The “priority” buttons are very useful, especially when your slide contains many objects or layers. By priority, we mean these buttons will allow you to change the “order” of how your objects appear in relation to each other. You can move objects behind, or in front of, other objects.
This ordering is controlled by a set of four buttons. They are quite simply, “Bring to Front”, Send to Back”, Bring Forward” and Send Backward.” Although they appear as a sub-menu to the “Drawing” menu, it’s much more convenient to have them displayed on the toolbar for easy access.
The “Group/Ungroup” set of buttons are also very handy to have on the toolbar. These buttons allow you to quickly group or ungroup a selection of objects for moving, copying, or editing. The grouping feature helps to keep your slide “organized” for easy editing. Keep in mind, that any animation effects applied to a “group” will be lost when “ungrouped”, and any effects applied to individual objects before grouping will be lost when they are grouped. So it’s a good idea to make a duplicate of the slide before editing, just in case.
One of the biggest problems most speakers have is the tendency to dump too much data in their presentations, i.e., 12 bullet points per slide, 89 slides for a 15-minute presentation. When you try to dump this much data in a speech, all you do is put your audience to sleep. You really aren’t communicating; all you are doing is putting people to sleep.
But if you streamline your speech and focus on just 3-5 key points the way most experts (including me) recommend, you may have some of your colleagues or clients disappointed. They want all the data and now you aren’t giving it to them.
The answer is to give people data in advance. Email or snail mail your audience all the data in advance. Tell them to study it. Ask them to prepare their questions. That way the people who really care will have the data they need.
For example, if someone comes to a half-day or full day presentation or media-training seminar at my studio, I inundate him or her in advance with data. I send them a couple of books, a dozen videos, several CDs, a software program, newsletters and several other learning tools. If they looked at everything they would spend 24 hours examining the data and info I sent them. Most trainees don’t do this, but for the ones who want to do so, it is available.
So when the day of the training comes, I don’t stand up to do a data dump for eight hours. Instead, I focus on just a handful of concepts and speak for less than an hour. That way, my trainees get to spend the majority of their time speaking and being critiqued.
Whether you are conducting an eight-hour training or just delivering a 15-minute quarterly sales summary, you have the power to control how you disseminate the data. Always use the option of data dumping in advance (or after the meeting), so that you can use your actual speaking time focusing exclusively on your key messages.
So how did President Bush do in his State of the Union Address? At the risk of being institutionalized against my will, I make the following assessment of this speech: George W Bush is arguably a better public speaker now than were Presidents Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and George H. W. Bush in their prime. Such a statement just a few short years ago would have been laughable, but not today.
Whether you love or loath George W. Bush, you can not deny that he has learned how to read a teleprompter. His smirks are gone. The squinting has disappeared. The nervous rushing trough a speech is a distant memory. Tics are non-existent. The first half of his speech was completely devoid of any stumbles whatsoever. Granted, he did stumble over 10 words in the second half, but none were disruptive.) Indeed, Bush was devoid of Bushisims.
Bush exuded confidence through his steady eye contact and his lack of head jerking. He conveyed emotion without seeming exasperated. For once, he seemed to have spent more hours rehearsing his speech in a week that at the gym.
Stylistically, Bush seemed sincere and was devoid of petty jabs at long-forgotten adversaries like Kerry and Gore. Unless you were a die-hard Bush hater, he didn’t seem smug or arrogant. Instead, his tone was conversational and relaxed.
Of Course, Bush isn’t perfect on technical grounds yet. He got thirsty and his tongue was hanging out of his mouth too often (in search of moisture?) during the second half of the speech. And it probably goes without saying that Bush still can’t pronounce the word “nuclear,” though in his defense, he is not a nuclear engineer (like some previous presidential mispronouncers of the word).
So how did Bush’s speech rate on political grounds? Since this President has the lowest poll ratings of anyone since Nixon at this state of a second term, Bush was in serious need of receiving a boost. Bush sounded the most non-partisan of his presidency. I predict he will receive a short-term boost in his polls from many independent voters who liked his stance on HIV/AIDS or on developing non-traditional forms of energy.
