So You Want to Learn to Present!
At some point in the future you will be asked to deliver a presentation. Many people will wait until the last minute, throw together a crappy presentation, deliver it in a less than stellar fashion, and believe it when people tell them how great they did. Don’t be one of these poor deluded souls.
You can be a presentation rock star with just a little study and preparation. The time to start is right now!
Don’t fall into the trap of believing that PowerPoint slides are your presentation!
Here is the plan: Read, watch and do!
Step 1: Read
This one is simple. find a couple of great books and study them. Here are the books you need.
Start with these:
Give Your Speech, Change the World: How to Move Your Audience to Action by Nick Morgan.
You’ve Got to Be Believed to Be Heard by Bert Decker.
Once you have read those two books you are ready to think about PowerPoint. Whatever you do, don’t fall into the trap of believing that PowerPoint slides are your presentation. They are there to support what you say.
Beyond Bullet Points by Cliff Atkinson.
Step 2: Watch
You need to learn to evaluate presentations delivered by others. Start with this presentation delivered by Sir Ken Robinson. I am going to post some thoughts about this presentation soon, but don’t wait for me. Make sure that you have paper and pencil when you watch it. You can use the pause button to stop the video while you jot down your thoughts.
Watch: Schools Kill Creativity by Sir Ken Robinson
Make sure that you read the comments. You can learn a lot from reading the opinions of others.
Write down your opinion of Sir Ken’s presentation. Focus on how he uses the advice given in the Decker and Morgan books. Spend some time on this – it is well worth your time.
Find 3 other presentations and go through the same exercise.
Step 3: Do
Take some time to think. Think about what you have learned and how you can put it into action. Learning something new is meaningless if you can’t use it.
Pick a topic. The trick is to find a topic that you know a lot about and that others are interested in.
Design a presentation. It is best if it is short: 5 – 10 minutes is fine.
Video tape yourself delivering your presentation. You can use a web cam or a camcorder. You don’t need anything fancy. The Flip video camera is fine for this. Buy a tabletop tripod. It will make your life easier. You will be greatly hurting your efforts if you don’t do this.
Watch the video of your presentation. This seems obvious but lots of people don’t ever do this. Suck it up! Watch the video. You will find that it isn’t as bad as you think it is. You will probably be very pleasantly surprised. Once again, you will be greatly hurting your efforts if you don’t do this.
Find people that will help you. This has never been easier. You can use Twitter, Facebook and any other social media site to find people who will help. Here is the trick: Put your videos on YouTube and ask for feedback.
Eventually, you will want to find locals to attend rehearsal sessions. The social media sites will help you with that too.
This is a great exercise that will help you increase the size of your network. It’s a wonderful skill to have.
Be skeptical. Many people will tell you that you did a great job. They won’t discuss areas for improvement. There are at least two reasons for this: 1) they don’t really know what makes a good presentation and/or 2) they don’t want to hurt your feelings. Find people who know about presentations and will be honest with you. It may take some searching but you can find people who are willing and able to help you.
Wow, that’s a short post! It actually represents quite a bit of work. I think that you are up to it. Plus, I promise you that done properly it will change your life.
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Quick and dirty, with some tough love thrown in! I love it (“suck it up” is one of my favorite expressions, although I never say this to my clients’ faces).
Some people think they’re worse than they are, but unfortunately I encounter far too many of the opposite persuasion. “I did fine,” they say, whatever “fine” means. If only they could take a moment and really see themselves the way the audience does. Oh yeah, that’s what videotaping is for!
Concise, practical, do-able.
I’ll be passing this one on.
Wish I had come across this info years ago.
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
There is nothing that helps us progress faster than videotaping. When I was first videotaped it took me two and a half years to watch it. I really shortchanged myself by not doing it sooner. It would have been nice to get some “tough love.” In fact, I think that the guy teaching the presentation course should have sat us down and watched them with us. It would have made a huge impact and helped me, and everyone else, immensely.
I should have just “sucked it up” and done it.