Energizing Your Presentation

Have you ever been to a boring presentation? Most of us have, and most of them are boring because there is no life or passion in what the speaker is saying. People remember more of what they see and hear as opposed to what they read. But to be really memorable, we need to add some life to what we present.

So how can we add life to our presentations and wake up the audience? Well, have you ever been nervous when having to speak to a group?

In many ways, getting nervous before speaking is a good thing, if you know how to properly channel that nervous energy and use it productively to energize your presentation. Think of yourself as a steaming, boiling pot. You have two choices. You can either try to keep the energy inside, or you can unleash it and use it to help vitalize your presentation, essentially, letting the steam out of the pot.

All too often, presenters choose to burn off that nervous energy by fidgeting, holding or grabbing on to things, and walking or rocking back and forth.

Learn how to dispense this energy in a productive way. This will make you feel more comfortable and will help you look better. You’ll also start to enjoy giving your presentation, you’ll relax, and the audience will feel it.

Working from the bottom up, let’s start with your feet and a balanced stance.

Balancing Your Stance

The first thing is to adopt a stance that both appears balanced and also allows you to keep from needing or wanting to rock or pace back and forth. Presenters often rock back and forth, lean towards one side, or pace around the room in an unconscious attempt to burn off all that extra energy that the flight-or-fight syndrome had filled the body with. Because the glutes and the quads are the largest muscle groups in the body, the brain knows that by moving these muscles, the body can burn off the most amount of excess energy per unit time. Unfortunately, none of these movements helps your cause. All they do is distract from your message and telegraph to the audience that you’re really nervous. That’s not the message that you want to convey.

You don’t have to be like Yul Brynner in “The King and I” with your feet way apart, or drag in like John Wayne. Consider instead a comfortable, balanced stance.

That means hands comfortably down to the sides (neutral position) with feet slightly apart and weight evenly distributed on the balls of the feet. Use your knees like shock absorbers supporting your upper body comfortably. This will help you to avoid favoring one side over the other, and “rocking” back and forth.

Pacin’ the Cage

Can you take a step forward or back occasionally? Yes, but don’t start dancing or rocking (We call this the hula-hoop). Try to stay in one place without appearing like a tree rooted firmly in the ground. Pacing back and forth constantly, for no apparent reason, typically drives the audience crazy. Yeah, a few overzealous motivational speakers or mid-night TV kitchen appliance hawkers may get away with it, but it generally doesn’t fly in the business world.

On the other hand, if you’d like to pause and take a few steps forward to elaborate on that special point or take a step back to reflect and consider something, that’s O.K. But constant non-purposeful movement is weak.

Using Hands Appropriately

Then, decide what you are going to do with your hands and learn to gesture from the shoulders, not the elbows. Use your hands to describe and emphasize. Drop your hands down to your side (neutral position) when you’re starting your speech or when you’re done gesturing.

When you gesture from the neutral position, your gestures become more emphatic. If everything comes from the middle magnet position it looks like you are stuck in a phone booth. Dropping your hands down to your sides is for many difficult to do without constant practice. With most people, the hands immediately come back together like magnets or start grabbing things like clothing, various body parts like your face, or they jump back into your pockets.

If you are talking about an increase in sales, show us by raising your arm up. If you mention something about reducing costs, again, show us and make sure that the gesture is different than the one you used for an increase in sales. It’s amazing how many presenters will use the exact same gesture for an increase as they will for a decrease. That’s confusing.

Keep in mind that gesturing helps you think. Have you ever noticed some-one talking on the telephone? What do they do with the other hand that’s not holding the phone? They gesture and they gesture continually. Why? Because it helps them think and it helps them find the right words. Gesturing helps you relax and find the correct dialogue. And, you have something to do with those darned arms!

Finally, you certainly don’t want to appear robotic, but most of us need to think about how we will gesture for whatever concept we’re presenting, and how we will bring our emphasis to life with appropriate hand movement. It takes time and practice, and it needs to be well thought out.

Peggy Noonan is fond of saying, speaking of the audience, “They won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Appropriate gesturing, getting your whole body involved in the delivery process, is the easiest and most emphatic way of showing your passion for your topic.

About the Author

J. Douglas Jefferys is a principal at PublicSpeakingSkills.com, a national consulting firm training businesses of all sizes to communicate for maximum efficiency. The firm spreads its unique knowledge through on-site classes, seminars and DVD's.

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What Are The Appropriate Colors For Powerpoint Slides?

