It's Just Standing Up and Talking....

There are people that can and people that can't apparently....and I get that in some ways; natural extroverts who can perform under the spot-light at the drop of a hat and offer entertaining informing and effective presentations do exists but they are a lot thinner on the ground than you might think...

It is possible to make yourself into a very able presenter, to manage the nerves, understand the mechanics of being effective and interesting and actually come to quite enjoy them rather than dreading them and avoiding them like the plague..

I suggest that you ask yourself a few basic questions every time you are asked to present:

• Aim: What is the presentation for? What does it need to do?
  
• Audience: Who will be seeing / hearing it? What do they want?
  
• Content: What do you need to say / communicate?
  
• Style: How do you need to say / communicate it?
  
• Environment: Where will you be performing?
  
• Props: What can you use to help your performance?
  
• Performance: How do you pull it all together?
  
• Execution: How do you make sure you nail it?
  
• Impact: Can you make it interesting and memorable?
  
• Effectiveness: What do you need it to do? 
  

That will give you a solid start in terms of understanding what the point of the exercise is, what things are in your control and what will the environment and audience be like, Picturing the scene and owning the consequences of your performance for me are key to nailing it.

You also need to understand what kind of presentation you are delivering:

You will conclude that probably it is a mixture of a few of the key aspects above. Your Personal Brand Influence is simply how you can impact the presentation being successful by offering your unique delivery to the words and images and that is about the music of your voice, your animation (hands and body) your eye contact, your movement around the space, your smile and your presence....all of these are key to being noticed, entertaining, persuading and effective.

Worried that you might not have then star quality to wow and audience? Well there are some key ingredients that always impress and engage; professionalism and humour in the right mix, you can get an audience on side with both in the right measure depending on who they are and what they want from the presentation. Your call but judge it right and you will have them interested! Also jeopardy, meaning what happens if....they don't buy, agree or engage with your product / concept. Tell them a story, everyone loves a good story, make it interesting but give it a sting, the what happened when...sting that underpins your argument...also practice the living daylights out of your words and actions, make them natural but use your script, picture prompts and actions to underline your point, be lucid and confident and they will naturally want to listen.

Confidence is about knowing what you aim to say, how you will say it and having purpose. Introvert or extrovert aside, practice does make perfect but a sense of purpose really is the key. Authenticity and personal investment all reap huge rewards and as the old adage says 'people buy from people' it is true and you have the power to control that in your audience.

Most of all have fun with it; enjoy the fact that you can have a real and lasting impact on the audience in terms of their reaction to, thoughts about and actions after your presentation.  We offer one to one presentation / performance coaching that really can make a huge difference, based on the above principles and the support of expert and informed observation, feedback and skills development. It does not need to be something you dread in fact it can be something you relish and thrive at...

copyright Paul Goring 2014