Presentation Tips

Want Your Audience Keep Listening to You? Check This Out!

October 21, 2020 by Muhammad Noer

The main purpose of presentation is to get an approval from the audience. Moreover, the audience do the action that the presenter wanted them to do. So, it is very important to make the audience keep listening to you during your presentation. It’s your job to make them interesting for what you say.

That’s why, you have to know who your audience are. If you know them well, then you can prepare. You can arrange your presentation, so it can fit to them. Like, you can prepare yourself, how to talk to them. Which words do you have to say to deliver a message to them. With the right words, then you will be able to get their attention for the whole presentation.

Well, it’s never easy to keep everybody on the track the whole time. But, as good presenter, then you have to give your best. Some excellent presenter can amaze their audience with their non-boring presentation.

The boring audience is the one you should avoid. They won’t get bored if you coukd deliver the interesting presentation. In fact, you also can amaze your audience.

Do you want to know how? Here some tips:

1. Start off with something surprising

It means, you have to start off your presentation with something that beyond you audience could think of. Something that could make them think instantly, like oh, is that so, really, etc. Make them curious, so they will keep more attention to you.

Avoid something so general for the opening. You have to go directly to their mind and emotion. For example, you could tell them about something inspirational. Or, you could tell them about the surprising data or facts. This will be an eye-opening for your audience.

2. Tell a story

Human tends to like a story. If you start your presentation with a story, the audience will keep the attention.

If you have some data or facts that you feel that you have to tell them at the beginning of your presentation, then create it like a story. It will be more interesting instead of the scientific style.

With the storytelling style, the audience will be more interesting and keep their focus to the whole story. Who doesn’t like a complete story anyway?

3. Get rid of the notes

You may have the cue cards, but keep your eyes away from it. Don’t stare at the cue cards the whole presentation. Keep the relationship with your audience with the eye contact.

Deliver your message like you’re having a chit-chat with them. They will like to listen to you more. They will feel more comfortable with that style.

Instead of cue cards, you can use your slide as it. Your slide could be the support tools, to help the audience to even more understand about your message. But you also can use it as your cue cards.

So, be creative with your slide, please!

4. Watch the tones

Do you remember when your kindergarten teacher tell a story in front of the class? They will change their tones when they’re speak, if they have to. So, why don’t you use this technique?

If there some parts of your presentation message that is more important than the others, say it louder. Or, if there’s something that you feel the audience should remember, reduce your speed.

Think that the message as a story. You will feel when it’s time to speak louder, a little bit fast or slow. Use your emotion.

5. Talk directly to your audience

Your audience could be hundreds. It’s no way that you could know them personally, every each of them. But, you have to know them generally.

To make them keep their attention to you, sometimes you have to talk to some of them, directly.

Maybe they use a name tag, so you could read their names. If it necessary, you could as their opinion, or ask about something. Call out their name before you do that. If they’re not wearing a name tag, you could ask before you chit-chat with some of them.

This could make you closer to them. Not only with the one that you talk with, but with every single of them.

6. Make them laugh

Even though you’re talking about something serious, don’t be that serious. Sometimes you have to tell some jokes. It’s crucial, because if you make your audience laugh, it’s a sign that you want to be closer to them. It will make them want to keep their attention to you even more.

7. Don’t be so detail

Data and facts are important in a presentation. But when you have to deliver it to your audience, it’s no need to be so detailed. Especially, when it comes about numbers.

You could say many or most of the, or something else. The audience just need to hear about it. You could give them the exact number on your slides.

Well, have you try those tricks on your presentation? If you want to keep the audience’s attention, perhaps you should try it sometimes.

Just prepare yourself, the best you could, before you deliver your presentation. A well preparation is the key to attract and keep the attention of your audience. (*)

How to Use Storytelling in Presentations

June 30, 2020 by Erick Saputra

Have you ever listened to a presenter who subtly inserted a story or narration into his presentation, so that you barely realize that he was actually trying to make the audiences more ease to understand his ideas or absorb the information he was conveying?

Storytelling is the most effective way of presentation. It is an old and powerful form of communication to translate ideas and move people to action.

Humans are designed for storytelling. It is confirmed by a research conducted by a neurologists from Princeton University, New Jersey, United States, Uri Hasson. Hasson investigated the effects of storytelling on the brain using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Together with his team, he scanned the brain activities of his research participants as they listened to a storyteller. The brain activity of the listeners and the storyteller is synchronized and Hasson finds this activity was in harmony.

