Guidelines for Presentation Success - Free eBook

When preparing your presentation, consider the things that might go wrong and plan how you might handle them.

Take the precautions to minimize the possibility or impact of things going wrong.

Accept the reality that perfection is not the goal. Being effective with your presentation is the goal.

When things go wrong, appear calm and stay in control of the show. Remind yourself to pause, breathe deeply and smile. This is likely the most important point you can learn from this report.

Never lose self-control. There are many things you can’t control but your behaviour is the one thing for which you are totally accountable. Don’t appear to be angry, arrogant or frustrated. And don’t pretend to be blameless. You can’t control what happens to you but you can control how you deal with it.

When things go wrong, don’t blame somebody else. The audience is looking at you. They are judging your reaction – not the circumstances.

As the speaker you always have the option to end early or take a break.

Sometimes a disaster in your presentation can be a gift because your audience will suddenly perk up and remember how you managed the disaster. Handle it well and you might win their respect and more.

If your audience likes you, they are more forgiving than you think. Establish rapport with your audience early so they are onside when disaster strikes.

Focus your efforts on the portion of your audience that you have a realistic chance of reaching.

Get your free copy of the eBook How to Turn Presentation Disasters into Presentation Success.

Murphy doesn’t hate you. He simply encourages chaos

to watch you squirm.

Torok’s First Presentation Corollary to Murphy’s Law

Click here to download your free copy of
How to Manage Things That go Wrong in Your Presentation


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Warning – Presentation Danger Ahead

When you speak before an audience you will encounter the ravages of Murphy’s Law. It is not a matter of “if” things go wrong, it is only a matter of “when” they will go wrong. You can’t predict when that will happen. Murphy is always lurking in the room just waiting to attack.

Don’t count on luck to help you avoid these presentation gremlins. Remember that there’s both good luck and bad luck. Some presenters claim that if it wasn’t for bad luck, they’d have no luck at all.

If you speak, you will encounter some of these presentation potholes, detours and accidents. Murphy seems to enjoy messing with presentations. This report is as close as you can get to holding a “Get Out of Jail Free” card.

You can’t always prevent these potholes, detours and accidents from assaulting your presentation. But you can prepare for them so you can minimize the damage and shine through the turbulence.

Luck is the residue of design.

Rickey’s Law

Get your free copy of the eBook 
Turn Presentation Disasters into Presentation Success

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Move from Left to Right

English and other languages originating from Europe read left to right. That means that those people naturally move their eyes from left to right when reading.

They prefer to absorb information in the same manner.

When you speak before an audience you can use that principle to enhance the acceptance of your message.

First you must realize that it’s the audience’s perception of left to right and not your on-stage left to right that counts. It’s not what you thought you said. It’s what they thought you said that is important.

How can you use this principle in your presentation?

Timeline

Ask these folks to draw a timeline of a project and they will likely draw it from left to right. The left represents the beginning while the right represents the end or the future.

Here’s how to move while presenting about your project or proposal. Talk about the past while standing on the extreme left side of the stage (your right). Stand in the middle of the stage when talking about the present and move to the far right of the audience when describing the desired future.

You could also simply gesture to your right when talking about the past and to your left when talking about the future.

Progress

Use the same methods to place problems in the past and solutions in the future.

This is not natural so you will need to rehearse these movements. But the audience will be more willing to accept your ideas when they can SEE progress.

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Pursuit of the Perfect Presentation

It doesn't exist. It will never happen. You won’t deliver the perfect presentation. However you can deliver a successful presentation that is less than perfect.

Success should be your goal – not perfection. Success is achievable.

Define the success of every presentation you plan to deliver in terms of this three part question.

What do you want people to think, feel or do as a result of your presentation?

The purpose of your presentation is to move people. If you did – it was successful. Don’t waste your effort on chasing perfect – simply move people in the direction that you want.

Define success before you create your presentation and you will avoid tangents. Be clear on your definition of success while presenting and you will stay on target. Most importantly if you know what’s important you are more likely to get to your destination.

Don’t fret about perfection. Focus on success. Don't work for a perfect 10.

What do you want people to think, feel or do?

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How to Become a Professional Speaker

I often get asked "How can I do what you do? How can I become a professional speaker?" It's not always in those words but the message is the same.

As you can imagine some are more committed than others. Some have made real investments of their time, effort and money. All three of those elements are critical.

Then there are the dreamers.

