So do all of your colleagues with average presentation skills.

Let’s see why this is so…

Cookies and the Cookie Police

Suppose you are baking cookies. After mixing up the dough, you scoop up a bit with your fingers, roll it into a ball, and plop it on the cookie sheet. Repeat this 50 times, and you’ve got an oven full of cookies. Repeat this 500 times, and you’ve got a freezer full of cookies — or, perhaps, enough for a bake sale.

Now, suppose that you were being investigated by the Homemade Cookie Police. After you plop each cookie onto the sheet, they carefully lift it up and weigh it. For all 500 cookies, they record the weight. When they finish, they prepare a chart (presumably for their PowerPoint presentation back at Headquarters).

If you are a normal human being, the chart would look something like this:

• Most of the cookies would have a weight very close to the average, give or take a few tenths of a gram.
• Small numbers of cookies would be either very small or very large.

The very small cookies might burn in the oven, and the very large cookies might be raw, but the vast majority of cookies would be delicious!

Humans and the Bell Curve

Why did the cookie weight/frequency chart turn out the way it did? Because you’re human!

You may have recognized the shape of the chart as the Bell Curve. (You might know it as a normal distribution, or some other name.)  It has many fascinating applications in mathematics and statistics, but perhaps the most fascinating is that if you consider any variable in a large population, the histogram (the chart of values versus the count) tends to follow the Bell Curve.

In the case of cookies, the weight is a variable because you aren’t a robot.

As another example, consider adult heights. The average height for North American men is about 69 ½ inches. (North American women are about 64 ½ inches.) Height is a variable, and the distribution of heights follows the Bell Curve.

• A large majority of male adults have heights around 69 ½ inches, perhaps a little above or a little below.
• There are, of course, some really tall people and some really short people. Relatively speaking, however, there are fewer of these people.

When it comes to height, being average is good. In fact, it’s preferred. Clothes, cars, and airplane seats are all designed for you. To be extremely short or extremely tall means a life of physical inconvenience.

As another example, consider a sport like golf and let’s look at how well people can hit the golf ball.

• Professional golfers can really smoke it, but there aren’t many professional golfers.
• Some people can barely hit it at all (perhaps they are too frail or maybe just too clumsy to swing a club). There are only a few of these people, too.
• The vast majority of us are in the middle. We’re just skilled enough to avoid injuring ourselves.

When it comes to golf, we’d like to be able to hit the ball at a professional level, but it’s okay to be average. Being average is mediocre, and that’s fine for golf. It’s understandable because most of us never received any golf lessons. Your golf skills are only used a few times per year (or in a lifetime), and your career success doesn’t depend much on your ability with a golf club.

Public Speaking and the Bell Curve

It’s a little more complex to quantify presentation skills, but suppose for a moment that you could. (Perhaps the number of minutes you can speak without anyone getting bored? Maybe the number of listeners who are motivated by your call-to-action?)

On the high end, you’ve got Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King, and Steve Jobs.

On the low end, you’ve got hermits and people who cannot communicate at all.

In the middle, you have the majority of people with average presentation skills. Is this good? Or is this bad?

Here’s the key to this article: The line between being an effective communicator and an ineffective communicator is not down the middle of the chart. It’s over to the right. That’s where you want to be. That’s where you need to be.

Statistically speaking, you can suck and still be an average speaker. Most of your colleagues are. This is the Death by PowerPoint abyss. This is the 15 filler words per minute zone. This is the “What the heck is this speaker talking about?” zone.

• Presentation skills are not cookies.
  Chocolate chips won’t compensate for you being an average speaker. Your audience spends a lifetime in meetings listening to people who are average speakers and wishing they were somewhere else.
• Presentation skills are not like height.
  The world is not designed for average speakers to excel. People do not rally around you if you have an average ability to convey your ideas.
• Presentation skills are not like golf.
  It’s not okay to be a mediocre. Your communication skills matter!

To Be a Good Speaker, You Can’t Be Average

Why is the average speaker so bad? Like golf, most people in the world never receive any formal communications training, and they never pursue any informal training either. We all pay the price. Think of the last 50 presentations you have attended. How many kept you interested throughout? Ten? Five? Fewer than five?

The small fraction of the population who strive to improve their skills (that’s you if you are reading this article) has a huge advantage.  If your communication skills aren’t already above average, they will be. And above-average communication skills give you a huge advantage in life. Your ideas get communicated and noticed. You excel in interviews. You are seen as a leader.

