Presenters Need To Use Their Personal Stories About Facing Challanges To Reach Their Audiences

Today’s audiences are a jaded bunch. In fact, a Gallup Poll shows that just 16% of us have a favorable opinion of business executives. With all of the Wall Street failures and auto maker bailouts that are currently going on, this number will probably keep going down. What’s a presenter to do in order to cut through the fog of cynicism that we are all existing in?

One way that presenters are doing this is by sharing their own stories of adversity. These stories seem to be able to reach out to audiences and somehow make the presenter much more “real” than just another glib business success story.

If this is what your audience wants, what can you do to meet their needs? We all may not have survived a wild bear attack, but we may be able to find other types of material in our lives that will allow us to connect with our audiences:

• Audiences Love Adversity: The bigger the challenge that you faced, the more they love it. Erik Weihenmayer is a mountain climber who is blind. He over came lots of adversity and ended up climbing Mt. Everest. His story shows his audience how to overcome adversity in their lives.
• Tales Of Survival Match Today’s Business Environment: Today’s business environment is harsh and unforgiving and surviving is what most of your audience is trying do every day. Trisha Meili
  was assaulted and left for dead in New York’s Central Park. She now speaks to audiences about what she had to go through in order to recover.
• Find The Metaphor: What your audience is really looking for is hope. They will be interested in your story no matter what you tell them, but it will have a real impact if they can understand that what you went through is similar to what they are currently going through. The fact that you survived (and hopefully thrived) is what is going to give them the courage to keep on trying.
• Tie Your Story Into Business: A great story will keep your audience on the edge of their seats - but what happens when you stop talking? John Amatt survived a mountain climb 20 years ago that killed three of his climbing teammates. The only way that he survived that disaster and made it to the top of the mountain was to  make radical changes to his climbing route and tactics. This story is very well received by business people who are facing major changes in their business environments.
• Use Humor Where Appropriate: These topics can be pretty heavy - life and death struggles are rarely something that anyone wants to joke about. That being said, if your entire presentation is dark and scary, then your audience will just be happy when it’s all over. Instead, use humor at the start and at the end in order to start and end on a lighter note. You audience will appreciate it and this will allow your message to sink in further.

We have not all faced life threatening situations. However, what your audience is really looking for is a good story that they can relate to. If you look back over your life, I’m sure that you can find points in which you were faced with a challenging situation that looked impossible at the time. Then all you have to do is weave a story that will grab your audience’s attention…

Technorati Tags: motivational, persuasion, persuasive speech, presentation, presentation skills, presentations, public speaker, public speaking, speakers, speech topics, training

Presenting To Teens Takes A Special Talent In Order To Get Them To Listen

Anytime we speak in public it can be a challenge that gets our heart racing and causes us to start to sweat. However, if you really want to take the stress up a notch, then just try talking to a group of teens and watch your heart either start to beat double time or just stop altogether. Why do we have such a hang-up about presenting to teens? I suspect it’s because we don’t quite know how best to talk to them: they are no longer kids, but they are not yet adults either. We simply don’t feel that we know HOW to talk to them. Well get in line - I’m sure that their parents feel the same way! Let’s have a talk with Pandora Scooter who for the past 15 years has been teaching and putting on workshops for teenagers all the time. She’s got some tips that we can all use to get over ourselves and get on with the presentation…

Scooter points out that even the most experienced speakers seem to have a deep set fear of talking to a group of teenagers. When asked why they fear this audience more than a hall filled with over a 1,000 adults, they come back with answers such as “They won’t care about what I have to say”, “They won’t listen to me”, “I’m afraid of them”. It turns out that just like with everything else in life, there is a grain of truth in what these speakers are saying. Specifically, often times teenagers will look like they aren’t paying attention in order to appear “cool” to their friends - even though they may be hanging on your every word. If you can give them something to focus their attention on, then they will listen to you and you can make an impact. Here’s what you need to do:

• Challenge Them Right Off The Bat: Your teen audience probably has been told to be there - they didn’t decide to come by themselves. This means that they are expecting you to treat them just like every other adult does - assuming that they care about what you are going to be talking about. Turn this assumption on its head. Ask them a question, get them to raise their hands or stand up. Do SOMETHING to make sure that they realize that this is not just another boring presentation.
• Stop Talking About Yourself: In a nutshell, unless you are a rock star, your teen audience won’t really care about where you’ve been or what awards you have won. Keep your introduction short and sweet - what’s your name and why are you here?
• Don’t Be A Pushover: If you take the time to be honest and direct with your teen audience, then they will respond. Almost without fail, there will other discussions that start up while you are talking or there will be people who are clearly not paying attention. You need to not ignore these events, but rather point them out and work out what is going on with the offenders. Simply by showing that you are paying attention to them and that you are not going to ignore them. This will catch their attention, and most of the time will solve the problem.
• Say “Thank You”: By showing respect for your teen audience and expressing gratitude to them for their participation in your presentation you will capture their hearts and minds. This may seem like such a small thing, but saying “thank you” half-way through your presentation shows that you have something to base it on and warms the audience up for the rest of your presentation.
• Use Your Eyes: Eye contact can be the key to making your presentation a success. By making direct eye contact with members of your audience, you can ensure that they are engaged. You can take this one step further by calling out individual listeners and working them into your presentation “this gentlemen in black seems to be agreeing with me”, etc. For an audience that is more used to being ignored, this will put them on their toes as they eagerly wait to see who get called out next.
• Be Available: At the end of a presentation to adults, you would probably tell them how they could get in contact with you if they needed any additional information. Make sure that you do the same thing for your teen audience. Hey, very few if any of the teens will actually take you up on your offer of further contact, but the simple fact that you made the offer will go a long way in gaining their respect and may make your message take hold at a deeper level.

Have you ever had an opportunity to present to a teen audience? How did it turn out - was it a success or was it a disaster? Did the teens pay attention while you were presenting or did they have their own conversations? Do you feel that you connected with any of the teens? Did anyone seek to contact you after you were done? Leave a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

Technorati Tags: audience, communication skills, eye contact, presentation, presentation skills, presenter, public speaking, teenagers, teens

When Presenting To Kids, You Need To Do Things Differently

So I’m not so sure that that title is clear, but basically what I’m talking about is delivering presentations to young people. I’m talking about elementary school age folks. Like 5-11 years old. Maybe the toughest crowd that you’ll ever have to face! I come up against this tough customer at least once a year when the schools in my area have a “career day” where parents are invited to come and talk to the kids about their careers. The goal is to provide the kids with motivation to study hard and stay in school. I love the IT field; however, it’s a hard sell to kids who have just been dazzled by the policeman / fireman / soldier who all have cool uniforms and neat utility belts. On top of this career appeal challenge, there’s that issue with trying to find the right way to talk to these kids - you know, they really are not young adults just yet…

When I need help in trying to figure out how best to deal with a tough crowd like this, I know that it’s best to go talk with an expert. In this case the expert is Caren Neile who is the director of Florida Atlantic University’s Storytelling Project. Here are 10 tips for how you can not only survive a presentation to the very young, but also do a good job of it:

1. Watch Your Height: Kids are very sensitive to having to look up at a speaker. You need to do everything that you can to “be on their level”. One way to do this is to sit on the floor. Another is to sit on a chair - pretty much the opposite of what we tell you to do when speaking to adults!
2. Don’t Start Your Presentation Cold: One of the key things that you want to happen when you talk with kids is to have them behave and pay attention. This can be hard to do if they don’t know you. By spending some time with them before you start your presentation you can knock down some of the walls that exit between you and them. By doing this, you can come across as a person that they know and they’ll do a better job of paying attention to what you have to say.
3. Be Real Man: Kids hate vague “management speak”. Remember that their world is pretty much what they see on a daily basis and only the things that they can touch are real. If you speak in big broad terms (”the whole world”, “boosting productivity”, “over $1B dollars”, etc.) they simply won’t be able to grasp what you are talking about. Instead, use concrete expressions that they can easily understand (”lots of people”, “able to make even more widgets”, “enough money to fill this room from floor to ceiling”, etc.)
4. See What I’m Saying: Props are your friend when you are talking to a young audience. We’ve raised them to be multi-tasking demons and they’ll show you just how good they are at this by tuning you out and working on other tasks while you are talking unless you find a way to keep grabbing their attention. Props are one of the best ways to do this.
5. Take A Time Out: How long can you sit and effectively listen to someone? Kids can’t pay attention for even that long! Given ‘em a break before, during, and after your presentation. They will be forever grateful.
6. Have Everyone Play A Role: Much more than adults, kids love to participate in a presentation. They will be itching to do this even if you don’t want them to do so. Caren suggests that you work specific places in your presentation for them to help you out. This will help to keep their interest and will make your presentation even more memorable.
7. Get Up And Move!: Once again, we generally like it when adults sit through our presentations. With kids, things are different. If you can find a way to get them to get up and move around as part of your presentation, then they will connect with you and your message better.
8. Chill Out Man: With adults, we would often like it if they stood up and started shouting during our presentation - it would show that they were really engaged. With kids, they might just stand up and start shouting because they like to shout. Make sure that you don’t get them too riled up during your presentation or things could get out of hand.
9. Allow Learning To Happen: We all learn in our own way and kids are no exception to this rule. Some kids will appear to tune you out, may be drawing while you speak, may even get up and walk around. Don’t be offended and don’t worry about it. This may be how they learn best and you should just let it happen.

What happened last time you had a chance to speak to young kids? Did you treat them like kids or like little adults? Do you think that they understood and remembered your message? What would you do differently if you had it to do all over again? Leave a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

Technorati Tags: audience, career day, communication skills, kids, presentation, presentation skills, presenter, public speaking, speaker

It Can Be Hard To Do A Good Job Talking About Money

Money - it’s a love / hate thing. We all would like to have lots of the stuff; however, most people (us included) would probably rather lose a finger than have to sit though yet another incredibly boring presentation about the green stuff. Why is this? It’s actually pretty easy to understand what’s wrong with most presentations about money: it is presented in a boring way, the PowerPoint slides that are used are crammed with numbers that are way too small for any human to be able to read, and the presenter often uses vocabulary that we don’t understand. What can be done to fix this?

We already know that one of the most effective ways to deliver a presentation that will “stick” with your audience is to tell them a compelling story. A presentation about money should be no different - it’s the story that you tell that will get your point across. Keeping that in mind, here are some tips that will make your next presentation on money unforgettable:

1. K.I.S.S: No, not the rock group, but rather Keep It Simple Stupid. In other words, whenever you talk about money there can be the tendency to say too much. DON’T DO IT! Instead, before you create your speech write out a single sentence that contains the message that you want your audience to walk away with. Then, when you are describing some financial tool re-read this sentence and determine if what you are talking about supports it. If not, then drop it and move on.
2. Come Early, Leave Late: This is just a basic speaker tip; however, it’s even more important when you are talking about money. Making sure that you don’t have to worry about your equipment or the room gives you more time to focus on what you are going to be saying. Not having to run out at the end means that you can provide more detail for those who really want it.
3. Bring A Partner To Help - Mr. Handout: Since much of what you may be talking about can be (a) complex and (b) detailed, this is one speech that you do want to provide a handout for. However, don’t do what too many speakers do and just give everyone a copy of your slides. Instead, create a special handout that provides detailed information about things that you didn’t have time to cover.
4. Careful About Colors: Since so much of what is shown in any presentation on money is charts, you need to carefully check your colors. Stay away from the common color-blindness colors and make sure that all of your text is readable from the back of the room.
5. Shut Her Down When You Don’t Need Her: All too often an audience in a talk about money can start to pay more attention to the slides than the speaker. One way to put a stop to this is to either turn off the projector every so often or, even better yet, put a completely black slide into your deck when you want all eyes on  you. It’s startling and it works really well.
6. Do The Dark / Light Thing: Making your PowerPoint slides readable is critical. One way to help this happen is to make sure that the contrast between your slides’ background color and the foreground colors is very distinct. For a large room, I’ve found that making your slide background dark while making your text and drawings light colored makes everything readable even from the back of the room.
7. Turn Off The Hollywood Effects: PowerPoint and other presentation applications allow you to go wild on how one slide goes away and the next one shows up - transitions. Here’s a suggestion : don’t. Either pick one transition and use it throughout your presentation or only vary the transition when you really want to draw attention to the new slide. Otherwise you risk training your audience to look forward to your next transition and not what you are saying.
8. Don’t Create A Fighter Pilot Eye Exam: I can’t tell you just how important this one is - make sure that you keep your font selections to a minimum and make sure that all text is large enough to be read. I like to choose “sans serf” fonts because they don’t have the loopy stuff and are generally easier to read. I’ve also found that the 18 pt font size is the smallest that you want to use, otherwise it just gets too hard to read.
9. Remember What A Picture Is Worth: Instead of trying to overwhelm your audience with words that describe technical financial terms, instead try to use more charts and graphs. Displaying a chart and then talking about it gives your audience time to apply your words to real situations and promotes understanding and retention.
10. Remember That Only 5 lbs. Will Fit In A 5 lbs. Bag: Avoid the #1 sin of public speakers who talk about money - putting too much information on a single slide. We can fall in love with the way that we describe something and we like to add more and more details to it. However, take a moment and think about your poor audience. Try to present just the bare minimum amount of information that they need on each slide.

By following these simple tips you can create a powerful presentation that makes an impression on your audience and leaves them with the thoughts and ideas that you want them to have.

Have you ever given a presentation that talked about money? How did it turn out - was it well received or did your audience go to sleep after your second slide? What made your presentation work / not work? What did you think about the last financial presentation that you went to - did the speaker follow these tips or did he/she make you want to leave? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

Technorati Tags: audience, communication skills, money, presentation skills, public speaker, speaker, speech topics

Billy Crystal Always Has A Great Introduction Before He Speaks

You know, it’s always the little things that set the real pros apart from the rest of us. When it comes to speaking in public, having a really good introduction for yourself can be the key to getting your speech off to a great start. I must confess that I had forgotten just how powerful an introduction could be. It took a chance opportunity to attend a private show put on by Billy Crystal to really remind me why introductions are important and, when done correctly, just how powerful they can be.

I was out in Las Vegas attending the big EMC trade show and as part of the show they had the comedian Billy Crystal come in and put on a private show. So there I was along with 1,000’s of other trade show attendees sitting in a mini-arena waiting for Billy to take the stage. All of a sudden, the lights went down, and the jumbo tron TV screens on the stage lit up. What happened next was the mini-movie that had been created to introduce Billy at the start of the 2004 Academy Awards played. This was a serious movie - it must have lasted for just a bit over 5 minutes or so. It was also quite funny - Billy kept finding himself stuck inside a bunch of famous movies as it appeared as though people were trying to talk him into hosting the Academy Awards. Once the movie was over, Billy came out, took the stage, and put on a great show.

It wasn’t until days later (sorry, I really am this slow sometimes) that I suddenly realized WHY the movie had been played. Billy Crystal is a comedian. Comedians (the big ones at least) never just come out and take the stage - they always have an opening act. Why you ask? Simple, the opening act gets the crowd warmed up. It gets them used to laughing. This means that when the main act (the comedian) comes out, he/she doesn’t have to work as hard to get laughs - we’re already primed for them. Even if the opening act bombs, the main comedian will appear great in comparison and we’ll still laugh much easier. Billy didn’t have an opening act for the private show that he was putting on so Billy’s intro movie got every laughing before he came out. It worked like a charm.

