Presentation with impact and style

There was a once famous psychologist who quoted ‘things that are different or unique will be remembered’ and presentations that follow this rule will make an impact. Take the last presentation you did, how did you start it? was it a general welcome or a dull introduction to you company? I recently worked with a client who needed to make an impact as the chair of a large organisation on the theme of change. After consulting on the audience and expected outcomes, we chose to follow a purely pictorial introduction of her recent personal upheaval having bought a dog. This was indeed unexpected for the audience, but made it personal, memorable and directly relevant to the topic in hand.

The introduction was an outstanding success, and to this day people still talk about the dog and the upheaval, which comes back to the point, be different, and be remembered.

Words to conjure up a positive emotion

I’m often asked how we can create emotion and a positive experience in my presentation training courses, and the answer is both complicated and simple. There are many factors that control positivity including delivery, subject, the environment, but also the words you use will have a huge effect.

Certain words carefully placed throughout your speech will engender a more positive response from you audience. A small sample of these words include:

Acquired Advised Arranged Augmented Built Completed Conducted Converted Corrected

Created Decreased Designed Developed Devised Directed Doubled Effected Engineered

Enlarged Ensured Established Expanded Facilitated Generated Implemented Improved Increased

Initiated Installed Instigated Integrated Introduced Launched Managed Negotiated Optimised

Organised Persuaded Planned Prepared Presented Produced Rationalised Reduced Saved

Set up Specified Steered Streamlined Strengthened Succeeded Supervised Trained Won

Do you have a fear of speaking in public?

An estimated 75% of all speakers experience some degree of anxiety/nervousness when public speaking.The fear of public speaking, or stage fright is extremely common, and even has its own name, Glossophobia from the  Greek word glōssa, meaning tongue, and phobos, fear or dread.

Symptoms include:

Intense anxiety prior to, or simply at the thought of having to verbally communicate with any group, avoidance of events which focus the group’s attention on individuals in attendance, physical distress, nausea, or feelings of panic in such circumstances.

This anxiety can be grouped into physical and verbal categories.  These symptoms include acute hearing, increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, dilated pupils, increased perspiration, increased oxygen intake, stiffening of neck/upper back muscles, and dry mouth. The verbal symptoms include, but are not limited to a tense voice, a quivering voice, and repetition of “Umms” and “Ahhs”, vocalized pauses, which tend to comfort anxious speakers.

Some nervousness before speaking is good, it heightens your awareness and gives you that adrenalin rush to perform at your best. Try the following tips next time you speak.

1.Channel your nervous energy into the performance
2.Believe in yourself: never say ‘I can’t’ – you always can
3.Remember – everyone started somewhere
4.Imagine how you’ll feel when it’s gone well
5.Focus on your strengths… and don’t forget to smile!

Simply presentations run 1-1 sessions for presentation anxiety.

Why you should get Presentation Training for your Wedding Speech

A Wedding is one of the most special occasions in a couple’s life. The wedding reception is a perfect destination where cherished dreams turn into distinguished memories and such an occasion will be a lasting memory to those attending.

To become a member of the wedding entourage is an honour but also a great responsibility especially if you are asked or required to make your own wedding reception speech. Occasionally when things go really bad, someone has to intervene to cut the speech short this is what makes presentation training extremely important

Novices find it incredibly difficult to give a wedding reception speeches, and rightly so, its an extremely daunting task for people who don’t know the basics behind writing one. 

A good way to start is by getting proper presentation training. Wedding speech training includes a key foolproof structure covering the basics like how the couple first met, their relationship and a little history about them.

The given points may seem simple and easy to follow on your own. However, they can be quite tedious to do. This is simply because of anxiety, lack of experience or just mind blockage, either way professional presentation training coach can be an excellent way to calm your jittery nerves.

A good presentation trainer will teach you how to enter into the hearts of the attendees and the hosts. They will train you on your introduction and show you how to captivate the mood of the room and narrate stories associated with the couple.

There is one more thing that we need to keep in mind while giving a weeding speech. That thing is composure. Sometimes we get nervous even in front of a few people if we are asked to give a speech. Weddings big or small can be nerve breaking for someone who is new to presenting. Giving a wedding speech while your body language speaks about your nervousness can turn off both the couple and the audience. So, professional presentation training can teach you to be calm and composed.

Everyone admires and likes people having good sense of humour, a great story will hold the attention of the attendees if its well structured.


Therefore, if you haven’t yet thought about getting presentation training for your wedding speech then think and act now! Who knows, if you are single, you might just get hooked by the charm of your speech.

Editor notes

Presentation Guru is a specialist presentation training and coaching company aimed at senior managers. Further information can be found at www.presentationguru.co.uk or email john@presentationguru.co.uk, telephone 0845 899 1248.

Vocal Coaching, how to use your voice more effectively

Ever wondered what professional speakers do before a speech? Here are some tips before you get in front of that podium.

