Never "Wing It"

Sensational speakers never-ever “wing it”, they only look like they do. The fact is they are always prepared, even when they appear to speak impromptu, they are prepared with the skill and the stories to do so.  Don’t let the polite applause from your audience fool you. When you wing it, it always shows! To be sensational, you must be prepared.

Sensational speaking is like sensational music

Speaking is much like beautiful music, there needs to be rhythm, emotion, originality and flow.  Try recording your own presentation.  Is your tone rhythmic or is it repetitive? Is your voice emotionally charged or flat lined?  Does your delivery represent you or someone else? Would my mind dance to your words or would it struggle to stay in step?  Sensational speaking is like sensational music.

Mining for gold

In every audience there is tremendous wisdom.  Find a way to mine that wisdom by getting them involved in your talk.  Ask questions and let them answer, ask for volunteers to demonstrate something, have small group discussions or even invite one or two up to speak for a minute or so. Engage your audience, draw on their wisdom, add theirs to yours and you will be a sensational speaker.

Stand up. stand out and be a hero

In a society, such as ours, that encourages conformity, the one who stands up and stands out is the one who will change our world.  If you have words that yearn to be said; a story that longs to be told, learn to tell it well! Learn to stand up and stand out and YOU will change someone’s world, YOU will be their hero!

Get lost in your message.

Your audience wants to witness your passion, not watch your technique. Get lost in your message, tell your story like it's fresh in your heart and your audience will love you for it. Make your audience feel about your message the way YOU feel about your message and you become a catalyst for their transformation into something more than they were when they sat down. THAT’S sensational speaking!

PowerPoint Tip # 7

PowerPoint Tip # 7: PowerPoint has awesome animation tools. Use them wisely to build the story in your slides, never just to dazzle your audience. With every animation, ask yourself “does this support my message or is it just here because it’s cool?”. If it’s just cool, dump it, if it enhances your point, keep it, but remember, YOU are the presentation, not your slides.

PowerPoint Tip # 6:

PowerPoint Tip # 6:  Remove anything from your slides that doesn’t support your message; logos, flashy backgrounds, borders, animations and graphics that don’t mean anything. Your slides can only do one of two things; support your message or detract from it. Do you really need your logo on every slide?  Doesn’t your audience already know who you are? Promote with your talent, not your slides.

PowerPoint tip #5:

PowerPoint tip #5: Each slide should have only one purpose, one point, one image and/or one caption.  Typically (yes there are exceptions) if you can’t write your caption on a 3 x 3 inch post-it note, you have too many words for one slide. Your audience should be able to look at your slide and get the point in 1 second flat, and then turn their attention back to you, the speaker, where it belongs.

PowerPoint tip #4:

PowerPoint tip #4:  Why avoid bullets? Our brain accepts information using an audio channel and a visual channel.  When we read words, we are using the AUDIO channel to convert the words to sound. If your audience is listening to you speak and trying to read bullet points, the audio channel becomes crowded and the visual channel is not being used at all, substantially diluting their attention.

PowerPoint tip # 3:

PowerPoint tip # 3: There are many reasons to avoid bullet points, here is only one; the human brain recognizes and remembers "gist" before "detail". So when you presentation is full of bullet points, you are using detail to build gist, completely opposite to how the brain works. Use large pictures and less text and retention jumps from 10% to 65% (see page 234 Brain Rules by Dr. John Medina).

PowerPoint Tip # 2

PowerPoint tip #2: The text on your slides should never be less than 36 points in size. Any smaller and your slides may not be readable any more than a few rows from the front. Some say 32 is OK, but I have seen 32 point font get lost. When it comes to the text on your PPT slides, go big or go home. Also, make every effort to avoid the use of bullet points. I’ll tell you why soon.

I think I might actually be getting the hang of this blogging thing! except for the fonts...I'm not sure yet how to manage those, they keep changing on me. O'well...I'll figure it out!

well, I guess I better get a little more serious about this whole blogging thing...so here's what I'm going to do...I'll be posting tips every few days or so to help you become a more powerful presenter...so let's start with PowerPoint...since everyone seems to love using visuals in their presentations, we might as well learn to do it effectively...so here's tip number one...

PowerPoint tip #1: Use PowerPoint or other slides only when it truly enhances your presentation. For each slide ask yourself "does this slide actually fulfill a purpose or is it just duplicating me?" If it's duplicating you, one of you is irrelevant, get rid of it. Watch for some tips and tricks on how to use PPT more effectively over the next few days.

Ok, I'm gonna try and get more into this blogging thing!

We had 65 people at Your Stage last Friday...we graduated to the big room! It's really taking off!

I learned some GREAT telemarketing tips yesterday at a CAPS meeting (Canadian Association of Professional Speakers)...I plan to use them this coming week as I start making the jump from public programs to corporate training.

I love the public programs, but it's just so hard to get enough people to do them that's it not always financially worth the effort.

I'm changing my thinking a little and I have learned that it's good to be philanthropic, but you also have to be practical. Give away what you can, but remember that your time is expensive, and you need to be paid what you're worth for what you do. If your current market isn't paying you what you're worth, find a new market.

Bob Proctor wrote a book called "It's Not About the Money", and I think he's right...business shouldn't be ABOUT the money, but the money has to be there or soon their aint no business!

Make money in your business...or you'll soon be out of business and no one will benefit from your talents...and THAT would be a shame!

So this is it! My FIRST blog post!

Well, it's been an amazing day so far! I spoke this morning at Your Stage (www.meetup.com/speakinginbusiness/) and it was just a blast!

Tonight, I'm speaking at the book launch party for the release of "Passwords Volume 2", of which I am one of the authors. And then off to speak at the Willis College 114th graduation ceremony where I am the guest speaker.

If I survive all of this, I'll post something more soon!

Cheers!