They say,

"I love to speak about 'x' and I put together a PowerPoint show. What's next?"

"I've been calling speakers' bureaus and they won't want to talk to me until I'm successful. If I was successful, I wouldn't need them. What's your secret?"

"I want to be a professional speaker and you've got to help me because I bought your book."

"I was let go by my company and I always loved to speak. My friend suggested that I become a professional speaker."

"I'm passionate about my message. I want to change the world. You've got to help me."


Dreaming is a good place to start. And you've got to move past that stage to planning, investing and doing.

All three actions need to be there to succeed.

When I only had the dream to become a professional speaker, I asked a friend who was a speaker what to do. His advice was:

• Don't quit your day job yet
• Join Toastmasters to get good at the craft
• Volunteer to speak as often as you can to any group - for the practice
• Focus on a specific area of expertise
• Become an aggressive marketer of your service

It took at least a few years to get from birth of the dream to full-time professional speaker. I did all the things my friend told me and more.

I appreciate my friend's help and others that I learned from along the way. Naturally I'm willing to assist others but I don't wish to waste my time with every dreamer that crosses my path.

One piece of advice from my mentor, Peter Urs Bender, was "Be nice to people, but be rude with your time."

So I wrote my advice to future professional speakers and published it on my website. Those who are serious will read it and benefit from the open and practical insights. Those who are dreamers won't read it - because they want a pill.

Here's the link to How to Become a Professional Speaker.

As you can see if you visit the link, there's lots of good information there. I invested my time and effort to write this information and publish it as a free resource. It doesn't answer every question you might have but it does cover much more than the basics. Also there are links to other useful resources and books.

It's curious that after sharing this link I have received angry messages from people who seem to believe that I owe them more - for free. As you can probably guess, those people will not make it in the professional speaking business.

If you want to become a professional speaker check this link.


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Collect & Organize Your Presentation Ideas

Call it old school, but a simple yet effective way to capture and organize your presentation ideas is to write them on index cards.

Write your ideas on separate index cards. Go ahead and simply write as many ideas and questions on index cards while preparing for your next presentation.

Don't judge the ideas as you write them.

After you've run dry on generating ideas for your presentation start to sort them. Lay the index cards out on your desk or the floor if necessary and look for commonalities. Start grouping them.

After you group them look for how you might sequence the groups.

Look for contrasts.

You might start colour coding the index cards by categories.

Move the ideas that don't fit to the side - but keep them for later consideration.

Then start writing your presentation.

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How to Close Your Presentation

The close to your presentation is the last thing that your audience hears. It is the last impression, therefore it could be memorable if you make it powerful.

The close to your presentation should direct people in the direction that you have been nudging them throughout your presentation.

Make it clear in your close what you want them to do next.

When writing the closing to your presentation consider that someone wakes up or arrives late and only hears your close. Will they know what to do next?

For those reasons it's good to include a summary or call to action in your closing statement.


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Presentation Success: What do you Want People to Do?

This is the most important measure of presentation success.

If the true purpose of your presentation is to move people - then the measure of your presentation success is - did you move them?

What do you want them to do?

Are they doing what you wanted them to do?

If the answer is yes - you delivered a successful presentation. If the answer is no...

The best measure of a presentation is what your audience is doing after your presentation.

Are they continuing to do what you wanted them to continue to do?

Are they changing to do what you wanted them to change to do?


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Presentation Success: What do You Want People to Feel?

Here's another criteria for presentation success.

How do you want listeners to feel during and after your presentation?

Why is that important?

Because "How they feel" will determine how they react to your message more than anything else.

If you want to influence people as a public speaker you need to understand how they might be feeling and how you might influence their feelings.

Before you speak research and consider how people might be feeling about your message. Then develop your presentation to alter their feeling in the direction that you want.

If you can do that - you have delivered a successful presentation.

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Presentation Success: What do you want people to think?

What do you want people in your audience to think during and especially after your presentation?

That is one measure of a successful presentation.

A successful presentation is not about being perfect - because that will probably never happen. Instead focus on your real goals.

Do you want to influence how people will think?

Then design and deliver your presentation to meet that goal.

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Power Presentation Tip

Why are you speaking?
Be clear on why you are speaking.
Understand your purpose because that will help you be more successful.

Before you speak ask yourself this critical question:
"What do I want people to do, think or feel after I speak?"

Whenever you deliver a business presentation you want to influence what your listeners do, think or feel.