In presentations, this harmony is certainly beneficial because the audience will more easily understand your presentation material when there is synchronization. Furthermore, you can incorporate your ideas and move the audience to make decisions or do things based on those ideas.

The human brain has needs for stories or narratives, like schemes, scripts, cognitive maps, mental models, or metaphors. So, take advantage of these things in the presentation. In many ways, we use stories as a way to think and understand the world around us.

Choosing to right story

It may sounds easy, but using stories in presentations has several rules.

1. Touch your audience emotions

The main purpose of using stories in presentations is to provide an emotional experience to the audience. Great communicators say the most effective and efficient way to provide this experience is through the use of metaphors or analogies.

Humans see and remember things based on how they correspond to something else. Metaphors help the brain in this activity. Through metaphors, presenters can explain difficult concepts through association with something that more familiar. Metaphorical thinking can also be used to help solve problems.

2. Put stories in context

When you decide to use story in a presentation, make sure the story fits the context of it. Be careful in choosing a story because a forced story will have the opposite effect.

The wrong story will cut your relationship off with the audience and make it difficult for them to understand your direction or purpose in the presentation.

3. Relevance

Your stories must be able to connect with audiences’ experience and interest. Every story must have at least one point that they want to hear and can be understood. You want to use stories to put information into perspective, not to replace it.

One other thing to be considered is you also have to keep your story short and leave unnecessary details. This step is important to make your story relevant and clear in order to support the information in the presentation.

4. Visualizing

Act as if you are drawing a picture of your idea to make you easier to think of a story. Make one that is easily visualized: where something happens in a certain time and place, played by characters who are likely to have relevance to your audience, and so on.

5. Keep it simple

No need to overdo or use too many stories (remember the importance of keeping the story short and leaving the unnecessary details as mentioned above) in your presentation. Also, make sure you will feel comfortable telling the story. If you think you won’t get comfy with it, your audience can sense it and this will have a negative impact on them.

6. Personal story

If possible, put your own story in presentation. Stories that have a personal touch will be naturally embedded in the minds of the audience and last long enough. Your audience will also be more easily connected to you.

Personal stories also make it easier for you to interweave stories. You will more easily choose how you tell the story, which details you will tell, or decide which elements will most strongly touch the audience’s emotions.

Steve Jobs’ storytelling structure

World’s leading speakers use storytelling in their presentations, like Steve Jobs, for instance. The founder of Apple Computer is always able to sweep and amaze his audience in every presentation of Apple’s product launches. Not only because of the product sophistication, but also because of the strength of his story.

Jobs also includes elements or personal experiences in his stories, such as when he developed and launched an iPod product.

You can use Steve Jobs’ presentation structure as your reference because it is very simple. Jobs did not use complex structures to create excitement. Almost all of Jobs presentations follow a structure like this:

1. Here is what I am going to tell you

2. Here is what I promised to tell you

3. Here is what I just told you

4. And because I am a nice guy, here one more thing

The first three parts of the structure use “ad nauseam” or repeatedly until the audience memorizes that sequence. The last part is different. Though the audience knows Jobs always has “one more thing” to add to the end of the presentation, they never knew what this “one more thing” would be like.

This kind of structure give tension like suspense movies. If we look closely, the way the power of storytelling works in presentation is indeed the same as what your favorite films or books do.

Stories trigger chemical, physical, and emotional responses to the audience. The brain releases oxytocin which motivates cooperation by increasing empathy. That’s why stories will make it easier for the audience to accept and apply new ideas and move based on those ideas.

Storytelling skills in presentations are something you must have. Storytelling is still the most powerful way to get and hold audience attention, to the point of changing their belief in an idea. (*)

How to Avoid Boredom in Delivering Same Topic Presentation Frequently?

February 19, 2020 by Muhammad Noer

Being a speaker for the same topic so frequently or routinely and over a long period of time will certainly give you a sense of saturation. This boredom can have an impact on the way you deliver your presentation to audience.

That same topic will also resonate differently to audiences who happen to have heard you deliver the topic before. For example, they burst out laughing at your jokes about your topic before, but this time they might just smile.

Well, then how to keep your presentation interesting, even though you are bored. How do you anticipate the same people who have heard your presentation among an audience?

The following are some strategies that can be put into practice to keep your presentation effective.

1. Adjust the “module” of the presentation topic

This term only exists in our mental notes as speakers. Instead of as a whole, try to view the parts of our presentation as a collection of modules.

You can turn your presentations to suit the needs of the audience and ourselves. Make a number of module variations. By changing modules like this, you avoid the boredom of the material itself, likewise with the audience.

Don’t forget to train the entire module variation, so that you can immediately overhaul the parts of the presentation as needed.

