Public speakers like to tell stories as part of their presentation. Why?
People love to hear stories. A well told story will capture listeners’ attention.
Tell a story. Make a point. Stories Sell…
Patricia Fripp is an award-winning speaker.
Check out her below video about “Stories Sell”.
Here is the transcript the the speech: “No speech is going to be memorable unless it’s full of really fascinating stories. Listen to the secret formulas behind them.
I want you to upgrade the caliber of your stories. When you are talking to people, practice telling the stories. The secret is they need to have what I call the Hollywood model: character dialogue and dramatic lesson learned which is of course doing business with you is the best way to plan your vacations.
But whenever you are telling a story to a prospect, make sure it is populated with flesh and blood characters. Just like the people you were talking to. Because what I’ve been doing today I’ve been telling stories. They have a point that they tell a story. People don’t remember what you say. People remember the story and the picture that is created in their minds while they listen to you.
Robert McKee the screenwriter said stories of the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful clearer more meaningful experience. And given the choice of a trivial story well told or a brilliant story badly told, an audience of one or 1,000 would rather hear a trivial story well told. Stories are the currency of human contact. Encourage your happy satisfied clients not only tell you the story that you can repeat but to tell all their friends. This is the point. People will resist a sales presentation, but nobody can resist a good story well told.”
The toastmasters program has an advanced manual called “Story Telling”.
“The manual enables you to develop a new set of speaking skills. It allows you to have fun as you learn the art of storytelling. Join a toastmasters club!
Join Toastmasters and find a club that you like to practise your speeches in a friendly environments. You are welcome to visit our Kampong Ubi Toastmasters Club if you are living in Singapore.
Youtube Video: Public Speaking Tips on How to Start Your Presentation
“If you’re like most people, getting started is probably the hardest part. It’s kind of like writers block. You can sit for hours—nothing comes to you, but when it does, it just pours out. So, how do we get started?”
The following video provides some helpful tips on how to start your presentation by Karen Friedman.
Think about the following questions… 1. What is the purpose of your talk? 2. What do your listeners care about? 3. What do you want people to remember?
If you want to overcome stage fright and learn to speak with confidence, join a toastmasters club.
“Most presenters are very knowledgeable in their field of expertise and can converse well within the framework of the company or industry.
However, they may be reluctant to and/or are uncomfortable with giving presentations in front of an audience. Others may be comfortable in giving presentations, but they want to refine and improve their presentation skills so they can be more effective and/or persuasive.
The following article “Effective Presentations For Technical Professionals” written by Frank S. Adamo is for technical (and non technical) professionals who would like to understand how to become effective presenters.”
Enjoy!
Practice is the key to helping you improve on your communication and presentation skills. Join Toastmasters and find a club that you like to practise your speeches in a friendly environments. You are welcome to visit our Kampong Ubi Toastmasters Club if you are living in Singapore.
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Effective Presentations For Technical Professionals By Frank S. Adamo
Though visual aids have changed tremendously since the late ’60s when I gave my first presentation, the presentation style, in my opinion, has not significantly changed – especially for professional techies. As a chemist and as a business/computer consultant for many years, I have given and have seen many technical presentations at conferences, at work, and elsewhere. The presentations were generally quite informative, technically enriching, and the presenters were very knowledgeable on the subject matter. However, many of them (and I include my own), were rather unexciting and ineffective. I have also seen many exciting, motivational, and inspirational presentations for the general public and also for the technical audience. You don’t need to be a professional speaker to spice up your presentation but by both knowing and understanding some of the same principles professional speakers use, you can enhance your presentations.
WRITING YOUR SPEECH
If you are doing a presentation, most likely you’ve written a report or submitted an article for publication. Perhaps you have used the text for your speech and created PowerPoint slides to help outline the structure. However, I would suggest you write your speech from scratch with emphasis on simplicity and conciseness. Continue reading →
Here are some tips to do an effective business presentation as stated in the article “The Art of Making Business Presentation written by Rupal Jain:
1. Decide your Goal and Topic of Presentation
2. Analyze the Audiences
3. Decide the Form of Presentation
4. Identify the Audio-Visual Aid required
5. Know the Venue and the Equipment
6. Rehearse the Presentation
7. Avoid Information Overloading
8. Effective Body Language
9. Preparation of Handouts and Assessment Form
10. Be a Good Active Listener
Check out the full article as below.
Join Toastmasters and find a club that you like to practise your speeches in a friendly environments. You are welcome to visit our Kampong Ubi Toastmasters Club if you are living in Singapore.