But conservatives must have been disappointed by the least red meat-filled speech of the Bush Presidency. The hard-fought Alito Supreme court victory barely got mentioned (at 3 minutes to 10:00 PM). Bush requesting congress to give him the line-item veto was as pathetically amusing as watching Linus hoping for the arrival of the Great Pumpkin. Did Bush think this fantasy gimmick would fool conservatives into thinking he wasn’t the most fiscally irresponsible president in the history of the world?
Liberals are far beyond being impressed by Bush’s style. In their world, Bush is forever the inarticulate, bumbling, bungling idiot-son-in-chief. There is only one thing that would have impressed them. If Bush had admitted categorical failure in his plan to invade Iraq and then called for the complete elimination of troops from that country. Nothing else would impress Liberals.
Bush is an inspiration for all late-bloomers in life, but his new rhetorical
skills may have come too late to alter his 2nd term political landscape.
Bill Gates has never been confused for Winston Churchill or the Rev.Martin Luther King, Jr. But as an orator, but Gates has improved dramatically as a public speaker. At the 2006 Consumer Electronic Show, his keynote address was a solid “B+” in speechmaking, without having to give him any grade inflation just for being a billionaire.
(Watch it here http://www.microsoft.com/events/executives/billgates.mspx)
Gates is smart not to stand behind a lectern; instead he faces the audience unobstructed. This makes him seem friendly, approachable, and confident. Sure, Gates still looks and sounds a little geeky, but he seems totally at ease with himself when talking to thousands of people. Gates kept a conversational tone thought his address. Notes and scripts were nowhere to be seen. Instead, Gates appeared to be talking, as if he were just giving a demonstration to one person in his own office. If Gates were nervous, he didn’t display it in any of the normal ways. He gestured freely, walked around the stage, and interacted with his computers in a relaxed fashion.
Gates isn’t trying to be Anthony Robbins, but the software billionaire did use lots of positive emotion in his presentation. He spoke of “the magic of software” when unveiling some of the tricks of his new Windows Vista operating system. So much of Gates appeal as a public speaker is because of what he DIDN’T do. Gates didn’t do any of the following:
* Dump excessive Data
* Use abstractions without giving examples
* Use PowerPoint slides with lots of bullet points and numbers
* Use too many PowerPoint slides
* Read from a script
* Attempt to use a teleprompter
* Rock back and forth nervously (as he once did for Justice Department depositions)
* Turn his back most of the time on his audience
* Rush
Gates used his visuals in a compelling way by showing images of a family and a real home. He demonstrated how a real person could use the new software in a real world office, home and car environment, whether using a PC or a cell phone. His ideas were easy to understand, follow and “see.” Because he wasn’t reading a script or staring at notes, Gates appeared to be supremely knowledgeable about his product, and therefore more believable. Gates understands what most software geeks and engineers fail to grasp (for that matter most business people land politicians), that the real power of a speech comes from the strength of your examples. Gates gave example after example on how his product could be used at home, in the car, at the airport and on the run. He never lost the audience and the never got lost in technical details.
Gates understands that everyone knows he is smart on the technical side, so he doesn’t have to prove to people how brilliant he is technologically. Instead he focused on what he thought might appeal to his audience the most. He painted a vivid picture of how his products could benefit consumers.
Whether you are a billionaire like Gates, a pauper, or a second grader giving a class report, one thing remains constant. If you focus all of your energies on what your audience will understand, appreciate, and benefit from, you will be a good speaker.
1. Get glasses that aren’t heavy or thick unless you want people to focus on your glasses.
2. Bow ties make a certain statement. Make sure it is the statement you want to make.
3. A man’s shirt collar must fit perfectly.
4. Have your socks match your pants or footwear. Don’t apologize.
5. If you are a man with even an inch of fat on your waist or are wearing a suit that isn’t 100% perfectly tailored, then keep your jacket buttoned. This will keep your tie in place, your suit symmetrical, minimize your gut and show less of your light colored shirt.