2. Throw away all of your notes

This is the benefit to always practice. When you deliver the same topic quite often, you may have memorized everything by heart, but you may also need cue cards.

But, forget those cards or any kind of notes. Memorize the variations, as stated in earlier point. You are flexible in using them. By removing your focus from any notes, you will be free to interact with the audience. You will also be free to improvise and prevent yourself from the regularity of presentations.

Many speakers are reluctant to interact or engage to their audiences because of the fear of losing control, although there are many advantages to making the audience part of the presentation.

To avoid this situation, just ask variety of questions or give instructions to your audience.

3. Utilizing multimedia in “modules”

We know that the use of pictures, music, or videos gives extraordinary impacts in building effective presentations. Now, by breaking your presentation into modules, you can use up-to-date or better pictures, song pieces, or videos to suit the conditions or needs of the audience.

4. Getting to know your audience

This applies to any presentation, whether it’s a first one or for the umpteenth hundred times. The difference is, when you use this strategy in giving a routine presentation of the same topic, you will be more helped in matching modules that can be changed earlier.

Find out about relevant demographic, psychographic, age, gender, etc, so you can choose the module that best fits the audience’s life situation. This information can be obtained from the event organizer or committee.

For example, one time you have to deliver a presentation on the topic of career planning and this time the audience are managers. So, you can take an example of a career journey from prominent company leaders that they might recognize.

Another time, you have to talk about the same topic, with different audience. They are employees who started their careers from general staff positions. Then you have to replace the example with people who are in similar conditions and situations with them.

Similarity will attract the interest of the audience.

5. Adjust to the purpose of the presentation

The same presentation can be used for different purposes. Again, it is important to divide your presentation into modules. For example, you are a regular speaker on business topics. You can change some modules that are more suitable for those who are just starting a small and medium business.

On another occasion, you are asked to speak in front of small and medium entrepreneurs who want to improve their business by using latest technologies. All you have to do is modify an existing presentations (the modules or examples).

When you are considered as an expert in a particular field, the possibility to give the same topic many times in a presentation is very large. To that end, be creative in modifying your presentation, so that it is more suitable to audiences with different backgrounds, and prevents you as a speaker from being bored. (*)

Why Smiling is Good for You When Giving Presentation?

November 13, 2019 by Muhammad Noer

Some of you might say, “Standing in front of audience without getting cold feet sometimes is already hard, let alone smiling.”

Well, the truth is smiling can help you reduce stress and shake off all your fears while talking in front of people, such as in a presentation.

A smile has its own strength. To your audience, a smile expresses warmth. For yourself, it gives a strong impression on how you see the world.

When you smile, you change the effect of the reaction on your body. The body releases dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins, the hormones that responsible for calmness and pleasure. Aren’t these conditions you really need to overcome your fears and stage fright?

When giving a presentation, your smile is an important part of the instruments that exist in your body. Smiles can modulate your voice, thus enabling you to get more engaged to your audience.

Our body is a tool, just like a musical instrument. The design is important. Our mouth is the bell of the instrument, while smile determines its shape. When you change the shape of the bell, it also changes your voice.

When you smile, you can feel it changes the atmosphere, from your stage to the entire room.

There are so many reasons why you better smile when giving presentation. The release of the happy hormones was just one of the them.

It makes you look cool and credible

People say, the less emotion you how, the more you look cool and credible. Apparently, not really. The Journal of Consumer Research in 2018 reveals the opposite. Looking serious or credible has nothing to do with smiling.

Researchers found that public speakers who smile look cooler than less expressive ones. In addition, unable to smile risks the absence of connection with the audience. And we all know that connectedness is needed in effective communication.

It helps you to build connection with audience

This point is related to the previous reason. Giving a presentation is a form of communication that based on relationships. Presenters need to smile to help them develop connections with the audience.

People tend to mimic face expression their interlocutors. The mimicry often occur unconsciously. Basically, by mimicking, we want to express warmth and build connection.

So, when you stand in front audience and smile at them, there’s a big chance they will smile back at you unconsciously. This is the beginning of the formation of connections in the subconscious.

It helps your mind stay calm and makes your body relax

When you see the audience smile back at you, you can also feel the effect. You will be calmer, more relaxed, and more confident. It is triggered by the release of the hormones, like serotonin and dopamine in the brain.

Dopamine increases feelings of happiness, while serotonin tries to reduce stress. When you smile, your brain produces chemicals that tell you if you enjoy this activity (presentation, public speaking). It is telling you, “You are fine.”