——- The Art Of Making Business Presentation
By Rupal Jain
As rightly stated by M.K. Sehgal and Vandana Khetarpal in Business Communication, “While it is one of the easiest things in the world for some people to stand in front of a group of people and to talk, there are many who look scared and ready to rush for a cover at the sight of an audience. The difference in the categories may arise, not from the difference in their knowledge content but from the difference in their Attitude. Even an experienced speaker in the beginning of his speaking career, might have faced the problem of “nervousness”, “butterflies in the stomach”, “increased heartbeats”, “shaking legs”, “shaking voice” and “forgetfulness” which are most obvious signs of nervousness which badly affects the Business Presentation. A Presentation is delivery to a small knowledgeable audience with a concrete, clear and preciously defined purpose.
Here are some guidelines to do a successful Presentation:-Continue reading →
This video produced by Mohawk College describes some quick pointers on how to give good presentations.
Here is the transcript of the video.
I’m Dennis Angle I’m a professor of Mohawk College and this presentation is about presentations. Presentations, we have students to do it all the time. Presentations are in business, in school and in everyday life.
Two reasons we want to do a presentation. We want to inform somebody, and we want to convince somebody to do something. Practice, practice your presentation. Practice, practice, practice and practice again. It shows when you practice your presentation and it really shows when you don’t.
Practice in front of a mirror. Practice in front of your friends. Practice in front of your relatives. Practice in front of a big empty room or practice in front of a camera. You will become smooth.
PowerPoint Use PowerPoints as a guide and a menu. Just put your main points on the PowerPoint. Put them there so people can remember. Put them there so you can remember what your main points are. Don’t put stuff that anyone can read and don’t read your PowerPoint slide. Everybody can read it they don’t need you to talk about it. Just put the main points on your PowerPoint.
Technology Technology is okay. But your presentation should be about the presentation and is not about the technology. Make sure you practice. Make sure you know what you’re doing. Make sure the technology you’re using is the same that you’re actually going to encounter in your presentation. Try and practice on the actual equipment.
Nervousness Everybody gets nervous. Some people say try to picture everybody in their underwear. I tried that once. Tattoos, scars, birthmarks… It wasn’t pretty. I was still nervous.
My advice Practice, practice and more practice and that will take away the nervousness. Know what you’re going to say. Know what you’re going to present. That should be all there is to it.
When you’re presenting, keep your sentences short and keep your sentences concise. People will remember your message. Don’t ramble. Don’t have really long sentences. Don’t put in a lot of ohms and ahhs. Take your time. Short sentences it’ll work. Your presentation needs an ending. Make sure you have an ending. The audience needs to know when to stand up and cheer and clap and applaud. If you’re going to have questions, save them till after your ending but make sure your presentation has an ending.
The following is an related article. Enjoy!
Powerpoint Presentations Are Great, But Are You Engaging Your Audience?
Getting an audience interested in your presentation is a challenge. No matter the technology used, whether it’s a PowerPoint, whiteboard, graphs, or other visual aids, it’s your delivery, preparation, or lack of it that will impinge on your performance.
The Buzz Is In The Telling
If you’ve been to a lot of seminars or webinars, you can count in your one hand the few which stood out. Ask yourself what you liked about those gigs. Probably these are the highlights:
1. Good presentation material. 2. Good reporting. 3. Great speakers. 4. Lively participants.
On hindsight, you’ll realize that what made the activity outstanding was your active participation in almost all activities. You asked a lot of questions and were satisfied with the answers, and you probably liked what you saw in almost all the PowerPoint presentations.
But it’s not actually the PowerPoint presentations that were interesting, it was what you understood. You learned something from the discussion, while PowerPoint only served as a visual aid. You were an active participant like the others. Nobody was ready to rush to the door. People wanted to know more and discuss more.
You got the point that the successful presentation was in the manner of showing the ideas and talking about them. The approach was able to draw out or engage the participants. Some of them remember the discussion and not the PowerPoint presentations at all.
Repetition and Anecdotes Count
You’ve observed that the speaker made the participants at ease. He didn’t have to crack lousy jokes. Simply asking how the people were feeling or if they were ready for the next round of discussion stirred people to action.
The speaker (already introduced) starts by telling the audience what he is going to discuss. During his discussion, he guides the audience by telling them that he is now ready to launch on the second or third or last part of his presentation. All the while, he invites people to ask questions.
He repeats what he has said as if driving the idea and embedding it into their minds. He does not only tell, but shows how things are done. To find out if people are on his wavelength, he asks questions, not only to test their comprehension, but to gauge the level of the audience interest as well. He is following the outlined course of his discussion, but makes sure that before launching the next step, his audience learned something.