On January 9, 2006, Howard Stern debuted his new show on the Sirius Satellite Radio Network. It is easy for mainstream business or political figures to dismiss Stern as a mere prankster who panders to the lowest common denominator through an obsession with sex, bodily functions, bathroom humor and more sex. But many others have tried the same road Stern is on and most have failed. Millions of people love Howard Stern, and a lot of people love to hate him. Personally, I am neutral. I find him mildly amusing, but if I don’t listen to him for 14 months, and then listen to him again, I don’t feel like I’ve missed much.
But it is undeniable that Stern has become a major figure in American pop culture. The shock jock has the most zealous fans of any entertainer around. You can not deny Stern’s success. Stern is well on his way to joining the Oprah-Martha Steward Media Billionaires Club. But I believe there are secrets to Stern’s success that are transferable to others (without being obscene!). Here are the 10 key principles that I believe Stern has used as he built his media empire that can be duplicated by others who wish to be powerful communicators:
- Talk about what really interests you. (It’s not as if Stern has to fight a daily impulse to discuss the Federal Reserve)
- Make fun of yourself. (Stern always ridicules his own manhood)
- State your beliefs even at the risk of offending people. (In Stern’s case the FCC documents his numerous offenses)
- Be unique. (Through his dress, style, vocal tone and message, Stern has been different from his competitors for 30 years)
- Consistently communicate a consistent message. (Howard has been doing the same thing for 30 years—he doesn’t reinvent himself)
- Display passion (When Howard is angry or upset, he reveals all)
- Treat your audience like gold. (Howard treats his audience members like they are closer to him than his own family. He even has parties for them.)
- Treat all people equally. (Whether you are a poor person with a handicap or a rich Hollywood celebrity like Alec Baldwin, Stern gives everyone the same level of disrespect.)
- Reveal yourself. (When Howard was going through a divorce, he revealed all to his listeners)
- Work incredibly long and hard hours. (Howard has gotten up at 4:00 AM in the morning for decades and spent every waking moment coming up with new bits for his show)
Bill Gates has never been confused for Winston Churchill or the Rev.Martin Luther King, Jr. But as an orator, but Gates has improved dramatically as a public speaker. At the 2006 Consumer Electronic Show, his keynote address was a solid “B+” in speechmaking, without having to give him any grade inflation just for being a billionaire.
(Watch it here http://www.microsoft.com/events/executives/billgates.mspx)
Gates is smart not to stand behind a lectern; instead he faces the audience unobstructed. This makes him seem friendly, approachable, and confident. Sure, Gates still looks and sounds a little geeky, but he seems totally at ease with himself when talking to thousands of people. Gates kept a conversational tone thought his address. Notes and scripts were nowhere to be seen. Instead, Gates appeared to be talking, as if he were just giving a demonstration to one person in his own office. If Gates were nervous, he didn’t display it in any of the normal ways. He gestured freely, walked around the stage, and interacted with his computers in a relaxed fashion.
Gates isn’t trying to be Anthony Robbins, but the software billionaire did use lots of positive emotion in his presentation. He spoke of “the magic of software” when unveiling some of the tricks of his new Windows Vista operating system. So much of Gates appeal as a public speaker is because of what he DIDN’T do. Gates didn’t do any of the following:
* Dump excessive Data
* Use abstractions without giving examples
* Use PowerPoint slides with lots of bullet points and numbers
* Use too many PowerPoint slides
* Read from a script
* Attempt to use a teleprompter
* Rock back and forth nervously (as he once did for Justice Department depositions)
* Turn his back most of the time on his audience
* Rush
Gates used his visuals in a compelling way by showing images of a family and a real home. He demonstrated how a real person could use the new software in a real world office, home and car environment, whether using a PC or a cell phone. His ideas were easy to understand, follow and “see.” Because he wasn’t reading a script or staring at notes, Gates appeared to be supremely knowledgeable about his product, and therefore more believable. Gates understands what most software geeks and engineers fail to grasp (for that matter most business people land politicians), that the real power of a speech comes from the strength of your examples. Gates gave example after example on how his product could be used at home, in the car, at the airport and on the run. He never lost the audience and the never got lost in technical details.
Gates understands that everyone knows he is smart on the technical side, so he doesn’t have to prove to people how brilliant he is technologically. Instead he focused on what he thought might appeal to his audience the most. He painted a vivid picture of how his products could benefit consumers.
