Presentations & Speeches: They're Not About You

Presentations and Speeches. They're not about you.
Really. No one cares about you.
Unless you're a celebrity.
It's all about what the audience takes away from your message. So, when preparing your presentation or speech, keep this in mind, "How can my message help my listeners?" 
If you want to engage, entertain and educate your audience, then try and relate your story and your message to your listeners lives.

Most Persuasive Word Ever?

Most Persuasive Words

What's the Most Persuasive Word in the
English language?


Which one word can help you connect 
quicker with people and strengthen your
persuasion efforts?


Do you know how this one word can
have major influences on your persuasion 
attempts?


The Most Persuasive Word in English: 'Because'


Telling people the reason why you are doing
something has a major influence on how they
react to you because, more often than not,
people willingly comply with requests when
given reasons why they should. Ellen Langer,
a social psychologist at Harvard University, 
demonstrated that people respond automatically
 and without thinking when given the proper stimulus.




The Power of 'Because'


Here’s how the experiment went: In a busy library, 
one of her subjects would approach the person at 
the front of the line for the photocopier and say, 
“Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox 
machine because I am in a rush?” This request was 
successful 94 percent of the time. 


Later, when the  subject returned to ask another 
group of people lined  up at the same machine and said, 
“Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?” 
her success rate dropped to 60 percent. No big surprise here. 


What was a big surprise was that when the subject 
approached the front of the line a little later and asked, 
“Excuse me, I have five pages. 
May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make these copies?” 
the compliance rate whizzed back up to 93 percent!




Public Speaking Tip: Use the Word 'Because' 


When you want to connect quickly, offer your contact a “because” and chances are you’ll be successful. For example, if you’re aiming to do business with company Q, and you meet a key contact there, instead of simply saying, “I’m delighted to meet you,” add “because I’ve read so much about your pioneering work with XYZ . . .”

P.S. Gain access to the most important public speaking

tips by entering your email address in the box at the top
of the page

About the Author
The above article is by Nicholas Boothman.
You can read more of his articles on:
http://www.nicholasboothman.com

Presentation Mastery: 6 Steps to a Successful Presentation

Article by Douglas Kruger, 5 time South

Africa Public Speaking Champion

Looking to add a little electricity in your own

presentations? Use the following six devices

to add sizzle to your sentences:

1. Start by sounding human

When you chat with your friends, would you use

a sentence like, “It is has come to my notice,

in terms of our internal policies, that wasteful

expenditure is causing a detrimental effect

upon our bottom-line profits”? Doubtful.

A human being would say, “We’re wasting

too much and it’s hurting us.”

Use a conversational tone. A conversational tone

keeps your audience engaged - and awake!

2. Craft interesting titles

Yes, you can deliver an address titled

‘A Critical Look at the History and Production

of Fireworks.’ But how much more engaging to

have the MC say, ‘Help me to welcome Joe,

with his speech titled ‘Bang! – Making the Fire Work!’

Your title is an opportunity to create interest before

you even stand to speak. Take the time to develop

a hook.

3. Metaphors help you to sum up complex ideas quickly

Certainly, you can show a busy graph depicting

the in’s and out’s of any idea. Or you could simply

use a metaphor that captures the essence of the idea,

and say, “It’s like...”

Metaphors sum up complex ideas quickly.

4 Repeat catch-phrases often and your point will be remembered

Simple. Memorable. Easy to repeat.

Advertisers know the value of a good catch-phrase,

and top speakers understand it too. Remember the

old war-time phrase ‘Loose lips sink ships’? That’s

the kind of easy-to-repeat mnemonic slogan you

should develop and use often in your presentations.

5. Alliteration adds impact

In one of my contest speeches, I spoke about

the glib nature of self-help quick fixes. I packaged

it in the following sentence: “The treadmill of

self-improvement churns out Kellogg’s Rice Competitors,

Kentucky Fried Performers, Supersized McMen and Women;

egos bigger than buildings.” Alliteration adds musicality to

your sentences. Its rapid-fire nature also helps you to create

the impression of being ‘on a roll’ when you speak, which

adds to the perception of passion.

6. Visual devices bring dry information to life

Don’t just give information. Create mental pictures.

The human mind becomes more engaged when

points are delivered in story form, with character,

setting, emotion and the description of action.

We do not ‘feel’ a PowerPoint graph the way

that we feel a story. Use language that creates

the perception that you are ‘re-living’ the story as

you tell it, and you will pin souls to seats and set

fire to minds. Best of all, you will be remembered.

About the Author

Douglas Kruger has represented Africa in the

Toastmasters World Championship finals three

times. He is the author three books, including

50 Ways to Become a Better Speaker.

See him in action, or review his books and

articles, at: www.douglaskruger.co.za

Worst Public Speaking Mistakes - And How You Can Avoid Them

Presentations can be boring!

