Which of the many aspects of giving a presentation are you best at?
I’d say I’m best at writing a strong message, and that means I often focus on a talk’s words. So when presentation blogger Laura Foley posted her neat makeover of a title slide, I thought hard about the text on that slide.
In this post, we’ll look at:
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What do you think it is about answering audience questions that makes many speakers nervous?
I’d say it’s the unpredictability – and having to respond at a moment’s notice.
But, if you’ve read my last post, you’ll know I mentioned 3 steps you can use to help you master your Q&A, from the late Denise Graveline:
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What’s your attitude to the Q&A session when you give a speech or presentation?
If you’re like most speakers, you likely feel a bit nervous about giving your talk, but more nervous about taking questions!
After all, if you think of questions negatively, they can seem like tests. And the people asking them can seem to be doubting your expertise.
So, you might fear scenarios like these:
When you’re presenting, how do you keep your audience engaged? What do you do, exactly?
Here’s one of the best ways to engage people – yet it’s one of the most human, too, so it’s among the simplest:
You might still wonder how you should do that though.
So (as explained in more detail in that link), I like to split the process into 3 levels:
You might’ve heard presentation coaches say your talk should make your audience think, feel, or do something different. And I think they’re right – to a degree.
By the way, thinking, feeling or doing something different aren’t exactly what I meant as the gifts mentioned in this post’s title. More on that shortly.
Why do I add that proviso – “to a degree”? Well, there’s no point making your audience just think or feel something – unless they act on it too.
For instance, let’s look at an extreme example to illustrate my point:
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What is it about public speaking that you’d be most likely to search for on the internet? You might be surprised which of my posts gets the most search traffic…
The most popular post on this blog – by far – is the one on awesome opening lines. And almost 60 people have commented on it, too. So it’s definitely a hot topic for public speakers.
But if you go looking for an opening line for your talk, I think you’re taking the wrong approach.
Why do I say that? Well, the combination of your audience and your topic are unique. So, if you search the internet for an opening line, you’re very unlikely to find a good fit for your specific talk.
What should you do, then? You’ll find one great answer in this 3-minute video by Kindra Hall.
Kindra reveals:
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(Short of time? Jump to the tips)
How do you create your slide presentations? Allow me a few sentences to guess…
If you’re like most speakers, you probably start in PowerPoint, where (to share your message, and to remind you what to say) it’s quite likely you write dozens of words on each slide. Then, to make your slides look more appealing, you might well “pretty them up” with graphics, a slide template, or even fancy fonts. And, to save time, you probably reuse whatever slides you can from previous talks.
If those steps sound familiar, you’ve likely found it hard to really engage your listeners. So you probably haven’t got the outcome you wanted from each talk.
Wordy slides make for a dull talk
That’s for a couple of reasons:
But, fear not. You can avoid those problems by using a different approach, as described by Laura Foley (presentation coach and blogger).
Laura says:
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Have you seen my previous post? Here’s just a few sentences as a really quick recap:
“Do you find slide makeovers helpful?
I love them!…they’re a form of ‘working out loud’ that
I find really useful”
That post’s the 1st part of the makeover shown below, and it explains changes I made to slides 1-2 from a presentation by Diane Windingland.
In this post, you’ll find details of the changes I made to slides 3-5 (of 5) from Diane’s deck:
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(Short of time? Skip ahead to the Contents)
Do you find slide makeovers helpful? I love them!
That’s because they show – in concrete terms – how you could improve specific slide layouts and formatting. And they even give you insight into the thought process of the designer who did the makeover. So they’re a form of “working out loud” that I find really useful.
Last month, presentation coach Diane Windingland published a slide makeover by a company called PunchSlide Design. The makeover included 7 slides from a presentation of
Diane’s, and she posted a before-and-after comparison of each one.
Of the 7 slides, 6 of them had photos added during the makeover. To me, that seemed a very high proportion, which led me to leave a comment on Diane’s blog:
“…using too many photos (or too many of any type of
slide) can be about as boring as over-using bullet points”
I felt strongly that I could do a better makeover!
Still, I found the makeover inspiring – partly because Diane’s slides were a great foundation to build on. And partly because, frankly, I felt strongly that I could do a better makeover!
So in today’s post, you’ll find my own makeover of 5 of Diane’s slides. Then, in this post and my next, I’ll share with you my thinking behind each slide’s redesign.
If you want to jump to a specific topic in this post, you can click any of these links:
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What was your latest talk’s key message? See if you can jot it down.
Then, check out the tips below, which could improve it…
You might ask, “What is a key message?” Well, according to expert presentation coach Olivia Mitchell:
“A key message is
the number one thing
you want your audience
to remember or do”
~ Olivia Mitchell
Sadly, most talks don’t even have a key message
Sadly, most talks don’t even have a key message. So, that tends to leave the audience wondering what the point was. (And why they even bothered coming!)
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Remote Possibilities 