Whether you are a billionaire like Gates, a pauper, or a second grader giving a class report, one thing remains constant. If you focus all of your energies on what your audience will understand, appreciate, and benefit from, you will be a good speaker.
Of all the advice I give to my media training clients when it comes to how to answer questions during a media interview, the hardest piece for people to grasp is the need to communicate all three of your message points in every answer (that’s EVERY answer). When I tell people this, they think I am kidding, or they think that I meant to say “all three message points during the course of the interview.”
That’s not what I am saying. I urge people to try to say all three of their message points in every single answer.
“But TJ,” you cry. “I’ll sound insane! Reporters will run away from me.”
No, they won’t. The trick is that you don’t want to sound like a computer or a broken record. You want to hit all three of your message points in each answer, but do it in a different order, using different examples, and using different words.
If you aim for all three message points and you only get to one or two before the reporter cuts you off or interrupts you, well then you at least hit one or two—not bad.
The mistake many novices make is that they deliver all three of their message points exactly once, near the beginning of the interview. Then, they proceed to answer questions in a totally reactive way for the next thirty minutes. At the end of the interview, the reporter looks down at his or her notes and sees 57 separate message pointes, each delivered exactly once—therefore none stand out.
The reporter then chooses to include a random couple of points from your 57 points.
If you are happy with a 3-57 chance of success, then continue to use this strategy. If you want to increase the odds that the message you care about actually ends up in the story, then you must be more proactive, specifically by trying to interject all three of your message points in each answer.
Far too many speakers attempt to look and sound smart by drowning their audience members in a sea of facts. “More is More” is their philosophy. The problem is that no matter how quickly you speak during a 20-30 minute speech, there is no way you can get your audience to know as much as you do on your area of expertise.
The other reality is that your audience can already get all of the facts on your subject from the internet. People are not suffering from a lack of information or facts. There are more than 100,000 books published every year and, seemingly, another 100,000 blogs run by self-appointed pundits published every hour.
The world does not need more information. Your audience doesn’t really want more information.
Instead, your audience is looking for someone (you) who can sift through all the info they don’t have time to go through and distill for them what they really, really need to know. In short, your audience is looking for wisdom.
Are you providing wisdom for your audience? It would be nice if every speaker could come up with stunningly original and creative thoughts for each audience.
But this is not always required. You can impart wisdom to your audience by giving it a well-organized perspective on your subject matter. This means you don’t get them lost in a forest of facts. It’s not that facts don’t matter. It’s just that facts without context and priority have no meaning. As a speaker, you can give wisdom to your audience by giving them an overriding metaphor or a new thematic way at looking at a particular problem or cluster of issues. By creating themes or overriding messages, you help your audience interpret some small slice of the world in a more coherent, and hence, more meaningful way.
And when you are adding the value of meaning, even if it is how to make award winning paper airplanes, you will be perceived as a speaker who adds the value of wisdom to your audience.
The surest way to get quoted by the media is to attack somebody, even if it is yourself. Reporters love attacks. Why? Because attacks are a part of conflict and every great drama involves conflict.
The best story to be on if you are a reporter is war. Walter Cronkite became famous by covering WWII. Dan Rather got famous during the Vietnam War. Wars are interesting to cover because people are attacking each other every day.
The second best story to be on if you are a reporter is a national political campaign. Why? Because the leader of one party is attacking the leader of the other party every single day. And vice versa.
When you attack your opponents by name, your competitors, your boss, or yourself, you instantly make reporters excited. The more forceful, pointed, or emotional the attack you make, the greater your chances are of being quoted.
“General Electric is destroying the Hudson River!”
“McDonalds is on a mission to make every kid in America weigh 300 pounds.”
“I hate myself for forgetting to report all of my campaign contributions.”
All of these quotes will make it into final radio, TV and newspaper reports because they contain attacks.
Of course, as always, just because something is interesting to reporters doesn’t mean it is a good idea for you to say it. If a part of your message is to attack government waste, or inequality, then, by all means, attack away. But don’t ever attack anyone or anything in front of a reporter unless you want to see that attack in headlines connected with your name in tomorrow’s paper.
