Everyone personalizes everything.
Everyone personalizes everything. So spoke my new friend and founder of FuturesThrive, Wendy Ward. How right she is. We filter everything we see and hear through the lens of our personal experience.
So, what does this mean for you and your presentations? For starters, it means you must be building your presentations with your audience at the forefront of your mind. As I like to say (again and again and again) you must turn your focus 180 degrees. You must sit yourself in your audience’s seat and examine everything you’re thinking about saying through the eyes and ears of your audience.
For example, you’ll be careful not to tell a story that could take them down a rabbit hole of their own emotions – taking their attention away from you and your message.
You won’t throw out a factoid or statistic that’s questionable or controversial without clearly explaining and or authenticating it. Why? You’re smart; you don’t want gigantic question marks in their minds, causing doubt and uncertainty not just about that stat, but about everything you say after it.
You’ll make sure you’re not using jargon words or acronyms they may not understand. That will only piss them off; who wants to do that? (ahem, not you.)
If you’re giving a persuasive presentation, you’ll make sure the benefits to them are truly benefits they want and care about. And if you know it’s a big benefit to them, but it’s one they’re as yet unaware of, you’ll draw a clear compelling picture of why it matters to them so they can see the benefit as clearly as you do.
In short, every single part of your presentation is going to relate directly to them. Now they’re paying attention. Who wouldn’t?
Take a good look at your upcoming presentation through your audience’s eyes. How does it look? Is it connecting? Compelling? Convincing? To them? If not, tear it down to the studs if you have to. If it doesn’t speak to them, it’s not worth delivering.
Rebuild it with them in mind every step of the way (see above) and you’ll NAIL it.
Remote, live in-person or a hybrid; these things are critical to a successful presentation.
Yes, the presenting world has changed, and no, it doesn’t look like it’s going back to the “old” live and in-person format any time soon. More likely, we’ll next be navigating presenting in a hybrid format, with some of our audience in person and others attending remotely. No matter what, these five things remain critical to a successful presentation.
AUDIENCE FIRST: Nothing matters more than the audience. They know it, and in order for you to be a successful presenter, you must know it to. From the time you begin creating your presentation you must turn your focus 180°. Focus not on what you want to tell them, what you want them to know, all of your very-important-stuff (which, p.s., they could care less about), but instead, focus on what they care about, what they worry about, and what their knowledge level is in regards to your subject. NOTE: If they don’t think your subject is relevant/urgent/important to them, you must begin by illustrating this relevance/urgency/importance very clearly.
DO THE HEAVY LIFTING: It is not your audience’s job to untangle the spaghetti of your content. Neither is it your job to edit your content for relevance while you’re presenting. This is all stuff you need to do ahead of time. Determine what the main point of your presentation is and stick to it. Organize the content around it, and vigilantly edit for irrelevancy.
BESPEAKING THE AUDIENCE’S LANGUAGE: No, it won’t make you look like a super-smarty-pants subject matter expert to throw around 8 syllable words and insider acronyms. It will only make your audience feel stupid, which feels bad, which has a ricochet effect. Feeling bad needs someone to blame. Who made them feel bad? You did. Now they feel bad about you. Way to go. Nix the jargon words and acronyms and talk to them in language an eight-year-old or eighty-eight-year-old can understand.
MAKE YOUR VISUALS AIDS FOR YOUR AUDIENCE: Your slides should be a synergistic component. They plus you should be exponentially more effective in getting your message across than either of you could alone. No visual should ever be self-explanatory. If it is, then there is no need for you, the presenter. Think “Show and Tell”. Show the visual (chart, graph, icon) and explain to the audience what they are looking at.
PRACTICE OUT LOUD: This is non-negotiable. There is no way to be a truly effective presenter in any format without practicing out loud. In your head does not count. Trust, me, you’ll sound like a genius in your head. Once you actually start clicking and talking, however, it’s a different story. Create the pathways between your brain and your mouth. Practice more than once to get your long-term memory involved as well. Come presentation day you’ll feel confident and well-prepared, and it will show.
No matter how you find yourself presenting; remotely, live and in-person, or a hybrid of the two, follow these five rules and you’ll be NAILING it.
NAIL your next remote presentation. Here’s how.
Although Covid19 has meant changes to all kinds of work, presentations, while done remotely, still need to happen and happen effectively. So how does presenting remotely differ from presenting live and in-person, and how do we adjust ourselves and our presentations accordingly?
First, recognize that we do need to adjust, especially if we’ll be using visuals like PowerPoint, Keynote or even Prezi.
