Got Something To Say?

“What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?”

I had to do a powerpoint presentation for my Cert. IV in Small Business Management course it was scary and daunting, but empowering at the same time. It was part of the networking subject, as often at networking groups different people will take turns to give a presentation. We were taught to use an attention-getter to open. This is short phrase or quote that get’s the audience’s attention and focusses them in on the topic you are speaking about. This has a particularly good impact if you can put up a visual of the text and an accompanying image as you say the words. (Having one of those remote controls for the projector helps). Use your strongest, most confident voice. Don’t let yourself think you’re not good at public speaking, because this just becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Believe in yourself and in your message.

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After you’ve delivered your attention-getter introduce yourself, if you haven’t been pre-introduced, and introduce what you are going to speak about. Show an outline of your talk. This will work a bit like a table of contents does in a book.

Clearly mark each new section of your talk with headings and sub-headings (my TAFE teacher said to number them all but I’m not convinced either way). Be brief with text and where possible use bullet points. This way you can talk to your points without having to know word-for-word your entire talk. Use diagrams, graphs and charts where appropriate. Try and break up long sections of text with images. I try to do this with my blog posts so my readers don’t get bored. (I know you’re a visually-intelligent bunch, like me!).

Speak Up print by TipsyMouse on Etsy. Click the image to see the listing and other art-prints with a touch of wit.

Be aware that people take in information in different ways. Some people are more visual, others more auditory. If you can, get your audience moving and participating in some physical way. They won’t forget your message and they definitely won’t fall asleep!

Every essay has an introduction, body, and conclusion, so should a presentation. At the end recap what you’ve said by going over your headings again. This will trigger any questions people will have. Let people know that you will take questions, or if you are not able to take questions let them know another way that they can contact you for more information. (E.g. After the talk, email, relevant website details).

As my teacher used to say :

“Tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what you’ve told them”.

I hope this helps. 🙂