Hi all.
When I started thinking about “becoming a speaker” post I remembered seeing quite a few tweets about a session called “presentation on presentations” by Luiza Nowak. I decided to contact her and ask her for some content about that, and I was very glad she agreed. So this is her post and you can read a little bit about Luiza at the end of this post.
Liron
Building a Presentation
You might find useful that every presentation contains 4 layers:
- Content
- Story
- Performance
- Visualisation
1. Content
Content is actually the core of the presentation – it’s all the data, facts and conclusions that you want to share with your audience. The best way is to collect content for a while – write down your ideas, cool examples, sudden thoughts on the topic. But then it gets harder, because you must filter your content and that means killing your own ideas. As unpleasant as it might sound, its also obligatory. You cannot present the same content in front of every audience. You can use the CUC method described below to make this process easier:
C – Clear
Is your content clear to your audience? I’m not saying you should only speak about the basics, but its important to adjust your message to the audience. If at the end of the presentation people feel stupid, it means you’ve failed. Don’t get me wrong – they can feel stupid in the meaning of “Oh my, I still have so many things to learn!” but not like “I didn’t understand a thing, he/she completely lost me in the middle of the speech”.
U – Uniqueness
Is what you’re saying unique? Isn’t it obvious or easy to find in Google? This is very important especially when you are going to also sell something to your audience. People are allergic to lines like “Listen to your clients”.
C – Connection
How can you know if what you’re going to say is clear or unique to your audience? You need to know them, connect with them. This is why you need to try learn as much as possible about them. How? Ask the organisers, check the event’s social media, do your homework.
2. Story
OK, when you have your content set and done, its time to pack it into a story. By story I mean that it should be interesting to your audience but also that they will be on the same page with you.
How to make your message interesting? Don’t give people everything at once. Don’t start with details, don’t use agenda! PEOPLE WONT PAY ATTENTION! For example, you can say:
“We’ve made those changes to the code [showing changes] and now it runs twice as fast as previous one.”
But its much better that way:
“We’ve made some changes to the code and now it runs twice as fast as the previous one. But first, we want to show you how these things work”
Do you see the difference? Now they will listen until they know what the changes were.
And how to be sure that you’re on the same page with your audience? Use examples and be specific. For example, when I say “dog” we all see different dogs. But when I say “2-months-old golden retriever” its obvious.
Try to design the story the way you want to hear it. Cut meaningless sentences like “we provide high quality solutions that fit our clients”.
3. Performance
Don’t worry if you don’t know what to do with your hands on stage – you can seriously put them in your pockets as long as your presentation is good. The most important thing is to be natural, because people hate fake speakers. Easy to say, but while you’re presenting you’re under a big stress, because you feel that you’re being judged. Try 3 things to fight it:
- Quick workout – try to loosen your muscles before your talk – jump a little bit, do some push ups. When you feel loose in your body, your mind will relax a bit as well
- Call your friend – but one that is unrelated to your work field. Maybe you know some doctors? They will probably tell you that it’s not so important and if you fail, nothing really bad will happen. They will remind you that you have a life that won’t be affected by this speech (trust me, sometimes we forget about this under stress;)
- BE PREPARED – this one always works!
4. Visualisation
Remember that your slides should support you, not bother you. For example, when you put too much text on your slides, your audience starts reading instead of listening. It’s your role as a speaker to SPEAK about the details. Use short sentences and when you show some more complex data, use animation “appear”. Make sure that you only show the things that you are talking about on the slide.
About Luiza
Luiza is the Vice President of the Polish Oracle User Group, co-founder of PrezART, a company which creates presentations. Designer of thousands of presentations, speaker at IT and marketing conferences, author of a blog at www.prezart.pl and a trainer.
Luiza has worked with companies like PepsiCo, Danone, InterMarche, Blue Media and prepared managers, CEO’s and specialists on almost every level for their business and private talks.
You can find Luiza on Twitter and Linkedin