets of Highly Effective Speakers: Controlling Fear, Commanding Attention
Ron L. Krannich
Controlling fear. Commanding attention
…covers every aspect of public speaking, and should go a long way in reassuring novices they are adequately prepared. — Today’s Librarian
http://bit.ly/P5lARb
Everything the audience sees of you as a speaker needs to reinforce the image you have decided to present in your speech – clothes, facial expression, stance and gesture.
At its most basic this means projecting confidence and sincerity. Unless you decide otherwise, the audience needs to know that you are comfortable with your message and believe in it.
If you are also using this presentation to present yourself as the face of your business, or as a candidate for a position, then take that into account as well. You need to be seen as trustworthy, competent, at ease with your material.
It’s not just PowerPoint and its misuse that can cause death to an audience’s interest. If you found yourself suffering during a presentation it was probably boredom – from a boring presenter who was not excited about his subject, from an overloaded, boring slideshow, and most assuredly from an overloaded, information packed presentation, given with no thought to your comfort, your interests or your needs.
As presenters, why do we do this? Why do we feel compelled to force too much information into our presentations?
One reason I am very familiar with is the need to showcase our knowledge. This may be as basic as a novice presenter desperate to gain credibility and kudos for their knowledge. So many of us go into public speaking thinking we need to do this to be liked and respected by the audience. Hence we construct a speech filled with as much information as we can pack into it. Unfortunately, when this is the main aim, we lose sight of the point of the speech and the needs of the audience and consequently have no clear message. And oftentimes, rather than impressing the audience, we end up annoying them. The worst-case-scenario is giving the impression that we really don’t understand the big picture or the relevance of the information. An annoyed audience and a lack of understanding of the topic are not good indicators for a successful presentation or for being rehired.
Another reason for stuffing a presentation with information may be lack of preparation. Perhaps the speaker has been called upon at the last minute. Perhaps they have had their time limit extended unexpectedly. Perhaps they have little experience in presenting. The result is an audience that simply ends up confused.
The third reason for TMI (Too much information) can be enthusiasm – enthusiasm for the subject, enthusiasm for the opportunity to share the information, enthusiasm for the chance to present. There is nothing wrong with enthusiasm. It can be a powerful engagement tool, but when it leads to an enthusiastic deluge of information, the result is not powerful engagement. The audience gets bored. Their brains signal overload and irritation sets n. The brain can really only absorb 3 points at any one time. The maximum is 7 (hence the early telephone numbers having 7 digits). Once it has to deal with much more than that, it needs to go into a different, more difficult processing mode. That’s where the irritation sets in –boredom and a desire to escape or tune out – death by TMI!
Finally there is the belief that decisions are made on rational consideration of the facts. So we give our audiences masses of facts that prove the point we are making – statistics, reports, graphs and diagrams, proof in all its forms. And they tune out. Given the indication that they are going to be subjected to too much information, they start being selective about what they remember. And that choice won’t always necessarily be the one we wanted them to make.
The answer lies in a series of decisions we need to make when we start putting together our presentations and speeches.
The first thing to decide is – what do you want your audience to do, think or feel at the end of your speech? What is the ultimate outcome you want from it? State that in one sentence so that you are laser focussed on it.
You will need to know your audience in order to do this. Always, always, always take them into account. What do they need from you? What do they want from you? What would they think was valuable about a speaker and his material? What will excite them?
So choose your outcome based on those aspects of your audience.
Then choose the points you will use to create that outcome.
Choose them based on what your audience will remember.
Choose them based on what will engage this audience.
And choose them based on the length of the speech. There should be three main points, or sections. If it is a longer presentation, then have three subdivisions of those main points. Expect to have about one main point per 10 minutes of presentation.
Then choose material to support those points that can be remembered and repeated. People buy on emotion and rationalise their decisions with logic, even if they are buying ideas. So use emotional supports as well as logical ones. Use phrases that can be repeated – by you throughout the speech and by your audience members later as prompts to memory. And aim to have one thing – just one thing – that is absolutely memorable and stands out from the whole presentation. It may be an object. It may be a story. It may be an image. But make it so graphic that it sticks in the mind of your audience long after you are finished. Make it something they will chat about afterwards. And make it something that will instantly remind them of the outcome that you wanted.
Once you have your material ready and have rehearsed, prepare for changes in the length of time available to you. If it is suddenly announced that you have extra time, have extra that you can add. If it is suddenly announced that time has been cut, know what you can cut from your material and still succeed with the presentation.
If you choose material that is suited to your audience you will maintain their attention and engagement. If you limit it to a few powerful points you will maintain their attention and engagement and you will make it easy for them to remember your material. If you add memory triggers to the mix, then your outcomes should be assured. Those are the things that will showcase your knowledge (winnowing out the important points), ensure you are prepared, communicate your enthusiasm and guarantee that your audience thinks, acts or believes what it was you wanted them to.