Why? Because whereas in a live in-person presentation, our physical presence and (possibly) charismatic persona could overcome a crummy slide deck, when we present remotely the slides take center stage. If you are seen at all, you’re in a tiny box on the right side of the screen; possibly along with a few other tiny boxes with people in them. A distraction to be sure. Add to that the ease with which your audience can be enticed to look at or do something else, and compelling visuals become even more critical.
Now the question is, what makes a compelling visual?
They don’t require reading: A successful visual does NOT require the audience to read. Why? Because we process language, both written and spoken, with the same part of our brain; the phonological loop. Here’s how it works: when you read something, your inner voice reads it to your inner ear. When you hear someone speak, your inner ear processes what the speaker is saying. The same processor does both of these things, but it cannot do both at once. When you present your audience with lots of text on a slide (bullet points) and then you talk at the same time, you’re causing cognitive overload. You are short-circuiting that processor; it cannot make sense of your message. Oh, and we can’t remember what we can’t understand. So that’s a fail.
In a live in-person presentation your audience can choose to ignore your slides and focus solely on you. Or, if you don’t have the good fortune to be super compelling, your audience will read the slide and then surf their smartphone until the next slide appears. Giving a remote presentation you don’t have the ability to command their attention the same way. Your slides must be the compelling thing.
So if the slides don’t have tons of text, what do they have?
Think ‘show and tell’: Remember kindergarten? Your classmates showed you their new doll or truck or sibling and told you all about what it was. This “show and tell” method works because it uses another processor; the visuospatial sketchpad, or the inner eye. The inner eye works to process images while the phonological loop is processing language. They work so well together that their outcome is retention upwards of 80%. That is a WIN.
They have the “huh?” factor: NO slide should make sense on its own. Every visual should require you, the presenter, to explain it. Think about it, if the audience is looking at something they can’t figure out, they are going to sit (undistractable!) waiting eagerly for you to explain it to them. You’ve piqued their interest – perhaps even shown something that is counter intuitive (creates cognitive dissonance = “huh?”) and their brains are urging them to stay focused and hear what you have to say to resolve this dissonance. Now you’ve got ‘em eating out of your hand.
They give you the info in bite-sized bits: Especially because we’re giving this presentation remotely, we want to be sure we don’t lose anyone along the way. Use animation (subtle ones like Fade or Appear, or a directional one if that’s connected to what’s being conveyed) to give your audience the information one bite at a time. This also adds to the compelling nature of your presentation. They can’t get ahead of you, so they can’t turn away.
They’ve been PRACTICED OUT LOUD: Let’s face it, a big reason you are using tons of content on your slides is because you think you need them for speaker notes. Here’s a news flash; if you practice out loud, your visuals will be memory clues for YOU! That’s right, you’ll see the visual and you’ll be able to retrieve the associated content from your long term memory. And, you’ll look like a presentation superstar.
Take a deep breath. Click through your current deck and think about how you can make your ideas visual. Charts and graphs are terrific visuals, as are icons to represent things and ideas. Depending on what industry you’re in photos and video (short!) work well too. Give it the thought it deserves, put a new presentation together and practice it out loud. You’ll be heard, and get results.
10 things your visuals are doing wrong.
You don’t have to be a graphic artist to create great visual aids – aids for the audience, that is. Unfortunately, most of us don’t realize how detrimental bad visuals can be to the success of our presentation. At the very least avoid these 10 things the next time you’re using PowerPoint (or Keynote or Prezi) and you’ll have a much better shot of NAILing IT.
1) You’re using too many words. Humans process language via the phonological loop; a processor in working memory that makes sense of language – both written and spoken. Thus when you have a visual that requires reading, and you’re talking at the same time, your causing cognitive overload. You’re short-circuiting your audience’s processor of language. Not a good thing.
2) Your text is too small to be easily read. If your text (words or numbers) is smaller than 18 points, odds are good it can’t be easily read in the back of the room. There are fewer statements more ironic than, “You can’t really see this, but…” spoken by a presenter as he shows a visual aid. HOW IS IT A VISUAL AID IF THE AUDIENCE CANNOT SEE IT?
3) You put all of the information on the screen at once. There’s a reason God created animations; so that you can give the audience the information one bite at a time. When you put up 7 bullets at once (even if there are very few words), you’ve lost control of your audience. Some will read faster than others. Virtually no one will only read the first bullet and wait for you to explain it. (And heaven help you if all you’re doing is reading what they’re seeing. They’ll simply read the slide themselves and then surf their cell phones – completely tuning you out.)
