I have seen hundreds of presentations delivered in hundreds of locations over the years and there is one thing I have noticed above all else, that is no matter what the subject matter is, no matter what visual aids are used, the most successful and most powerful presentations are the ones delivered using a natural, conversational style.

The biggest obstacle to a conversational style is our mind. When we think presentation, we think formal, we think serious, we think business. Yet while to some degree these things may be true, we do not have to speak in a formal and boring way. However, when we write out our words and practice and practice and practice those same words over and over again we lose that conversational style.

When we talk with our colleagues we do not have to write what we want to say down on a piece of paper and read it to them. We never write out what we are going to say to our friends when we meet them for a few drinks or a coffee. And because we do not write out exactly what we want to say, we sound natural and human. We think mid sentence, we start a sentence then stop half way through speaking it. All these natural speaking habits create the conversational style.

When it comes to presenting, we do need to prepare. We do need to practice and we do need to have a good idea of what we are going to say. However, to create that conversational style we have to interact with our audience. Using rhetorical questions can help, moving around on the stage and looking at our audience also helps. there are so many ways to help you to create that natural, conversational style.

If you are one of the many presenters out there that have to write out your words, try a different approach. Get yourself a voice recorder, and during your preparation have a conversation with yourself. Imagine you are talking to someone about what you are going to say in your presentation. Think: “I am having a conversation”. Then, when you are happy with your words, transcribe the words onto paper.

The problem we have when we are writing out our words is that we naturally write formally. It is very difficult in English to write informally, therefore the words we write come out formally. To avoid this, it is far better to speak out your words and then transcribe those words. They will sound much more natural.

When you are out there doing your presentation, imagine that you are having a conversation with your audience, they are your friends, they are there to help you and they want to have fun.

Finally, below is a presentation from TED by Creativity Professor Sir Ken Robinson. Sir Ken Robinson is a great example of a presenter who when speaking has that fantastic conversational style. Notice how he asks a lot of rhetorical questions (“… am I right?”) and how he looks at the audience and laughs with them.

Recently, I have read a number of books on the life of Sir Winston Churchill. Churchill is famous for many things, but possibly he is most famous for his inspirational speaking.

Churchill never possessed the clear tones that President Barack Obama does, nor did his possess the easy conversational style of Tony Blair. Churchill actually had a speech impediment that left him with difficulty pronouncing “S’s”. However, what Churchill did possess was a remarkable ability to stress the important phrases and words within his speech. He spoke slowly and carefully and was able to put incredible emotion in to his speeches that made what he was saying believable and honest sounding – unlike most politicians today.

Churchill also memorised his speeches. Most advice given today is you should never memorise a presentation or a speech as it makes you sound robotic, however, Churchill compensated for this by the way he stressed his words and by dictating his speeches to his secretaries. He then practiced incessantly until he got his stress, intonation and naturalness perfect. That is something you must do if you have to memorise your speeches. Practice, practice and practice until you have the stress, tone and flow perfect.

Below is an excerpt transcript of Churchill’s famous “Never Surrender” speech given in 1940. I have highlighted the words that are stressed so that you can see how this famous speech was developed:

We shall fight in France and on the seas and oceans; we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields, and in streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender and even if, which I do not for the moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, will carry on the struggle until in God’s good time the New World with all its power and might, sets forth to the liberation and rescue of the Old.

You can also listen to the speech by watching this little video:

Memorising your speech is dangerous if you do not practice enough, but it is possible to deliver a great speech using this method. When memorising your speech remember to stress words, use dramatic pause, and practice in the shower, bathroom and anywhere else you can get a few minutes.

Gov. Chris Christie is fast becoming a star in US politics because of his direct, honest and sometimes argumentative style. Having recently followed the British General Election, an election where not one politician could give a straight answer to a straight question, watching and listening to Chris Christie explaining to a journalist why he is sometimes ‘confrontational’ is refreshing and enjoyable to watch.

As presenters, we too often worry about our “Style” and the way we ‘sound’. But as Chris Christie says:

I could say it really nicely. I could say it in a way you all might feel more comfortable with … but the fact of the matter is; this is who I am, and this is who the people elected

And that is something that we, as presenters, must remember. Be yourself, let your personality and character come out in your presentations and stop worrying about ‘style’.

Here’s a quick tip for those of you who have to regularly do presentations.

When we present, we usually have to introduce ourselves to our audience. Of course, there are times when we present to our coworkers and in this situation it would be impractical to do a personal introduction. But when we do need to do a personal introduction it is a good idea to have a pre-prepared opening ready.

The advantages of having an introduction pre-prepared is that it can give you the confidence boost you need to deliver a strong presentation, a presentation where your confidence is high all the way the through.

I was recently watching a couple of Guy Kawasaki presentations on YouTube, one was from 2006 and one from 2008. What I noticed was the Guy used the same opening to introduce himself in both presentations, even though they were two years apart. There were a few differences, but these were very small. The advantages of doing this for Guy was that it enabled him to begin his presentations with humour that worked, and it also allowed him to be confident.

