ROBERT J.R. GRAHAM: 3 Standout Strategies to Double Your Presentation Effectiveness

by: Daniel Batten

If you were to get 3 killer tips that you could implement by tomorrow, even without me present to train you, what would you you hear me say?”

That was the question I asked myself this morning when a friend emailed me asking for some tips.

Everyone speaks, and everyone becomes more effective and confident as they learn to speak better to a group. So why not be a standout now, and learn to be exceptional at speaking? Here is a gift in the form of three top tips that you can use, send to other people who speak, and start to apply right away. These are basics that will get you started today. Please don’t read this unless you are serious about using the tools.

Otherwise what you read will be of no value to you. Instead, make a commitment to do it the very next time you speak.

The 3 most important things

Standout Strategy #1: Structure your entire talk around stories. Tell a story – make a point, tell a story – make a point, tell a story – make a point … sum it up, then get off the stage. Why? Humans are hard-wired to learn through story.

Pictures and analogies are great for right-brain thinkers; numerical lists (ie: the top 5 reasons …) are great for right-brain thinkers, but story allows you to bring both types of people on board right away. You can embed statistics in a story. You can create pictures and anecdotes in a story. Numerous statistical studies have proven that people forget facts but remember and repeat stories.

You must learn to be a better storyteller no matter what your job is if you ever want to try to enroll anyone in your project / vision / mission / idea / product / cause. How? “Have you ever told a story that went all over the place? Have you ever given one? The problem is the story didn’t start off in the right place. In fact, it had no “start” at all. (Craig Valentine, Keynote Speaker and 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking – get his book – read his blog, he’s an absolute master). Every story must start off with a foundational phrase.

A foundational phrase is a phrase fewer than 10 words that sums up what your story is about. Start with this. Then, and only then, start writing your story. Then you want to edit your story, taking out everything that does not support the phrase. For example, in one of my keynotes I use the foundational phrase “your feet can’t move when your heart stands still”. In other words – you can only move so far when you are not following your passion.

The story is about one company I started that I was not passionate about, and what happened as a result. That phrase guides all the other content of the story. Say this phrase at the beginning, then again at the end.

Standout Strategy #2: Use Powerpoint as a tool, not a master. Whether you read Carmine Gallo, Matt Church, Guy Kawasaki or any guru on presentation skills they are 100% united on the way to use Powerpoint. That’s because research was done on how information is processed in a multi-media environment – and it showed that the traditional bullet-point Powerpoint style simply does not work. So why do people do it? Same reason people do most things: it has become a norm. If you want to stand out from the norm and be remembered – do this instead:

- one picture, one phrase, one sentence-long explanation per slide. Use hi-res images and yes its worth paying for them (iStockphoto or flikr are among the best).

- choose an image that embodies the idea you want to express: be creative. For example I use an image of a newborn grasping the finger of its father under the point “vulnerability” in a business keynote.

- use the “B” key – this blacks out your slides so you can take centre-stage again.

- don’t use bullet points

Standout Strategy #3: Remove all ‘ums’ from your language – and replace them with pauses. During one of my seminars I take people through an exercise that immediately reduces the um/ah factor and encourages pausing. But you don’t need to wait for that – you can get started now. What I suggest is: – record yourself reading out a paragraph from any book.  – read the same passage putting in “ums” and “ahs” at a conversational frequency.  – read the same passage, replacing every single “um” and “ah” with a pause.  Listen to the difference. The difference in your ability to process what you are hearing is like night and day.

Hearing is believing – so hearing this, you’ll immediately start using ums and ahs a lot less. This exercise doesn’t work if you imagine it. It takes 5 minutes, but the difference it makes will be yours for life. So there you have it. Above all – have fun with it and be you … but a heightened version of you.

PS: In a world where ideas have become commodities; your ability to express them makes you a standout.

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