4) You put a complicated chart or graph on the screen all at once. If you’re telling the story of multiple years of growth, have the years animate one at a time. Build the suspense. Don’t let the audience get ahead of you, or lose you all together.
5) You’re using different, random, animations. Animating text, shapes and charts and graphs is great, but their needs to be a thoughtful application of their movement. Things should appear in order to draw attention to them being there, they should move upward to show growth or improvement (and down to indicate the opposite). Things should animate left to right to indicate steps, a time line, etc. PLEASE do not use every kind of animation provided. Just because you can does not mean you should. Animation should never distract from the message.
6) Your photos are distorted, blurry, still have a watermark … To alter the size of a photo, either tug on the corner or change it in the photo editor menu. PLEASE do not stretch it horizontally or vertically. If you do enlarge it and it looks blurry, use another photo! And for the love of everything professional, pay for photos you’re using; don’t think no one will notice the watermark. We all see it. And we’re embarrassed for you…
7) You’re using pointless clip art. Visuals should have a point. In fact, they should be a synergistic component, helping you explain something your narrative alone cannot. Decoration has no place in a serious presentation.
8) Your pointless clip art is moving about. Why? Really, just why?
9) There’s not enough contrast between your background and your text. This is a rooky mistake. Some colors show clearly on a laptop screen, but are hard to see via projection. Always err on the side of caution. The more contrast the better. Oh, and avoid florescent colors – they never show well.
10) You’re using random colors, hard to read fonts, and complicated templates. Ideally, the colors of your presentation should be the colors of your logo. you should use a sans serif font (Arial, Calibri, Lucida, Tahoma, Verdana, are all good, easy –to-read sans serif fonts.) Likewise with a template. I know that Microsoft provides dozens of options. This is not a time to be artsy. Stick with boring. Boring is good.
Avoid these 10 mistakes when creating slides for your next presentation and you’ll have visuals that are truly aids for your audience. You’ll be heard, and you’ll be NAILing IT.
The ‘Stumble Through’: a critical part of any successful presentation prep.
You’ve built your presentation, you’ve created your slides, you’ve clicked through them a few times figuring out what you’ll say, you’re thinking you’re good to go. Right? Uh, not so fast. There’s only one way to know if you’ve got your presentation where you want it, and that is to talk through it OUT LOUD. Clicking through your slides and thinking about what you’ll say DOES NOT COUNT. In order to give a successful presentation you must have what I call a ‘stumble through’.
Why a ‘stumble through’ rather than a ‘practice’? Because the first time through any presentation out loud is never a smooth experience. In the hundreds of presentations I’ve helped build, (including my own) I have yet to see one delivered uninterrupted the first time through.
Here’s what happens when you run through your presentation the first time. Most likely you’ll end up coming to a screeching halt right after the intro – (once you’ve figured out the intro). The screeching halt is caused by a completely common phenomenon; you don’t have a transition between your intro and your first big point. What to say? How to get from the intro to this first big point? The best way to figure this out is by experimenting.; try things out – see how they sound. Got something that works? Good, now you can move on.
Uh oh – stopped again. This time because you’ve got a slide (or idea) in the wrong place. You simply cannot get from point A to point F. No worries, you move point F to where it belongs, after point E, and you’re moving forward again.
Until you get to point E, which you now realize doesn’t really belong in this presentation at all. It’s a digression, one you don’t have time for. But now what about point F? Turns out that one is unnecessary as well. OK, you delete and move forward.
As you get to your third big point you realize it’s a little thin. Where is your proof of this point? Good thing you realized this now (instead of in front of a real live audience!), better add a chart or two to solidify your argument.
On this goes until you’ve stumbled to the conclusion. Now you have (most of) the pieces in place, and you’ve got a presentation that’s ready to be practiced OUT LOUD. You only need to practice a few times – no more than four. You simply want to know your transitions, be super familiar with the animations (the clicks) so you know what’s coming next. A good night’s sleep and you’re ready!
After you’ve built your next presentation take the time and energy (and lots of patience) to ‘stumble through’ it. You’ll see and hear where things are missing, what’s in the wrong place and what doesn’t belong. Then you’ll easily be heard, and you’ll be giving presentations that NAIL IT.
Audience Distractors: The killers of otherwise successful presentations.
It’s tragic. An otherwise perfect presentation gets sideswiped by an audience distractor. All of the time, energy and effort that went into gathering the audience or getting time on the prospect’s calendar, building the presentation and even actually practicing OUT LOUD, out the window because of a cursed distractor.
