[acb-hsp] 3 Ways to Wow Your Audience

[peter altschul]

3 Ways To Wow Your Audience With A Killer Live Presentation
  BY Amber Mac Sun Jun 26, 2011
  Some people are natural-born speakers.  They were those eager 
young souls who volunteered to read aloud in grade school and now 
welcome any opportunity to present in front of a group.  For the 
rest of us, public speaking is a real-life nightmare.  The very 
thought of standing up in front of a group, all eyes on you, is a 
terrifying endeavour.  At one time I fell into the latter of 
these two groups.  I was always social, but I avoided the 
on-stage spotlight for many years.  Sweaty palms.  Belly 
butterflies.  You name the anxiety sign, I had it.  Then, a few 
years ago, things started to change.
  I say started to change because it didn't happen instantly.  I 
was approached by an agency in 2007 to give a presentation about 
strategies for social media success.  My initial reaction was no, 
definitely no.  However, I recognized that it was a great 
opportunity to increase awareness about my new consulting 
business and, well, the pay wasn't too shabby.  Eventually, I 
said yes.  After signing a speaking contract, I counted down the 
days until I faced one of my biggest fears.  Four years later, 
with more than 120 keynote speeches under my belt to audiences 
ranging from 30 to 3,000 people, I truly love delivering a 
presentation.  Here are three things that helped me find my 
strength on stage.
  1.  Deck out your presentation deck with audio, video, and 
pictures During my early days keynoting events I did some social 
media consulting work with Tony Robbins.  As part of the project, 
I traveled to a few of his seminars and got a unique perspective 
watching his motivational magic on and off stage.  While Tony 
himself is a magnetic character, with hands the size of my head, 
I saw how he incorporated music and video to turn his 
presentation into a show.  He played energetic tunes, hilarious 
clips, showed touching photos, and each element was timed 
perfectly to keep the audience moving, laughing, and listening.
  Think about it like this.  Data slide, data slide, data slide, 
funny video.  Repeat.
  It sounds simple enough, but it's amazing how many presenters 
are great speakers but their slides are dry and boring.  I 
learned a lot from Tony, so I now sprinkle YouTube clips and 
powerful images throughout every speech I dinin (ininI use 
Keynote presentation software on a Mac and rely on Snapz Pro X to 
record video online).
  2.  Make timely tweaks to keep things fresh Whether you're 
presenting to a small group or large audience, there is often 
someone in charge who wants to check out your slides before you 
deliver your speech.  While I'm fine sharing my deck, I warn this 
person that my slides are a work in progress.  I am constantly 
tweaking information before I go on stage.
  There is nothing an audience appreciates more than hearing you 
say that you just found a new stat that very morning or you 
grabbed a relevant screenshot the night before.  For example, I 
just spoke at a mobile learning conference, and I included a 
Twitter quote I saw from an attendee just hours before my speech 
started.  I don't recommend that you change every slide at the 
last minute, but sprinkle in a few final tweaks to keep your deck 
fresh and your audience engaged.
  3.  Tell a few good stories to make your slides human I watch 
my audiences closely and I can always tell when they're 
interested.  Their heads are up, their eyes are ahead, and 
they're waiting anxiously for more.  These moments always happen 
when I tell stories.  I didn't learn this right away, but after a 
couple of years on the speaking circuit I started to notice the 
exact times when I had the most people engaged.  My stories 
aren't long-winded, but simple little anecdotes to make the 
content more compelling.
  For example, when I talk about how the tablet is changing the 
way we live, work, and play, I talk about the day my 2-year-old 
son walked up to our television set and tried to push on the 
screen to "make it do something." Clearly he was spending too 
much time on the iPad, so he assumed all screens were touch 
screens.  This quick story always resonates with the new parents 
in the room.
  Aside from building a killer deck, a good pre-speech routine 
can help to fight your nerves.  Get some exercise.  Eat some 
healthy food.  Avoid caffeine at all costs.  Once you get a few 
presentations under your belt, you never know, you just might 
like it too.
  Copyright B) 2011 Mansueto Ventures LLC.  All rights reserved.