Top 5 Strategies for a Memorable Presentation

Here are the top 5 strategies you can use to make sure every presentation is a showstopper.

1.  Realize 90% of Nervousness Doesn't Even Show
The audience usually can’t see the telltale symptoms of nervousness.  The butterflies, the shaky hands or the sweaty palms.  The key is for you to not focus on them either.  You need to focus on the audience.  When you do this two things will happen:  1) they will like you more, and 2) much of the nervousness that you feel will go away.

Many times when I have given a presentation people have spoken to me afterwards about how relaxed and confident I was.  (Believe me, I wasn't.)

2.  Don’t Avoid Eye-Contact.
When we are nervous, it is a natural reaction to want to hide.  When you are standing in front of a group of people where do you hide?  You can’t.  So you will tend to look down or look away from your audience.  If we can’t see them they can’t see us, right?  Wrong.

The other trick people try is to look over the tops of their heads.  The idea here is that by looking a peoples foreheads, they will think you are looking at them.  Wrong again.

You need to look directly into people’s eyes with kindness.  Create a rapport with the audience through your visual contact.  If anyone smiles when you look at him or her, smile back.  This will make you, and the audience, feel more at ease and will make your presentation more genuine.

Identify three people in the audience whom you want to speak to:  One on your left, one in front of you and one on your right.  Deliver your speech to these three people.  Look at each one for about 4-5 seconds and “switch target” to the next person.  Don’t maintain eye contact for too long.  This will create an uncomfortable situation.  You don’t want to creep people out. 

If you can meet some of your audience ahead of time, as they come into the room, and can chat with them a bit, it will relax you and you can look for them when you speak. 

By using this technique, it will give the impression to the entire audience that you are making eye contact, because you are sweeping the room with your glances.

3.  Don't Apologize.
Never start a presentation with an apology.  By starting a presentation with an apology for your nervousness or for having a cold, you are drawing attention to something the audience may not have noticed.  You are also announcing to the audience, “the presentation you are about to receive is less than you deserve, but please don’t blame me.”

I have seen too many people do this and it definitely impacts how you are received.  No matter whether or not you are completely prepared, have forgotten something or whatever - keep it to yourself.  You are the only one who knows, or who needs to know.

4.  Avoid A Rushing/Monotone Voice.
A fast paced monotone speech is a sure-fire way to make your audience feel unimportant.  It will also cause them to lose focus and become bored.  How many lectures did you sit through in school listening to a monotone professor drone on about whatever subject he was teaching?  How much of those lectures did you actually remember?

When I was completing my degree I listened to many boring, monotone lectures as the professors droned on and on.  You don’t want to subject your audience to this same torture and you want them to remember what you talked about.

You can easily avoid monotone messages. Before saying a word think about the value of your message. Think about the aspects that create passionate feelings. Think about speaking clearly with compassion. Smile. Tell yourself a joke. Take a huge confidence breath.

Use eye-contact, positively say “you,” and flow with the message. If you do, you’ll hear, “I felt like you were speaking specifically to me.” That’s one of the best compliments you can get. And it proves that you’re speaking TO not AT the audience.

5.  Limit your talk to a few key points.
Have you ever attended a lecture which was supposed to last 15 - 20 minutes and 30 minutes later the person is still talking.  Or gone to a public debate where each contestant was to have 5 minutes and one person is still speaking after 10 minutes? 

Narrow down your topic to either one key point for a short talk, or three key points for a longer talk (a talk longer than 30-minutes).  Ask yourself, “If my audience only remembered one thing from my talk, what would be the most important thing for them to remember?”  The more points your presentation has, the less focus the audience will have on each individual point.  Once you have your key points, then create your PowerPoint slides, if you are using them.

If you remember these five key points, you will be sure to knock-em dead.

To your speaking success

Fran Watson

P.S. for more tips on public speaking, you can sign up here for my free ezine

Avoid Developing Bad Habits

AVOID DEVELOPING BAD HABITS DURING PRACTICE
by J.A. Gamache
Third place Champion at the 2001 Toastmasters International
World Championship of Public Speaking

When practicing a speech, don't pause after you make a
mistake. If you stop and start again, you might develop a
reflex that will manifest itself on the day of your
performance.

I'll always remember one of my first English speech contests.
As a native French speaker, I was inexperienced with the
English language and was really nervous at the idea of
mispronouncing words. Back then, my accent was so thick that
I couldn't always make myself understood.

