Do you have Tips for Presentation Style?

Great post, Chris! As an instructor myself, I know you’re right (even though I still tend to speak fast).

To anyone worrying about this, I can recommend Robert Jolles’ “How to Run Seminars & Workshops”, which admittedly I’m currently about a quarter into. Excellent advice on structuring material, dealing with problematic personalities, etc. Comforting stuff.

Thanks for the tips Chris. I know when I talk to people or make videos for YouTube, and will sometimes just sit there and go um… um… um… But I think your tips will help me. I know you like doing your video live, and you don’t like to edit your videos. I am the exact opposite. I payed to money to get Adobe Premiere Pro, so I intend to use it. I am a really big fan of editing, and putting special effects into my videos. Also maybe you shouldn’t do reviews of printers since they take you so long to actually record a video that you are satisfied with.

good list: I love being in the spotlight, but was kind of haphazard about prep. This book helped a great deal: http://www.presentationzen.com by Garr Reynolds.

One thing that drives me crazy about presentations that are done using PowerPoint or KeyNote (FTW) is people that put their entire script on each of the slides. That drives me crazy. All they do is read what everyone else can already see.

PLEASE use PowerPoint or KeyNote (FTW) as an aid to present. It should be an outline that keeps people on track with what your talking about. If your entire script is being beamed to your audience, you would have saved them a lot of time by simply printing out the slides or posting the slides as a PDF on a website.

Both PowerPoint and KeyNote (FTW) do have the ability to have a create a notes section. You can then print a copy of the notes for yourself so you can remember to say certain things without putting them on your slide.

I have one word for you Richard - Toasmasters (Toastmasters.org). This takes a cue from Chris’ advice about practice. Toastmasters is a worldwide organization of local clubs that help people learn and practice public speaking. It is an organization that give folks a place to practice speaking in front of others and provides a great program of instruction which helps with all the problems that Richard asked about.

Please be sure to chack out your local club Richard!

Hey Chris I work with a school where I live. We have a very unick dialect and are fast specking. some times dealing with people from other parts of the world they get lost Because of the way myself and others talk.

Slow down was more then likely best advise there. IT seems as people get more nervous they start talking faster and faster.

Excellent advise as always.

thanks for the tip! very useful in my situation. i tend to speak too fast when having presentations at school too. i’ve always been conscious of my lines, grammar, pronuciation and accent. when thinking about those while speaking in front, i tend to lose my focus and screw up the presentation. a friend told me once that i should be calm, focused, think that if my classmates can do it so can i., and, mostly, know and accept my limitations(i’m not perfect, wah’d you expect? XD).

I think sometimes it’s better to rehearse some aspects of what you are going to say before you do a presentation because you might stumble upon a better way of saying it or use different words to get the point across. But even if it takes a few takes when recording videos it’s basically the same thing. Even though you might not get it perfect in the way you want it people have been following you for sometimhe and they like to see when you have moments of unedited content because it just shows your like most of us when it comes to doing everyday things.

I found one tip of evidence incredibly important; always remember the people are waiting for you, make sure you are comfortable before you start. No one is going to charge up and kill you if you misspeak or get a fact wrong.
But yes I agree the most important thing to do if you aren’t a natural speaker is to pracitice, to at least make sure you have a basic understanding of the material and an outline of what you plan on discussing, so that you don’t end up with ummm and ahhhs (silence is far better), the less of those the better your presentation will be.

I agree Chris Pirillo on your method. I have been able to tell by the number of your videos that you have on youtube that practice helps. Just like with anything else it helps to just do it, just practice whatever whether it be speaking or building something. Another thing on that you mentioned about redoing a video that is a very good idea. Each time you redo a video you fix whatever you found wrong with the previous video. It may take a while to get something the way you want, but it is worth it in the end. Good advice in the video Chris.

