10 Habits of Highly Successful Presenters

The following article is by Craig Valentine, the 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking.

10 Habits of Highly Successful Presenters

 1. Storytelling – Being able to tell a story and make a point is at the heart of public speaking. World Class Speakers become World Class storytellers by mastering the elements of storytelling and including them in every speech. Read more about the power of stories here

2. Selling – Every presentation is selling something whether it is an idea, product, service, or simply selling your audience on the benefit of listening to your message. Make sure you sell the benefits - i.e. how will the audience benefit by listening to you?

3. Process-Driven – Instead of building themselves up, World Class Speakers build up the processes (or formulas or systems) that will improve the condition of their audience members. For example, if you're giving a workshop about public speaking, instead of boasting about your speaking accomplishments, boast about the process that got you there. In this case, you might say "The system you you are about to learn today helped me become a confident speaker, and it can help you become a powerful speaker too"

4. Next Steps – World Class Speakers have a definite next step they want their audiences to take immediately following their presentation. They build their entire speech around getting their audiences to take that specific next step. Always include a specific next step that you want the audience to take.

5. Anchor-Driven – World Class Speakers realize that “what’s loose is lost” and the best way to tighten their presentations is by using various anchors (i.e. stories, analogies, acronyms, activities, videos, etc.) to make their points memorable.  

6. Begin with a Bang – World Class Speakers understand the importance of the first 30 seconds of any presentation and they constantly open with a bang.

7. Succinct – World Class Speakers realize that squeezing their information in squeezes their audience out. As a result, they never try to fit in too much information into one speech.  

8. You-focused – World Class Speakers know that it is never about what they give but always about what the audience gets. Therefore, instead of saying, “I would like to share with you…” they say, “You’re about to receive…” The focus is always on “you” (the audience).

9. Dynamic – World Class Speakers use dynamic delivery skills that keep audiences engaged, energized, and wanting more.

10. Involvement – World Class Speakers constantly get and keep their audiences involved from the beginning to the end of their presentations. They realize that people buy into what they help create and making their audience part of the process helps to sell their message.  Learn more about how the lack of audience involvement can make your presentation boring by clicking here

Final Note:

When you work on these competencies, these competencies will work on you.

About the Author
Craig Valentine is the 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking. You can take advantage of his wealth of public speaking resources on http://www.craigvalentine.com/