Archive for the ‘public speaking’ Category

To interact or not to interact, that is the question. But is it? Is it really a question when we present in front of an audience. Nowadays nobody wants to listen to a “talking head.” Our audiences want to be involved, and rightfully so. Only 7% – 8% of information is transmitted verbally the rest of the information is transmitted through vocal variety and body language. However the most importantly activities and interactions serve as very good anchors when we make a point. Our audiences may not remember what we said but they will remember the activity or how it made them feel or what it made them think and they will remember our point. There is a great variety of interactions. Asking a rhetorical question or asking question that actually require an answer. Raising hands (please do not overdo this one) I have seen people simply getting annoyed raising hands gazillion times. Repeating a phrase or a word after you. Asking for feedback on what they heard and learned so far. And of course an activity. The activity can be also very different. The most important consideration is that it must be relevant. There should not be a question in your audience mind “Why are we doing this? What is the purpose of this?” Activity may be as simple as writing something in the notebook or as complicated as multistep one involving one to many participants in a group. Please make sure you thoroughly explain what exactly you want your audience to do, then ask if there are any questions. If there are questions please address all of them. Do not expect your audience to figure out what they need to do. They simply do not know what you have in mind and they cannot read your mind, so be mindful of this and explain what needs to be done in great details preferably step by step. And do not forget to let your audience know how much time there is for each activity.
Go ahead and interact with your audience and have fun doing it. Make sure your audience has fun interacting with you. If this is the case you will have a great presentation and your audience will have a great experience.

How important is your body language during your presentation? Study shows that 93% of what your audience receives is none verbal. I would say that body language is very important. A lot of times I see that presenters interpret body language as hand movement or moving around the stage. Unfortunately little attention is given to facial expressions and eye contact. I suggest to take the body language as a package as a whole. For instance eye contact presents you to the audience as an honest person. Avoiding eye contact gives an impression that you have something to hide and you are not trustworthy. Facial expression should be friendly, do not be afraid to smile when it is appropriate. Movements around the stage must be purposeful. For example building a time line on stage is a good reason to move on stage. Showing structure on stage is another good reason for movement. Try not to clasp your hands or make fists. Try not to cross them in front or behind your back. Suggestion is to assume an open posture, be friendly, smile and exhibit a feeling of having a good time. I realize that you may not have a good time standing in front an audience. You may have a very difficult time, however your audience must not see or feel that. At least on the outside try to show that all is good and you are enjoying the company.

You are giving a great presentation. You are on the roll and suddenly you notice a “blank” stare, and then another. Your audience has checked out. They are not with you. How do you catch these situations on time so you may have time to correct them?

Verbal responses
Your audience may respond verbally by expressing agreement or disagreement with your message. They may ask questions that will tell you their level of comprehension or confusion. Depending on your audience’s response, you should take certain actions. You may explain your point using different examples if it was misunderstood, or continue if your audience is on the same track as you are.

Non verbal responses
Your audience responds with their body language the very powerful and underused language. Nodding and eye contact normally mean understanding and agreement. If, on the other hand, you see blank faces and no eye contact, it’s time to signal an alert. Check in with your audience and try to figure out where is the confusion and at what point you have “lost” your audience. You can start by asking probing questions.

Ask questions
Ask check-in questions. Appropriate and timely questions can make the difference between a happy audience, and a confused and unhappy one. In addition to helping you as a presenter to catch confusion or misunderstanding on time, questions are great routine breakers. An appropriate question will make your audience think or shift gears or reflect. Any of the above is a very good routine breaker.

Prior to the meeting:
Interview some members of your audience (if possible).
Ask for permission to interview three to five members of your audience. Try to get as much variety as you can. By variety I mean younger employees and the veterans, the local heroes and the “trouble makers”. It is very desirable to interview some of the top management. Ask for permission to quote everybody you interviewed and quote them in your presentation.
This technique gives you a number of advantages: you get a good idea of what is important to your audience and can then customize your presentation to better answer their needs and concerns; you make your audience members the heroes not you and you make friends in your audience even before you start your presentation. Interviewing management gets you the access to the economic buyers meaning people that are signing the check.

Interview the organizer of your presentation
The organizer of your presentation can be a well of useful information and he/she can be an irreplaceable source for getting you your important interviews.

Go online for company information, people in charge, etc.
The Internet is becoming a more and more important portal for useful information. A company’s website may contain its services and products, as well as information about its key people. It may also contain very useful company information. Some of the points to look for may be company size, a mission statement, a revenue statement and services offered. How company is doing on a stock market if the company is public company.

