Managing Presentation Nerves - Communication Skills Training from MindTools. Coping With the Fear Within © iStockphoto/MarkBernard Your stomach is queasy, your palms are sweaty, and your mind has gone blank about your opening lines.
What will you be like when you've been introduced and the room goes quiet? Are you doomed to presentation panic or paralysis, or can you overcome that debilitating nervousness and deliver a speech that wows the audience? (Or at least leaves them feeling satisfied?) If you are like most people, then public speaking or presenting is one of your major fears. Notice we didn't say to get rid of your nervousness. So, to harness your nervousness and bring it under control, there are six key tips to remember. The more uncertain you are, the more nervous you will be. The more you can control the uncertainty, the less nervousness you will experience and the more residual energy you will have to devote to the presentation itself. Six Steps to Conquering Your Presentation Nerves Step 1 – Know Your Audience Step 2 – Know Your Material Tip: Note:
How To Make Great Presentations. At some point, most of us have to make a presentation.
Does the notion fill you with dread? Or perhaps you comfortable with presenting, but often don’t know what to say, or how best to say it? Do you think you might get more sales, or get your way more often, if you could made better presentations? Making better presentations is a craft that can be learned. Let’s break the elements of a presentation down to an easy-to-use template. 1. Great presentations are only partly about execution. Like a great play, or a great movie, great presentations are carefully planned and scripted. Presentations have a lot in common with theater and story telling. So before you touch Powerpoint, you should reach for a paper and pen, and create a plan.
A plan should consist of the following points: 1. What is the moral of your story? 2. 3. If a concept is new to your audience, then it is helpful to relate your concept to something the audience already understands. 4. Show your product or service working. 5 Rules for Creating Great Presentations from @NancyDuarte. With over a quarter million presentations under her belt, including notable ones like Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth , Nancy Duarte reigns supreme as the world's most sought-after presentation expert.
Recently, Nancy paid a visit to HubSpot in preparation for her appearance as keynote speaker at 2011 HUGS , and shared a bit of her wisdom on what sets apart great presentations from average ones. Face it. Most presentations are not great. Many of us have come to rely on tools like Powerpoint to facilitate meetings and convey ideas—yet more often than not, we fall short. How in the world is a slide like this going to inspire action? Great presentations can and do inspire change. Use these five simple but powerful rules to elevate your next presentation from mundane to magnificent.
RULE #1: Treat your audience as king. Like any good content, great presentations focus less on the author and more on the audience. RULE #2: Spread ideas & move people. RULE #4. Do you have one main point?