How Not to Present

Don’t discount your own presentation

The presenter started off with – “I’m not sure if anybody here cares about this but …”

Why set yourself up for failure? If you’re going to tell us anyway, don’t clue us in to the fact that the next thing you are going to say is worthless. Better yet – take that part out of the presentation all together. If you think it might be questionable, we’re not going to like it any better!

Inexperienced and nervous presenters do these sorts of things, but you don’t have to!

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Success starts well before the event

The first rule of presenting (or acting) is to work with the firm conviction that everything that happens is something that you planned to happen. If you react badly to your subject matter, your audience will note it and react accordingly. So – if you know something doesn’t work well ahead of time, don’t inflict that pain onto the audience. (And if you feel you must, don’t tell them ahead of time that it will be painful!)

When giving a presentation, whether it’s at a Cub Scout ceremony with the scouts and their families or a budget proposal to the vice president, I like to visualize the experience ahead of time. That is, I see myself doing all of the things I want to do in my mind. Then, when it comes time for the live event, I’ve done it already, and it isn’t a completely “new” thing.

Another help is trying to have as relaxed an attitude as possible. Yes it is stressful, but being uptight gets in the way of expressing yourself and flowing with the moment. Practicing and visualizing help me relax because in my mind I’ve already been in that situation.

Now just because these work for me is no guarantee that they’ll work for you, but use them as a starting point to develop what does work for you.

There are lots of resources available

The internet is filled with many resources that can help with your presentation. But good or bad, you have to use them for them to work!-) I’m going to point you to four I like that have enough material to get you started on your journey to being a better presenter:

1. Any help about speaking ought to lead off with Toastmasters. Public speaking is what they are all about. If you want to take ‘the class’ on public speaking, learning by example and practicing, join a local group.http://www.toastmasters.org/tips.asp
2. For those in the “profession”, the NSA is just right – no, not that NSA, the National Speakers Association:-)http://www.nsaspeaker.org
3. A site with a great wealth of articles and links is the Advanced Public Speaking Institute.http://www.public-speaking.org/public-speaking-articles.htm
4. Lastly, I’ve found and followed Guy Kawasaki for a little while and his insights are pretty good too:http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/how_to_get_a_st.html

Summing it up

Take some time to get yourself ready to speak, use the resources you have available, and enjoy yourself. Yes, you want to have the confidence that says that everything that happened was part of what you planned to do, but you have to back that up by being prepared!

And remember – if you tell the audience that what they’re about to experience may not be so good, they’ll believe you…