Interview previous presenters (if possible)
Previous presenters are an invaluable source of information. Find out what worked for them, what didn’t. What type of audience/environment did they encounter. Was the audience friendly? Did they react well to humor? Although you will probably have a different collection of people, you can get a very important general idea about the environment and audience.

Local or regional press
Find out if there were any publications in local and/or regional press. Make sure to review these articles.

Chamber of commerce
The local chamber of commerce may have very interesting and useful information on the company and its people.

At the meeting:
If there is enough time
If you have time and the group is small enough, you can do individual quick intros. It is always very good practice to take thorough notes and ask pertinent questions. Some of the information you may want to know is: name, position within the company, department, expectations they have from the presentation, previous similar training and presentations, likes and dislikes from previous experiences.

If there is no time for individual introductions
Do a quick poll and ask some pertinent questions.

If there is no time for a detailed polling
If you are very stressed for time, ask general questions and ask for a show of hands.

You may find that all these ideas may work for you or some of them or none of them. That is OK. I am describing the general ideas that worked for me and many of my colleagues and friends. You are welcome to take these ideas and develop your own. Keep on speaking and have fun doing it!

This is very gray territory. What is a controversial question or topic? Is it one that sparks a heated debate? Is it one that makes your audience uncomfortable? Is it all of the above? The answers to these questions are not straight cut. You should know what question or topics may be viewed as controversial based on where you are, who is in your audience, and what controversies are floating around the media and the air. Is it the same question or topic for everybody? Absolutely not! Something controversial for one person or group may be perfectly acceptable for another. You should analyze the situation and the crowd and decide which questions or topics may be perceived as controversial.
But why avoid these questions or topics? It is a good idea to avoid these questions or topics because they create heated and uncomfortable situations. Well, sometimes as a presenters we are called to create these types of situations. We are called to deliver a controversial message and/or idea. We are there to stir up, to change and cure.

With all that said, I would like to make the statement that there are no controversial questions or topics …
if you know your audience.

Know your audience! How important is it to know your audience? The answer to that is derived from our entire discussion up to this point. Knowing your audience means the difference between being accepted and having a fun time, or being rejected and miserable. If you do not pay attention to your audience, you will be so far off cue that you will not be able to have any connection and therefore your message will not be accepted, remembered and repeated. Before you are ready to get in front of your audience, do the research. Research the environment, the people involved, the event. Ask the organizers about the event, do a little Q&A session; this may save you a lot of grief later on, and make an OK presentation into a great one. If you know the reason for the event, you may be able to figure out the attending crowd. If you know your audience, you will not have to guess what is the most effective way to connect with them and deliver your message?
We will discuss specific steps and techniques in our next posting. Keep on speaking and have fun doing it!

1. Research and write your presentation
You may get information on your presentation from a variety of sources. Start with YOU. You may know more on the subject than you think you do. After you exhaust your own knowledge, start broadening the circle of your sources. Some of the sources you can use are the people you know your colleagues, friends, students, teachers and family. The next circle will be the internet, a library, studies and research, trade publications and expert quotes.
Write everything that comes to mind or you come across in your research and information gathering stage regarding your presentation. Do not try to make much sense. Have a brain-storming session. Your notes do not have to be in any order. The structuring and editing will come later. This is gathering stage. Don’t even worry if you write some duplicate notes. Each note may have something unique about it. After you gathered all the information you think you could, put the script away for a short time.

2. Edit your presentation
Get back to your script and edit it.
• The first edit is for you – keep all you like. It may be too much, but do not discard it. You may use your ideas and research data in some future presentations.
• The second edit is for your presentation – keep only what is relevant/pertinent to the subject at hand. Customize your notes to reflect the needs of the current
presentation.
• The third edit is for your audience – keep what is relevant to your presentation and your audience. Make sure you are taking into consideration everything you learned
about your audience. Make sure you are using proper language and materials for your audience.
• The fourth edit is final – keep what is relevant to your presentation, your audience and can be presented within the allotted time.

The total length of your presentation may be easily calculated using the following method: Research shows that an average person speaks 120 to 160 words per minute. If you write your speech start to finish and measure your average speaking speed, you will know how many words your speech should be to fit into the allotted time. Allow some time for interruptions, laughter and activities.
To measure your average speaking speed, do the following: Get any text and a stop watch. Read the text out loud for one minute. Count the number of words you were able to read. Repeat this process three or four times. The average number of words for the times is your average speed. Make sure you are reading out loud because the speed is different between loud and silent readings.

