Leadership and Sales BLOG

I joined the Colorado Society of Association Executives for breakfast recently and shared my "Top 15" Presentation Tips of All Time! Okay, that's a bit of hyperbole. I've forgotten far more than I remember about presenting in front of audiences over my 30+ years in broadcasting and sales.  Here are "Top Tips" numbered six through fifteen.

6.     Information overload extinguishes creative thought. Clear away debris for your audience and empower them to take ownership of idea generation.
7.     Stuff happens. If the projector doesn’t work, you misplace your speaker’s notes, or the felt marker goes dry, don’t apologize. Soldier on. Better yet, have a backup plan.
8.     Allow your body to help tell your story.  If you move your hands when you speak, continue to do so in front of your audience.  Give the movements purpose.
9.     While you’re presenting, put your negative self-talk on hold.  Avoid making assumptions about your entire audience based on the one person who appears to not be paying attention.
10.  Don’t read from a slide, choose a word or sentence from the slide to reinforce with an example or analogy.
11.  Communicate the key points of your message repeatedly.  Tell stories to illustrate those points.
12. Accentuate the positive as you coach yourself.  Resist the temptation to focus on what you’re doing wrong, and redirect your energies to recognize and reward what you’re doing right. 
13. Reinforce your message repeatedly, but not redundantly. 
14. Create your success by stepping out of your comfort zone. When you do that consistently, you wake up one morning to realize that your comfort zone is a heck of a lot bigger than it used to be. 
15. Give your audience a reason to take action, and a purpose to fulfill.

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