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18 Tips for Killer Presentations

Jerry Seinfeld has a skit where he points out that studies show public speaking is a bigger fear than death. Thatmeans, he claims, that if you are going to a funeral you are better off in the casket than doing the eulogy. Whilethere isn’t a lot you can do to melt away your anxiety, a the best start is simply to make a better presentation.

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Becoming a competent, rather than just confident, speaker requires a lot of practice. But here are a few thingsyou can consider to start sharpening your presentation skills:

10-20-30 Rule - This is a slideshow rule offered by Guy Kawasaki. This rule states that a powerpoint slideshould have no more than 10 slides, last no longer than 20 minutes and have no text less than 30 pointfont. He says it doesn’t matter whether your idea will revolutionize the world, you need to spell out theimportant nuggets in a few minutes minutes, a couple slides and a several words a slide.

1.

Be Entertaining- Speeches should be entertaining and informative. I’m not saying you should act like a dancing monkeywhen giving a serious presentation. But unlike an e-mail or article, people expect some appeal to thereemotions. Simply reciting dry facts without any passion or humor will make people less likely to payattention.

2.

Slow Down- Nervous and inexperienced speakers tend to talk way to fast. Consciously slow your speech down andadd pauses for emphasis.

3.

Eye Contact- Match eye contact with everyone in the room. I’ve also heard from salespeople that you shouldn’tfocus all your attention on the decision maker since secretaries and assistants in the room may holdpersuasive sway over their boss.

4.

15 Word Summary- Can you summarize your idea in fifteen words? If not, rewrite it and try again. Speaking is aninefficient medium for communicating information, so know what the important fifteen words are so they can be repeated.

5.

20-20 Rule- Another suggestion for slideshows. This one says that you should have twenty slides each lastingexactly twenty seconds. The 20-20 Rule forces you to be concise and to keep from boring people.

6.

Don’t Read- This one is a no brainer, but somehow Powerpoint makes people think they can get away with it. If youdon’t know your speech without cues, that doesn’t just make you more distracting. It shows you don’treally understand your message, a huge blow to any confidence the audience has in you.

7.

Speeches are About Stories - If your presentation is going to be a longer one, explain your points through short stories, quips and anecdotes. Great speakers know how to use a story to create anemotional connection between ideas for the audience.

8.

Project Your Voice- Nothing is worse than a speaker you can’t hear. Even in the high-tech world of microphones andamplifiers, you need to be heard. Projecting your voice doesn’t mean yelling, rather standing up straightand letting your voice resonate on the air in your lungs rather than in the throat to produce a clearersound.

9.

Don’t Plan Gestures- Any gestures you use need to be an extension of your message and any emotions that message conveys.Planned gestures look false because they don’t match your other involuntary body cues. You are better

10.

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off keeping your hands to your side.“That’s a Good Question”- You can use statements like, “that’s a really good question,” or “I’m glad you asked me that,” to buyyourself a few moments to organize your response. Will the other people in the audience know you areusing these filler sentences to reorder your thoughts? Probably not. And even if they do, it still makes thepresentation more smooth than um’s and ah’s littering your answer.

11.

Breathe In Not Out- Feeling the urge to use presentation killers like ‘um,’ ‘ah,’ or ‘you know’? Replace those with a pausetaking a short breath in. The pause may seem a bit awkward, but the audience will barely notice it.

12.

Come Early, Really Early- Don’t fumble with powerpoint or hooking up a projector when people are waiting for you to speak.Come early, scope out the room, run through your slideshow and make sure there won’t be any glitches.Preparation can do a lot to remove your speaking anxiety.

13.

Get Practice- Join Toastmasters and practice your speaking skills regularly in front of an audience. Not only is it afun time, but it will make you more competent and confident when you need to approach the podium.

14.

Don’t Apologize- Apologies are only useful if you’ve done something wrong. Don’t use them to excuse incompetence orhumble yourself in front of an audience. Don’t apologize for your nervousness or a lack of preparationtime. Most audience members can’t detect your anxiety, so don’t draw attention to it.

15.

Do Apologize if You’re Wrong- One caveat to the above rule is that you should apologize if you are late or shown to be incorrect. Youwant to seem confident, but don’t be a jerk about it.

16.

