When was Your Presentation
last updated?You

If it’s been awhile - Keep reading!

Doing a Presentation Makeover
makes sense if:
The Information You Want to Convey is Important.
It should be Important!
     Important to the audience and
     Important to you!
If it’s not important, Why are you doing it?

“The presentation you and/or your team deliver:
directly reflects upon the presenters and those developing the presentation.”

You might need a
Presentation Makeover if you. . .

• Use cheap clipart.
• Use lots of fancy fonts.
• Put your brand on all the slides.
• Use lots of text in your slideshow.
• Use fonts that are less than 32 pt.
• Don’t customize your presentation.
• Don’t Practice – Practice – Practice.
• Think your Introduction is your Bio.
• “Wing it” at any of your presentations.
• Have many bullet points on your slides.
• Read those bullet points to the audience.
• Take questions after closing the presentation.
• Deliver your presentation from behind a lectern.
• Don’t research information about your audience.
• Give all the attendees handouts before presenting.
• Don’t have a Strong Opening and a Strong Closing.
• Aren’t continually updating your knowledge of your subject.
• Leave it up to the Master of Ceremonies to write your Introduction.
• Use low-rez images in your slides and enlarge them to fill the screen.
• Don’t use the “B” Button (Blank Screen) when delivering presentations.
• Are using someone’s stories in your presentation that are not your own.
• Don’t continually research information on the subject you’re presenting.
• Take questions throughout your presentation and always run out of time.
• Use lots of different slide transitions with an equal amount of build-ins
  and build-outs.
• Dress inappropriately or wear flashy jewelry and accessories when presenting.
• Are delivering Nonverbal Communication that is not in sync with your Verbal Communication.
• Keep a prop in view of the audience after using it and moving on to another part of your presentation.
• Don’t have a few questions in your hip pocket to “prime the pump” during the
  Q & A.
• Are not using personal stories to reinforce the points you’re making in the body of your speech.
• Don’t scope out the venue you’ll be speaking in several days before your presentation.
• Don’t have a “Master Slide Deck” you can easily pick and choose slides from for specific audiences and events.
• “Grab” images off internet sites rather than purchase or use ones with Creative Commons license.
• Are not using the Presentation Mode that PowerPoint and Keynote Offer.
• Are not using a remote control device that controls the slide, sound, has a “B” Button, has a laser pointer and is long range RF (radio frequency, not being directional.)

For reading, and/or listening, this far I’d like to give you a FREE Gift.
Go to: http://www.nosweatpublicspeaking.com/freegift to receive it!

About the Author
Fred E. Miller is a speaker, a coach, and author of the book, “No Sweat Public Speaking!”
Businesses and individuals hire him because they want to improve their
Public Speaking and Presentation Skills.
They do this because we perceive really great speakers to be Experts.
Perception is reality and we rather deal with Experts.
They also know: Speaking Opportunities are Business Opportunities.
Speaking Opportunities are Career Opportunities.
He shows them how to Develop, Practice and Deliver Knock Your Socks Off Presentations! with -
No Sweat!

Fred E. Miller
Fred@NoSweatPublicSpeaking.com
nosweatpublicspeaking.com

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Text 

Have you ever sat through a presentation where the speaker read, word for word, the bullet pointed text that was on the screen?  Terrible, wasn’t it?

Why do speakers do this?

If they want to use notes for their presentation, those details should be placed in the ‘Notes Section’ of the slides, visible only to the presenter using Keynote or PowerPoint in ‘Presenter Mode.’

Placing Text on the screen does not reinforce the presenter’s message with the audience and help them GET IT!

On the contrary, Text and Bullet Points:

• Complicate the message.
• Conflict with the speaker’s delivery.
• Confuse the audience.

The audience is reading at a different speed than the presenter is speaking.  They are ahead or behind the speaker.  The result is worse than just seeing text or merely listening to the speaker!  (This also happens if you distribute handouts to an audience before presenting.)

The Answer:
Instead of placing lots and lots of Text on slides, use Images to help the audience GET IT!

There are three main styles of learning.

1. Visual – Seeing something.
2. Auditory – Hearing something.
3. Kinesthetic – Doing something.

A good slideshow presentation will combine two of these learning styles:
1. Visual -  high quality Images.
2. Auditory – ‘Text’ provided by the speaker’s voice.
The audience’s understanding of the presenter’s message is greatly increased.