What we can all learn from this is that WE need an opening act before we start a speech. Even if other speakers have gone before us, we need our own personal opening act. Good news, you don’t have to go out and hire a comedian. All you have to do is write your own introduction and make sure that someone reads it just before you start your speech. If you’ve got a great intro, then the audience will be primed to hear what you are going to say. They’ll view you as an expert and they will hang on your every word.

What Should Be In My Introduction? Your introduction serves two distinct and separate purposes: to establish your authority and to inform your audience why you are there. I’d suggest that you start by establishing your authority to be speaking on this topic. This can be fairly boring stuff so boil it down to what will impress this audience the most: study that you’ve done, work experience, years in this field, etc. Next you want to explain why you are here today giving this speech. Just saying: my manager asked me to report on this topic is not good enough. Ideally you’ll explain that you are uniquely suited to discuss the issue, or that you have a deep motivation to resolve the problem. This serves as a great springboard into your actual speech.

How Long Should My Introduction Be? The shorter the better. When written out your introduction should be no longer than 1/2 of a typewritten page. Remember: from the audience’s point-of-view your introduction is just answering the question “who is this person” - once they’ve got the info that they need, they’ll stop listening.

Who Should Read My Introduction? This is the most important part. You’re introduction needs to be read to the audience (off of the paper that you handed to him/her) by someone that the audience respects and accepts as one of their own. This will act as a bridge to your speech and will give you instant acceptance by the audience.

As simple as these steps to creating a powerful introduction may seem, there are still a number of potholes that can still screw things up. The #1 issue that I see come up time after time is that the person reading the introduction doesn’t take the time to read it before the event, tries to wing it, and ends up flubbing it. Proper coordination with your introducer can minimize the chances of this happening.

What does your introduction look like? Has it worked for you in the past - do you feel that the audience is ready for you to start speaking when you finally open your mouth? Have you ever seen an introduction done badly? What went wrong? How did this impact the speaker’s speech? Leave a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

Technorati Tags: audience, Billy Crystal, introduction, presentation skills, public speaking, speaker

What Works Well For Webconferencing?

So is delivering a presentation over the web easier or harder than delivering it to a live audience? Just to make sure that we’re all on the same page, let’s agree on what webconferencing is (hint: it’s not sending your PowerPoint presentation to someone via email). For our purposes, we can define webconferencing as a way to give a presentation, hold an important meeting, or even train employees without requiring the people participating to have to travel. Thanks to phone bridges, PowerPoint decks, and high-speed Internet connections this is now a viable way to deliver presentations.

The technology is pretty slick - you can quickly come up to speed on how to technically DO a webconference. The real trick is to find out how to do a GOOD JOB of presenting using this new technology. Dave Zielinski recently had a chance to talk with Laura Vizzusi and David Goad who work for Cisco’s WebEx division. WebEx rules this space on the web so these guys really know what they are talking about. Here are their top four suggestions for webconferencing public speaker wanna be’s:

1. Prep, Prep, Prep: Just because the medium has changed, does not mean that the rules have changed. Even through you don’t have to travel to give the presentation and since, possibly, the audience won’t be able to actually see you, some people will be tempted to slack off. DON’T DO IT! You can still put your audience to sleep if you don’t deliver a polished presentation.
2. It’s All In The Voice: How you sound is even more important in a webconference than it is when you are presenting in person. Whatever you do - don’t use a speakerphone! You will sound far away and your voice will fade in and out as you move your head. DO use a headset mic if you can. In fact, stand up and present if at all possible - this will allow you to project your voice better and will allow you to use the full range of your voice.
3. That’s Why They Call Them Visual Aids: Since your audience won’t be able to look at you, they will be spending more time looking at your slides. Make sure they are worth looking at! You are also going to have to keep your slides moving right along in order to keep your audience’s attention. Slide transitions and the liberal use of photographs are always good ideas.
4. Welcome To The 21st Century: Most webconferencing tools come with a variety of bells and whistles that allow you to interact with your audience during your presentation. Used poorly, you’ll tick everyone off. Used correctly, this is a great way to dynamically engage everyone in what you are saying. Tools like interactive polls and on-screen annotations can capture and hold everyone’s attention.

