Public Speaking Tips: How to Rock your Presentation!

As the end of the year and the beginning of next year is usually filled with a lot of trade shows and conferences, I thought it might be a good idea to post some public speaking tips to deliver a killer presentation.

Public Speaking Tips: How To Rock Your Presentation!

I’ve seen so many presentations in the past and always love to find out why a certain speech got my full attention, while another made me cringe and want to run away screaming. And now that I’ve done two public speaking gigs myself, I’m getting more and more interested in finding good tips that make an alright presentation a great one!

Because I graduated as a teacher, we got many public speaking tips (be it thirty eleven-year old’s or a room filled with their demanding parents…) Now while I know a thing or two, of course in real life it can be hard to bring all the theory in practice, but I’ve learned that I truly enjoy public speaking and cannot wait to do lots more of it next year!

Define your Purpose

Before you start designing your presentation, ask yourself what the purpose of your talk is. In general, you’re either informing, persuading or building goodwill.

So think about it: are you sharing your expertise, giving a step-by-step workshop, do you want people to buy your product or service, are you motivating people, educating them, do you give a speech, are you presenting case-studies. is it purely entertaining or perhaps in interview-style? These are just some main themes you could build your talk around.

One of my best public speaking tips is to make sure that you’re only covering 1 main topic and stay away from adding anything else you might want to share. Although it might be important as well, it just takes away from the power of your presentation. For example, in my presentation on using Pinterest, my main goal is to introduce the platform to beginners and to provide a couple of examples of content that converts. I could also get into using Pinterest in your newsletters, setting up contests and all of that, but it’s just too much. In this case, I would refer people to an online course/ebook where people can find more in-depth information.

Draw up an outline of your talk, so you have a framework to start with. Because if you don’t know the main purpose of your talk, no-one in the audience will.

Know your Audience

As a speaker, you are frequently repeating information that is not new. It’s how you deliver the information in a way that resonates with your audience that makes the difference between your audience taking action and your ideas flowing in one ear and out the other.

So who are you speaking to? What is their experience level (you can ask this before you start your presentation by show of hands), are they consumers or industry, but also think about the time of the day: at the end of the day they could be tired, at the beginning of the day, they might need to warm up…

A lot of things to consider, but remember that you can always let your audience know in advance that if they don’t follow along, you can either answer questions right away, at the end or even in private on another moment.

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Mark Richards from ‘Best Dad I can Be’ presenting at TBU Nantes in 2014, starting with a slide that would show people at home just how in-depth his presentation was. He’s one of the best presenters I’ve ever seen, using sharp humor and storytelling to engage everyone from start to finish, if you want any other public speaking tips, he is the one to go to!

Start in the Action

I see a lot of presentations that start with a lengthily recital of the speakers previous work, excuses on why they have started so late or apologies on why some of the slides might be unclear as they changed from pc to mac… blahblah…. Such a waste of time! You want to grab your audience right from the start, so unless it’s information they cannot live without, please get right into it!

Starting with a problem that your audience might have or a personal story is always a great way to start. You make your audience pay attention right away if they hear something they’re struggling with themselves or recognize in their own lives. After you have the attention, then you can introduce yourself a bit more, give an overview of topics you’ll talk about, etc.

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Start of Daniel Nahabedian’s (‘Canvas of Light’) presentation at TBDI in Rimini 2013: A question we all have

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Start of Melvin Boecher’s (‘Traveldudes’) presentation at ITB Berlin 2014: A question we might not had, but now makes us curious to hear more about

Interact with your Audience

This is usually a harder one as most presentation are one-way only (except when questions are being asked), but if you can find a way to get your audience to DO something, chances are they will remember what you said much better.

The activity doesn’t have to take long, but just let your audience members speak up or speak to each other for about a minute. To give an example, during the keynote speech at TBEX Dublin in 2013, speakers Audrey and Dan from ‘Uncornered Market’ asked the audience to close their eyes for a second and think about their first travel experience. Then to turn to their neighbour and share this moment. Very simple, but so powerful, as the rest of their presentation would be about the power of stories.

Make Your Slides Clear

This is my favourite public speaking tip of this article, as it is something that annoys me most when looking at a presentation. Slides that don’t support the story the speaker is telling and slides with too much information on them.

Really, if you want to get your message across, you need to be CLEAR.

First of all, make sure that each slide only has 1 main message on it. This could be text (ideally just 1 word) or a photo, graphic, screenshot or video, but just ONE MESSAGE.

A lot of people also feel that bullet points shouldn’t be in a presentation as it’s unnatural for people to read them, but I don’t always agree on that, as I like the structure sometimes. But in general: stick to 1 message per slide and then you don’t need bullet points, arrows and all that other distracting stuff at all.

I’ve heard speakers say in a presentation: Well, there is a bit too much information on this slide, so read it when I put it online. Yeah. Ain’t nobody got time for that! You have just lost some of your listeners!

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Slide by Katja Presnal from ‘Skimbaco Lifestyle’ on TBDI in Rimini 2014: a clear message with supporting images

Make Your Slides Pretty (And Readable)

Think carefully about your letter size and fonts. Can it be read from the back of a room? You might think that the text is quite big, but often people cannot read slides. Be extra careful when including screenshots, as they have small text and can be quite unclear. If you don’t think people can read it, either crop a section out and blow that up in size, or just don’t use it at all.