During rehearsals, I would stop myself each time I
mispronounced something and then would repeat the word, using
the correct pronunciation. I improved a lot this way and was
correcting my imperfections.

On the day of the contest, I continued the same pattern and
would stop to repeat a word whenever I mispronounced it. It
would have been better had I ignored these errors, but I
couldn't help myself because my habit of self-correction had
turned into a conditioned reflex. As I stumbled repeatedly
during my speech, I gave the judges the impression that I was
ill prepared, which made me lose the contest.

I learned a great lesson from that defeat. When you prepare a
speech, it's better to practice as through you're really
facing an audience, for the following reasons:

1- YOU'LL AVOID DEVELOPING UNDESIRABLE REFLEXES.
You won't instil bad habits in yourself, such as constantly
correcting yourself when speaking in front of a group.

2- YOU'LL DEVELOP THE HABIT OF DEALING WITH CONTINGENCIES.
Here's a partial list of contingencies you could encounter
during rehearsals (and also on the day of your speech):
- Stammering or mispronouncing something
- Forgetting your text
- Inverting parts of your speech
- Mishandling a prop
- Experiencing computer problems
- Being distracted by an interruption

3- YOU'LL GAIN SELF-CONFIDENCE.
On the day of your presentation, you won't be dreading any
unpleasant surprises. You'll know what to do because you've
encountered them during rehearsals.

Practice your speech as if you were really in front of an
audience, and you'll avoid bad habits. You'll also develop
strategies to get yourself out of predicaments and you'll be
less stressed when faced with an unforeseen event.

Happy speech!

©MMXII J.A. Gamache www.jagamache.com. All rights reserved.


---------------------------------
PERMISSION IS GRANTED TO REPRODUCE THIS ARTICLE
in whole or in part if a copy of the reproduced text is sent
to J.A. Gamache at info@jagamache.com after publication and
also provided that the following bylineappears along with the
reproduced text:

This article was reproduced from "Speaking in Public with
J.A.", a FREE electronic magazine authored by J.A. Gamache,
International Inspirational Speaker. To subscribe to his FREE
e-zine or to find out more about his presentations, visit:
http://www.jagamache.com.

For more tips on public speaking click here

Introducing a Speaker

Introducing a speaker? – follow these five basic guidelines

1.     Address the audience – grab their attention

2.     Refer to the speaker – tell the audience who the speaker is and prepare them by giving some background on the speaker’s experience, qualifications or special interest in the topic

3.     Refer to the topic – this is of great interest to the audience.  It’s what they’ve come for – explain how the topic is relevant to them and how they stand to gain from listening

4.     Make the audience clear on what’s to follow – for example any housekeeping items such as time for questions, handouts, note-taking

5.     Welcome the speaker and lead the applause – indicate for the speaker to approach, step back and lead the applause, welcome the speaker (possibly with a handshake or some other form of acknowledgement), wait for acknowledgement from the speaker, then leave the speaking area and sit down

 

Make sure to consult with your speaker ahead of time to ask for a prepared introduction or to ask about their topic and what they would like you to say about them.  Do not make the error of telling the audience how funny they are when they have a serious topic.

 

To your speaking success!

 

Fran

Body Language - What Does Yours Say?

An article by my friend Marion Grobb Finkelstein

Your Body Talks ... Do You Know What It's Saying?

 

 

Gut feeling, intuition, hunches. Whatever we call it, we all have feelings about people we meet. Part of the information we're taking in that leads to such conclusions is body language. Whether we realize it or not, we both read and speak it -- some of us better than others.

The old 7/38/55 rule from Dr. Albert Mehrabian is often quoted. In his studies of the 1960s, this UCLA professor deduced that in face-to-face communications, 7% of the message is conveyed through words, 38% through voice and 55% through body. In the 1970s, Australian researcher and author Allan Pease concluded that body accounted for up to a whopping 80%! Even though some more recent research suggests that these percentages may be more equally distributed, the fact remains that our bodies most definitely talk. In fact, at times, they downright scream.

Have you ever seen a certain gesture and felt, for sure, that you knew what it meant? You might be mistaken.

Although it's tempting to witness one action, gesture or reaction and use that one thing to conclusively interpret someone's meaning, it is misleading to do so. Non-verbal communication is best read when using what I call, the "4 Key Cs":

• Context: Here's a news flash -- sometimes people cross their arms just because they're cold. It doesn't necessarily mean that they're closed to what you're saying. Work versus social environment also affects how we interact with others. Before you assess the body language, consider the context.