3. Read it out loud
Read your script out loud. Do not concentrate on how you are saying it, just say it. Get comfortable pronouncing the words in your script. Read it as many times as you need to, to get comfortable with the entire presentation. If you stumble on some word or a phrase repeat it again until you are comfortable.

4. Talk it out
This is the time to use your voice variety. Please remember that voice variety is not just the volume. It is the pitch, the speed and the pauses (do not forget to pause). Think about how you are saying something. Do not hesitate to stop and go back to rehearse a part of your speech. This is your time to present without an audience, so use it well. Although you are alone it may help to visualize your audience enjoying the presentation.

5. Walk and talk
Practice your presentation in motion. This will help you when you are on stage. Pretend you are in front of an audience. Mark off a stage for your presentation and use it. Make sure you are not glued to one spot, work the stage. Make sure you are addressing the entire room, not just the first few rows or a specific side of the room. Try to make your movements meaningful don’t just move for the sake of moving. Visualize presenting to a room full of people.

6. Present to family and/or friend(s)
Ask for other people’s opinions. They may prove invaluable. Although your loved ones may hate you at the moment, their input may make the difference between a presentation that is just OK and a presentation that is excellent.

7. Video or audio record your presentation
The best learning experience, besides working with a presentation coach, is to record and analyze your presentation. This will help you hear yourself the way your audience will hear you. The trick is to videotape yourself and observe your own speech as an outsider. Remember, this is how everyone else sees you so it is important both personally and professionally that you be aware of how you really appear. Have a pen and paper handy to take notes as you go. It is helpful to track your progress and target your opportunities for growth.
If you have an audio recording you will, obviously, miss out on all visual advantages however it is MUCH better than nothing.

Here’s how to get the most from your review:

First, turn the sound off completely and watch your body language. Look for powerful, positive, believable gestures and posture. Also check for annoying habits you might not be aware of.

Second, replay the tape as you close your eyes and listen. Hear how you sound without the benefit of the visual component. Listen for the best examples of vocal inflection, variety, melody, speed, pacing and pauses. Here’s the time to notice and correct those weed words, “umms,” “errrs,” and “aahs.” Listen for awkward phrasing, slang, jargon, mispronounced words, mumbling, etc.

Third, rewind your video once again and listen as you view it. Make notes on what you would like to do to improve your performance and incorporate those ideas into the next run-through.

Forth, rewind again and watch the video on higher than normal speed. This will make all the little gesture mistakes much more prominent.

8. Write an outline
The outline has multiple benefits: it will keep you on track and it is very compact and does not give the impression that you are reading your speech. Write bullet points of your presentation. The bullet can be a key word, a phrase or a short sentence. As you get more and more proficient presenting, and as you present your material more and more times, you may need your notes on a rare occasions.

9. Time your presentation
Time is a very important commodity while you are presenting. It is very important to start your presentation on time, and possibly even more important to complete your presentation on time. Practically every meeting has an agenda, which are very tight on time. Running over the allotted time with your presentation may throw the entire meeting off track. If you are conscientious about time, the organizers and the audience will greatly appreciate it. Be flexible to adjust your presentation if the allotted time changes. Develop your presentation in modules; each module a point with supporting materials; each module independent. All the modules should be connected by a common thread, but should be able to stand alone. This way, if there is a need to shorten your presentation, it can be done seamlessly so the audience will not notice.

It does not matter if you are a professional speaker or someone who has to present occasionally a business owner or an executive a sales person or a manager a teacher or a student. As soon as we speak outside of our houses we are speaking in public. Speaking in public does not mean presenting. Delivering presentations require a different set of skills and if you think that you cannot get those skills you are wrong. Yes some of us have different talents and inclinations. I do not believe that anybody can be an Olympic champion. But I believe that anybody can be in a great physical shape if one decides and persists. The same principal is working for public speaking and presentation. Anybody can be a very good presenter who can and will change people’s lives. Below are nine steps to prepare for your presentation.

1.Research and write your presentation
2.Edit your presentation
3.Read it out loud
4.Talk it out
5.Walk and talk
6.Present to family and/or friend(s)
7.Video record your presentation
8.Write an outline
9.Time your presentation

1.Preparedness
Be prepared for your presentation. Know your material inside and out. Know your audience: their expectations, problems, opinions. Know your presentation environment: your audio-visuals, the room set-up, the time and duration of the presentation. Do the audio checks prior to the beginning of your presentation. Stand in every corner of the room and in the middle to see how visible you are on the platform. Make sure there are no obstructions that will take away attention of your audience. Check your materials and equipment. The better prepared you are, the more confident you are; the more confident you are, the less nervous you are.