Images should be:

• High quality.
• Universally recognized.  No – “What is that?”
• High enough resolution to not be blurred.
• Large!
• One per slide, or several that express the same main point.
• Example: I use images of a blackboard, clown’s feet, and a person writing on a chart on the same slide to deliver the point:
  “For the audience to GET IT!, a presenter needs to
  Educate, Entertain, and Explain.

Free images, when giving attribution, are available at Flckr’s Creative Commons.  Use Compfight to make that search easier.

Great, high quality images can be purchased from a number of on-line sites.  My favorite is iStockphoto.com.  Be certain to search for a Coupon Code before buying your credits.

Also important in this discussion is timely use of the ‘B’ Button in PowerPoint and Keynote that ‘blanks’ the screen.  When used, the attention of the audience immediately goes from the screen to the presenter – where it should be!

YOU are the presenter; not the slides!  The slides should have the image that reinforces the message you are delivering.  Once you have finished that message, and continue to elaborate or tell a supporting story, ‘blank’ the screen to have the audience focus on you!

This stuff works!  Try it and make your next presentation – No Sweat!

For reading, and/or listening, this far I’d like to give you a FREE Gift.
Go to: http://www.nosweatpublicspeaking.com/freegift to receive it!

About the Author
Fred E. Miller is a speaker, a coach, and author of the book, “No Sweat Public Speaking!”
Businesses and individuals hire him because they want to improve their
Public Speaking and Presentation Skills.
They do this because we perceive really great speakers to be Experts.
Perception is reality and we rather deal with Experts.
They also know: Speaking Opportunities are Business Opportunities.
Speaking Opportunities are Career Opportunities.
He shows them how to Develop, Practice and Deliver Knock Your Socks Off Presentations! with -
No Sweat!

Fred E. Miller
Fred@NoSweatPublicSpeaking.com
nosweatpublicspeaking.com

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Don Marsh, the host of “St. Louis on the Air”, had me as a guest on his show.  He is an excellent interviewer.

We discussed my book, “No Sweat Public Speaking!” There was also time for a few call-in questions as well as audience participation thru Twitter and Email.

Click the Blue Speaker/Arrow Icon under I’m a Guest and give it a listen!

———————————————————————————————————————-

Here is a recent Interview on Public Speaking I did with Dr. Alice Vlietstra, Lifetree Solutions Interview With Dr. Alice

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I recently had the privilege of being interviewed by Russ Henneberry, owner of Tiny Business, Mighty Profits, on his Radio Show, Tiny Business, Mighty Profits Radio.  Russ is one of the best internet experts around.  I have personally learned a lot from him.

We discussed growing your business thru Public Speaking.  Russ exemplifies this thru his own marketing practices.  He holds a monthly MeetUp where he teaches his audiences about internet marketing.  These classes are always filled with people on his waiting list.

Russ says this about the value of Public Speaking:
“This is how I have grown my business: I write and distribute tons of free content.  Writing and distributing content leads to more public speaking opportunities.  Public speaking opportunities lead to more clients. If you want to start speaking more, but you don’t know how to get started, you need to start listening to Fred.”

Listen to this interview. Take the ideas, and incorporate them into your business!

Rus

Thank You, Russ!

The perception of someone who speaks is that they are an expert.  Perception is reality.  All things being equal, we’d rather work with experts - Correct?

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If you ‘hand out’ Handouts as the audience is getting seated, they’ll be looking at your brochure, fact sheet, contact information, etc., while you’re giving your presentation.

This can be as bad as having the door to a noisy kitchen open or the the lights go out as you’re demonstrating something.

A speech is always best presented with no distractions.

Unless you’re presenting a workshop that requires material that be specifically followed, put your handouts aside until the end of your presentation.

Handouts can be a great marketing tool. One thing to consider having in your handout is a summary, perhaps a Mind Map, of your speech, emphasizing the highlights.

You can announce this at the beginning of your presentation and say that “Note taking won’t be necessary because there will be a handout available that will contain highlights of my presentation. It also has my website address where you can register for my newsletter.”

Another technique might be to get people’s email addresses, either by collecting business cards, having them fill out a form, or perhaps thru the registration process used for your event.

Announce that you’ll be sending a PDF of the main points of your speech to those who wish to have them.

Handouts – Hand them out at the end of your talk

About the Author:
Fred E. Miller coaches, speaks and writes about Public Speaking and Presentation Skills.
314-517-8772
Fred@NoSweatPublicSpeaking.com
http://www.nosweatpublicspeaking.com

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