Author: Bronwyn Ritchie
If you want to include this article in your publication, please do, but please include the following information with it:
Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian, writer, award-winning speaker and trainer. She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk, a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years’ experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. In just 6 months time, you could be well on the way to being admired, rehired as a speaker, confident and sucessful, with the 30 speaking tips. Click here for 30 speaking tips for FREE. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com
The very first thing to do in any speech or presentation is to take and hold the audience’s attention – arouse it, focus it and keep it. Don’t waste your breath on the expected or the blah. If you must begin with something like “Good evening”, then make it different, or unusual. Here in Australia, we might say “G’day!” That would be unexpected. Otherwise use your voice and body language to make the greeting unusual, challenging, noticeable. Use pause here. Then use an opening that grabs the attention. You can use a question, a joke, a comment about the people or surroundings or event. You can make a statement, use a quotation, or simply use body language or gesture. But choose that opening to grab attention, to align with the audience and their needs, hopes and aspirations, and to lead into your message.
Whatever you may be trying to achieve, don’t let the impact of your presentation be an accident. Right from the beginning, it needs to be part of the planning. When you are visualizing your production, toying with ideas and possibilities and first drafts, make the impact of you as a person and of your performance an integral part of that process. Visualise it and work it into all aspects of your production planning.
Then you have the foundation for creating the “wow” factor.
What to Say When. . .You’re Dying on the Platform: A Complete Resource for Speakers, Trainers, and Executives
by Lily Walters
A heckler is in the audience; the overhead projector breaks; the allotted speech time runs out – these are just some of the panic-producing crises, interruptions, or distractions easily dealt with in this first-aid guide for business speakers. Here, first-timers and experienced pros alike will find everything they need to organize, write, and deliver effective, entertaining speeches – from installations to toasts and roasts. => http://bit.ly/OICL9e
Quiet achievers. Unobtrusive. Professional. There to make sure your presentation gets the results you want. These are your visual supports. They support your presentation, underscore its impact, give power to your points.
It may be that in the culture of your organisation or of your audience, impact will be created by your visuals. If the message of your speech means nothing, your speech means nothing, and your image beyond the ability to create those visuals means nothing, then you will need to develop a high level of competency in creating those visuals and in presenting them. Invest in courses in construction and invest time in becoming competent with their operation.
If, on the other hand, your results will come from your message, or from your presentation skills, then the visual supports need to be just that – supports – unobtrusive in themselves. They need to be professional, yes, excellent, yes, to support your credibility and image, but they should be seamlessly supporting your message, not announcing their presence.
And if you want them to be excellent, work on your design skills. Try to be unique if you can, especially where you want to make an impact. Using the same old clip art and graphics that everyone uses will not be noticed, but originality will.
In creating visual supports, be sure that your material can be seen by everyone in the room. Make your words large and uncluttered. Five or six lines on a slide, flip chart page or transparency is adequate, and they will create far more impact that a mass of written material. The same applies to images.
Objects should be large enough to be seen, too. You can pass the smaller ones around, but know that while people are looking at the objects, they are not looking at you, and you have lost their attention. It may be better to have a display that people can look at after the presentation.
Using the “equipment” has to be as unobtrusive as possible. The first step here is being prepared. If you can practice beforehand, do so. Organise all the physical objects so that you can reach them when they are needed, without having to search, and without having to fumble. This may mean arranging them in the order in which they will be presented. It may mean practising the presentation so that you know automatically where to reach for something. This can apply to objects you want to display, the remote control for projecting equipment, the pens for flip charts or overhead projectors or a whiteboard, or to slides or overhead transparencies.
During these practice sessions, work out how you will move around the visual supports and equipment. Where will you place the objects you want to pick up – on a table, or another piece of furniture? Where will this, or the equipment, be so that you can move around it and communicate most easily with your audience – in front of you, beside or behind you? Always consider the least distracting way of accessing your material and the greatest ease of movement.
If you are using projection equipment, visualise its placement. Think about how you will work with the laptop or the overhead projector – standing beside, or behind? Do you want your silhouette projected on the screen as well as your visuals? Walking in front of the screen will also obscure them.
If you cannot organise the positioning of your equipment, then try to become familiar with it before the presentation and then visualise how you will use it best.
Plan to use visuals so that they support your message and do not detract from it, or overtake the attention. You need to be able to use the visuals easily. Turn the pages of a flip chart from the bottom corner. If you can find the remote control for your PowerPoint, use it, or be familiar with the keyboard shortcuts to use. Practice the way you will pick up, place and put down your OHP transparencies. These operations are all meant to be as unobtrusive as possible, not part of the message.
Please do not treat your audience as illiterate. If your words are on the screen or sheet of paper, then let the audience read for themselves. This will have enormous impact, especially if your audience is used to presenters slavishly following the test on their visuals.
You are presenting your message verbally, and visuals are just that – images or groups or words that support your message They are the quiet achievers, and are certainly not the message itself. If necessary, you may have to explain this, first, because many audiences have been trained by presenters who cover their inadequacies by using their visuals as the message. And this is why you will make an impact if you can present without using this method. You will be different. You will be seen as so much more confident and competent as a person. And this confidence and competence will be the underlying basis of the power of your presentation.
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© Bronwyn Ritchie If you want to include this article in your publication, please do, but please include the following information with it:
Bronwyn Ritchie is a professional librarian, writer, award-winning speaker and trainer. She is a certified corporate trainer and speech contest judge with POWERtalk, a certified World Class Speaking coach, and has had 30 years’ experience speaking to audiences and training in public speaking. In just 6 months time, you could be well on the way to being admired, rehired as a speaker, confident and sucessful, with the 30 speaking tips. Click here for 30 speaking tips for FREE. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com