Business Without the Bullsh*t: 49 Secrets and Shortcuts You Need to Know (25 page)

DO have a separate handout.
If there is data that you want the audience to have, put it into a separate document for distribution after your presentation. Don’t use your slide deck as a data repository.

DO stand up rather than remaining seated.
The body language of standing while others sit keeps the focus on you and your ideas. If you’re sitting with everyone else, it’s a conversation, not a presentation, which is entirely different.

DO check your equipment in advance.
If you must use PowerPoint, or plan on showing videos or something, check to make sure the equipment really works. Then check it again. Then one more time.

DO have somebody else introduce you.
Write a short (one-hundred-word) bio and a short statement (fifty words) of what you’ll be talking about. Have the person who invited you to the meeting read it aloud, or have it included in the invite.

DO set a time limit.
Since you’re asking people to be a captive audience, it’s only fair for you to let them know how long they are going to be captive. (This also encourages you to be brief.)

DON’T tell a “warm-up” joke.
Unless you’re naturally humorous, telling a joke communicates that you are nervous and unsure of yourself. Leave comedy to the professionals.

DO take the room’s “temperature.”
If the group is small, have each person state what he or she would like to learn from your presentation. If the group is large, ask a question that demands a show of hands.

DO speak to the audience.
Great public speakers keep their focus on the audience, not on their notes. Focusing on the audience encourages the audience to focus on you and your message.

DON’T meander and skip.
Letting yourself digress or flip around from slide to slide simply makes you look unprepared. If you must improvise, do so within the structure of the presentation.

DON’T direct your remarks solely to the senior attendee.
While he or she may be the final decision-maker, it’s likely that you will have to convince the others in the room to do business with you and your company as well.

DO make eye contact with multiple people.
As you make a point, look at one person in the audience, then continue. When you make your next point, look at a different person, and so on.

MEMORABLE PRESENTATIONS

TO
lessen stage fright, speak to individuals not the entire audience.

PLAN
out an emotional journey for the audience.

FLAG
the places where the audience will feel emotions.

BUILD
a story that creates the emotions in that order.

ARRANGE
everything into a simple structure.

MAKE
slides relevant, short, simple, and readable.

CUSTOMIZE
your presentation and rehearse it.