Well, of course it is really good , that is because he is a English Teacher and has practiced a lot, Chris , it’s bit good to criticize yourself once in a while, cause you can learn of that experience and be better the next time, but not to much like that CNN clip , ok, you said that dude’s name wrong, so what ? you said it wrong, it isn’t the end of the world, everyone knows that everything can’t be perfect for ever, if everything bugs you and you let it get to you then you will get nuts and depressed, that isn’t good.

great tips! i will definitely use some of those in my next presentations. in my presentations i like to use powerpoints, but instead of bulleted lists i use pictures and movie clips.it just makes it more interesting for the audience. AND i also try to bring plenty of props because people tend to be more interested in physical things than ideas. for example you can talk about how great your new speakers are, but letting someone see and hear them just makes them that much better. thanks for the tips tho because i usually plan a perfect presentation, but then i get too nervous and talk to fast or tend to fidget a little.lol.

Some tips for presentation style is to constantly keep your audience informed of what you are doing. Also another good tip. Try switching live cameras in different angles so viewers can see what is going on. If you have any spare that is. You are doing very good chris and you should keep up the good work.

The 9 steps from my public speaking class:
1. Consider the audience
2. Select and narrow topic
3. Determine purpose
4. Develop central idea
5. Generate main ideas
6. Gather supporting material
7. Organize speech
8. Rehearse speech
9. Deliver speech

If you know what you’re going to say, know what message you want to get across, know the audience that will be receiving your message and have a basic idea of how they’re going to react, then it’s really a piece of cake.

I am the same as some people. when i tired to give a presentation. i would get nervous. I would try to to talk and hurry through it so i could be down with it. But There are some problems doing that. The main problem for me was i didn’t get a could grade. I know i shouldn’t be one to give advice because i still hate to give presentation likely i don’t half to right now but for the one that do half to give them you just half to keep this in mind you probably aren’t the only one giving them and should worry just go out there and do your best. If you stay came you’ll be fine.

hello,
i cannot agree enough that practice is the most important thing when you are going to give a presentation or speak in pulic in any capacity. first you make sure that you know your material COLD. have it memorized. then you put the paper down and do it again and again until it feels natural and familiar. talking too fast is a common problem that people have when speaking in public. one way to overcome this is to imagine that you’re talking to a friend over a cup of coffee. there’s no pressure. you’re just chatting with someone you know. when you relax, you’ll naturally speak slower and be more comfortable. i personally enjoy speaking in public….i like the spotlight :) these are my little tips to make it a more enjoyable experience.

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I do public speaking myself, this helps me to relax and watch the rest of the group doing speeches and conversations, preparing you for the big night!

Drill your main points, and take your time. If you are really trying to communicate with the audience they will listen more.

Thank you very much, Chris, for answering my question. The points you brought up about not filling up every second with noise, and not worrying about the audience too much really helped. I am going to take your suggestion and record myself speaking to see if there is anything I can see that I need to improve.

I like the suggestion that “Siamese27″ made earlier in the comments section of this blog post:

“One way to overcome this is to imagine that you’re talking to a friend over a cup of coffee.”

I think that is really going to help me. I never really thought of it that way. The old saying, “Imagine everyone in their underwear,” never worked for me.

Thank you to both Chris and “Siamese27″ for providing me with these suggestions for improving my presentations skills. I am still open to more suggestions if anyone has any.

Dr. P,

Don’t even get my started on the “Uh’s” and “Um’s”!!!

I was watching a product demonstration video online yesterday; it was 57 minutes long. The product actually looked really cool…. but I had to shut the video off after 10 minutes because the guy was saying “Uh” and “Um” so much!

Now I’m not going to sit here and say that his “Uh’s” and “Um’s” were causing me to want to blow my brains out, because that would be violent. However, I can assure you that I was getting pretty close.

I wanted to e-mail the dude to say, “Greetings dude. Hey, you really need to outsource that product demonstration video to a professional because your ‘Uh’s’ and ‘Um’s’ are a huge turnoff to your audience”.