Thousands of years ago, Aristotle wrote that believability is one of the three most important facts in being a good speaker—this has not changed. A speaker must be believable to have an impact on an audience.
This is why it is so important to eliminate obvious issues that can easily destroy a speaker’s believability. Reading from a script destroys believability because your audience doesn’t know if these are your ideas or even if you understand the ideas you are reading. Excessive looking at notes inflicts the same damage. Obvious displays of nervousness also eat away at the perception of believability.
“If he is really so confident of his ideas, why is he shaking like a leaf?” your audience muses.
The single easiest way to come across as more believable to an audience is through your eyes. Give long, luxuriant, and steady eye contact to as many people as possible, one at a time. Do this throughout your presentation and you will be believed.
We re all taught to avoid clichés by our high school English teachers. And this is good advice, when it comes to writing reporters, articles, or even giving speeches. Reporters have also been taught by their instructors to never, ever write or utter clichés in news reports.
However, there is one big exception to this rule for both newsmakers and news
reporters: Reporters LOVE quoting experts, executives and newsmakers using clichés.
Why?
Because clichés are often more colorful ways of making points. Clichés become clichés in the first point because they are a more memorable way of making a message stick in someone’s head.
A journalist’s job is to make new information more understandable and more memorable to readers, viewers or listeners. When a reporter combines new information along side a cliché that repackages old information, the result is often a better understanding and context of the new story.
If you want to be a masterful media communicator, sometimes you have to swallow your pride. You have to realize that you are not the journalist or writer—your job is to get your message out. Your high school English teacher might not be impressed if she sees you quoted while using a cliché, but that should not be your concern. Your job is to get quotes that reflect your message.
“At the end of the day…”
“The bottom line is…”
“We hit a home run when we…”
None of these clichés are brilliant, but they may help you insert your main points into a story.
One of my clients was a financial regulator for the state of Florida. His office often had to shut down fraudulent boiler room operations. His message, after each shut down, was that consumers should be cautious if someone calls them at dinner time and offers to turn $5000 into $10,000 in three weeks in an oil well investment.
That was the message, but how did he get this idea into newspapers, TV and radio?
He said, “Remember citizens, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
Same message as above, but because it is a cliché, the news media quoted him. And they quoted him using this cliché EVERY 3 MONTHS FOR 20 YEARS.
Not only do clichés work, but they will keep working for you over and over again.
Remember “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
One great way to get your message quoted by reporters is to state your ideas in the form of a rhetorical question. Why do reporters like rhetorical questions?
Because journalists like to break up the structure of their stories. If every sentence begins with a subject, is followed by a verb and ends with an object, the story can look boring very quickly. An occasional rhetorical question surrounded by quotation marks helps mix up the flow of a story.
“Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”
“Are we going to face a possible bankruptcy next year?”
“When is management going to listen to its own workers?”
“When will the airline unions realize that if they get all of their demands, there will be no airline left in business?”
“Why has the governor betrayed the faith of the voters?”
“Will Microsoft Office revolutionize the way workers get their jobs done?”
The one thing all of these questions have in common is that they aren’t real questions. They aren’t the expressions of one person seeking new information.
They are rhetorical questions, meaning they are simply a way of making a point in the form of asking a question. But they question doesn’t have to be answered in order for the point to still be understood.
Do I think it’s good to communicate your message points in the middle of an interview by using rhetorical questions? Yes I do.
There is one big difference between an informative presentation and a sales presentation. In an informative presentation you are also trying to sell your ideas, but in a sales presentation you must do more. You must sell in a more specific time frame, typically sooner rather than later.
In a sales presentation, you must give out data and inform, but you must do more than that. In both types of presentations you must conclude your thoughts.
However, in a sales presentation, you must do more. You must CLOSE. Closing requires a very specific action that you are requesting from your prospect. It does not mean being high-pressured or acting unethically, but it does mean asking your prospect to do something highly specific, such as select your firm over another, sign a contract, or place an order. At some point during the close, you must ask the prospect directly for his or her business.
A surprisingly high number of sales people feel too awkward or embarrassed to ever come right out and ask people for their business. This is a big mistake.
