https://nasacademy.com/blog/article/how-to-deliver-an-epic-presentation
Delivering a presentation is not everybody’s force.
While some people relish the thought of speaking in front of a large audience, others are instantly filled with dread. As a content creator, speaking engagements are a great opportunity to gain more exposure for your brand. They allow you to connect with your followers in real time and give you a chance to show off your expertise in platform management and content creation.
So, if you find yourself struggling to calm those nerves before a big presentation, this guide should help you understand the basics of delivering a compelling talk without breaking into a sweat.
You can’t make an effective presentation without an interesting topic. If you’re going to wow your audience, you need to choose a subject that you’re passionate about – this will make it easier for you to piece together the material you need.
But before you go on to conceptualize your talk, consider what people in the audience would want to hear about as well. In other words, you need to know exactly why they’re attending your presentation. For instance, maybe they’re interested in learning only about specific parts of the topic, or they’re hoping to find out more about your journey instead.
Consider the key takeaways you want your audience to have at the end of the presentation and refer back to it often. This will allow you to frame your whole talk in a way that touches upon these main points.
Also, don’t forget the purpose of your presentation. Whether you’re trying to inspire your audience to take an action or simply want to keep them entertained, you need to remember why you’re doing this presentation in the first place. Once you’ve figured this out, you can easily put together a talk that will help you achieve this goal.
Try and pick a topic that’s relevant and avoid anything that might seem too controversial. You could also do a quick research about the other speakers at the event to find out their expertise and what they’ll be talking about.
To sum it all up, your topic needs to follow “The 3 A’s” of a successful presentation:
1. Appeal: Your topic needs to appeal to both you and the audience otherwise your lack of interest will become apparent in your speech. Find something that attracts you so you can pass on that same spark of interest to your followers. Once you’ve found a topic you like, preparing the presentation and the visual aids will come easily to you.
2. Appropriateness: The last thing you want to do is offend your audience in any way. This is why it’s important to do your research before the main event and figure out the interests of the people attending. It goes without saying that you should not promote hateful, illegal or harmful actions.
3. Ability: Choose a topic that’ll be easier to research about. If the information is hard to come by, you’ll have a tough time talking about it and this will affect the quality of your presentation. Try and choose subjects that are relevant to current times. Also, consider whether audience members are novices or experts in your chosen topic, so you can select appropriate data for the talk.
You need to craft your presentation almost like a story. This will help your audience feel a progression throughout your talk. Find the right place to start by figuring out how much your followers already know about the subject. Then, try and convince them why they should care about it as much as you do. For this, you need to dig deeper into what makes the topic interesting.
Most presentations fail because they contain too much information. If you try to talk about everything related to the subject, chances are your audience will lose interest easily. Instead, focus on what makes it unique and make it come alive with specific examples.
Remember, you only have a few minutes to grab your listeners’ attention – and to hold it too.
Frame your presentation as a journey and know exactly where to start and end it. Here’s a simple yet effective three-part story structure devised by presentation guru Nancy Duarte that you can follow:
1. Hook: Just like any good story, your presentation needs to have a strong opening. Duarte suggests mixing facts with stories by first presenting “what is” (or current reality) and then moving on to “what could be” (or the future).
For example, you could start off by stating a problem everybody can relate to and then go on to introduce a vision that’s a stark contrast to it – this should immediately pique their interest. The rest of the talk can take the audience on a journey which bridges the gap between the two.
2. Process: This is the middle portion of the presentation and should play up the contrasting content. By alternating between facts and stories that show how things can be improved, you’re building up to a considerably high point from where you started. All so that as you move along, your audience is both educated and excited to find out how it ends.
3. Conclusion: Your conclusion needs to write itself so that people are inspired to act even without a call to action. Duarte describes this as the “new bliss” which is basically a better future created as a result of your ideas. When you talk to people about a problem or situation, and then highlight how things could be better, you’re essentially creating a “conflict” which urges them to do something about it.
Whether you’ve prepared a script, slides or bullet points, your delivery is what’ll eventually help you connect with your audience. That’s why this part of the presentation deserves to get your full attention.
Successful content creators are those who can speak to their followers without talking to each of them directly. This means, you need to deliver your content in a way that closes the distance between you and your audience.
The best way to achieve this is to memorize your talk so it doesn’t feel like you’re reciting lines or simply reading them off your slides. While this may require a bit of effort and a lot of time, it’s an effective way to appear authentic and add meaning to your talk.
According to Chris Anderson, TED’s curator, most of the popular TED Talks have been memorized word-for-word. In fact, most speakers are encouraged not to use a teleprompter or to read a script. While describing the process of learning how to memorize a presentation, Chris talks about getting past the “valley of awkwardness” – or moments when a speaker struggles to remember their lines.
For this, he recommends rehearsing enough times until “the flow of words becomes second nature.” If you’re pressed for time, consider writing down bullet points to help you remember your lines. Adopt a tone that seems conversational and friendly.
Even the most experienced speakers get nervous on stage, but a little rehearsal can go a long way in helping you appear confident on the big day. Pay attention to your movements on stage so as not to distract the audience too much. If you feel comfortable walking around the stage, go for it – but only if it comes to you naturally. Otherwise, you’re better off standing in one position and using hand gestures only.
Maintaining eye contact is another great way to develop a connection with your audience. You don’t need to look at everyone at the same time but try picking four-five people sitting in different parts of the auditorium. Remember, being nervous on stage is as normal as breathing. So, instead of trying to fight it, use it as a way to stay focused and remain energized throughout the talk.