These hormones relax your body. Smiling reduces the body’s response to stressful changes.

Research that has been done involves the act of biting chopsticks in the mouth, which gives a similar shape to a smile, giving the effect to heart rate. The beating is lower, so less stress occurs.

These findings suggest that smiling during brief stress can help reduce the body’s stress response.

It helps you to have longer life span

Well, this might be the long-term reason, but if you think your life is stressful since you have to give presentation a little bit too often, and stress leads to shorten age, therefore you better start to practice this smile.

In conclusion, smiling is a simple way to make giving presentation or public speaking less stressful, while helping you connect with your audience.

One thing that also important to keep in mind is public speaking is an industry of service. As speakers, we must find ways to form ourselves to become instruments of presentation, that will get the strongest response from our audience. Who would have think that the strongest instrument was a smile?(*)

Have to Give Online Presentation? Here are the Tips

February 20, 2019 by Muhammad Noer

This is the era of digital transformation and you still have no clue how to deliver online presentation? Oh-oh. What if next week you have to manage a large project and it requires support from many people, but they are spread in cities or places far away from your workplace?

The easiest way to engage with this kind of working team is through online presentation or online meeting using digital applications or software. Online presentations are very effective media to make everyone from different spot can work together collaboratively without leaving their places.

In this article, we are not going to give you the step by step on how to make an online presentation from scratch, but more on how to make it effective, efficient, and correct. Well, here we go.

1. Choose the right device

Using the right tool to provide online presentations is the most important thing of all. Make sure your team has installed online meeting software to their devices, such as GoToMeeting, join.me, and so on. These software allow you to monitor who is online and communicate about the same points. Send meeting notifications via e-mail. You should be able to make sure everyone engaged with your presentation receives an e-mail and confirms their presence.

2. Be on time

Make sure that each team member is present in the online meeting room at scheduled time. It is pretty irritated if we can’t start the presentation just because one or two people are late. To make it easier for you and your team, set a calendar along with an alarm that can be sent via e-mail as a reminder. For team members who really can’t attend the online meeting, let them see the meeting video record every time they have time. Online meeting software usually includes this recorder feature.

3. Simple

Simplicity is not only applies to offline presentations. Online presentations are also better delivered through simple slides. Too much text will confuse and going to be difficult for your team members to read. They also won’t remember long sentence or definition. Make simple headlines, with three or four points as explanation or supporter. The fewer, the better.

4. Clear and efficient

Just do a short online presentation. At the very least, make one slide to represent three or four materials. Limit your presentation duration 10 minutes at the most. If there is a lot of material that you want to convey, divide them into several parts during the meeting. It’s much better than to stuff your team member with so many information at one time.

5. Practice, practice, and practice

Everyone knew practice makes perfect. Make sure you deliver an online presentation with the right order and good articulation, also with normal speech speed. Your voice must be heard clearly by each member of the team through the device. After the presentation, you can review your online presentation through the video recorder feature.

6. Be visual

Images represent many words. Therefore, rather than lengthy with sentences, it is better to choose images, photos, or short videos that represent what you want to convey in the presentation. If not everyone can access the video, give them the URL, so they can download it whenever they have time.

7. Entertaining

Yes, business meeting is a serious situation, but working should be fun too sometimes, right? A business presentation certainly contains a lot of factual and informative things. It is possible for your team members to feel bored quickly, especially when they have to follow the presentation through their device screens. So, spread a little sprinkle to your presentation. Stories or humor are good stuff. Your team members will tend to listen to you carefully. Plus, they will remember more of what you said to them.

8. Fair and strict moderation

Though it’s online meeting, make it possible for team members to ask questions and chat with you or other team members after the presentation. There are online meeting software feature that allowed moderator to manage conversation and Q & A session, to let one team member talk, while others can only listen (muted), because it will sound annoying, if one speaks and the other immediately responds. Set the time that will be used for the Q & A session and discussion.

9. Planning a follow up

Write down points of follow-up that you will take from online meeting. The you can add up with other points came up from the meeting. This preparation of follow-up points is important to cut down meeting time. It will also help you and team member to get conclusions and follow-up plans.

10. Finish it on time

Finish it on time. If it starts on time, then you have to end your presentation on time, too. Your team members are busy people and they may also have appointments or other activities. Respect their time and tell them they can always be connected to you to submit questions that have not yet been reviewed in your online presentation or if they would like to gain more information.

Wow, there are a lot of points! But actually these preparation is similar as the one you do for an offline presentation. The difference is probably only in the use of software and time efficiency. Have a practice and good luck with your online presentation. (*)