It is quite impossible to believe that the original versions of PowerPoint presentations could not display any colors other than black and white! Just imagine how boring those PowerPoint presentations may have been! Colors are very helpful in adding spice to a boring section of text. And it is because of this that people like to use color in all PowerPoint presentations!

Colors need not only be used in the animation of the PowerPoint presentation. It can also be used to highlight key phrases through which the audience’s attention is diverted to important concepts of the presentation. It also helps in the assimilation of information, and thus should not be overlooked when creating PowerPoint presentations!

However, when using colors, one has to careful about the color combination being used. Colors exhibit the different moods of the presenter; green is used to describe relaxing, red and yellow are urgent colors and are used for immediate action situations and blue seems to be sad or relaxing, depending on the circumstances. It is important to know how to use colors in presentations to get the best results from the presentations. The color wheel, or the chromatic wheel, is a useful tool used in graphic design while preparing preparing PowerPoint presentations. Here, the colors are aligned in a circle, depending on the order of visible colors in the electromagnetic spectrum, from red to blue. The primary colors, blue, red and yellow can be combined to give a large number of new colors that can look both well, and horrid together! The worst color combinations that could be made in a PowerPoint presentation is one where the two colors are placed in the same region, opposite to each other in the color wheel.

When making the PowerPoint presentation, it is better to avoid using color combinations of colors that are found on the opposite sides of the color wheel. For example, while red text on a green background is okay for Christmas, one should avoid this combination at all costs! Similarly, one should not make a PowerPoint presentation with a blue text on a yellow background. These colors seem to clash with each other and only hampers the effect of the combination. The color wheel also has to be considered when creating colorful PowerPoint presentations. It is the hue and saturation of colors that also determines the color choice in the PowerPoint presentation. Usually, dark text that is placed on a light background gives a more pronounced look, and it is also easier to read, than using light text on a dark background.

In PowerPoint presentations, to access the color palette or color scheme, one has to use the draw toolbar which defines the eight colors used for background, text and lines, titles, shadows and for filling the image. When beginning to design a presentation, it is vital to modify the first four colors in your color palette; i.e. background, shadows, title text and text and lines. In this way, you are sure that the chosen text color and background color are not the same. Remember, it is always better to use a dark background with light colored text, or vice versa. If you intend on using shadow effects on an object on the presentation, then select a color that is a shade darker than the background image because a lighter color does not look realistic as a shadow.

When using colors for your PowerPoint presentation, it is important to preview your PowerPoint presentation in the room scheduled for the speech . This is because, the quality of the image on the PowerPoint slide is affected by the amount of sunlight that is streaming into the room. The type of overhead lights used for your presentations also affects the quality of the image. Keeping all these points in mind when choosing the right colors for your color combination in the PowerPoint presentation is very important. Only then will one be able to create an effective PowerPoint presentation with the help of colors!

About the Author

Thomson Chemmanoor is an powerpoint expert offering powerpoint templates at his website http://www.powerpointguys.com/. For listing please visit http:www.powerpointguys.com/ for a perfect PowerPoint presentation.A place where you can find

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Professional PowerPoint Presentations With the Rules of Six and More

PowerPoint and all the bells and whistles that come with are being used more and more in business and other presentation venues. Before presenters became so attached to computers for visual aid production, a few rules existed for proper visual design that was often adhered to by the graphic design folks who built slides in the days before the personal computer. Now with everyone having access to a computer, those rules are often ignored during slide design. The result an unprofessional look and information overload. A return to some of the old rules, referred to as the rules of six, is in order. Also new rules are needed with the computer to keep slides with graphics and animations appropriate for professional use. Below are a few rules to consider when designing slides in PowerPoint.

Rules of Six for Slide Creation

• Use meaningful titles as introduction and summary of slide contents. Be sure to limit the number of words in title to no more than 6.
• Have no more than 6 bullets per text slide. Sub-bullets should be included in this count. Also it is preferable to have no more than 6 words per bullet.
• For tables of data, plan no more than 6 rows of data on a table to make it easier to read. However, for most audiences charts or graphs are better than tables. No more than 6 data points (bars, slices, lines) should be on a graph or chart.
• In relation to talk time on each slide consider for a 30 minute presentation to use 6 (5 minutes of talking per slide) slides or less that only highlight the key points of presentation. Or no more than 12 slides (averaging 2- 3 minutes talk time per slide) where you want to provide some details that might be hard for audience to capture in notes.