You have sat through your fair share of boring

presentations. You've probably even sat through

presentations where you thought the presenter

was wasting your time. You've probably thought,

"Why am I here? I could just read through the

Powerpoint on my own!"

If you want to avoid being that presenter, then

avoid this public speaking mistake that most

other presenters make:

• Public Speaking Sin: Reading The List

Take a quick look at Professor Wrong's slide.

During the lecture, after she'd asked her question,

you would have heard Professor Wrong say something along

the lines of:

"There are three types of knowledge structures. The first

one is Correlated Association. This means...

The second one is Hierarchical structure. This means...

The third one is Goal derived categories. This means...

Now you see how severe [and boring] the 'Read the List'

syndrome is? Unfortunately, most presenters who use

Powerpoint presentations suffer from this sickness.

They love to ask their own questions and then listing

out their solutions. Thankfully, since you've read this

blogpost, you won't be one of them.

While the 'Read the List' syndrome still allows for

information imparting, it's not a very effective way

of educating your audience. You'll most likely bore your

audience and put them to sleep. And the few who do remain?

After several slides, they'll forget most of what you've said.

And no one will walk away feeling inspired and feeling as

though they've learned something.

Imagine being victim to the 'Read the List' syndrome

for the above slide. Now imagine 30 such slides over

the course of one and a half-hours. And yes, that's

a real slide from Professor Wrong's lecture.

So, what's the cure to the 'Read the List' Syndrome?

For one thing, allow learners to discover the answers by

asking them questions. Give them hints and get

them moving in the right directions, but don't

immediately read the whole list of solutions.

• Public Speaking Tip: PARTS Formula for Powerful Presentations

Next, instead of simply reading through the list and defining the

terms, make the talk interesting by adding your own stories,

anecdotes and opinions. [Read more about the power of stories

here] Add value to the Powerpoint by providing interesting,

memorable anecdotes.

The best structure to do this - to avoid Reading The List Syndrome -

use the PARTS Formula for Powerful Presentation [Read it here]

P.S. Want to received $499 worth of the "Most Important Public

Speaking Tips You'll Ever Need" for FREE? It's Quick and Easy...

If you're serious about becoming a skilful communicator, then

just type in your email address at the top of the page.

The Biggest Mistake in Presentations and How You Can Avoid Them

After 90 minutes of listening to her lecture,

I walked out of her Marketing class feeling  
no smarter than when I first walked in.

Have you ever had such a Professor? 
One who made an interesting subject so boring
that she made you feel like she'd torn a hole through
the space-time continuum and stopped time?

For me, it's my Marketing professor, Professor Wrong.
And in case you missed the highly popular first article
about Professor Wrong, check it out here. It contains
the Public Speaking Sins that you should avoid

if you want to avoid being as hated as Professor

Wrong.

Today, while half-dozing through Professor

Wrong's lecture, I realized that many other

innocent people were suffering from the

same teaching mistakes that Professor Wrong

was committing. To avoid boring your audiences,

be sure to avoid this one Presentation Skills Mistake

that most other presenters make:

The Biggest Mistake in Presentations?

• No Audience Involvement

Professor Wrong suffers a severe sickness called

'Answering Your Own Questions'. And today, the

sickness was at it's most severe stage. To get an

idea of how brutal this sickness is, imagine that

you were sitting in Professor Wrong's 10.30 a.m.

Marketing class. About 10 minutes into the class,

you would have heard her ask the following question:

"What are the different types of knowledge structures?"

You would have then seen her click to the next slide

on her Powerpoint presentation which magically

revealed the three different types of knowledge

structures. Take a quick look at the magical slide

(below) and decide for yourself how interested you'd

be in this lecture after 30 such slides:

After Professor Wrong asked the question, you

would have then heard Professor Wrong proceed

to answer her own question. Ten minutes later,

you'd hear her ask another question about the

factors affecting knowledge structure, immediately

after which she'd proceed to give you the three

different factors. And you'd just sit there, wondering

whether listening to a Professor's Q&A monologue

was what education was all about.

• Public Speaking Sin: No Audience Involvement

A question is a great way to arouse curiosity in

the listeners. In Professor Wrong's case, her

question caused me to rack my brains and try

and come up with a suitable solution.

Unfortunately, Professor Wrong wasn't

interested in listening to our answers.

Immediately after she asked her questions,

she proceeded to move on to providing the

possible answers. The questions were simply

a transition so that she could move onto the

next slide.

Here's the problem with this:

While rhetorical questions certainly have

their place in speeches, educators should try

and use questions for audience involvement.

Questions should be used to allow learners to

use their brains and discover the answers for

themselves, rather than simply listening

to the Professor hand out the solutions on

a Powerpoint presentation.