So, if you do do presentations regularly, prepare an introduction now, practice it and get it right, because introducing yourself is something you are going to have to do 95% of the time you do a presentation. A strong beginning usually always leads to a strong middle and a strong ending.

Below are the two You Tube videos I saw:

In the final part of how to turn a presentation in to a great presentation I want to focus on 5 tips you can use that will help you with the language you should be using when you present.

So, here are the five language tips you can use that will help turn your next presentation in to a great presentation.

1. Use short sentences.

In modern day English, the trend is for us to use short, simple sentences. The reason for this is that shorter sentences are easier to follow and also helps your presentation feel like it is flowing faster. Another advantage of using short sentences is that it helps you, a non-native English speaker, to remember the key phrases and sentences you need to use.

2. Use Action words

English is an action language, not a descriptive language. So always try to use an action verb or action phrase. Doing this will keep your audience interest high. For example. Use words like:

Developed, produced, created, designed, sold and shipped

Notice how Steve Jobs always begins his presentations with an ‘update’. By doing this he allows himself to begin his presentation with positive, action words that get his audience excited and amazed.

3. Tell personal stories

One of the biggest criticisms I hear from native English speakers when talking about how Korean people present in that Korean presenters always sound inhumane. It is as if they are not human. One way round this is to tell stories from your own life. It is possible that you are taught from an early age that you should not mix your personal life with your professional life. This is just BS! Business is human. Doing business is about human relationships and contacts. So, tell stories from your personal life.

Before is an example of a speaker at TED telling a personal story to begin his presentation. Doing this makes him sound much more human and allows him to connect with his audience

4. Use positive adjectives

In English we like to hear positive words. Positive words stimulate our minds and keeps our attention. A presentation full of negative adjectives is likely to send us to sleep. So, when you are preparing your presentation, check through it carefully to make sure that the majority of words you are using are positive. Examples of positive words are:
Brilliant, cool, excellent, fantastic, great.

WARNING! - Do not keep using the same words over and over again. If you do, you create a Mark Anthony situation (This situation comes from Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar where Mark Anthony repeated the words “for they are honourable men” over and over again during his speech following the murder of Julius Caesar, to the point where his audience began not to believe these words – they became sarcastic)
5. Use Emotional words

The best presentations create emotion. The emotion they create does not matter, it can be funny or sad. It really does not matter. Presentations that evoke emotion are always memorable and always get talked about.
To create emotion in a presentation get your audience to imagine a situation. For example:
“Imagine how you feel when you are stuck in a huge traffic jam and you are five minutes away from the most important interview of your life”

By asking your audience to ‘imagine’ how they would feel in a given situation, allows your audience to feel the emotion you want them to feel. It’s a great trick and it keeps your audience involved in your presentation.
By following the advice given here and in my previous two posts you can turn any presentation in to a great presentation. Good luck and stay positive.

This week I decided to go through the elements of making a great presentation. In part one I explained about how stories, whether they flow throughout the whole presentation, or they are simple short stories linked together by a theme can make a huge difference in your presentation. Today, I want to show you how by linking your words to the relevant images your story can contain the emotions of surprise, sadness and drama.

I grew up with BBC’s David Attenborough teaching me about wildlife and nature. In his early days, David Attenborough was in the video, but in his more recent TV shows he only does the voiceover (VO)

However, recently I have been watching BBC’s Life programme and I was amazed how the way the video and the voice work together to create stories that have drama, excitement and intrigue. Below is a clip that tells the story of how a Venus Fly Trap captures its food.

You can watch the video clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7eQKSf0LmY

If you took away the words, this video would not have the same dramatic feel, neither if you only heard the voice would you get the same sense of drama. This video works because both the visuals and the words work together as one to stimulate all the emotions.

When we are presenting, this is exactly how we need to present. Images alone do not make your presentation, if you are using images they need to be relevant to your subject and they need to follow exactly the flow of your words. When you marry your words with your images and you couple that to your story, then, and only then, are you delivering a great presentation.

With the United Kingdom about to start it’s General Election campaign, and with the historic Party Leader debates expected to begin next week, I thought it would be a good time to introduce some lessons for all presenters that we can learn from the US Presidential debates.

On the BBC Today programme today, American political consultant, Frank Lunz, gave some tips on how to perform in a debate, and here are a few things we can learn from:

1. Have a soundbite. Soundbites are little phrases or words that stick in your audience’s mind after the event. In a presidential debate, these are the phrases that the radio shows and TV stations repeat over and over again. Remember George Bush Snr’s “Read my lips: no new taxes”? that’s the soundbite. When we present, we should always try and create a soundbite that our audience will always remember. Something that they will talk about long after our presentation has finished.
2. Look at ease. Essentially, this means look relaxed. Frank Lunz says in a debate “if you look nervous, you lose” and while it is not quite so dramatic in our presentations, it is still important to look relaxed. When we are relaxed, our audience relaxes with us. When we look nervous, our audience is nervous with us.
3. Finally, break the rules. Personally, I think this is the best advice. The rules of presenting, if such rules really exist, force you to present in a standard way. The standard way of presenting is boring. Break away from the rules, don’t give your name and position at the beginning, start with a dramatic statement, don’t use slides with your company logo on them or if you have 60 minutes to speak, stop after 30 minutes. When it comes to presenting, rules are made to be broken. So break them.