Rules for Graphics and Animation

• Only use images and graphics that summarize key points as a replacement for text, such as charts and graphs. Mixing too much on a slide only makes it crowded and confusing. Remember cute cartoons, silly photos, or movies typically don't add much to a professional presentation.
• Use animation and sounds wisely and sparingly. A consistent transition between slides does not fall under the animation caution. Transitions help the audience get ready for what is coming next. Also consider design template to get a more professional look with little effort. If the template has a distracting movement in it or the color is not desirable, go to the master slide view to remove the animation or change the background.
• Remember when it comes to a professional presentation, less really is more. The less the slide has on it, the more the presenter can illuminate on key points. The less words used, the more white space included, which marketing folks say readers find pleasing to the eye. The less the audience has to try to read on the screen, the more attention they can give to the presenter. If that is not convincing enough, consider that note-taking by audience, to supplement the slide contents, actually increases their retention of presented points by as much as 40%.
• Presenters should consider the black screen option for discussion or activity times, which do not require referencing a slide. To turn black screen on, press the letter B on the computer keyboard during a PowerPoint presentation, the screen will go dark. When ready to continue with the slide show, press B again and the show will return to where it was before.

Please consider utilizing the above rules when designing slides in PowerPoint on the computer to give a more professional appearance to slides and presenter. Remember, just because the makers of PowerPoint include lots of bells and whistles with the software, that doesn't mean that you have to use them. Reduce the chance of information overload on the audience by returning to the old rules of graphic design and adding the new rules offered here.

Shirley Fine Lee, author of "R.A!R.A! A Meeting Wizard's Approach", has worked as a training and development specialist since 1986, and an independent consultant since 2000. She has extensive experience, helping organizations with their team building, training development, meeting facilitation, presentation delivery, and other communication needs. This work involves developing productivity tools, presenting workshops, and writing. For instance, she has authored numerous training manuals and guides, on a wide variety of topics. Her programs include time management, getting organized, problem solving, and team building. Find out more about her and options she provides on her website.

http://www.shirleyfinelee.com

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Improved Presentation Delivery - How You Can Organize Your Presentation For Better Delivery

How you choose to organize your presentation directly affects its delivery. For you, a well-organized presentation will be easier to deliver. And for your audience, a well-organized presentation is easier to follow, easier to listen to and easier to understand. And that's all because good organization helps with the flow of ideas for a listening audience. Our choice of organizing techniques is potentially limitless. But five methods are used the most. These are:

1. Mind maps. Pictures that are uniquely linked together to tell a graphic story are most people's idea of a mind map. And that's essentially right. Pictures carry more ideas, meaning and nuance than words when you are under stress during a presentation. With a picture-based mind map your presentation structure is organized with a linked network of pictures and idea flows. A logical flow of ideas can be shown. Causes and effects can be illustrated. Or, perhaps, you can depict stories and vignettes that relate to your main points.
2. Prompt cards. A set of small cards (postcard sized) can support all your main presentation points. Their sequential order provides the flow to your presentation. Points can be written or typed in large type -- probably using one point for each card. Their order is important. So you don't have a disaster should they be dropped it's a good idea to tie them together.
3. Slides and overheads. Undoubtedly the organizing technique of choice for the harried executive. But ensure your reliance on the PowerPoint slide deck is only an organizing dependency; using the screen view you can be prompted at each step of your PowerPoint presentation. But take care of the basics. Don't be tempted to use too many slides. And don't be persuaded into reading out your slides -- either from the main or the view screen. Should you fall into the trap, then 'Death by PowerPoint' is a fitting description of the experience.
4. Outlines. A one or two page outline of your presentation should include each of your main points. You should also include your sub-points, cue points, places for audience interaction, stories and anecdotes. Readily accessible and easily read, the presentation outline is a serious choice for a well-rehearsed presenter.
5. Large words. You should not forget the written speech or presentation. Many serious presenters use scripts. And they are very successful. The script technique involves typing your entire presentation word by word. Each sentence should start on a new line. Your choice of typeface and font should be readable at a distance when using a lectern.

When you organize your presentation you present more efficiently. Your delivery will be better. Your pacing and timing will be well-tuned. And, best of all, your audience will appreciate your investment with a better response to your spoken words. It's worth the effort.

Andrew Ivey is the principal presentation skills trainer at Time to Market the UK-based effective presentation training resource. Time to Market provides speakers with presentation skills and public speaking training in single day and half day courses. Their public speaking newsletter, provides more ideas and techniques for effective presenting.

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Public Speaking - Owning "The Skills" - part 1

People who get paid well to speak all share one of two traits: either they're famous, or they own "The Skills". To be able to move people who don't know you as a celebrity of some sort, you must know how to keep your audience focused on you and your message, and how to keep them on the same page, on the same wavelength, every step of the way.