What do I mean by an Audience Distractor? Something that takes the audience’s focus away from your presentation. Once you lose an audience’s attention it’s hard to get it back, and if you do, they’ve missed something – and possibly something important – while they were away. Worse still, some distractors take audiences so far away they can’t get back. Don’t want this to happen to you? Make note of these distractors and do not allow them to be a part of your next presentation.
Ums, ahs, you knows, I means, actuallys and likes: These are the most obvious verbal distractors. Fortunately, you must be peppering your sentences pretty heavily with any of these for them to be distracting. In other words, if you say “um” half a dozen times in a 20 minute presentation, no one is going to be distracted by it.
If you are guilty of way overusing one of these verbal distractors (or any others) it’s easy to kick the habit. How? Simply begin paying attention to what is coming out of your mouth; something most of us rarely do. Be aware; when you first start paying attention to what you’re saying you’ll not be able to catch yourself before the distractor escapes your lips. This will be incredibly frustrating. Don’t despair! Stick with it, and in a matter of hours you’ll be able to eliminate the distracting word or non-word from your patter. In the beginning you’ll replace the distractor with a pause – silence that will feel super awkward to you. Breathe through it. Audience’s love silence! It gives them a chance to digest what you’ve just said and prepare themselves for what you’ll say next. A complete gift to them – the antithesis of a distractor.
Jokes: Yeah, I know. All kinds of “experts” recommend that you begin your presentation with something funny. I’m not against funny – we all love to laugh. The problem with humor is that it can easily be poorly received, misunderstood, or (most lethal to the success of your presentation), offensive. Any of these outcomes are distracting. If your joke doesn’t land, and land perfectly, your audience is either disappointed, confused, or downright angry. Not a great way to begin a presentation.
Apologizing: Unless you’ve arrived late, or the temperature control in the room is not working you have NO reason to apologize. If your slides are out of order, out of date (!?!), not animating correctly, etc, do not apologize. Apologizing will only draw attention to something otherwise invisible and will only distract the audience from your message.
Confessing: If you didn’t get any sleep the night before, or you weren’t the intended presenter, or you’re nervous KEEP IT TO YOURSELF. The audience has no need to know these things, and if you tell them these “fun facts” they’ll be thinking, “Wonder what she’d be like if she’d had a good night’s sleep?” or “Wonder who the real presenter was supposed to be?” or “Wonder why she’s nervous?” all things that are (say it with me now) distracting them from hearing your message.
Make a commitment to yourself to avoid these audience distractors, aka presentation-success-killers. You’ll be heard, and be giving presentations that NAIL IT.
There’s No “I” in Pitch
Well, not in a successful one anyway.
No kidding. To give a successful pitch presentation, one that gets heard and gets results, there should be as little as possible about you, your company, and even, believe it or not, your product or service – unless it’s tied directly to your prospect’s problem or goal.
How many times have you, as a prospect, been subjected to 45 minutes of jaw-dropping boredom hearing the presenter drone on and on about himself, his company, its history, their org chart, the dots on the map….As they talk endlessly, and enthusiastically,about themselves, the thought bubble over your head? “Who cares? What in the world does this have to do with solving my problem?” Uh, absolutely nothing.
Research shows that audience interest ramps up for the first few minutes a presenter is speaking, peaks at about minute four, stays elevated until about minute 25 and then steeply declines. Spend the first three, but no more than four minutes of your presentation briefly introducing yourself and your company. At the four minute mark you should be launching into the meat or your presentation – which must be all about them.
Begin by drawing a picture of what your prospect’s world currently looks like. Are they rolling out a new product? Is their competition eating their lunch? Have they grown too fast? Too slow? Is their industry dramatically changing? Does it need to change dramatically? Or maybe it’s just your prospect who is behind and needs to change. Whatever their current pressing situation is – that’s where you want to focus. Show them right from the start that you ‘get’ them, you understand their problems and/or goals. Better yet, not only do you understand their problem, you have the solution.
When you do talk about your solution, keep it focused around them, their particulars, their position, their problem. Prove to them that your solution has worked for others like them who had the same problem. Prove to them that your solution will produce their desired result. The more you use the words ‘you’ and ‘yours’ the more attentive they’ll be.
Save the org chart and dots on the map for, your mom, maybe. Your prospect really doesn’t care. Fill the pitch with what they do care about; their world, their desired state, their problems and goals. Fill the pitch with ‘you’s and ‘your’s’ – leave out the ‘I’. You’ll be heard – and win the pitch to boot.