Most people like to be asked for their business. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
If you conclude a presentation by asking people for their business, the worst thing that can happen is that they say no. But if you don’t ask, there is the possibility that your prospects liked you, were impressed with you, were inclined to hire you, but simply got distracted and then you became out of sight, out of mind. Then, you have poured money down the drain.
So don’t just conclude your sales presentation, conclude by closing.
There is one big difference between an informative presentation and a sales presentation. In an informative presentation you are also trying to sell your ideas, but in a sales presentation you must do more. You must sell in a more specific time frame, typically sooner rather than later.
In a sales presentation, you must give out data and inform, but you must do more than that. In both types of presentations you must conclude your thoughts.
However, in a sales presentation, you must do more. You must CLOSE. Closing requires a very specific action that you are requesting from your prospect. It does not mean being high-pressured or acting unethically, but it does mean asking your prospect to do something highly specific, such as select your firm over another, sign a contract, or place an order. At some point during the close, you must ask the prospect directly for his or her business.
A surprisingly high number of sales people feel too awkward or embarrassed to ever come right out and ask people for their business. This is a big mistake.
Most people like to be asked for their business. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
If you conclude a presentation by asking people for their business, the worst thing that can happen is that they say no. But if you don’t ask, there is the possibility that your prospects liked you, were impressed with you, were inclined to hire you, but simply got distracted and then you became out of sight, out of mind. Then, you have poured money down the drain.
So don’t just conclude your sales presentation, conclude by closing.
Recently, the CEO-designate of JP Morgan Chase, James Dixon, was asked his opinion about a merger while he was on a conference call with investors. Here is what he said according to the New York Times:
“Forgetting the business logic and the price, there will be options down the road there, I would answer your question about capable and that we weren’t really quite capable yet because our army was doing all the other stuff we had to do, particularly the systems conversions…The army will be capable to do other stuff sometime next year, which is reasonable. Doesn’t mean we will.”
If you are confused by that answer, you aren’t alone.
According to the Times, “A gaffe, a garbled sentence or a muddied articulation of a corporate strategy can not only mar the public profile of a chief executive but also prompt a run on the stock.”
The Times reported that J.P Morgan’s stock took a dive shortly after Mr. Dimon’s less-than-inspiring conference call.
The Times also put a spotlight on the CEO of Legg Mason, Raymond Mason. Here’s what Mason said in answer to a question about a recent acquisition during another conference call with investors.
“I’ll try to answer you, but you can’t put a lot of faith in what I’m going to say. I know in one meeting I said if we look at this a year from now it will be clear, or should be clear, you know, what is and what we can do and what’s attainable and how quickly, and I still think that’s true. God knows, I would hope that’s true.”
According to the Times, investors were so under whelmed with Mason’s answers that the stock price dropped 8% within one day.
What’s really going on here?
It’s simple. CEO’s, their advisors, their lawyers, their investor relations counselors and all of their other little helpers are wasting hours and hours writing and re-writing the prepared texts that the CEOs read at the beginning of the conference calls. Everyone wants to get the text just so, because it will be sent out as a press release, put on the web site and distributed all over the place.
There’s only one little problem with putting so much attention on the prepared text: if the CEO of a publicly traded company can’t answer real questions from investors in an intelligent manner, then people lose confidence—quickly! Stupid answers trump boring prepared text every time.
The solution is easy–videotaped or at least audio taped rehearsal question time with the CEO BEFORE the conference calls. Unfortunately, CEOs tend to surround themselves with yes-men and yes-women who are afraid to tell the emperor he or she is wearing no clothes or is in drastic need of having clearer answers to questions. Sadly, CEO advisors are no more apt to tell the boss he must rehearse than a Bush aide wants to tell the President there are no Weapons of Mass Destruction or a Clinton aide wants to say “no, you can’t have another Big Mac.”
If public relations and investor relations processionals ever get serious about exerting influence on their profession than they must become as forceful and as persuasive as lawyers are with theirs. CEOs must be convinced that they are committing an egregious breach of their fiduciary duties if they ever, ever answer questions in a public forum in front of investors or the press if they have first done a full-dress recorded rehearsal.
Until then, expect to see more billion dollar losses on corporate valuations because of dumb CEO answers to smart questions.