2.Positive attitude
Nothing bad can happen to you when you are presenting, and if something happens, you will be ready for it. Believe it or not, the audience is on your side. Nobody wants you to fail. The audience gives you one of the most precious gifts – their time. The last thing they want is for you to waste it. Ask yourself, when you are in the audience and are listening to a speaker do you want him/her to be lousy? Do you want them to waste your time and money? Or, do you want them to be informative and fun? The people in your audience are thinking the same things. They do not want you to fail; they come to the presentation with great expectations, your job is to not disappoint them.

3.Eye contact
Use eye contact for one-on-one conversations. When you are making eye contact with a person in your audience, you are speaking ONLY to that person. Instead of presenting to an entire group, you have conversations – one person at a time. Do not stare; this will make the person uneasy. Do not scan the audience as it will make you nervous because now you are talking to everybody. Instead, make eye contact for three to five seconds and move on to the next person. Move on in a random order and make sure that nobody feels left out. Remember, eye contact is a very powerful tool; it will not only calm you down, it will also give you credibility in your audience’s eyes, and it will tell them that you are an honest person.

4.Breathing exercise
Use some yoga breathing exercises. Breathe in deeply, hold your breath for a few seconds, and breathe out with a hum. Repeat this a few times. You may use your arms to “visualize” and time your breathing. Move your arms to the sides and lift them shoulder high when breathing in; slowly bring them down breathing out. In one of my workshops a student asked me do we do breathing on stage. Please do the breathing exercise before your presentation to calm you down. When you are on stage it is too late to do exercises unless they are pertinent to your message.

5.Walk it out
Nervousness produces extra adrenalin in your body. Adrenalin produces extra energy. Our brain perceives presentation as danger and is getting ready to fight or flee. Since we do neither this extra energy has no exit. Do something physical before the presentation to work off that extra energy. For example, walk in the corridor or walk the stairs, if there are any. However, do not overdo these activities. You do not want to appear out of breath and sweaty when you are called to present.

6.Visualize success
Visualize yourself presenting. Visualize your audience happy with your presentation. See yourself on stage receiving applause, happily smiling after a job well done. See yourself as a winner and a success. If you think that you will succeed, you will; if you think that you will fail, you will.

7.Pep talk
The pep talk is an overlooked tool, yet it may be a very powerful and soothing tool for you. Pep talks, or self-talks, are fun. Talk to yourself in an encouraging way to get your emotions moving in a positive direction. Speak to your heart. Create or recall moments that move your heart and soul – use whatever gets you going in a right direction.
When I need to pep myself up, I get into the “this is my house and I am in control here” attitude. I had a presentation at one of my clients’. The subject was conversation techniques. I decided to have it in a workshop format – a lot of activities so that everybody could hear, see and do.
The presentation was in a high school building; I was told that I would be in a cafeteria. Perfect, I thought, this is exactly what I need; people will sit in groups around the tables, they can write down the exercise and they can converse with each other as part of the exercise. I had the entire workshop laid out in my head. So life is good! I arrived an hour before the workshop.
Blow number one – I am in the gymnasium; a huge room of which we are occupying a quarter. The cozy conversational atmosphere is gone.
Blow number two – No tables, the chairs are in rows, theater style.
And to top it all there is volleyball net in the middle of the room dividing my audience into to uneven halves.
What is there to do? I went out to the street and, honestly, had a little pep talk. I said to myself, ‘this is my house, I am in control here, I can handle it. These people came to see me and hear what I have to say. They deserve the best and I will give them my best. I am professional. So, I have to rethink the format and change my strategy. I can do it and I will be great.’ I finished my pep talk, went into the room and began preparing for my workshop. After the workshop was over, the feedback I got was that my presentation was inspiring, that I was phenomenal and I was asked if I could speak for various other organizations that some of my students belonged to.
That worked for me; find something that works for you and use it.

Control it!

Are you surprised by such statement? Don’t be. I sincerely believe that nervousness is a friend not a foe. Of course I am talking about controlled nervousness. Controlled nervousness is the force that keeps us focused on the platform it keeps us energized and dynamic it keeps us alive. Because we are alive on the platform our audience is awake, aware and connected. Now, the question is how this “force of nature” can be controlled?  You will pick up seven simple and proven techniques that will help you to control and channel this force and turn it from foe into a welcomed friend.

1.    Preparedness

2.    Positive attitude

3.    Eye contact

4.    Breathing exercise

5.    Walk it out

6.    Visualize success

7.    Pep talk

I will post a detailed explanation for each technique very shortly. In the mean time do not get rid of your nervousness, control it!