There’s nothing more boring than a one-way lecture which makes an audience feel like they’re being talked at.
Unfortunately, too many business leaders deliver presentations which are more like one-sided lectures. They believe their job is to speak for 30 minutes while others listen.
These kinds of presentations, which don’t consider the needs of the audience, are tedious and unsuccessful.
How do we do things differently? In this article I’ll explore how to bring the audience into your presentations and make them feel involved.
Data and numbers can be important to a business presentation一but they can be bone dry unless you bring them to life in interesting ways.
I often see business leaders struggle to communicate data effectively. When I ask them if they think they’re doing it well they usually say yes. But that’s rarely the case.
Too many presenters assume that their data is intrinsically meaningful.
“Here’s the data: take it, use it, understand it, remember it.
Do others dismiss your ideas and proposals?
Do you struggle with creating and delivering simple, engaging, and persuasive presentations?
Have you heard about ‘storytelling’ but you’re not sure how to do it?
If so, this is the event you’ve been waiting for!
On 6th December 2022 I’m hosting a free, live web class in collaboration with the one and only Carmine Gallo, the bestselling author of Talk Like TED. You’ll learn strategies based on his new book, The Bezos Blueprint.
One of the hardest lessons to learn in communication is the art of keeping things simple.
The more we know about something, the easier it is to fall into the trap of making our ideas too complex and too technical.
It’s something I see business leaders doing all the time before they learn to improve their presentations. They wrongly assume that the audience will understand something just because they do.
If there’s a common purpose to most business presentations it’s to persuade the audience to act upon your ideas in some way. The best way to persuade the audience to do what you want them to do is with a clear call to action.
If the call to action isn’t clear enough, the audience will fail to act. Your presentation will have been in vain.
For example, imagine you were giving a webinar or an introductory workshop on your area of expertise.
Of the three million articles written about public speaking, isn’t it refreshing to read something useful in under three minutes? I think so, or at least that is what I would appreciate. So here are my three minutes’ worth for you.
It’s high time to get live presentations kicking again. But can we go back to them seamlessly like before? It can be a little daunting after such a long spell presenting virtually.
The first words of a presentation are the most important. Your opening needs to grab the audience’s attention and hold it.
The philosopher Plato said: “The beginning is the most important part of the work.”
Sadly, most business leaders don’t think carefully enough about the way they open their presentations. Instead, they focus on the main body of their presentation and leave the opening to chance.
Or they make the common mistake of opening with a boring agenda slide or by introducing themselves.
How a famous Bruce Lee quote can help presenters conquer fear by surrendering the outcome.
So this got your attention! Drawing on a 70s Kung Fu star to get some presentation tips! For those who don’t know Bruce Lee, he was an icon of the 1970s whose movies including Enter the Dragon and Fist of Fury have inspired generations. He was both impressive and also rather eccentric. Crafting his own philosophy during his relatively short life, he was quoted saying some interesting things.