Learning from the experts is always a great way to improve our skills, and a presentation is not just about PowerPoint or Keynote. We also need to perform. So remember, have a soundbite or two, relax and break some rules.

Below is a great little video of Venture Capitalist, Guy Kawasaki, breaking the rules. Sit back and enjoy Guy at his brilliant best.

There is quite possibly nothing more focussed when it come to story telling than the traditional TV commercial. You have usually 30 to 60 seconds to capture your audience’s attention, tell your story and make them want to buy your product or service.

Studying TV commercials is a great way to learn how to tell a story in a focussed, relevant way.

One of the most interesting type of commercial is the tourist commercials of various countries. I have studied the recent commercials of India and Malaysia and I am struck by the way the creators of these commercials can tell their story in such a warm, emotive way and in such a short period of time.

Above is the advert from India, entitled “Incredible India”. Although this commercial is two minutes long, the story it tells is ‘incredible’. My guess is that most people’s perceptions of India is a large, dusty, polluted country with little or no beauty to see. Certainly not a country with amazing beaches, gorgeous mountains and fantastic beauty. There are no words as such, just images. These images tells the story of a young (ish) man, travelling round India experiencing the sites and sounds, and thinking about what to write in his post card home.
In two minutes, this commercial changed my idea of India, it brought some wonderful emotions to mind, and had me wanting more.

Above is Malaysia’s award winning advert from 2007. Here is another commercial that brings the emotions of spending a relaxing time with your family, with warm, sunny beaches, beautiful mountains and exquisite mountains to mind. Again, the story is simple, yet inspiring and there is no need for words as the images, together with the song convey the message the advertisers want.
And there is the point for us presenters. We often talk about the importance of telling stories in our presentations, yet the vast majority of presentations done around the world have no stories at all. Just facts and figures, and a lot of unnecessary words. What we can learn from these commercials is that our stories do not have to be complex or long, they just have to be simple and relevant to what we are talking about.
When we are presenting our latest product to our best customer, we need to show them how the product can change their lives, we can do that by telling stories, by ‘tapping’ in to their emotional side, and not just giving the numerical data, facts and figures. Numerical data, facts and figures have no emotion, in many ways they are not meaningful to us. By turning our data and numbers into relevant stories we can turn our presentations into powerful communication tools.

I had the great honour of attending the TEDx event in Seoul, last weekend. This was a shared event between TEDx Sookmyung and TEDx Myeongdong and the title was “Young Spirit , Visualize Your Idea”.

What was great to see was the seemingly complete move away from text based slides to a much more visual slide. Simple sentences and images say so much more than lines and lines of text, and that was demonstrated in abundance at this event.

The whole event was fantastically organised, with little intro videos before each speaker. This gave the event a feel of professionalism. Below, is a sample of one of the intro videos that was for guest speaker Bill Dresselhaus

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One of the great things about TED is the wonderful resources available on the main TED website. Here you can watch, completely free, some of the world’s best presenters talking passionately about what they truly believe in.
With the creation of the TEDx groups, you too can enjoy a TED event in your very own home town. So check out the TED website for a full list of TEDx cities and go along and watch some amazing presentations – you will not be disappointed.

Having spent a number of years teaching business English to large numbers of students where English was not their native language, I very quickly learned that one of the key requisites for any speaker when speaking to an international audience is to speak slowly.

Now, I am a native English speaker, most of you may not be. But the same rules apply to non-native English speakers. In fact, speaking slowly is probably more important for a non-native speaker than a native one because of possible pronunciation difficulties.

When you are presenting you are not in a race to finish. Your job is to communicate your message in a way that your audience a) understands and b) remembers. If you fail at these basic communication goals your whole presentation fails.  

When you are preparing your presentation, always practice your presentation in front of someone and get their feedback. They will tell you if you are speaking too fast. I always remember a very wise man who told me that when you are doing a presentation in front of a group of people, if you think you are speaking at a normal speed, then you are speaking too fast.

It is unlikely that you will ever speak too slowly when you present because your nerves will automatically speed you up. So focus on your words, think slow and try to relax a little. Focus on the stress and intonation of your words, pause before saying an important word, or an ‘action verb‘ to give it more impact. These little tips will help you to slow down.

I always find that when I feel very strongly about a subject, my passion speeds me up without me realising it. A tip here is to stop when you think you are going too fast and take a breath.

If you take a look at the Jamie Oliver speech at TED 2010, Jamie’s passion and enthusiasm floods out of him. It was a brilliant presentation, but at times he speaks too fast. But if you watch carefully, when he realised he was speaking too fast he stopped himself. He took a breath and started again more slowly.

I know there is a lot to think about when you are presenting in a foreign language, and having to worry about your speed is yet another thing to worry about. But most of the things you have to worry about can be dealt with before you begin your presentation, by proper planning and preparation, but speaking too fast is something you really do need to watch for during your presentation, and when you do find yourself speaking too fast be brave enough to slow down.