According to SOAP Presentation – an organization specializing in corporate presentations – you can try using the following body language tips to appear more confident on stage:
1. Open your chest and arms, and keep your back straight. This should help you breathe better and feel more relaxed.
2. Smiling is a good way to make your audience feel more comfortable.
3. Use small and stiff gestures to demonstrate authority, appear confident and gain people’s trust.
4. Bring movement to your speech by walking around or moving from one position to another especially while discussing points.
5. Gesture with your arms and hands and look at people in the eye – your audience will pay attention and like you more.
6. Vary your gestures from time to time to keep your audience’s attention.
7. Point directly at a certain element from your presentation that you want to highlight. Your audience will follow your eyes and finger.
8. Walk towards audience members and use open gestures to encourage participation.
9. Pause and breathe slowly before answering a tough question.
10. Use positive gestures such as nodding, mirroring, smiling, etc. to make your audience believe your story.
No matter how great your presentation is, you’ll still find it difficult to keep people’s attention for a major part of it. This is why it helps to use slides, photographs or illustrations to make your topic come alive even further. But most people make the mistake of using these only to repeat the information they’re explaining in the talk.
You don’t want your audience to think that you’re reading to them from the slides. Instead, consider choosing images or videos that can add an interesting or entertaining element to your talk. Avoid using self-promotional material and keep it short and simple.
Sometimes visual aids can help create a powerful impact on the audience – depending on how you frame your talk. If parts of your presentation require PowerPoint slides, then use these as a way to simplify topics especially for those that involve a lot of technical jargon.
A few good pointers to remember while using visual aids in a presentation are:
1. Know the layout of the venue: This will help you place your visual aids in a way that everybody can see it. You’ll want to pay more attention to this especially if you’re communicating crucial facts or figures through your slides.
2. Explain the content: There’s a reason why it’s called visual ‘aid’. Your visual content needs to be explained in relation to your talk. Otherwise it might just end up distracting your audience.
3. Remove the visuals when you’re done: Unless you want your audience to constantly stare at the screen during your talk, put away your slides once you’re done with them.
4. Keep it simple: Don’t clutter your slides with too much information. In case you’re unsure of how to make a simple presentation, follow the 1-6-6 Rule – that’s one idea per slide, six bullet points maximum and a maximum of six words per bullet point.
5. Don’t become overdependent: While it’s good to have visual aids, your talk needs to be great on its own too. Your message should be so effective that you can deliver it directly to your audience. This will also be helpful in case anything goes wrong with the visual aid equipment on the big day.
It’s always a good idea to have a few responses ready for questions that might be asked at the end of your talk. While you cannot predict every question, you can prepare a list of things people might ask about your presentation content. Think about it – if you were sitting in the audience, what would you want to know more about?
You can even deliver your talk in a way that leads people to ask certain questions too. It’s okay not to have an answer to everything, for instance, if there’s something that’s beyond your area of expertise, don’t hesitate to admit it. This will help you appear more credible in front of your audience.
Here are a few ways to handle the questions that’ll follow your presentation:
1. Take a brief pause: Once a question is asked, take a moment before you start answering it. This will give you time to gather your thoughts and put together an answer that doesn’t sound rushed or confusing.
2. Understand the question: Don’t be afraid to ask an audience member to repeat a question in case you don’t understand it. You don’t want to end up giving a wrong answer just because you misunderstood the question.
3. Stay calm: Don’t lose your cool if you get asked a question you don’t like. Instead of getting angry or defensive, use the opportunity to clear any misconceptions your followers might have about you.
4. Be honest: You don’t need to make up answers for the questions you’re not sure about. In case there is something that’s beyond your area of expertise, admit it and move on to the next question. Otherwise you’ll only end up losing credibility in front of your audience.
5. Follow up: Once you’re done answering, don’t forget to follow up with the questioner to see if they understood your response. In case they still need more details, feel free to add in more information that could help them.
Make sure you’ve set aside enough time for rehearsing too. Even the most successful presenters spend countless hours improving their talk before going up on stage. In fact, it is reported that the late Steve Jobs had a six-step rehearsal process that he would use for each presentation:
1. Rehearse out loud: Jobs would practice in full presentation mode as though he was speaking to a thousand people each time. He would raise his voice or change his tone if he felt it was appropriate. He would also work on his hand gestures to make his presentation more effective.
2. Ask for feedback: At the end of practice, Jobs would turn to his executive team for constructive feedback. This would help him refine each slide or phrase. His team compared him to an actor on a movie set who’d practice take after take until he got it right.
3. Start early: If there was a product launch happening, Jobs would head to the auditorium on Apple campus three weeks prior and rehearse those parts of the presentation that were ready. This gave him a chance to start early without waiting until the last minute to prepare his talk.
4. Minimal slides: Jobs chose not to rely too much on text-heavy slides – using images or phrases instead. This is because he’d never use bullet points in presentations and would internalize the material on every slide.
5. Dress rehearsals: Before a presentation, Jobs would show up to run-throughs in his signature look: a black turtleneck and jeans. He’d rehearse this way twice a day.
6. Have fun: Jobs was known to joke around with this team during practice. This is a great way to break the tension, not just with your teammates, but with the audience too.
At the end of these steps, you should be in a better position to find out what works and what doesn’t work for your talk. You might even become confident enough to modify your presentation to match the mood of the audience as you go along. This should make you rely less on your notes and visual aids, so you can tap more into your public speaking skills instead.
Learn how to talk about taboo topics
By Admin Nas Academy
By Team Nas Academy
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