A lot of people like to sit around and complain about boring PowerPoint presentations.
“But TJ, I can’t do anything about it. That’s the way it’s done around here—it’s always been that way.” That’s what I hear all the time.
I can buy this if your boss is telling you that you have to give his PowerPoint presentation bullet point by bullet point to the board of directors, otherwise you are fired. But the reality is that most of us have a whole range of opportunities to influence PowerPoint presentations in our lives.
For starts, if any of your own employees or direct reports have to give you a presentation, you should issue the following edict to them:
“When you are delivering your PowerPoint presentation, do not give me any slides with bullet points on them. I repeat, it will be unacceptable if you have any slides containing bullet points.”
At first, your employees may think that you’ve gone mad. But once they’ve actually delivered an interesting presentation to you and others using PowerPoint slides as visuals, rather than overblown notes for bullet points, they will thank you.
Next, if a vendor is coming to give you a sales presentation, you can and should send them this note in advance of the sales pitch meeting.
“Our policy here at XYX Company is that we don’t participate in sales presentations that are delivered by using PowerPoint bullet points. Do not deliver us a PowerPoint using bullet points of text. Simply give us an interesting presentation by talking to us and, if you like, use PowerPoint visuals to enhance your ideas. We don’t give business to vendors who violate this rule. PS. we aren’t kidding.”
Now some of your vendors or prospective vendors may be shocked and appalled that you would make such a request. So what? You are the customer and the customer is always right. It is your vendor’s responsibility to conform to your wishes, so why not start out the relationship on the right foot?
Again, your vendor might not be initially happy. He or she may have to actually take an hour or two to prepare a new and interesting presentation instead of regurgitating the same old slides with bullet points. But over time, they will thank you.
And even if your clients and employees don’t thank you, YOU will thank you.
Because you have just eliminated thousands of hours of tedious boredom from the next 30 years of your life. Congratulations!
Bosses often tell their employees to speak “faster, faster, and faster” when the employee is giving a presentation to the boss. This causes problems for all involved. The employee giving the presentation thinks that the boss wants him or her to literally speak faster, so the employee starts racing through bullet point fact after bullet point fact on the PowerPoint slides. Any remaining interesting examples, anecdotes and tidbits are stripped away from the presentation.
With sweat on the brow, the employee finally finishes the speech and slinks away.
Here is what the boss is actually thinking when he tells the employee to speaker
faster: “My God, Dithers is amazingly boring. When is he going to tell me something I don’t already know? Doesn’t he know that I know how to read? Does he think I am stupid? What’s the significant of any of this? I might as well just read the handouts. This is torture. Would someone please put me out of my misery quickly? I can’t take this any longer.”
At that point, the boss now instructs the employee to proceed “faster” with the presentation because the boss figure it’s not going to get any better, so it might as well end quickly to minimize the pain. But it is crucial to note why the boss wants thing to go faster. It’s not because the employee is speaking to slowly or is giving too many interesting details or too many relevant stories.
The boss said, “Speak faster” because the employee was just too boring to listen to anymore and didn’t seem to be adding anything to numbers or words already on the printed out page.
The solution for the employee isn’t literally to go faster. The answer is to be more interesting, to add additional insights to the data, to explain relevance, and to engage the audience. So the next time your boss or anyone else instructs you to be faster during a presentation, you must realize that you need to be faster at getting to interesting content, not faster at sitting down.
Many of my corporate executive presentation training clients come to me and express concerns about how their presentation will “flow.” They are obsessed with each and every thought connecting in a seamless manner, as if they were writing a work of great literature.
All things being equal, of course it would be nice if every single thought out of your mouth flowed together during a speech. But not all things are equal. There is a much bigger danger for the average corporate speaker than “flow.” The danger s that the speaker is BORING AS HADES!
Your first concern as a speaker is figuring out how you can present information in an interesting and memorable manner. This should be a much bigger concern than whether all of your ideas “flow” together perfectly.
If you have just told an interesting story that makes a point during your speech, there is nothing wrong with simply stopping, pausing, looking at another part of the room and then starting an entirely new point. Your audience cannot judge your “flow” or your connections in the same way they could if they were reading a written report. When it comes to text, flow is critically important. When sentences and paragraphs don’t flow together well, it makes the writer stand out as amateurish, or worse, a poor thinker.
