By James A. Baker
Author, The Anger Busting Workbook,
Finalist, Book of the Year, Foreword Magazine
Founder and CEO,
Baker Communications

10 Golden Rules for Memorable Presentations

1. Focus on the audience – Nervous presenters tend to stare off into space or look at the back wall. Do that and people will assume that you don’t care about them or your presentation. Instead, remind yourself to make eye contact with them. Don’t lock on one or two people. Keep your eyes moving from side to side, scanning from the front to the back. Smile as you catch someone’s eye. They will get the idea that you care, and they will start to care, too.

2. Interact with the audience, don’t lecture them – Nothing puts people to sleep faster than a speaker who just drones on and on. Make sure you do something to make the presentation interactive. Asking questions and soliciting reactions is a good way to keep people involved. Even if you are in front of an audience of several hundred in a large auditorium (now there is an exciting thought!), you can poll the audience by a show of hands or by cheering or clapping their responses. Interact with them and they will stick with you.

3. Humor helps – Another way to keep the audience on your side is to entertain them with a little humor. Laughter puts people at ease and makes them more receptive mentally and emotionally when you get ready to drop the heavy stuff on them. There are different types of humor for different types of presentations and audiences. Make sure your humor is appropriate, but don’t be afraid to use it.

4. Be real – People can spot a phony a mile away. Don’t imitate someone else’s style, and don’t adapt a style that is not consistent with who you are deep down. Be the best version of yourself. Of course, you need to project and speak clearly, and make effective use of body language, but don’t try to be someone else. Go out there and be you. They will like you and trust you, once it is clear you are not trying to fake them out.

5. Tell the truth – This is just a personal thing with me, I guess. A lot of presenters with important things to say may be tempted to pull punches because they aren’t sure how their audience will react, especially if that audience is made up of senior executives or board members. If you have something to say, avoid the temptation to sugar coat it. If Paul Revere’s message had consisted of a suggestion that the British might arrive in the not too distant future, Americans would all be driving on the left hand side of the road today. Tell the truth. Your audience will respect your for it.

6. Don’t read or memorize your speech – If you want your people to trust what you say, you can’t come across sounding like a robot. Learn your material well enough that you can deliver it conversationally, but don’t try to package it word for word. People aren’t persuaded by words, they are persuaded by how relaxed and natural you are when you are sharing those words with them. Strange, but true.

7. Lose the cement overshoes and the straight jacket – When you are hanging out with your friends, telling your favorite story, do you stand perfectly still with your arms at your side and never move at all? Of course not! Your body and your words have to work as a team. Loosen up a little. Your movements should be natural and not stiff or forced, but your body must move. People will get uncomfortable if you stay stuck in one place, and they will quit listening.

8. Eliminate nervous habits – Don’t jingle coins in your pocket or tug on that strand of hair on the side of your face or constantly pace back and forth or break up every other sentence by saying “errr” or “you know.” Video our presentations, identify the things that are distracting, and stop doing them.

9. Don’t be married to your PowerPoint – Yes, slides can enhance the impact of some aspects of your content, but your slides must not become your content. People can read just fine without your help, so if you don’t have something to give them besides what is in the deck, don’t bother showing up. The janitor can start the projector just fine without you.

10. Close with something memorable – Find a story or a compelling fact or a ringing challenge or a great joke that defines your main point. People remember things that touch them emotionally much longer than they remember facts and figures. Give them something to talk about on the way home, and your presentation will be a success.

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Presentation Tip - Are You Grounded?

Even the most effective and professional presenters and public speakers struggle to some degree with presentation anxiety. Our bodies naturally adopt a defensive posture when we stand up in front of a group of people who all have their eyes trained on us. This “fight or flight” response creates sweaty palms, shallow breathing, increased heart rate, queasy stomach and muscle tension. It also makes it very hard to give a smooth relaxed program! One way to fight this is to do what psychologists call getting grounded. While you are sitting quietly waiting for your introduction, take an inventory of what you see and hear around you – the table cloth is white, the china has a silver rim, my shoes are shiny, the lady next to me is wearing a wig, etc. Breathe slowly and deeply as you do this. By focusing on the little details around you, even the sound of your breathing, you are no longer focusing on your nervous symptoms and they will gradually melt away. Now you are ready to get up and knock ‘em dead.