But unfortunately, I couldn’t find his e-mail address…. so I guess he will be without my splendid advice.

Anyway, uhhhh…. I guess I’m done for now…. ummm…. I think your show is pretty cool and…. uhhh…. well…. ummm…. keep up the great work.

-James…. uhhh…. ummm…. Gia

I think the main key to your presentation style is listening to your viewers. You must mold everything towards them.

Hmm… tips for a presentation. Yea.. use Keynote instead of PowerPoint.
While it doesn’t seem like there is a lot to it, once you get into the brains of it, and really start working with it. (Yes, it takes a while, I’ll admit) It does absolutely everything PLUS more. Not only that, if your mac has a IR sensor, and a Apple Remote, you already have a presentation remote! Hot dang.. just another thing Apple looked @.

Chris thats so true you have to go into your emotions. when i started my Live stream and i talked the 1st time it was crazy but then i went in to my emotions and i just talked well and it got better…

Thanks for the tip, i have a Maasai Culture Presentation i need to give for my school project, and this would definitely help me with my presentation.

I remember when I had to do a report. I did the report on Michael Crichton. But I wanted to go beyond just a paper report. So I decided to show a clip from the TV show ER. He is the creator. And I also showed my favorite scene in Jurassic Park. The movie is based on a book that he wrote. I found that showing all this made the class want to know more about Michael Crichton and the books that he writes. It also made the presentation a little easier for me. Because they weren’t focused totally on me. I made a passing grade. And everyone enjoyed it. I was the only one that did that.

The worst thing it happened when I started giving presentations, at school that is, was not remembering what I had to say. But I’d improvise.
When speaking in front of a crowd, even if one’s bad at it, they should be creative and enjoy doing it.

In the end it’s nothing more than a conversation! :)

I’m very shy and I dont have a presentation “style”, but am learning alot from watching others I admire. I guess that would be my “tip”.. learn by observing others in the field you’re interested in.

I think everyone faces this situation(being nervous) once in their life time and as chris said, it’s totally normal but you just have to learn how to control your self. Also try to think that you are the leader to the viewers and speak like you know what you are doing(works for me). Speak SLOW, that is very important because if you loose a line or you couldn’t control your self, you have enough time to take a breath, rethink and start over.

GL

I think everyone faces this situation(being nervous) once in their life time and as chris said, it’s totally normal but you just have to learn how to control your self. Also try to think that you are the leader to the viewers and speak like you know what you are doing(works for me). Speak SLOW, that is very important because if you loose a line or you couldn’t control your self, you have enough time to take a breath, rethink and start over.
GL

Thanks for the tips Chris, I’m not the best at public speaking, but you’ve given me some insight on how to make it less scary.

I speak too fast too. I speak so fast that everyone usually can’t understand me. I record my videos on Ustream or Photo Booth often. I used to take speech in elementary school because I was talking too fast or talking too quietly or shoving sentences together. Its irritating often… because i have to repeat a whole thought. It’s annoying, and i think i annoy other people too…

I do have trouble speaking publicly. I have been becoming a lot better though. My tips would be is to practice if you can before you go up and publicly speak so you know everything is there first of all. Secondly so you just have it down. Also, know what you want to talk about before saying it and know what you want to say so you don’t stand up there and have to take pauses thinking about it.

Keep it straight forward and act as if the presentation is more of a conversation piece. This will keep your stress level low and make you feel and appear more comfortable presenting.

I have never upload any video on any site.Good tips!I don’t know any tip yet since i don’t do this.Your tips-good help to me

I usually use PowerPoint on presentations.
My mom is one of those OLD fashioned presentations.
(Paper and colors)
Yup, thats how she is.
I like to have control over myself when on presentations.
There are some times that Chris speaks a litte TOO fast.
But, I love presentations!
-Ruben

Thank you for the tips, I dread the occasional group training sessions I have to do at work.

When I record videos, I usually have to do the same vid one or two times to get it perfect!

I use mailinator - http://www.mailinator.com