Your Presentation Success Is Our Passion
Present It Right...The First Time!

	PRESENTERS: CONTENT, THE KEY TO A MEMORABLE TALK
	PRESENTERS: REDUCE STRESS AND SAVE TIME
	DESIGNERS: USE THE COLOR PICKER
	MONTHLY CHALLENGE

CONTENT, THE KEY TO A MEMORABLE TALK

What are the secrets to having your audience remember you long after your talk, or at least long enough to tell someone else about your presentation? This month let's consider your content. Then using an example from the book Blink we'll consider your verbal and non-verbal behaviors.

Content is something that most of us take for granted. We think we know our subject and incorrectly believe that either the audience knows it as well or wants to hear everything we know. First of all, many audiences do not know your subject well and don't even want to know it that well. They just want an overview so that they can make decisions or be able to explain what is going on in case someone asks them.

Second, most people definitely don't want an encyclopedic overview of your topic. Too much data overwhelms people. They may act like they are listening, but believe me, they are not.

If you fail to gauge your audience correctly and give them inappropriate content, they are forgetting you even as you speak. That is what people tell me.

The key ways to make sure your content is appropriate for your audience are the subject of my content questionnaire. Ask your next audience to fill it out. They will tell you how close you came to presenting material appropriate to them and keeping them engaged.

The content for this talk was:
1. ___just the right level of detail
2. ___too detailed
3. ___not detailed enough

With the information in this talk I could…
1. ___ understand it and enjoyed listening
2. ___ not understand much of what was said
3. ___ understand it but was bored-know all that already

The information was:
1. ____logically presented so I could easily follow the points
2. ____somewhat organized, but not totally clear
3. ____not organized into 3 or 4 key points I could follow

The presenter stated the talk's objective:
1. ____yes
2. ____no

If stated, the objective of the presenter's talk:
1. ____was met
2. ____was somewhat met
3. ____was not met

To present the content more clearly, I suggest that next time the presenter:

YOUR DELIVERY STYLE SHOULD RESPECT YOUR AUDIENCE

Malcolm Gladwell, author of the best-seller Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking has put together an amazing array of fascinating examples and studies of how people listen, think, and talk, and the results of these interactions. Here is one brief example from the chapter on "Thin Slices."

A thin slice is the least amount of information needed to make an accurate assessment. What's the best way to know if a doctor will be sued for malpractice? By listening to his conversations with patients. Find out how long he spends with each patient. Listen to his voice tone, how he talks to patients. The doctors who were never sued talked three minutes longer to each patient, used a tone of respect, and gave an overview of how they would examine the patient. Their patients liked them. By taking out the words and analyzing only intonation, pitch, and rhythm, it was possible to predict which surgeons were sued. The doctors, who were liked by their patients, even if they made a mistake, were not sued.

So next time you think your voice tone, active listening to audience questions, and an overview of where you are taking the audience are not important, remember this example from Blink. Do you address your audience in a respectful tone of voice? Do you give your audience time to talk, or do you do all the talking? These behaviors can make a difference between a sale or no sale, a promotion or no promotion, success or lack of success. People thin slice your performance different ways: some by your voice, some by how you respond to questions, some by how you explain the content and some by what content you include or exclude. What thin slice of your presentation style do you need to focus on?

REDUCE STRESS AND SAVE TIME

One of my clients' major issues is the time, or lack of it, they have to prepare between presentations. Needless to say, this causes stress. Consider the following scenario.

Ginger has a presentation to give to new customers. She was told about it last week. She worked on it to the detriment of a key project, even practicing out loud the night before the talk. She gives it and feels successful. Now she has to revise it a bit and send it to the customers.

At the same time, she has to prepare a talk next week to division managers about her project (the one she has been neglecting). Now she has two presentations to work on simultaneously, one to polish and the other to create from scratch. She has no time to rehearse for the second talk and feels nervous. She doesn't sleep well. Although acceptable, the talk is not very good. Now she is upset, and has to revise the first presentation and send it out by the deadline.

Yes, it's stressful to be constantly getting over one presentation while preparing for the next. There is no one solution. The best way to reduce stress is to analyze the way you go about creating presentations, and figure out where you can save time. If you don't use the following strategies, then you are probably taking twice as long as you need. Use them, save time, reduce your stress level, and get more work done. And you'll never give a mediocre presentation again!

1. Set up a PowerPoint file in a standard structure for each type of presentation. For example, create a project update file with all the slides set up exactly as you need them. Then you just put in your content. You can have a technical overview file to use when you have to explain new technical data to a group in your company. My CD Presentations in a Hurry gives you 26 professionally designed PowerPoint "shells" covering most common presentation scenarios. You can order the CD or download it from my website. Or make your own.
2. Learn to use the slide master-it's the best time investment you can make. People waste hours creating every slide themselves rather than inserting a slide from the slide master that already has a layout. Make sure your color scheme will appeal to all audiences. You may want to pay someone to explain how to use it and also to create you some slide master looks you can use over and over again.
3. Keep a file of artwork, tables, images, and shapes. I am not talking about looking at other presentations for ideas every time you are preparing a talk. I am talking about a file with all these images in the right
   background and color scheme.
4. Know how to use PowerPoint effectively so you can save even more time. Taking a PowerPoint class may not help you that much. You need a class on how to create a presentation using PowerPoint.
   
   

USE THE COLOR PICKER

Have you ever wanted to get the exact color of part of a logo or picture?

The Color Picker add-in from pptXTREME makes choosing and setting your colors a breeze, allowing you to pick colors directly off the screen and automatically setting the Fill, Text, Outline, Shadow, or Background colors of selected shapes or slides. It creates color-picking pull-down menus and adds easy-to-access buttons for each essential tool-Font Color, Shadow Settings, Line Color, and Fill Color. RGB color values are displayed onscreen for added precision. For more information and a free 30-day trail, go to www.pptxtreme.com.

PRESENTERS
Use the content questionnaire to evaluate your next presentation.

DESIGNERS
Download color picker free for 30 days and try it out.