• Culture: Most countries represent a mix of ethnicities, backgrounds and cultures. Many of us celebrate that diversity. We are also exposed to it, due to work or private life, as we travel to other countries. A caution: gestures that are commonplace to us mean different things to others. For example, the A-OK sign in Japan is a symbol for coin money and in parts of Germany is an obscene gesture. Although eye contact is valued in mainstream North American culture, it is to be avoided in other cultures. Different cultures, different meanings.

• Clusters: As a rule of thumb, using clusters of three actions or gestures, versus just one, to suggest a certain meaning increases your chances of correctly interpreting the meaning. Reading non-verbal communications correctly requires us to refrain from stereotyping or drawing conclusions until we have enough evidence. And even at that, body language is just an indicator, simply one piece in the puzzle of understanding and reading each other correctly.

• Calibration: We all have certain physical actions and idiosyncrasies. Calibrating body signals against a certain individual allows for this fact. Perhaps someone is blinking all the time, not because they are speaking a mistruth or don't believe what you're saying - maybe they just have chronically itchy eyes. Gestures depend on the person.

Next time, before you draw conclusions from someone's actions, consider the 4 Cs of reading body language. When you do, chances are your gut feeling, intuition or hunch will be a more accurate one.

Until next time, here's to ...

Better communication, better business, better life,

 

Marion Grobb Finkelstein

COMMUNICATION CATALYST
Keynote Speaker / Corporate Trainer / Author

www.MarionSpeaks.com

Marion@MarionSpeaks.com

www.facebook.com/MarionSpeaks

Recipient of APEX "Award for Leadership in Service Innovation"
© 2013 Marion Grobb Finkelstein\
 

Communication catalyst, author, professional speaker Marion Grobb Finkelstein teaches individuals and organizations across Canada and beyond, how to connect with clients, colleagues, employees and bosses, and how to handle workplace communication challenges to improve morale, confidence and productivity. Chat with her at www.facebook.com/MarionSpeaks and sign up for her FREE weekly "Marion's Communication Tips" at www.MarionSpeaks.com

First Impressions

HOW TO MAKE A GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION

by J.A. Gamache Third place Champion at the 2001 Toastmasters
International World Championship of Public Speaking

Your walk, posture and facial expressions convey non-verbal
messages about your state of mind. Decide to send the right
messages so you can make a good first impression whenever you
speak in public.

As you walk to the podium, the audience receives many
non-verbal cues before you've even said a word. Their first
impression of you is based on that information.

First impressions are important because the audience won't
find your message credible unless they feel that you're in
control. If you don't project self-confidence, they will find
it hard to trust you. Unwittingly, you might be raising
doubts in their minds.

Is it a disaster to fail at making a good first impression?
No. You'll always be able to catch up. However, you'll have
to work harder to reassure the audience that in spite of
appearances, you are a trustworthy source of information.

Here are some tips on how to make an entrance that conveys
the impression that you're in control.

1- WALK
Look at self-confident people--they have a strong, rapid
stride. Decide to send the same message. When your name is
announced, walk as though you're saying, "I am confident,"
even though you feel like running away!

2- POSTURE
Stand straight and adopt a solid stance. Open your torso to
ease your breathing. This posture sends the message that
you're calm even though you're shaking with fear!

3- FACIAL EXPRESSION
Put a smile on your face! When you walk to the podium, hold
your head high. Before you speak, take a deep breath. It'll
calm you down. Don't speak right away! Take time to look at
the audience. This silent pause sends the message, "I am
happy to be here!" even though you may be wondering what on
earth you've gotten yourself into.

Practice your entrance at home. Pay attention to the way you
walk, your posture, and your facial expressions, and you'll
make a good first impression every time.

Happy speech!

©MMIX J.A. Gamache www.jagamache.com. All rights reserved.



--------------------------------

PERMISSION IS GRANTED TO REPRODUCE THIS ARTICLE in whole or
in part if a copy of the reproduced text is sent to J.A.
Gamache at info@jagamache.com after publication and also
provided that this byline, including the following paragraph,
appears along with the reproduced text:

This article was reproduced from "Speaking in Public with
J.A.", a FREE electronic magazine authored by J.A. Gamache,
International Inspirational Speaker. To subscribe to his FREE
e-zine or to find out more about his presentations, visit:
http://www.jagamache.com/.

I hope you enjoyed this tip

Fran Watson
P.S.  Have a great day and check out this site