Trainers Alliance International

“Impress Your Audience with Your Presentation Skills.”
By Hugh Curley

In a better world, your audience would be impressed by the brilliance of your message and immediately after your presentation, they would: 1) change their lives forever and 2) write you unsolicited large checks for sharing with them. Unfortunately, in our real world your skills as a presenter can interfere with the message. Fortunately, you can learn better skills.

Below is a list of rules which I have recently seen violated recently to the detriment of the presentation.

1. Before going on stage, find a mirror and check your appearance. Comb your hair, straighten your tie, wipe the lunch off your face, zip your fly, ensure your shoes match, clean your glasses (or better yet, remove them), verify your slip is not slipping, verify your blouse is not inside out, pin your bra straps out of sight. If you sat in the chair where the kids spilled the Kool-aid and it is not dry yet, do not turn your back to the audience.

2. If someone in the audience answers a question, asks a question or makes a comment to which you respond, either ensure the audience member has a microphone or repeat what was said. This is especially true if the session is being audio- or video-taped.

3. Be consistent. If you said you received six calls, do not say that one was positive and the other six were trying to sell something. (6 + 1  6)

4. Be accurate. If a baseball player steals safe 48 out of 50 attempts, his ratio is 96%, not 98%.

5. If you promise an award to the audience for answering a question, present it immediately.

6. It does not matter what went wrong, who shipped the wrong material or to the wrong location, who set the seating and stage wrong, who read the introduction wrong or any of the 1000 other things that can go wrong; the audience has a right to see you do your very best. If something is not right, ignore it if you can or laugh about it once; then move on. During one presentation at a resort hotel, the building had a gas leak and we were forced to evacuate and set up in another building. After the audience was settled, the emcee made a few jokes about the situation and the presenter went on as though nothing happened.

7. If the audience is larger than 35 members, or in a noisy area or room with poor acoustics use a microphone and amplifier system. True, you may be able to speak to larger group if you speak loud and project your voice but, 1) to those in front you will be too loud and they will tire, 2) to those in back you will be too quiet and they will have to strain to hear you and 3) you will hurt your vocal cords. Note to women: either provide your own microphone or wear something to which you can attach a lavaliere mike; some places do not have other types.

8. Use each area of the stage. Stage right may be for a conversation with an adversary, stage center when you are narrating to the audience and stage left for when you get your insight from your mentor. Once you use an area of the stage for some purpose, ALWAYS use that same are for the same thing until the end of the speech. If you had an imaginary desk on the stage earlier in your presentation, never walk through the desk, always walk around it.

These few simple rules will help keep the mechanics of your presentation from interfering with the message and will make the audience members much more satisfied with you. And, who knows, maybe they will be happy enough to book you again.

Impress Your Audience with PowerPoint

By Hugh Curley

PowerPoint is a tool, and like all tools it can make our life much better or much worse. Consider the hammer. If we need a nail driven, the hammer makes an excellent tool; if we need to replace glass, the hammer will make matters worse. Because PowerPoint is a much more complex tool than a hammer, it can be much more beneficial or much more detrimental.

Here are a few rules I saw violated recently to the detriment of the presentation.

1. Before the audience arrives, verify the correct operation, connections, sound levels and lighting. Ensure all of the stage hands know their functions and what cues cause them to respond. Ensure all equipment and props are ready and that you know how to use them. Test your laser pointer to ensure adequate luminance and that you can hold it still. It works best if multiple presenters all use the same equipment, if possible.
2. Use a remote control that has forward, backward, blank slide and a laser pointer. These can be purchased for $30.00 or more. An example is at  http://store.greenpearle.com/mirafrwiprwl3.html. This will allow you to move around on the stage rather than being tied to your computer. Do not try to substitute a wireless mouse for a remote control; they do not have the ability to go backward or blank the screen and they do have other buttons which you may inadvertently press.
3. Be sure that the audience members can read the slides on the screen. Remember that not all members have eyes as good as yours. A good general rule for text is five lines maximum of five words each, set in a bold text. If you must show copies of screens, use the magnifier to highlight the points of interest (capture the screen with the magnifier already in place rather than try to use it on your presentation).
4. Do not read the material on the slide. It does two things: 1) turns you eyes away for the audience so you lose contact with them, and 2) insinuates that they cannot read. Paraphrase the slide content, explain it, tell a story about it but do not read it.
5. When using a laser pointer, the audience members must find it on the screen and then follow it. They will not be able to do either it if you move it quickly over the area of interest. Slowly move the laser pointer over or around the area of interest. Also, be sure the batteries are new.
6. Blank the slide when you are not referring to it. People will naturally look toward the bright light and read what is on the slide, rather than listening to you. As they continue to read the slide, they will find the spelling error your seven proofreaders missed.
7. If you have enough information to require PowerPoint, you have too much information for the audience members to remember or to write down – give them copies of the slides. Otherwise they will be concentrating on copying the slides and ignoring your talking.
8. Pictures and graphics can communicate much more information in a more easily understood and remembered manner than a bunch of words. Avoid cutesy pictures, gratuitous icons, emoticons, excessive animation and complex or highly detailed photos. If you cannot convince your worst critic in one short sentence why that graphic is required for your show, delete it.

PowerPoint is a powerful tool that can enhance your presentations immeasurably when used properly. In the famous word of Tony the Tiger, use it as wisely and it will make you look “Grrrrreat.”

A tripod will always set solid regardless of how uneven the ground is or if the legs are not all the same length. That is why they are used for photograph and milking stools. Your business needs a solid foundation also, built on three legs like the tripod. The first leg is your professional knowledge – if you are in the carpet cleaning business, you must know about carpet cleaning. The second leg is business knowledge – you must know how to run a business such as accounts payable, marketing and sales, government regulations and more. The third leg is attitude.

I believe that the third leg, attitude is the most important. If you have the right attitude, you will learn the other two legs. If you do not have a good attitude, extensive knowledge in the other two legs will not help you succeed.

Trainers Alliance International can help you and your team develop a winners’ attitude for a successful 2010.

Hugh Curley