Everything needs a solid skeleton (Except jellyfish - but they are not generally considered good speakers...)

Confidence Part 3:

Once we have prepared ourselves it is time to prepare our presentation.

We have already talked about preparation, and about the importance of thoroughly soaking our mind in the information about our particular subject, but once we have that info, we have to find the best way to present it.

One of the big things that damages confidence is not knowing where you are going with your presentation. Think of it this way – when you are driving along and you don’t know exactly where the street is that you want to turn down, you tend to slow down and drive with caution, knowing that you may not see the turn until the last moment; but if you know exactly where you are going, you drive up with confidence, knowing precisely where you are going.

Public speaking is exactly the same – if you have a general idea of where the presentation is going, you go cautiously, but if you know exactly where you want to take this bus, then you speak confidently, knowing exactly when to turn from one point to the next, and you know with certainty that you will find the final destination – a successful conclusion.

This is like having a good structure to your presentation – it is like a clear map from the start to the finish, and once you are familiar with your “Map” (Structure), your journey can be made with confidence.

o   Structure is important – you have to be taking the audience somewhere.

There is nothing worse for an audience than to not be able to follow where the speaker is going. Chasing Rabbits is what it is sometimes called – this is where the speaker gets distracted from his main purpose and goes off telling stories that have little or sometimes no relevance to the subject. Something he says in his speech made him think of something else, and he goes off chasing it like a hunting dog after a rabbit. Can be funny, but it rarely leads anywhere useful.

Strong structure can help you to not chase rabbits, or if you do, it helps you find your way back easily.

The structure of the average presentation follows the same basic structure that you were taught in school for a good essay: introduction, body, and conclusion.

§  A great introduction catches the audience, and gets them on your side from the start.

You should have a strong opening sentence, something that grabs the attention. It shouldn’t “sensational” in the tabloid sense, but the use of a BIG opening statement can be effective, as long as you don’t promise too much with it.

§  The stuff in the middle is where you feed them the actual info.

·         Separate the subject into points

·         Join the points so that you end point “a” with a lead in to point “b”.

·         Each point should be mentioned or at least indicated, in the introduction. How specifically you mention the points depends on your own style, and the particular style you choose for the structure of your presentation.

·         Each point should be mentioned or at least alluded to in the conclusion.

·         I have never figured out why, but three points seems to be optimal. This doesn’t mean that you can’t get away with two points, or stretch into more points, but three points just seems to work.

o   If you don’t have at least three points, you are probably trying to fit too much info into one or two points. See if you can make a division somewhere.

o   If you have more than three points, you just might be trying to cover too much info altogether. I have heard up to twelve points used effectively, but each point is brief.

o   Many presentations are between 30 mins and an hour. To divide that out: 5 mins for intro, 5 mins for conclusion, leaves you only 20 mins for three points – that’s only around 7 mins for each point. That may sound like an eternity, but it is not long to impart good information.

§  A great conclusion leaves the audience satisfied. The conclusion is where you tie everything together and make sure that the listeners see the connections between your points. This can even be the place where you see the “lights go on” in the audience – that is a great feeling. To actually see people “get it” as you pull everything together at the end.

§  “Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you told them.” It is a pithy little saying, but it is accurate. Keep that I mind and it will keep you on track as you prepare.