When you prepare to speak ask that question of yourself – and be honest. If you don’t know why you are speaking your presentation will fail. If you don’t know why you are speaking you should not speak.

Once you know why, you can design your presentation to meet that goal. If you know where you are going you are more likely to get there.

If you know your purpose it will be easier for you to cut the unnecessary tangents. You will be more focused and your presentation will be more successful.

Some possible results that you might expect from your listeners:

Do you want them to -

Buy your product
Invest in your project
Support the team
Give you the money
Feel good about your role
Donate to your cause
Work harder to reach the goal
Recruit more members
Change their perspective
Believe in the dream
Promote the cause

What do you want people to do, think or feel after you speak?

Speak on purpose and you will achieve your purpose.

George Torok
The Speech Coach for Executives

Speaking Mastery - what does it look like?

Perhaps you have noticed that speakers range from awful to amazing. And then there are the speakers who are masters. How would you know if you are listening to a speaking master? I wondered and I asked some of those who I consider to be speaking masters.

I spoke with professional speaking colleagues. Collectively these four represent about 90 years in the business of professional speaking. They are all members of CAPS, the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers. Their styles, as speakers, are as different as their responses to my question. And you will notice some common elements. Enjoy their comments.


How do you recognize mastery in speakers?

“A natural, easy style – especially the ease of doing difficult things without breaking a sweat. They clearly enjoy themselves and exude confidence. Their delivery is free-flowing, like a maestro.”
Jim Beaubien, Ph.D., CSP, HoF


“I know I am looking at it when I am not aware of it unless I am looking for it. With master speakers, you have to really look at what they do with pacing and pausing to see the technique. In our business, as with most others, it takes a certain level of competence to even recognize it. One surgeon could watch another take out an appendix and say, ‘Wow, that was masterful’, but you or I would probably not recognize the level of mastery.”
Warren Evans, CSP, HoF


“There is flow – integrated, flawless and seamless. No matter what they are doing, they demonstrate the pinnacle of the craft. My sister the dentist told me that when she started she knew what she was doing, but it took s-o-o-o long; now it flows.”
Linda Tarrant, CSP, HoF


“By their level of confidence and engagement. They are there for the audience, not for themselves. You sense mastery emotionally and intellectually more that through the other senses. True mastery even touches you from a spiritual perspective. I have heard very good speakers who did not touch me.”
Larry Pearson, CSP


George Torok
Speech Coach for Executives
CAPS Former National Board Member

speaking
professional speaker

Presentation Question Two

When you deliver a presentation - in fact every time you speak there is one question that pops up often in the mind of your listener. If this question is unanswered you might lose them. If you don’t answer this question your listener might ignore the rest of your presentation.

Too many presenters fail to answer this question. They fail and they wonder why.

Maybe you have good information to present. Maybe it is true and important. But if your listener doesn’t get it – your presentation failed.

This question is especially important when you are presenting information. Because of information overload we are trained to ignore information. It is a survival technique; helps keep us closer to sanity. (When it comes to sanity – close is good enough)

So what is this question?

“So what?”

You say, “The competition launched a new product.”

Your listeners think, “So What?”

You need to tell them why that is important and what that means to them. You need to convey relevance to the information.

Here are two phrases that you might use:

“What that means to you…..”
“The reason I tell you that…..”

Before your next presentation think about the “So what?” and answer that question every time you present information. Give relevance.

George Torok
The Speech Coach for Executives

Presentation Question One

Before you deliver your speech or presentation you must ask yourself one critical question. If you ask yourself this question before every presentation you will create a better presentation and write it faster.

Ask this critical question and you will be more successful in your speaking. You will be better able to adapt the length of your presentation to last minute changes. You will look and feel more confident and convincing. You will be better prepared to handle questions and interruptions. You will be able to avoid wasteful tangents. You will stay focused.

The question that you should ask yourself before every presentation is this:

What do you want your audience to do, think or feel when you are finished speaking?

If you don’t ask this question you might be wasting time – yours and theirs.

If you ask this question – you will know why you are speaking. If you don’t know why you are speaking – you are wasting time and embarrassing yourself.

When you know what you want your audience to do, think or feel, then you can test every phrase you speak, every slide and every prop for how well it helps or hinders your purpose.


George Torok
The Speech Coach for Executives

PS: This question also applies to everything you write – including your marketing material.

PPS: The first question I ask an executive when coaching their presentation is, “What is your purpose for speaking?”