Power Presenting
So I was having dinner at a little Italian café in in Boras, Sweden with Orjan and Hilde Saele, when the topic of speaking came up. Orjan was suggesting I conduct a high-level training on platform and presenting skills just for Network Marketers.
It’s a pretty intriguing idea…
Because as we discussed in the last post, speaking skills become a necessity at the higher levels of leadership in our business.
So let me share some helpful tips that can make you a better presenter? Let’s look at some…
Beware of PowerPoint. More people have died as the result of PowerPoint-induced comas than all other diseases combined. The mark of an amateur presenter is they use their slides as a signpost for what to talk about. Because they haven’t taken the time to learn the flow of their talk, they simply click through slides reading them as they go along.
Your audience can read them in ten percent of the time it takes you to speak them. So they end up tuning out from you, and mentally going someplace else.
Text is not a visual aid. Your slides should anchor a key point you are making at the time. They should not be a transcription of what you are speaking. So they should be feature pictures, charts, or other graphic images that drive home the point you are speaking. It they do have text, you’re not allowed more than three words on a slide.
Don’t memorize your talks. When you find out you can’t read slides, you may think this means I’m recommending you memorize your talk. Not at all.
The greatest gift you can give your audiences is to listen to them. And most times they can’t ask questions. So you must listen to them through their eyes and body language. When you see they’re not really getting it, you can slow down, repeat key points, or add another story to anchor the message. (This is even more critical when you’re working through interpreters.)
Don’t present through facts, figures and other statistics. At least not if you want people to engage and take action. Present through stories. And remember that EMOTION is what causes people to act. Sometimes statistics, data, and scientific evidence is important. But ask yourself how that plays out in the lives of your prospects and find where the emotion is.
Tell a story, make a point. Stories engage the audience and paint pictures in their mind. They remember the story, so they remember the point.
Make it about them. Your spellbinding story of how you climbed that mountain, handled those 44 rejections, or overcame some other challenge is only helpful if you relate the lesson of how it applies to the people in the audience. Otherwise you’re just beating your chest.
Got some other presentation tips? Please share them below.
-RG
Good points Randy, in addition you must must show good respect to them and they should feel it
I treat speaking on the stage like and actor treats a script. I memorize, and I rehearse just like I was doing a movie. I try to create an emotional image of a person I like in film. In my case it’s Captain Kirk, and all the emotion he brought to his part. by rehearsing, you can get to the point where it all looks natural when you’re up there, and if you need to ad lib, it’s not a problem because everything is in your head, and you don’t have to worry about getting back to your place. when your script is memorized, you can work on other things in your presentation, like your voice, inflections, emotions, tempo.
the greatest compliment you can get, when you do it right, is people calling to say they could’nt sleep the night they saw your presentation. That’s what I strive for
The secret to a live speaking engagement is asking questions.
Don’t let 15 minutes pass without a “How many of you…?” or a “Who’d you know…?” People wake up when you ask a question. I agree with Randy, PowerPoints can be a killer and you’ll see heads and shoulders going down, and down. You can use them, but always ask a question. Even better, if someone asks a question to you, have another person in the audience answer. “Who knows the answer to that?”
The art of speaking is the art of listening, the art of having your audience share. Have fun with it and they’ll have fun with you.
Couldn`t agree more Randy! And a good way to start a story is by leading in with something like “Many of you can probably relate to what I am going to tell you now….”This makes the audience sit up and listen because it is going to be about Them! And that is what people want to hear. What is interesting and useful for them!
Before I present, I remind myself that I am here to help make the lives of the people in attendance better; I am here to help them. This thought always helps me to say the right things, even when my teleprompter stalls ; )
Randy,
I hear it all the time to tell a story. I don’t think I have a story. Can you provide an example of a story?
I know this may sound like an elementary question but I go blank when I hear “tell your story”.
Why you joined for instance: to spend more time with your kids, want to work with your spouse. Example of how you are exploited at a job. Anything real life about you – that also has a connection to the prospect.
-RG
Hi Randy,
Before I run, I must be able to walk first so am going out there to the marketace to share the goodness of our product. (yes, I personally have a product experience) am borrowing your phrase.
Actually, I am excited about visiting them regardless of the fact whether they accept me or not as I am there to add value to their lives and meet their needs. I realize there are good products out there but ours is great!
One gold director told me that he started off on a strictly business platform/strategy but it worked for a while and now he is slanting towards product efficacy. It is frightening that they are building more and more hospitals in this city now that the population has grown to over 5 million.
Besides, we have become quite a litigious society so our MLM business is an excellent supplement, alternative or hedge.
Last evening one of our pastors taught on emotionalwell-being based on a book entitled ‘Healthy, emotional Spirituality’ . He said we cannot have spiritual wellness if our emotional being is not healed – why? because we find it so hard to love. (I hope I am not misquoting)
Randy, I really appreciate your important platform presentation points and am quite sure I will come to that stage one fo these days. Am eternally grateful.
Bless you kind heart…….
When you walk the talk its easy to speak frfom your heart not your head then your audience knows what you have to say is real. So pleased to read your comments re Power point, As always thanks for all you do
Many thanks for your post, Randy!!! Your posts always perfectly fit my urgent needs. I am quite familiar with presentations on stage, cause I am a teacher by profession. But now it’s the time for my partners to present. So, your advice is very well-timed. I can only add that a presentation should be done in a dynamic manner, in a loud and quite vivid voice in order not to make the audience asleep.
Hey Randy,
Presentation are given for to suppot and give more illustration to the subject and issue of rhe lecture, speech.Presentation are not the all essence.
The importent point is how the lecturer ,teacher communicate with the listeners
and delivers his message by the presentaion.
Tks , Randy
Valueable tips straight to the point
As always
Randy thanks as always. That was a GREAT and radical tip on power point presentations. I am going to use it. Regards