1. Stand up straight, take a wider than normal stance. It sounds obvious but standing up will be helping your voice.
2. Place your feet underneath the hipbones. This position will help support your torso.
3. Drop your shoulders. Tension in your shoulders has a detrimental effect on your voice.
4. Keep your chin level with the floor. This will prevent you squashing your neck vertebrae.
5. Release tension in your body: Do something physical to ‘use up’ excess adrenalin.  This will help you sound calmer.
6. Push against a wall
7. Roll the shoulders – 4 x forwards  4 x backwards
8. Jog on the spot

Articulation Exercises: Very important if you want to improve the clarity of your voice

1.Massage the face and the jaw
2.Snarl! (good for releasing top lip tension)
3. Repeat ‘oooo….eeee’ about 5 or 6 times. Don’t rush, this will allow the lips muscles to stretch safely
4. Now read a piece of text (something from a book or perhaps a newspaper). Read it slowly and think about beginning and ending each word.

Wedding speech tips

Everyone is going on about the Royal Wedding at the moment which brings me to my forthcoming wedding, and the implications of the speech.

Wedding speeches follow a separate set of rules, as the audience (in theory) don’t care so much about your performance, or content, but want to hear your sincerity and of course, if you are the best man, some humour.

As a general rule, include the audience as much as possible, be as colourful and detailed as you can with the stories to include those in the audience who may not know you too well (partners of friends etc), be sincere, and be short, nobody likes people droning on about themselves, aim for 5-10 minutes max, and don’t forget the toast!

How to look good in front of the media

Media training has historically been the reserve for large corporates who can afford to send their managers on luxury weekends to be coached by ex BBC journalists. But what about the huge amount of SME’s and startups that frequently have the option of some free publicity via TV, press or radio?

Well the good news is you don’t need to digest volumes of books on ‘answering difficult questions’ or ‘how to look good in front of the camera’, we can all learn to be media friendly using some basic rules.

Rule 1. Bodylanguage

Any movement in front of the camera is grossly exaggerated due to the size of the frame. So stand a little wider than normal and maintain eye contact with the interviewer at all times. Never look at the camera, assume you are having a conversation with no cameras present. Take off your sunglasses, and check you dress and hair before your start, you can’t be taken seriously if you have a tuft of hair sticking up or food on your teeth.

Rule 2. Help the editor

Start and end each session with a 2-3 second pause, this will allow the editor to splice the material easily.

Rule 3. Create soundbytes

Single word answers are useless, create soundbytes using facts, figures or examples that add colour to your answer. Don’t be afraid to ask for clarification, and if you don’t now the answer say so, followed by either ‘but I do know…’ or an offer to get that information within a pre-determined timeframe.

Rule 4. Understand the order of questions

Interviewers tend to follow themes of what, why, how, where, when and who, anticipate the questions they are likely to ask.

Rule 5. Get your nuggets ready

In advance of the interview, get 3 golden nuggets of information that you want to include in the interview. Answer each question and build a bridge to enable you to add your golden nugget with words like and, meanwhile, also and however. Be startling, ask yourself ‘so what?’ why would the audience find your answer interesting.

Brought to you by Oatmeal Training

What does it take to become an accomplished presenter?

How do you become a better presenter?

It’s been said that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at anything, and presentation skills sadly are no different,

Professional speakers often quote a ratio of 1.5 hours of preparation for every minute that’s spoken, so you can see, its not an easy task to become an accomplished speaker.

Most of us don’t need to become professional speakers, but want to become confident and capable at presenting. The top 3 tips are:

1. spend a third of your time thinking about your presentation, a third creating the content, and a third rehearsing.

2. understand your audience as much as possible, what do they know about the subject, and what do they want to hear.

3. create a story, use visual metaphors, and don’t bore them to death with Powerpoint!

First impressions stick

I’ve just spent the day interviewing, and now I’m reflecting on what made one candidate stand out from the next. Aside from mannerisms, dress, and the way they spoke, it was what they had in front of them that made an impact. Two of the candidates brought in conference folders, one to show her portfolio (when prompted), but the second had a neat list of all the points she wanted to raise during the interview.

Why I noticed it was because the role needed meticulous administrative skills, and being organised was a key facet to the role, and this, like any other prop you may use as part of your presentation worked incredibly effectively at reinforcing the point that she was, indeed, well organised.

So, regardless of the type of presentation, sales, interviews or workshops, people do notice the detail, and it may be the detail that differentiates you and the opposition, so think laterally next time you need to reinforce a point.

Presenting when you don’t want to

I worked with an individual over Christmas who had been told that he must start presenting the companies solution to take the burden off the director. This in itself wasn’t an unreasonable request, what was unreasonable was the director expected him to deliver a thirty slide Powerpoint presentation that at best, based on the number or words, could be described as a novel.
As you’d expect, the individual was full of reluctance, anxious and wasn’t happy at the prospect of boring his audience to death.
When we put ourselves up to execute a presentation we are putting our reputation and potentially career at stake, so we need to communicate ideas that excite us and give a presentation full of enthusiasm that we fully believe in. In my experience, this can never be done using someone else’s slideshow, especially if it dictates the tone of the presentation through masses of text.
Like many students before, my advice has always been to create a presentation you are happy with, yes it may look totally different, but the key theme and message will be the same. Wait! I hear you cry, our company has a standard corporate presentation that must be delivered in a particular format, then change it. Create a corporate presentation that is full of pictures, this will allow the presenter to execute the same showreel, but use their own personal soundtrack, which works far more effectively.

http://www.presentationguru.co.uk