“I’m looking forward to standing in front of strangers to make my first presentation”…. said no one ever! Sweaty palms, nervousness, queasy feelings are usually the most popular signs felt when preparing for your presentation.
Well here’s the good news. You are not alone, and you can minimize all those things with a few simple but extremely effective tips.
Let’s break it down to 3 areas we need to cover to make a great presentation.
- Opening and Closing your presentation
- Remembering what to say
- Ways to feel more confident when presenting
Opening and Closing
So you have your information complete. Slides or boards are ready to go and all that’s needed is to figure out a way to start it off.
Welcome Your Group With A Thank You
A great example of this is welcoming them coupled with a thank you for the opportunity to speak, pitch, or share. By doing so, you will establish a sense of community and a shared purpose for everyone.
Let Them Know The Purpose Of Your Presentation
Ok yes, your audience knows ‘why’ they are there but it is always better to be sure to make it clear to them. Let’s say for example you are presenting at a sales conference. While the conference talks about team sales and goals, your presentation may actually be about the individual sales person and techniques they can use to increase individual sales.
What’s really nice about the purpose is that it will always give you a ‘home’ to point to throughout the presentation to refocus the group is needed. Surprisingly they may well be constantly reverting back to it themselves!
Let Your Audience Know How You Want to Deal with Questions
Let your audience know how you will handle questions. Depending on the presentation, you may want Q&A to come later during your later slides. Now if it’s a sales or marketing presentation, you’d be best not to bother bringing it up and they will ask questions when they see fit. A bit of free will here is a good thing.
Let Your Audience Know When You Are About to Wrap Up
Ever drive on a road and out of the blue, your road ends with a cliff and no signs warning you? Yes, well we hate that too so how about we drop a hint that the end is coming gently. “Our last point for this presentation”, “We are nearing the end with this slide explaining…”, or “Let me close here by stating…”. All those are perfect examples of letting your audience know it is ending soon.
Remembering what to say
Memorize Your First Opening Line
Please don’t try to memorize the entire presentation! You need to be you and let the words flow naturally as you are already comfortable with the subject matter. A common practice is to remember the first 4-10 sentences. This helps you to feel confident at the beginning straight away then ride that confidence the rest of the way clear to the end.
Ways to Feel Confident
Your Body
Walk around the stage/presentation area. Don’t be afraid to wander while you face your group. Speaking of facing your audience, go ahead and speak directly to one person. Move to another after a bit. Your audience will see that you make connections and are more inclined to ‘feel’ you talking directly to them.
Use hand gestures and smile. One of the most important ways to get a message across with confidence is simply to smile at your audience.
Your Voice
Pace yourself. While you are rehearsing your presentation, video yourself. You can give yourself great feedback once you get over feeling weird about it (we confess we’ve all been there that first time)!
After a couple of practice sessions, lie on your back and speak your presentation. This will give you a great way to see how well you can use your voice to project to your audience. Depending on the room size, you may or may not have a microphone to use. Practicing speaking while lying down develops your diaphragm to help add a ‘boost’ to your voice.
Practice Practice Practice….old sage advice that hasn’t changed in like forever!!
I’m ready when you are! Your beautiful content is right around the corner.