• Public Speaking Tip: If You Ask a Question, Listen to the Answers

If you're a teacher or workshop-leader whose

job is to educate, then use questions to allow

the audience to discover the answers

by themselves! In other words, if you ask a question,

be prepared to listen to the answers. Not doing so can

cause you to be seen as rude and obnoxious. The purpose

of education is to allow learners to expand their critical

thinking skills and discover the answers themselves.

Questions are a great way to do just that.

After this article was written, I came across the following
research study that emphasises the effect of audience
involvement in learning.


Pascarella and Terenzini (1991, p98) report that student involvement
or engagement (active learning) be used since a substantial body of
evidence suggests that the greater the learner's involvement in the 
learning process, then the greater the level of content acquisition. 
Also note that this involvement can be as simple as note taking,
discussions, or answering questions.

P.P. S. Enjoyed this? Learned something? Then

help Share by clicking the Like button because it's

so easy to do!

Worst Presentation Skills Mistakes: Why We Hate Professors

If you've gone through college, then you've most likely sat through a class where you've familiarized more with the tiles on the ceiling than the content of the course being taught.


Now, I readily admit, the inspiration for this article came from such a Marketing class. The Professor is a nice, consistent lady who consistently bores her students.

Yet, despite all the ceiling-staring, chatting and snickering at the sex notes being passed around class, the Professor scarcely seems to notice the half-dead bodies of her students beginning to 
slip out of their chairs.

Now, here's the thing. The content of the course this Professor's 
course  is highly interesting - and even slightly useful! The problem is not

with what she is teaching, but with how she is teaching it. For her

(and my safety), I'll avoid mentioning her real name.

However, for the purpose of this article, lets just call her

Professor Wrong.

If you want to avoid boring your audiences, then avoid these

presentation mistakes.

The Powerpoint Problem

Professor Wrong loves using Powerpoint presentations to

teach. Now, there's a good reason for this. Powerpoints are

great because:

(1) They help the audience keep track of what the speaker

is saying. Say, if you have a horrible Professor with a horrible

accent, at least you can always follow what s/he is saying

by looking at the Powerpoint.

(2) The Powerpoint presentations can be uploaded on the

internet so that students can refer to them and use them

after class

(3) They assist the Professor in remembering the points that s/he

has to elaborate upon.

Unfortunately, Professor Wrong uses her Powerpoint presentations

as less of an assistance and more a crutch.

How? She literally reads each slide, word for word. Each of

her slides has between 6 - 8 bullet points each, with each

bullet point having a mini-paragraph underneath.

Sigh.

Here's how to avoid Professor Wrong's mistakes:

Presentation Tip 1: No more than 3 bullet points per slide

If you're going to use a Powerpoint presentation, keep the

number of bullet points per slide below three. Fewer bullet

points per slide means that your presentation will cause less

strain on the audiences eyes. Plus, less text means less

boredom.

Presentation Tip 2: No Paragraphs on Slides!

Do NOT insert a mini-paragraph below each bullet point. It's

difficult to read, and it's boring to stare at large chunks of text.

The less words on your slide, the better! Therefore, keep the number

of bullet points and the total number of words on each slide at a

minimum.

Presentation Tip 3: Do Not Read Everything from your Powerpoint

Unfortunately, Professor Wrong makes the mistake of reading

her Powerpoint presentation word for word. To me, she's less of a

presenter and more of a highly sophisticated robot with the ability

to read from the screen.

By reading straight from the powerpoint, Professor Wrong is commiting

three sins:

• Public Speaking Sin: The Monotone

When Professor Wrong reads straight from her slides,

her voice lacks energy and sounds unenthusiastic. Obviously.

It's hard to sound passionate when reading from a Powerpoint.

However, if Professor Wrong were to stop reading and instead

start sharing her stories [after all, she does have a wealth of

knowledge], then I believe that she'd avoid sounding so

monotonous.

• Public Speaking Sin: The Monologue

Professor Wrong reads straight from the slide. She doesn't

like to ask for opinions because it would break her monologue.

Instead of consulting with her students and asking them questions

and checking to see if they understand, Professor Wrong is more

concerned about reading the slide.

• Public Speaking Sin: No Eye Contact With the Audience

When Professor Wrong is reading from the slide, she is making no

eye contact with her students. In this way, she misses out on establishing

rapport with the students. No wonder she doesn't realize that almost

everyone is playing on their iPhone or BlackBerrry.

Public Speaking Tips

If you want to avoid being hated as much as Professor Wrong:

• don't fall victim to the Powerpoint Problem
• Avoid the Monotone Monologue

The Rules:

1. No more than 3 bullet points per slide
2. No paragraphs below bullet points
3. Avoid reading from the slides. You'll avoid sounding monotonous.
4. Establish rapport by making eye contact
5. Build a relationship with your audience by asking questions and soliciting their opinions

P.S. Forward this blogpost to your Professor. For your safety, do so anonymously. Plus, go ahead and click 'Like' and share with your friends (and Professors) on Facebook.

