Presentation Tips: 5 Lessons I learned in 2022
Do you enjoy making mistakes? I’m going to assume probably not. Don’t worry, neither do I. But guess what, I make them. You make them. We all make them. Now that we’ve forgiven ourselves for being human and making mistakes, let’s be the type of humans who learn from our mistakes. Because a mistake is only a mis-take. Luckily, you can choose to re-take.
Here are 5 lessons I learned in 2022 from making mistakes in presentations. I’m framing my mistakes as mis-takes which means that I get to do another take, the same way as in acting when we reshoot a scene. Re-takes are how I aim to improve my speaking game in practical ways that I can easily execute. My hope is that my mis-takes inspire you to try different methods in your own speaking and confidence journey.
Why is my talk missing something? Why, why…WHY?!
Explicitly align your content with your ‘why’. Your ‘why’ gives your content purpose. Connecting with your why is fuel for your audience’s motivation to implement your suggestions.
Mist-take: I delivered a few presentations on ‘How to use your voice with confidence’. It didn’t feel to me like I was making the impact that I knew I could make. I would share tools with my audience to help them develop their voices. But, I didn’t always make it clear why vocal development was crucial to them and explain the impact it would make in their lives.
Re-take: Here’s an example of how I now incorporate my WHY in a presentation on the confident voice: A free and empowered voice needs to be relaxed. That’s why it is vital to relax your jaw. A tight jaw restricts sound which results in a thin voice. A thin voice makes you sound weak. It diminishes your presence and people could take you less seriously. Basically your tight jaw is pinching you off from your power. That’s why the following exercise to relax your jaw will empower your voice...
Ask yourself:
How can I share more of my why with my team or audience?
Why is my message valuable for my audience?
2. Dial your audience
This is a valuable tip I learned from the leading presentation coach Paul du Toit, in his book You Can Present with Confidence. Ask the organiser for the contact details of 2 or 3 people who will be attending. Then, pick up the phone and ask them a few questions to help you understand their problems or challenges.
Mis-take: For all my presentations during 2022 I would ask the organiser questions about the audience via email. I have a template of questions that I usually pick from and send 2-5 questions, depending on the event. After a year of following this email method, I never fully felt like I understood the need of my audience. I felt frustrated with my audience research process.
Re-take: Paul’s advice about actually phoning people from your audience feels so powerful to me. And I’ll be doing that this year with all my talks and presentations. Thank you Paul! What if an organiser doesn’t want to share audience contact details with me? This is completely understandable and worth respecting. Therefore, my plan B is to phone the organiser so that I can cross-question him/her until I feel satisfied that I fully understand my audience’s needs. The point is that this is a phone call and not an email exchange.
Ask yourself:
What measures can I take to understand my audience and their challenges?
Who can I call?
3. Can you see my screen x10
When conducting a virtual presentation, you officially have permission to ask whether the audience can see your slides, multiple times. At least for the first 3 slides ask if the audience can see your slides. ‘Can you see my next slide with the chicken?’ - this is not an annoying question. It is of vital importance because technology also makes mistakes and virtual communication has many barriers because you can’t pick up on non-verbal cues from your audience.
Mis-take: For one particular presentation my slides worked perfectly in the technical rehearsal before the live presentation. Then when I presented to the live audience, only my first slide showed and for the rest of the presentation the screen was black. I asked my audience ONCE if they could see my screen…no response. So I made an assumption that all was fine. For the ENTIRE presentation, my audience was looking at a black screen!! I’m still cringing about this experience. The truth is that I didn’t want to sound annoying and unprofessional by asking if they could see my screen. In hindsight, asking multiple times would have been the most professional thing to do.
Re-take: I now ask my audience multiple times if they can see my screen and then I wait for a response. Also, I actually prefer not to use slides and I’m currently looking to use more pro features from Prezi.
Ask:
Can you see my screen?
4. Do not end after the Q&A
Do not end your presentation with a Q&A session. This is another game-changing tip from leading presentation expert Paul du Toit. Paul suggests that you should warn your audience upfront that you will set aside time for questions and that you will end with your conclusion.
Mis-take: I usually conclude my talk and say: “Now it’s time for questions”. Then the entire presentation ends at the back end of the question and answer session. Risky…very risky. This approach gives away a lot of your control to the audience. My question sessions are usually a lot of fun, but ending this way does leave my presentation up in the air.
Re-take: “I’m going take a few questions from the audience before I share my final concluding thoughts with you.” This is such a handy tip from Paul as it gives you your power back!
Ask yourself:
How do I usually end my presentations?
How can I take responsibility for a strong ending?
5. Simplify the call to connect
At the end don’t spread yourself thin by giving your audience all your social media handles to connect with you. Give them one. Simplify their access to you.
Mis-take: Whether it’s an interview or a presentation, the host usually asks: “Tell us, where can we connect with you?” To which I usually respond, “You can find me on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube and my website…Oh and here’s a freebie that you can download.” Talk about overload! Too many options lead to indecision and in-action. It’s like going on a date and scaring your potential lover away. Too much!
Re-take: This year I’m leaving my audience with one simple way to connect: “For more ways to speak with confidence I invite you to subscribe to my free newsletter. You can subscribe on my website.” See, I’m only giving my audience one way to learn from me and that is through my newsletter. Then if they like my methods and teachings, they can choose to follow my other social media platforms. And dear reader, if you haven’t done so, I invite you to join my newsletter!
Ask yourself:
What is the ONE way I advise my audience to connect with me?
Mis-takes are part of the human experience. I aim to dust myself off in 2023 and implement the 5 lessons I’ve shared with you. The 5 lessons are:
connect my content with my WHY,
calling the organiser to better understand my audience's needs,
when presenting online ask if my audience can see my slides,
to always conclude my final thoughts after the Q&A and
offer my newsletter as a connection point for audience members.
Which one of these tips is your favourite? If you’d like more of this type of content, let me know! I’ve made many more mistakes and have plenty of re-takes that I can share with you!
Sending you confidence
Ursula Botha