10-Steps-to-Powerful-Presentations

HOW
to create
POWERFUL
PRESENTATIONS
Simple, Easy, Quick
10 Step System for Creating Great
Presentations and Speeches
Even when you don’t have much time!
Akash Karia
www.CommunicationSkillsTips.com
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The Promise:
In this short e-book, you will discover a step-by-step
proven plan which teaches you how to create powerful
presentations and speeches – even when you’re running out
of time!
When you follow this 10 step system, you will be able to
easily and quickly create presentations which engage,
motivate and inspire your audience.
If you find this e-book useful, then please share this e-book
to your friends and colleagues because I’d appreciate it.
Akash. P. Karia
www.CommunicationSkillsTips.com
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Step 1:
What’s Your
Purpose?
Before you begin writing a single word of your
speech or start designing your Powerpoint
slides, you must identify the purpose of your
presentation. Knowing the objective of your
presentation will help you decide which points
to include in your presentation and which ones
to toss out. As a result you will be able to
deliver a focused presentation that drives home
your key message.
To help you identify the purpose of your
presentation, ask yourself:
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“What do I want my audience members
to do, think and feel after the end my
your presentation?”
“What information does the audience
expect me to cover?”
Identifying the purpose of your presentation
may sound like a very basic step, but it is
crucial to the success of your presentation. For
example, I once attended a recruitment talk by
an organization that I was hoping to work for.
The presenter believed that her purpose was to
give us (her audience) as much information
about the company as possible. Therefore, she
spent the better part of an hour talking about
company's timeline, starting with when it was
founded and detailing all the events that had
allowed the firm to become one of the largest in
Asia. The audience's purpose for attending the
talk was to find out what sort of benefits they
could get from working with one of best firm's
in Asia. Unfortunately, the presentation was a
complete failure because the presenter
identified the wrong purpose.
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The lesson here is simple yet powerful: Make
sure you identify the correct purpose of your
presentation.
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Step 2:
Who’s Your
Audience?
Presentations are not about the speaker. They
are about the audience. Presentations and
speeches should be about the value that the
speaker can add to the audience members lives.
Therefore, you should spend some time
researching who your audience is and how you
can add value to their lives.
It is best to know who your audience members
are early on because this information will help
you decide which examples will be most
relevant, how much time you should spend
addressing each point and what objections and
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questions you need to address in order to
persuade your audience.
If you already personally know most of the
people who will be attending your presentation,
then this step will most likely take only a
couple of minutes. However, if you are invited
to speak at a large conference, then this step
may take a lot longer because you may need to
send out a pre-event questionnaire to find out
more information about your audience
members. Below are a couple of questions that
will help you find out more gather important
information about your audience:
Who will be in your audience?
(Age/Occupation/Gender/Education Level)
How many people will be attending your
presentation?
What are they expecting from you?
How much knowledge do they have of the topic
you are talking about?
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If you are trying to persuade them, what are the
possible objections you will face?
If you are trying to inform them, what
difficulties will they have in understanding?
Can you interview any audience members in
order to include their stories and experiences
in your presentation?
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Step 3:
Write Your Core
Message in less
than 20 words
Once you have identified your purpose and
gathered some information about your
audience members, you need to create your
Core Message. Your Core Message is the most
essential concept/idea in your speech. Which
one concept/idea do you want your listeners to
understand and remember? Or, alternatively,
what one single action do you want your
listeners to take after they have heard your
speech?
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To help you identify the core message of your
speech, answer these questions:
If your audience was to forget everything
else that you said, what is the one single
thing that you would want them to
remember?
If you are delivering an informative
presentation, then what one piece of
information do you want your audience to
remember?
If you are delivering a persuasive presentation,
then what one point are you trying to prove?
If you are delivering an inspirational/
motivational speech, what action do you want
your audience members to take at the end?
You should be able to write out this core
message on a piece of paper in less than 20
words. If it takes you longer than 20 words to
explain your Core Message, then it is not clear
enough.
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Step 4:
Identify Your
Key Points
After you have written down your Core
Message, write down several key points that
you can use to support your Core Message.
For example: if you are pitching a
new business to a group of venture-capitalists,
then your key points might be:
(1) There's a lot of demand for this product
and
(2) There's very little competition
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Also, arrange your key points into a logical
sequence so that each point naturally leads to
the next one.
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Step 5:
Anchor Your
Key Points
After deciding on your key points, you need to
“tie them down” with an anchor? An anchor is
a tool which will hook the Point into the
listener’s memory. There are three anchors that
you can use. You don’t need to use all three, but
make sure that you use at least one for each key
point:
Anecdote – Tell a story that illustrates your
main point. A well-told story acts like a
memorable testimonial. Learn more about
the power of stories in this post (click here)
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Activity – If you can create some sort of quick
game/role-playing activity that will solidify
your point, then be sure to include it. Just
make sure that the purpose of the activity is
clear to everyone.
Analogy – Here’s an example of an analogy
from the book The Mars and Venus Diet and
Exercise Solution by John Gray:
“Think of your body as an old-fashioned steam
engine. You need to feed the fire with coal.