Put Yourself in the Audience- When writing a speech, see it from the audiences perspective. What might they not understand? Whatmight seem boring? Use WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) to guide you.

17.

Have Fun- Sounds impossible? With a little practice you can inject your passion for a subject into yourpresentations. Enthusiasm is contagious.

18.

What tips do you have for making killer presentations? Add your thoughts to the comments or write about it inthe How To.

Author: Scott H Young Posted: Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 10:00 am Tags: Communication, powerpoint, presentation, speaking Bookmark or Share this with a friend!

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Nathan Ketsdever says on: August 23rd, 2007 at 11:03 am

Practice & presentations are about stories are both HUGE.

Putting yourself in the shoes of your audience as much as humanly possible is also HUGE!! The “whyshould I pay attention? What is the important/significant to me?” One way is getting that input that isboth a) practice and b) audience centric is asking a friend to watch and give suggestions (or at a bareminimum sending the outline to a friend to check out and critique)

Nice post!

1.

Michael L. says on: August 23rd, 2007 at 11:41 am

Edward Tufte has a similar list for use without PowerPoint. Scroll down a bit and you’ll see it: Tufte’sTips for Successful Presentation.

2.

Rick says on: August 23rd, 2007 at 5:39 pm

Wow. Fantastic. I love this article

3.

Ricardo Vidal says on: August 23rd, 2007 at 8:04 pm

I’d add another tip to this list.

Start you presentations with a light joke. If possible, have the joke directly related to the subject at matter.It helps loosen up the listeners and it gives you some idea of the type of audience you have before yourself.

4.

Dave says on: August 23rd, 2007 at 8:35 pm

Another thing Tufte advocates is: Getting rid of PowerPoint. His Cognitive Style of PowerPoint essay isdevoted to the idea that PowerPoint corrupts critical thinking, for both the presenter and receiver, and hequotes a major company CEO sick of “PowerPoint grunts”, paraphrased as “When you come to pitch mean idea, you will use these constructs called sentences. Sentences are arranged in paragraphs that expressyour thoughts. Paragraphs are collected into papers.”

5.

n/a says on: August 23rd, 2007 at 8:39 pm

Does lifehack every have posts that weren’t on 43folders mere days or hours before?

6.

Dorai Thodla says on: August 24th, 2007 at 2:30 am

Some of the best presentations I have seen have just one sentence on each slide. Each of these provoke a thought, ask a question or make a statement.

7.


6 of 9 28/02/2008 10:25 PM

Sprinkling your presentation with a few relevant visuals helps a lot.

I generally ask questions if they don’t ask throughout the presentation. It breaks the monotony of asingle voice.

Daniel Kim says on: August 24th, 2007 at 4:59 am

Oddly enough, practice in public speaking can be had by joining a 12-step group. After you haverevealed your life’s greatest challenges to an audience that won’t take a lot of bull__it, you can speak toanyone!

. . .

Except that you will always want to start your talk with “I’m Daniel, and I am a crackberry addict.”

8.

Lilx says on: August 24th, 2007 at 7:47 am

“I’m not saying you should act like a dancing monkey when giving a serious presentation.”

Like Steve Ballmer? LOL

9.

Derrick says on: August 25th, 2007 at 10:49 am

If you need to spruce up your presentation, I recommend you use Ovation. Only works with Powerpoint 2003 and below for now though. One click later and it will look really impressive.

10.

Matthew Cornell says on: August 27th, 2007 at 12:40 pm

Great tips - thanks!

11.

Peter says on: August 28th, 2007 at 10:56 pm

All the above are good tips, however the presentation can be undone with poor spelling or grammar like points one and two for example.

TIP 19. Spell and grammar check your presentation.

12.

Lenny says on: September 14th, 2007 at 2:49 pm

hi there,

good starter, I wrote a post on this a while ago, might also be helpful to some people.

You can find it here:http://blog.pxfx.de/2006/10/le.....mmunicate/

13.

Paul Gibler says on: September 21st, 2007 at 5:52 pm

14.


7 of 9 28/02/2008 10:25 PM

Nice list of tips. Your readers might also like to take a look at the PPT - Powerful PresentationTechniques Resource Guide that I’ve compiled with links to a range of articles, web sites and tools forimproving presentations. I’ll be releasing the 5th version of the Guide early next week.

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