Episode #126: Presentation Visuals Mastery Part Seven

We continue with part seven concluding session of Presentation Visuals Mastery.

Last week we talked about when presenting, you need to transfer your energy to the audience. However don’t have your energy levels at the maximum volume all the time. That just wears an audience out and wears you out too. Instead, you need to have some variation. Very strong and then sometimes very soft. And I mean drop it right down. Remember to have that in the voice range. Sometimes say your point in an audible whisper.

I remember when I gave a presentation in Kobe. It was at a university summer school for students who had graduated and were going back to their home countries. I was giving this uplifting talk about how they could use the experience they had in Japan back in their home country. It was powerful, a very powerful presentation. It was an urging my comrades to “man the barricades” type of speech. The speaker after me was a Korean professor. Maybe because of the way I presented, I don’t know, but he spoke very quietly. He spoke in a very soft voice throughout the whole presentation. It really forced you to lean in and listen to him, because you had to work a little bit harder to listen to him. So he got peoples’ attention by having a softer voice. At the time, I thought, “wow look at that”. That was very effective and I realized, ah, just operating at one power level all the time is not going to work. I need to have variety in my voice, so I should have times when I am very powerful and other times when I am very soft. So just watch yourself that you are not getting into too much soft or too much strong mode. Variety is the key.

I said before gestures are very important. Be careful about getting your hands tied up with things. If you are saying one thing is important, hold up one finger. If it is the second thing, hold up two fingers. This is important. When you hold up your fingers like that, hold them up around head height. Don’t hold gestures around waist height. It is too low and people struggle to see it. Get your gestures up high in a band from chest height up to around head height. That zone is the key height you want for showing gestures.

When you want to show a big point, open your hands right out. Don’t be afraid of big gestures. Use gestures that are congruent. Be careful about waving your fist at your audience though. It looks aggressive. It looks unfriendly and combative. Use the open hand rather than a closed fist. And don’t hit your hands together, slap them together or slap them on your thigh. That activity creating noise becomes distracting. Just use the gestures by themselves. As I said before, 15 seconds is probably at the maximum you want. You can walk around on the stage, but be careful about walking around too much, especially pacing up and down. That makes you look nervous and either lacking in confidence about your message or lacking control over what you are doing. Try and hold the main center point of the stage and move because you have got a good reason to move.

Using the names of people in your audience is a great thing to do. If you get there early, meet some of your audience. Have a conversation with someone. It is a nice connector with the audience to refer to that person and say, “I was just chatting with Jim Jones over there before and he made a very interesting point about current consumer trends. In fact, Mary Smith made an addition to that point, when she said “blah, blah, blah…” Suddenly you have both people very much proud of being recognized and involved in your talk. They have been recognized by the speaker and they like it. The audience now feels that you have a stronger connection with those listening. Refer to people by name. It is very, very effective. Don’t leave it to chance, try and look for those opportunities to engage with your audience.

Let’s concentrate on the basics. What is the point of your presentation? Who is your audience? What is the point? Be conversational and customize the delivery to your listeners. Have exhibits or have demonstrations or whatever that are custom-made to match that audience or match the point that you are making. Don’t just bring out a set off the shelf points you recycle for every presentation.

You might have an existing basis for a presentation, but think about who are you talking to? What is the key point and then take it and re-work it, re-package it up, customize it. I have given 530 presentations in the last 20 years here in Japan. I have never given the same presentation twice, ever. Even with the slides, I will always have some small variation. Certainly the way I present it will be different every time. This keeps it fresh for me, as a speaker. And it also keeps it fresh for an audience.

If I feel stimulated and interested in what I am talking about, then the chances are that is how the audience will feel about it too. They will feel stimulated and interested as well. Be wary of receiving the presentation pack. You often see the CEO had some munchkins out the back preparing the presentation for him or her. Often, it will be the first time that they have even seen the presentation. Sadly, it is obvious that it is the first time they have seen the presentation. They don’t know what’s coming next and they struggle through it. This is really killing the brand. It is killing the brand and the organization. It is killing the presenter’s personal brand. You don’t want that. Get it, customize it, make it yours, then present it.

So there we have some ideas on how to present your visuals when you are giving your presentations which are based on our training called High Impact Presentations, where we teach people over two days how to become a high impact presenter and how to learn a number of different structures. It’s really the Rolls-Royce of the presentation skills. This is where Dale Carnegie started in 1912, teaching people how to be persuasive. If ever you have a chance, after listening to this, to do that particular course if you haven’t done it before, grab that opportunity because it is a powerhouse course. It’s a game changer of a training course. I have taken it myself and I strongly recommend it.

So best of luck and remember, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Do not be consumed by the construction of the materials. They are secondary to you. But when you do construct your materials use these ideas, these hints and you will give a much, much better presentation.