Don’t forget one of the biggest benefits of webconferencing is that it is very easy to record your presentation. This is a great way to give a presentation once and then use it over and over again…

How have the webconferences that you’ve given gone so far? Do you find that they are harder or easier than presentations given in person? Do you use the fancy new technical features that come as a part of webconference tools? Do you feel that you do a better or worse job of keeping your audience’s attention? Leave some comments and let me know what you are thinking.

Technorati Tags: audience, PowerPoint, presentation skills, presentations, public speaking, speaker, voice, webconferencing, WebEx

A Podcast Is A Great Way To Record And Distribute Your Speech

So speaking in front of a real, live audience is a great way to communicate. However, we don’t always get to control the world that we live in and so sometimes it’s just not possible to have you (the speaker) in the same place as all of the people who need to hear your message (your audience). What’s a speaker to do? Back in the olden days, this would be the time that you’d whip out the cassette recorder, make a master tape, and then through the magic of high-speed dubbing you’d crank out as many copies as you needed and off they’d go in the mail. Thank goodness those days are behind us now.

Here in the 21st Century we’ve now gone all digital. When we want to record our voices to share with others, we no longer reach for the cassette, now we reach for our laptops and iPods to create podcasts. As easy as it is these days to capture and publish our spoken words, lately I’ve been running into a lot of really poorly done podcasts and it’s got me scratching my head. I mean, aren’t these people listening to what they are creating and, just like me, doesn’t it make them shudder?

To make sure that you don’t get off the beaten path, here are some tips that will help you create a great communication tool your first time at bat:

• How Do I Record My Voice In The First Place? You’re going to need two things in order to capture your voice on your laptop: a microphone and some software. You can get wacky about microphones if you  are a real audiophile; however, just about any one will do. It turns out that the sound card built into your laptop actually does most of the work, so the physical microphone just has to be good enough - if you already have one, then use it. If you need a recommendation, the Labtec Verse 524 is a good one to go with and you can’t beat the price: ~$10.
• What Software Should I Use?: Once you have your speech recorded, you are going to want to do at least a bit of editing on it - chop off the false starts at the beginning or trim off the run on bit at the end. Once again, I’m a big advocate for doing this on the cheap and so I’d recommend downloading and using the very popular free (as in beer), open source software that everyone else seems to be using called Audiocity.
• How Long Should My Recording Be?: Ok, so this is where you can get yourself into some serious trouble. The longer you speak, the more damage you can do. You have no way of actually “seeing” the audience who will be listening to your podcast, so you need to be as brief as possible and keep to your main points. You want to speak long enough so that your listeners get value from what you are saying; however, you don’t want to speak so long that they start to look at their watches wondering if you are ever going to wrap this thing up. Remember, they are not sitting in an audience so if you lose them, they’ll just click you off. As a general rule of thumb, I’d say that you don’t want to talk for longer than 15 minutes on a single podcast.
• What Should I Not Do?: This is an easy question to answer - get rid of any “umms” and “ahs” that show up when you are speaking. Since there is no live audience, there is a good chance that if you aren’t careful you’ll start to fill in the blank spots in your speech with these filler sounds and especially on a podcast, they are quite distracting and really take away from your message.
• How Should I Change My Speaking Voice?: Stop - don’t! Sometimes your microphone, your laptop, or even Audiocity software will let you change how your recorded voice sounds. I’ve had women friends who have fooled with these settings so much that their recordings made them sound like James Earl Jones was speaking their parts. You are better off speaking using your normal voice. It can be quite a shock when you hear your recorded voice the first time; however, spend some time with it and become comfortable with it - everyone else is!

Have you had a chance to create a podcast yet? Why did you have to do it? Did you have any technical challenges making the actual digital recording? Were you happy with the final outcome? What did you think about how your recorded voice sounded? Leave a comment and let me know what you are thinking.

Technorati Tags: Audiocity, ipod, podcast, presentation skills, presentations, public speaking, recording, soft skills, speaker, tone, voice