He injected stories and parables to his repertoire, or provided analogies. These are subtle techniques used to repeat his theme and objective. At this extent, he has already grasped the group dynamics and responded accordingly.
Make Your Report Dynamic
It does not mean you don’t have to spruce up your PowerPoint presentations. Don’t make the mistake of cramming all the content in your slides. Your slide should serve as a clue to what you are going to elaborate. Remember the guy who read his slides without making eye contact with the audience? He was a bore.
Make an outline of your PowerPoint presentations while never losing sight of your objective. Guided by your plan and your thorough preparation (even a dry run to get an estimate of how long you’re going to present your ideas), you can be confident to engage your audience.
Practice Makes Natural.
Join Toastmasters and find a club that you like to practise your speeches in a friendly environments. You are welcome to visit our Kampong Ubi Toastmasters Club if you are living in Singapore.
Do you know how to use hand gestures in public speaking?
What do you do with your hands?
Have you ever watched someone’s hand gestures when they are talking? Open hand gestures tend to make a person appear open and honest. Bringing hands together to a point can accent the point you are making.
Wringing your hands or excessively moving your fingers and hands will give away nervousness.
Read the article written by Jena McGregor and Shelly Tan dated November 17, 2015 (The Washington Post). It is a good reference for what to do with your hands while speaking in public.
Use open palm gestures to build the audience’s trust.
Keep your hands in the strike zone when possible.
Don’t point. Just don’t.
Politicians love to use the “Clinton thumb.” Most people shouldn’t.
When you don’t know what to do, drop your hands to your sides for a moment.
Avoid drawing attention to the wrong places.
Conducting is for orchestras, not public speaking.
Keep objects out of you hands.
If behind a lectern, show your hands.
Avoid “spider hands.”
The following youtube videos demonstrate how to use your hands – and how not to – while giving a presentation. I find these videos useful and would like to share with you.
Communication does not just consist of words. Less than 10% of the words we use in speaking gets through to others. On the other hand, over 55% of our body language is communicated to others very clearly. Whether you are trying to sell your product or service to a client or you are trying to persuade a group of people to change their behavior, it is critical that your words and gestures match. Many people have sabotaged their messages because their words were saying one thing, while their bodies were saying the exact opposite.
Can you think of a time when someone told you that he would be able to do something while his head was shaking no? Which did you believe, the words or the gesture? When your body movements are congruent with your words, your message will have a very powerful impact on your audience.
Gestures include your posture, the movement of your eyes, hands, face, arms and head, as well as your entire body. They help to support or reinforce a particular thought or emotion. If our gestures support our statements, we are communicating with a second sense. People tend to understand and remember messages better when more than one sense is reached.
Winston Churchill was a master at using gestures to powerfully bring home his point. During World War II, Churchill rallied the citizens of Great Britain to continue their fight against overwhelming odds. He often visited the neighborhoods of London, which had been devastated by bombs and walked through them with his fingers held up in the sign of a “V”. This victory sign accompanied his famous message, “Never give in. Never, never, never give in.” This gesture so powerfully communicated Churchill’s message that soon people gained greater resolve to continue fighting whenever they saw the victory sign.
People naturally use gestures in conversations. They are not on the spot, so they easily move their arms and hands and make facial expressions to illustrate the points they are trying to make. However, an amazing thing happens when people stand up in front of a group to speak. They suddenly think, “Oh no! What am I going to do with these things attached to my shoulders?” and they either don’t move them at all or they move them awkwardly. Gestures should be a natural extension of who we are. Presenters should strive to be themselves. They should be as spontaneous with their movements as if they were talking to their family or friends.
What are you doing with your hands? If you get nervous in social situations, you may feel that no matter what you do with your hands, it’s the wrong thing. Many people who cross their arms in front of their chest are probably doing so at least in part because they don’t know where else to put their hands.
You should never cross your arms in front of your chest unless you really don’t want anybody to approach you. That is the message this gesture sends out. If you want to look open and approachable, keep your arms at your sides. Holding your arm in front of your body can be seen as a signal that you want to defend yourself against other people.
Practice Makes Natural.
A good way to be comfortable with gestures is to know your speech well. Several of the most outstanding speakers offer the same piece of advice: “The key to effectively using gestures is to know your material so well, to be so well prepared, that your gestures will flow naturally.” Practice your speech and know it well so that you can enjoy sharing your message with others.
Join Toastmasters and find a club that you like to practise your speeches in a friendly environments. You are welcome to visit our Kampong Ubi Toastmasters Club if you are living in Singapore.
“World Champion Speaker Reveals his #1 Key to Overcoming Fear Eliminating the Negative Self-Talk, and & Delivering a Clear Message…Even If This is Your Very First Speech.”
