Delivering Killer Presentations
Introduction
In this fantastic article, I’m going to teach you how to conquer the fear of public speaking in order to give outstanding presentations. This post will also teach you how to captivate the public in the first 5 minutes of your presentation. First, let’s see what speaking means.
What is public speaking?
Public speaking is simply an art of speaking in front of an audience. But speaking alone in front of a large group of people does not make your a great public speaker. Your goal should not be limited to inform your audience or to publicly express your thoughts, but to change emotions, actions and attitudes and let your listeners be moved and affected by words. How it can be DONE. Here’s how you’re gonna do it.
You probably already know that delivering captivating presentations is crucial to progressing your career, but do you realize that research suggests most people will stop listening to your presentation within the first 10 minutes if they’re not sure there’s anything in it for them? The problem is that most people are unfamiliar with the abilities they need to hook up, present greatly and overcome their fears. What am I going to do? Hi Jim. How’s it going? I’m flipping out about this big presentation I have to give it tomorrow.
Okay, have you then written and practised your opener three times? No. Not? But Why not? I ‘m scared and not even sure how to continue. I ‘m scared. Trust me, it is almost with everyone, and it isn’t fun. According to national surveys and study reports, the fear of public speaking or ‘glossophobia’ ranks among the top dreads. As Jerry Seinfeld put it, “at a funeral, the average person would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy.”
Now, I will give you my unbelievable 5-step formula to deliver a killer presentation opener every time, so to help you out.
Give a Confident Introduction
When people start their presentation, one of the major mistakes is to display nervousness. Here’s the key: it’s not because you’re anxious, but if you’re showing it. You will first stand STILL. First of all. Don’t move. Don’t pace, and keep your hands on your sides. This is the quietest and confident place on the planet and answers the number one need for your audience that is to feel safe.
Now you can introduce yourself and say, “Hi, my name is Xyz.” When you do this, put your inflexion down at the end to showcase confidence. Instead of, “Hi, my name is Xyz?” Say: “Hi, my name is Xyz.” See the difference?
Give your credentials
Many speakers make a big mistake here that they simply give their title and years of experience. Your audience wants to ask “What can you do for me?” They need to know who you are and why you are the right person for the presentation and what you have to give them. For that, you have to be a mentor. You might say, “I help people to overcome public speaking and deliver fantastic presentations.”
What would that look like for you?
You need a short elevator speech to figure this out. It looks like this: “You know how some people have this problem? Well, I ‘m offering this solution.” The solution you ‘re offering is how you’re helping people. For me, it was: “You know how some people fear public speaking and have a hard time getting their message across in a presentation? Well, I ‘m helping them overcome their fear of public speaking and deliver amazing presentations.” What’s your credential statement? You ‘re going to be amazed at the effect this has on your audiences.
Deliver Your Hook
It is not that easy to keep your captivated and hooked. It really needs a trick. My hook in this presentation could be anything like this: I’m going to show you how to captivate your audience within the first 5 minutes of your presentation.” When you are doing this, you have to get your listeners to “feel” something. How do you get them to feel somewhat You’ve got three simple options. You can get them to feel happier, more successful, or freer. Look at my line. I said, “I’m going to show you how to captivate your audience within the first 5 minutes of your presentation.” This will serve as an attention grabber. Attention grabber is an unusual statement, a question, a gesture, a story, a prop, or a long pause that is intended to start the presentation on a strong note, to “grab” the audience’s attention and to help the speaker build confidence in the very beginning of the speech.
When you really captivate your audience within the first five minutes of your presentation, you’ll feel amazingly happier because they’re listening to you, you’ll feel more successful because you look like an expert, and you’ll feel relaxed and more freedom because you spend less time worrying about your presentation the night before. This is a simple practice for you. For your presentation, write down the words “I’m going to show you…” then fill in the rest with something that going to create more happiness, success, or freedom for your audience. Here’s the rule.
You can’t tell them what they would get unless you tell them WHY they’d like it. Your hook must be something that will get them to BELIEVE that they want what you’ll give them. Take a moment now and write WHY your presentation would make your audience happier, more productive or more comfortable in their lives.
Introduce Your Agenda
I advise that you use PowerPoint for this step, and the slide should look like this. The main purpose of this step is to showcase your audience the takeaways to your presentation — the things they ‘re going to “take away” and use tomorrow after listening to your presentation. Don’t read the slide, please. They are adults, man. They can read it. Instead, just give them a moment to read it themselves, and put your agenda in place by summarising what you’re going to do. You do this by mentioning the number of takeaways you are going to give them, and by paraphrasing the goal of your presentation. Here’s what it looks like: “I’m going to show you five steps to get a killer opener.” What would that look like for you?
Give a Credible Statement
You can do this step by providing your audience with appropriate or convincing data to support your argument. Remember at the start of this article how did I do that? I said, “You probably already realize that delivering excellent presentations is crucial to progressing your career, but do you realize that research suggests most people will stop listening to your presentation within the first 10 minutes if they’re not sure there’s anything in it for them?” If you do that within the first 2 minutes of your presentation, your audience begins to trust you. Your listeners start thinking, without bragging, “oooh this guy knows what he’s talking about” Done.
