So you’re making a presentation for work, for family, or for fun. Whatever the reason you’re making a presentation, you’re probably asking yourself “how can I present my points so that way they are concise and clear” well I have some tips that will help you achieve just that.
For starters the audience doesn’t care if you mess up. If you pronounce a word wrong, read the sentence wrong, they really don’t care. And I don’t mean that in a harsh or bad way. I mean that in a way that hopefully will help you realize to not put so much pressure on yourself when it comes to the presentation. A lot of people understand that we’re all human. Humans make mistakes like that sometimes.
When you’re composing your presentation and your speech that you’re giving with the presentation, you really wanna focus on how your speech and your presentation is going to help the audience.
What is in it for them?
Who is your audience? What do they do? What do they need? Cut to the chase be clear and concise?
You’re gonna wanna keep your messages very simple and to the point. Speaking of points you’re gonna wanna keep the presentation to three strong talking points. Make them memorable. You want to make sure your audience remembers those three main points.
When you are presenting make sure you’re in the right mindset. Be pumped up, be happy, be ecstatic. Take a minute and give yourself a pep talk. Do something that really fills your cup and allows you to speak from your heart passionately about the topic.
You’re definitely gonna want to plan ahead of time. Plan the presentation ahead of time, plan your day ahead of time. Even plan your planner ahead of time for that entire week so that way you’re making sure to incorporate things that fill your cup.
Whether it’s going to yoga on Monday morning before your presentation that’s on Wednesday. Or making sure that you don’t schedule any other super important things that week to help keep your stress down. You’re gonna wanna plan plan plan.
Another reason to fill that cup of yours is so that way you can be articulate engaging and charming when communicating with your audience
It’s very important to check all of the equipment that you’re gonna be using ahead of time. If possible I would check it the day before and the morning of because it never hurts to be 100% sure. If you check it the day before and something’s not working it gives you about a day or so to troubleshoot the problem and find a solution. It allows time to figure out what needs to be replaced or what you can do to supplement what’s not working.
Have an emergency exit plan or a concluding point. Make sure that you’re putting your conclusion on the very last slide before thanking everyone. When you’re doing your concluding point make sure to reiterate all three strong points that you’ve mentioned throughout your presentation.
Try to use stories. Stories are powerful. Stories give you the ability to combine data and information with emotion. People buy into emotion and it helps you build connection with your audience.
If you have a slide that you’re intending on having your audience read then pause for a moment. Give them that chance to realize that you want something to be read. Also give them ample amount of time to read the slide without rushing them through it.
Think of how quickly you would be able to read the slide. Because you’ve written it you already know what it says and you can read it a lot faster than your audience that’s reading it for the first time. So give them that extra time!
Stop. Scan your audience. What vibe are you getting from them? Looking at them can also help with overcoming your own fear of presenting.
As humans we read left to right so when you’re presenting it’s ideal to stand on the left with your left shoulder closer to the screen. That will help you as a presenter and that will help them as the audience.
Try to keep your PowerPoint to a minimum. Use the PowerPoint only when needed. Use it to reinforce messages with enticing and captivating photos and graphs for data.
Limit your font size to 40 and when you’re given 30 minutes for a presentation only take up 20 minutes. This allows for about 10 minutes of questions.
After taking the questions from the audience that is when you would give a final statement or the take away. Present that last slide with your conclusion and then thank the audience.
Those are some of the helpful tips I leaned while I was in college and I have applied it to my presentations and they’re very helpful. I’m sure there are many more tips that can be helpful. If you have any that you would like to share please feel free to share them in the comments section!
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If you have questions about how you can live a healthier life then head on over to my other post to see what Norwex and Arbonne are all about.