Text colour is also very important. Black text on a White background is still the best. Be careful with text in light colours (yellow, pink) on white backgrounds, as many people with less good eyesight or colour blindness will not be able to read it.

Another thing to think carefully about is what supporting images you choose for your slides. I often see people using ‘just a nice image’ that hasn’t got anything to do with what they are saying! If it doesn’t support or add anything to the story, just choose a plain background.

Oh, and one other thing. Don’t stand in front of your slides when talking about them. We cannot see it then, seriously. One step to the left or right please!

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Brooke Schoenman from ‘Her Packing List’ on TBU Rotterdam 2013, with very aesthetic slides, each with a pretty font, calm colours and 1 key message.

Always Have Offline Content

This is for those of you thinking about showing a video to the audience. Always make sure to have your material offline in case of a (very likely) bad wifi or internet connection. I’ve seen a couple of presentations go to bust (even one about… eh… video… yeah) because the streaming didn’t work.

Always make sure to test everything (sound, slides, microphone…) before getting on stage so there won’t be any surprises.

I’d also like to add that if you have built your presentation in PowerPoint, be sure to always export to PDF and have that ready on a USB-stick, just in case the program that’s installed on the presentation PC doesn’t support your version and messes the entire layout up.

Talk Loud Enough

Not everyone has a huge voice, I get that, but people in the back of the room would also really love to hear you! If you don’t have the opportunity to get a microphone, be sure to check for any possible distracting noises in the background (music, open doors etc.) or get people to sit closer if they can.

To prevent getting out of breath, which happens usually if you talk to a bigger audience, make sure to breath from your stomach, not your chest and really ‘project’ your words into the room. Always warm up your voice, too. Stand up straight with open chest, so more air can get in. Don’t talk too fast either, and if you do, built in moments where you drink some water to calm yourself down a bit.

And my biggest irritation: if you don’t have a microphone, don’t ever, ever talk with your back to your audience, for example when reading from your slides. As a teacher this was mostly because the kids would also throw paper planes at the back of your head, but when public speaking, it’s just impossible to hear you.

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This is me, speaking with a microphone, while being translated into Italian simultaneously. No pressure.

Slow Down

This is one of my own points of improvement. Speaking too fast comes from the fact that you already know the material so well, being a bit nervous and having so much to tell about a subject, you’re afraid you can’t get it all into those 45-50 minutes.

Focusing on speaking slowly should be one of the most important things in your talk, because you often speak for an audience where not everyone is an expert on the topic, possible quite a few people have English as their second or third language and it really just takes time for people to let new information sink in.

When you speak too fast and don’t take enough breaks, people will lose track and won’t be able to get back to it. Same goes for rushing through your slides. If there is any slide that you feel deserves less attention than the other, you should ask yourself if it’s really neccesary to have that slide in the presentation at all.

Also, if you’re one of those people that gets really nervous and starts to walk up and down the stage like a polar bear in a zoo, mark a spot for yourself on the stage or bring a stool to use every now and then to break up your movement. We’re watching a presentation, not a tennis match! Make sure to look around enough, but a person with calm movements and gestures is usually much nicer to look at.

Use Humor

I know we’re not all stand up comedians, well, I’m definitely not, but a presentation with a bit of humor in them are usually received well. There is a couple of ways you can do this, but the easiest is to share a personal story and have a slide support this with a funny image.

Below you can see Dan and Audrey from ‘Uncornered Market’ sharing a moment on the road, that ties in well with the ‘experiment’ topic in their presentation:

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Laurence Norah from ‘Finding the Universe’ shows how NOT to do watermarks on photos in a funny way:

Repeat Questions

I often find that in rooms where there is no microphone, questions cannot always be heard by everyone and it’s great when the speaker repeats the questions.

In rooms with a microphone, it sometimes comes too late, so again, repeating the question is always a good idea, if only to check with the person asking the question if you understood it correctly.

Don’t feel the pressure of having to answer right away, but take your time to think about the questions before answering them. When you give real thought to answers. you will see that the audience is patient and appreciate you taking the time to really help them out with the best answer you can have for them. Sometimes you will also find that other people in the room will answer questions for you, nice!

If you have someone in your audience that keeps on asking questions that are not really relevant or only relevant to their own situation, be sure to cut them off by telling them the question is not relevant, or asking them to come and see you afterwards to give them more personal advice. They will feel special and the rest of the audience relieved.

Smile!

Because you’re having fun, right? Right?

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Although I understand we cannot all be like Don George…

Hope this article was useful for you. Here are another couple of great resources with public speaking tips:

• How to Do a Presentation for The Travel Industry – Keith Jenkins on The Planet D
• Public Speaking and Loving it – Dave and Deb on The Planet D
• You Suck at PowerPoint – Jesse Desjardins on Slideshare
• 10 Powerful Body Language Tips for your next Presentation – Soap Presentations on Slideshare
• What Would Steve Do? 10 Lessons from the World’s Most Captivating Presenters – Hubspot on Slideshare

Did you already give a presentation or do you have a speaking gig coming up? What are your best public speaking tips?