Transitions are not AS important when giving public speeches (note: I am NOT saying that transitions are completely unimportant). This is because people listen differently than they read. When you read, you can stop, go back to the previous paragraph, reflect, and analyze as you go (and take your own time doing it). When you listen to someone speak, you are in the moment. You are paying attention to the words as they come out. You don’t have the luxury of playing back what was just said, or fast forwarding to a later part of the speech. If you stop to critique some part of the speech, you miss what is being said in the present and you can never get that moment back.
Being an audience member is a totally different experience from being a reader.
The master speaker realizes this. Therefore, the speakers who excel spend most of their time making sure their messages and their stories are truly interesting and memorable. Concern for “flow” is not abandoned, but it is given a back seat.
What do you do if you have an incredibly large amount of data that you must present to an audience, but you are limited to a strict time amount of, say 10-30 minutes?
By far, the absolute worst mistake you could make is to do the following: cram every fact you can find into a bullet point and then on a PowerPoint and then race through that PowerPoint in front of your audience. You can guarantee that no one will remember anything you say if you try this technique (though you will be in good company, since this is what most bad-to-average presenters do).
If you goal is to actually communicate your ideas, facts and data, then you should use at least one or more of the following tactics.
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Email (or snail mail) reports, slides, fact sheets, graphs or even books to members of your audience IN ADVANCE of your presentation. That way, those who are highly interested can sink their teeth into your data, plus they will be more familiar with your concepts when you start to speak.
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Give out written fact sheets or other handouts during your speech, BUT AFTER you have already finished talking about that subject. If you hand out the fact sheets before you start the discussion on that topic, your audience members will ignore you and will focus on reading. By waiting until you have already covered a subject, audience members will be less tempted to begin reading while you speak.
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Pass out remaining materials AFTER your speech is over. This way, those who want lots of data will have it, those who don’t can throw it away. Nobody can accuse you of not covering all your bases.
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Email (or snail mail) your attendees dozens or even hundreds of pages of text or graphs that give ALL of the details surrounding the subject of your presentation. Again, those who are interested can hit “print” and have all your wisdom. Those who aren’t interested can hit delete.
When you are giving your actual spoken presentation, you must not yield to the temptation to try to cover lots and lots of data quickly, because this is not how the human brain processes spoken information. Instead, you should introduce a point, give a few facts about it, give an example, then tell a story and then provide a slide that illustrates your one key point. Then repeat this process.
So remember, it’s OK to dump data, but don’t do it in your speech and don’t do it in the PowerPoint slides that you are projecting to the whole room. Instead, dump your data using the four tactics above.
When a client comes to Media Training Worldwide for either media training or presentation training, we employ very one of these methods of communicating data.
Clients are given books to read in advance of the workshop, handouts during the session, handouts after the session and then more training tools and books sent afterwards. This truly is the best way to help people absorb large and medium bodies of knowledge.
A great speaker has certain unstated goals for himself or herself while giving every presentation. One of those goals should be “I must improve the lives of my audience.”
At first blush, this seems almost cheesy, as if it were the motto of a second-rate, self-help motivational guru. But let’s look a little deeper to see how this applies to speakers in every industry.
If you are a politician running for office, of course you may have to talk about credentials from your past or why you think your opponent isn’t qualified. But your first objective has got to be to convince voters that you can improve their lives during the next two, four or six years when it comes to their health, safety and prosperity. Voters become receptive to other issues only after you have convinced them that you are a plausible force to improve their lives.
CEOs must be able to explain to employees why, if they work harder, everyone will make money, to fund vacations, homes and college tuition.
Civic leaders must be able to explain how a new tax-funded stadium will improve the lives of all citizens, even those who don’t like and won’t attend professional sports competitions.
Managers of all stripes must explain to their workers how a particular new policy or request for new action will benefit the employees, even improving their lives, even if it is to a very small degree.
When your focus shifts from looking good or sounding intelligent to actually trying to improve the lives of your audience, people will respond quite favorably to you.