When there is no coal available, the stoker
slows down so that all the available fuel is not
consumed. Likewise, your metabolism slows
down for the rest of the day when you don’t
eat breakfast.” – John Gray
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Step 6:
Create an Attention
Grabbing Opening
The beginning of a presentation is one of the
most important parts of the presentation due
to the primacy effect. If you do not get the
attention of your audience members within the
first 30 seconds of your opening, they will
mentally tune out your presentation. Therefore,
you should take your time to craft a powerful
opening:
Do Not Begin with "Hello, I'd like to talk
about..." This is a boring line that makes you
seem like a dull presenter. Instead, dive right
into your presentation.
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Do Not Begin with a "Ladies and
Gentlemen, good morning. Thank you
for having me..." Do not spend a the most
important part of your presentation on trivial
formalities. A simple "Good morning" and a
smile is great, then dive straight into your
speech.
Begin with a Story: Stories are an effective
way to start because they are inherently
interesting. For example, Barack Obama began
his speech at the 2004 Democratic National
Convention with his personal story: "Let's face
it. My presence on this stage is pretty unlikely.
My father was a foreign student..."
Begin with a Shocking
Statement/Statistic: If you can surprise
people with a shocking statistic or a statement
that goes against conventional wisdom, then
this will surprise your audience members and
increase alertness.
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Begin with a Question: Questions are a very
powerful way to begin because questions get
people thinking.
Since the beginning of your presentation is one
of the most important parts of the
presentations, I recommend that you write
your opening. This way, you can edit the
opening until you have it perfect.
Which of the four proven openings will you use?
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Step 7:
Craft a Powerful
Call to Action
Powerful presenters take their time in creating
powerful endings. Instead of ending with,
"Thank you for having me" or the horrible
"And that's the end of my presentation", you
should use your conclusion to re-emphasize
your most important points. They then end
with a powerful call to action, letting the
audience what next step they should take.
When creating your conclusion, think about
what you what your audience to do as a result
of your presentation. What's your powerful call
to action? What's the next thing that you want
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your audience to do as a result of listening to
your speech/presentation?
The ending of your presentation is your
opportunity to leave a lasting impact, so I
suggest that you write out the closing of your
speech. This way, you can edit the ending until
you have its perfect.
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Step 8:
Rehearse Your
Presentation
After you've written out the opening and
closing of your speech, it's time to rehearse
your speech.
Wait, what? What happened to the middle of
the speech and all the key points? Why haven't
we written those out yet?
I recommend that you verbally go through your
speech once so that you can get a feel of how
the speech fits together. Since you've written
out the opening and closing of your speech, you
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should have no problem with those two parts.
However, when you get to Key Point #1, you
may find yourself struggling. Don't worry, keep
talking and link Key Point #1 to Anchor #1.
Then transition to Key Point #2 and explain
Anchor #2. Do the best you can and don't
worry about how you sound. However, as you
ad lib your way through the key points and the
anchors, the best part is that you will find new
ideas occurring to you. Write those new ideas
down as they come to you.
I also recommend that you video-tape this adlib
session because you can use the recording to
create a first draft of your speech in Step 9.
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Step 9:
Now…Edit
At this point you may be wondering, "Is it
necessary to write out my speech/presentation
word for word?" My recommendation is that if
the presentation is an important one and is less
than 15 minutes long, then you can script your
full speech. Use the recording from the
previous step to help you. The advantage of
writing your speech out is that you can edit the
content until it all flows smoothly. However, do
not try and memorize your script word for
word because this can lead to you sounding like
a robot. On the day of the presentation, don't
worry about sticking to the script...you'll know
your material well enough deliver it fluently
enough without having to stick to the script.
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If you are scheduled to deliver a 1 hour
presentation, then it may not be a good idea to
try and script the whole thing. Instead, write
a couple of bullet points for each Key Point
and related Anchor and think carefully about
the transitions between different points. Ad lib
each Key Point and Anchor until you're pretty
good at fluently explaining each of the key
points and associated anchors.
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Step 10:
Practice, Get
Feedback &
Improve
The final step is to practice your presentation
in-front of a live audience. Gather a couple of
friends and colleagues at your house and try
and go through your presentation as you would
on the actual day. At the end of your
presentation, ask them for their feedback
("What can I do to improve this presentation?").
Push them until they give you actual points for
improvement, and then go back and smooth
out your presentation.
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Wrap-Up:
10 Step System
For Creating
Powerful
Presentations
To wrap it all up, here’s your simple 10 step system for
creating powerful presentations, even when you’re running
out of time!
1. What’s your Purpose?
2. Who’s your Audience?
3. Write your Core Message in less than 20 words
4. Identify your Key Points
5. Anchor your Key Points
6. Create an Attention-Grabbing Opening
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7. Craft a Powerful Call to Action
8. Rehearse your presentation
9. Now…Edit
10. Practice, Get Feedback & Improve
PERMISSION IS GRANTED TO REPRODUCE
THIS E-Book in whole or in part. Feel free to email this
e-book to your friends and colleagues, share it on your
Facebook and Twitter pages and to post it on your
blog/website. While you certainly don’t have to, I would
appreciate it if you could link back to my website:
www.CommunicationSkillsTips.com
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Let’s
Connect
www.CommunicationSkillsTips.com
http://www.slideshare.net/publicsp
eakingcoachasia
https://twitter.com/Speaking_Coac
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Coach
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