Foolproof Formula for Powerful Presentations

Here's a powerful public speaking 'formula' that I picked up from Craig Valentine's book, World Class Speaking. If need to deliver an important presentation, and one which 'sticks' in your listeners minds long after you've finished speaking, then use the PARTS formula - Point, Anchor, Reflection, Technique, Sale. Let's have a look at each of the elements in turn...

Point:

Give the main point/message of the speech/presentation. Boil your entire speech down to just one main point by asking yourself the following question, "If my audience was to remember only one thing I'd said today, then what would I want them to remember?" Find your most important point and state it explicitly.

Anchor:

After giving your main point, you need to "tie it down" with an anchor? "What's an anchor?" I can hear you asking. An anchor is basically a tool which will hook the Point into the listener's memory. There are four anchors that you can use. You don't need to use all of these, but make sure that you use at least one:

• Anecdote - Tell a story that illustrates your main point. A well-told story acts like a memorable testimonial. Checkout more about the power of stories in this post (click here)

• Activity - If you can create some sort of quick game/role-playing activity that will solidify your point, then be sure to include it. Just make sure that the purpose of the activity is clear to everyone.

• Acronym - Acronyms are a useful memory tool. For example, the acronym PARTS will you help you remember the public speaking formula you're learning here (Point, Anchor, Reflection, Technique, Sale)

• Analogy - Here's an example of an analogy from the book The Mars and Venus Diet and Exercise Solution by John Gray

Think of your body as an old-fashioned steam engine. You need to feed the fire with coal. When there is no coal available, the stoker slows down so that all the available fuel is not consumed. Likewise, your metabolism slows down for the rest of the day when you don’t eat breakfast.”

Reflection

After anchoring your point, you want to get the audience to reflect on the point you just made by asking them a question. Here's an example from Craig Valentine.


In one of his speeches, he talks about the power of visualization. Specifically, he talks about how he mentally stepped on the stage at least a 1000 times before he ever became a champion. To get the audience to reflect on his point, he asked the question,

"What stage are you stepping on mentally at least 1000 times?". After asking the question, allow for enough silence for them to be able to answer the question in their own minds.

Technique

If you can, then give the audience a technique that they can use to apply your main point. For example, if you're giving a speech about the importance of time-management, then you would want to make sure that you're audience can apply your point by giving them this technique: "Before you go to bed each night, take a pen and a piece of paper and write down all the things you need to accomplish the next day. List all the tasks according to importance, and when you wake up in the morning, start with the most important one first"

Sale

Finally, you've made your Point, you've Anchored it down, you've got them to Reflect, you've given them a Technique, and now you need to Sell the benefits. Remind the audience in just a few sentences the benefits they will receive from applying the technique you've just given them. Carrying on from the time-management principle above, you can say something along the lines of: "If you manage your time well by applying these techniques, then you will be more productive, experience less stress, and lead a happier life overall".

P.S. It's my birthday today! Go ahead and Share this post because it'll make me happy ;)
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TOP 3 Speaking Tips

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you!


So, I was looking over the past year and trying to figure out the TOP 3 SPEAKING TIPS that will make You "The Star of the Stage"...
It was difficult because 2010 was such an exciting year for me: I gave over 81 speeches, read 30+ books and watched over 130+ public speaking videos...and then I decided to take all that knowledge, and boil it down to just three simple tips that you can use...




Here's my TOP 3 Speaking Tips for 2010:




(1). Use STORIES to make a point
A vivid story is easier to remember than a bunch of statistics. An emotional story is a more compelling call to action than a recitation of facts.




(2). Keep it YOU-FOCUSED
Involve the audience in your stories! Instead of saying, "I went fishing last week. It was such a peaceful and relaxing getaway", say this: "If you've never been fishing, then you should definitely try it out: It is one of the most relaxing and peaceful acitivities" You-focused stories capture audience attention straight away because they add value to the audience's lives.




(3) AUDIENCE INVOLVEMENT
Involve the audience in your speech by:


(A) Asking them QUESTIONS and getting them to reflect on their lives ("When was the last time that you _____?).


(B) Using ACTIVITIES (E.g. "Okay, now I want you to turn to the person sitting on your left. For the next 30 seconds, I want you to discuss ____"). Or you can use the classic "Raise your hand if you agree" method to get them physically involved and committed to your speech.


(C) Asking them to VISUALIZE
Even if you can't get the audience physically involved in your speech, then you can get them to imagine. E.g. "Imagine that you're walking through a dark, empty street..." Paint a scenario so that each member of the audience imagines themselves physically doing something. Using the audience's imagination makes the speech vivid for them and hence helps them remember there because they "experienced it" rather than just "heard it".

P.S. Hugs and kisses xoxo to the ladies, warm handshakes for the gentlemen