Keeping an audience with you is simply not possible with the way 99% of all public speakers behave when at the front of a group. When you speak the way most of us have been taught to do from an early age, you engage in behaviors that send the wrong signals to your audience - in many cases exactly the opposite of what you would like to signal. Worse, these standard behaviors actually reduce your cognitive capacity at the time you most desperately need it.
If these statements seem sweeping, please understand that we have been training people from business, politics, the military and the clergy for over 15 years in The Skills. During that time, we have had the privilege to work with over 10,000 people from all walks of life, and here is what we have learned: 99% of speakers engage in exactly the same behaviors, and consequently produce similar results when it comes to the quality of their speaking.
In fact, in every one of our on-site programs, we begin with an exercise that "benchmarks" how each student speaks prior to training, and we are able to predict to the second what each and every participant will do during their initial delivery. To the second!
Good News!
But that's the good news. It's good news because we also know that most people speak the way they do simply because they've never been shown the proper way. And though many people take courses in public speaking in high school or college, the format of those courses tends to emphasize the content part of speaking rather than the actual physical behaviors one needs to understand in order to acquire The Skills.
If you have ever taken a course in school, we bet that your assignments were to create a series of different types of speeches: The Informative, The Inspirational, The Motivational, etc., etc. Sound familiar? But what were you taught about the actual delivery, other than to look at everyone in the audience and watch your umms and ahhs? Worse, during your speaking career you probably have been receiving positive feedback for your behaviors no matter what you've been doing by people either too polite or simply not knowledgeable enough to tell you otherwise.
Speaking well: talent or training?
When people learn the proper way; when they understand what the audience expects of them as human beings; when they embrace the idea that it's OK to go into a presentation without having spent hours and hours rehearsing it; when they become comfortable with not knowing what they're going to say until just before they say it; and when they come to accept that often the most powerful thing they can say is nothing at all, they never engage in the old behaviors again. They approach every opportunity to speak to a crowd with desire and enthusiasm, and the larger the crowd, the better. They actually see speaking to a group as one of the most relaxing things they can do, as it is one of the few times left in life where they are free to do only one thing at a time. These people have The Skills.
And we can't emphasize enough that The Skills are, indeed, a set of behaviors that you learn, and not something that you are born with. Only a very small subset of people is 'born' with the ability to move a group to action with their words and actions. Those people have what the rest of us don't: it's called "charisma". Charismatics have been known to lead thousands to action by the power of their spoken words, often for good, and sometimes not. But charisma alone didn't get Bill Clinton to the top job in the world. Bill Clinton, believe it or not, was not always a great speaker. What he had was both charisma and the brains to know that he did not know everything - and that becoming a great speaker was both an essential job requirement and something that someone could be taught.
Bill Clinton was one of only a handful of men who was elected president of the United States without great personal or family wealth. He got elected on his ability to motivate people to listen to him, work for him, follow him and support him all the way. He was successful because he didn't simply speak; he spoke with a manner and a style that caused people to not only listen to his words but also to hear them, remember them, and to believe them. Bill Clinton has The Skills.
The Skills supersede genes, culture, background, heritage, and to a large extent even education. Many clients come to us because they want help with their accents or they feel their voice needs correcting in some way. Although we grant that there are some people with a speaking voice better suited to silent films, for the vast majority an accent or unique pitch only adds to the level of interest they can create as a speaker. That's because, as we'll learn, these traits simply add to one's "humanness".
It's about being you
People are not moved by messages delivered by speakers whom they don't feel are "real". And yet most of us were taught behaviors that cause us to adopt completely alien personas when we speak to groups. We try to become "Presenterman!" or "Presenterwoman!". Sadly, Hillary Clinton does this. Could you imagine spending dinner across the table from Hillary Clinton and having her speak to you the way she does to crowds? Pretty painful thought! Yet you could pretty much imagine that if you were sharing dinner with Bill, or Ronald Reagan, the conversation would be not unlike how you know them to speak in public. Alas, Hillary does not have The Skills.

Read more, part 2

J. Douglas Jefferys brings twenty-five years of corporate training experience to his role as a principal of PublicSpeakingSkills.com [http://www.publicspeakingskills.com]. His firm changes presenters lives forever with their unique apporach to training presentation design and delivery skills. Discover how to design and deliver presentations that audiences actually listen to by visiting their website now. For a quick and entertaining video of Mr. Jefferys' unique style and approach, check out: http://publicspeakingskills.com/pages/Store-DVD-Videos.htm

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