The good news is that anyone can improve their skills with dedication, effort, and time. Read Six Minutes. Read other speaking blogs. Read communication books. Join a Toastmasters club. Volunteer to speak whenever you can. Practice. Practice. Practice.

Don’t be an average communicator. Be effective.

Similar Articles You May Like... Book Review: Confessions of a Public Speaker (Scott Berkun) Love the Process and Improve Your Speaking Skills 8 Faulty Speaker Assumptions and How to Fix Them How to Deliver Group Presentations: The Unified Team Approach How to Deliver the Talk of Your Life The 7 Deadly Sins of Public Speaking

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

This article is the latest of a series of public speaking book reviews here on Six Minutes.

• What’s Inside?
• The Price
• What I Loved
• How could it be better?
• What Others Think
• Verdict

What’s Inside?

Based on the provocative title, you might think this book is heavy on memoirs and light on educational content. You would only be half right.

Confessions of a Public Speaker is packed with personal stories from the author and also packed with tips and advice for speakers from all backgrounds. A more appropriate title would probably have been “Insights of a Public Speaker” or “Lessons Learned by a Public Speaker”; of course, neither of those titles would like sell as many copies as this best-selling book is.

The video below shows the author talking about what the book is about…

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Price

At the time of writing this review, you can get this hardcover book for only $16.49 from amazon.com. This is 34% off the list price.

At this price, it isn’t surprising that this book is the 7th most popular public speaking book on amazon.com since being released last November. Readers love it — everyone’s giving it 5 stars.

3 Things I Love about Confessions of a Public Speaker

The three things I liked most about Confessions of a Public Speaker are:

1. Packed with Great Insights

Confessions of a Public Speaker touches on a broad set of issues — fear of speaking, preparation, organization of ideas, delivery techniques, teaching approach, dealing with a difficult crowd, preventing mishaps, speaking technology, and many others. Every speaker will find new advice and insights here.

As just one example, the second chapter (just 11 pages) is perhaps the most concise, sensible advice on public speaking fear I’ve read.

2. Wonderfully written!

Most public speaking books are written by speaking experts who, if I were to guess, are not authors by nature.

Confessions of a Public Speaker is different.  Scott Berkun is a best-selling author (see: Making Things Happen and The Myths of Innovation) and refers to himself as a writer first, and a speaker second. His humorous, witty, and sharp prose make this a thoroughly enjoyable read.

3. Honest to a Fault

Confessions begins with an odd disclaimer:

This book is highly opinionated, personal, and full of behind-the-scenes stories. You may not like this. Some people like seeing how sausage is made, but many do not.

Although everything in this book is true and written to be useful, if you don’t always want to hear the truth, this book might not be for you.

It’s true. The honesty in this book may shock some, like this passage:

No amount of training will make a man with two brain cells seem anything but dumb, as the problem is not his ability to speak, it’s his inability to think. It’s rarely said, but some people will never be good public speakers. Unless they find someone to do their thinking for them, they only have, at best, half the tools they need.

[...] The problem with most bad presentations I see is not the speaking, the slides, the visuals, or any of the things people obsess about. Instead, it’s the lack of thinking.

Personally, I appreciate this fresh approach.

How could it be better?

1. More Cohesion from Chapter to Chapter

Each individual chapter is well-written and feels “just right” as far as depth. However, I didn’t notice much continuity from one chapter to the next, and there’s no obvious rationale for the ordering of material.

Maybe this isn’t a bad thing. Each chapter stands on its own. It’s easy to read the book in short bursts — like I did, one chapter each night.

2. Better Photos

There are photos distributed throughout the book (and even one short chapter with a whole series of them), many taken by the author at speaking venues. The photos are referenced in the text, and they help to tell the story.

Unfortunately, the photos are not in color, and the contrast levels are too low, so many of them hard to view. A few are completely washed out in my copy.

Maybe this was a tradeoff that keeps the price of the book low? Maybe it was only my copy? Maybe the photos could be shared on the author’s website for keeners like me who want to squeeze every drop of meaning?

Update: Apparently, it wasn’t just my copy. On Scott’s blog, he reports that the low-contrast photos were a mistake in the first print run, and says the 2nd and 3rd run fixes this problem. If you get a copy now, you should get the good photos.

What Others Think

Gina Trapani, Lifehacker:

If public speaking is a part of your job–and it is, in some capacity, whether or not you’re Barack Obama–this book is a worthy read. It’s converted at least one person who has turned down speaking engagements because the idea was too scary to someone excited about getting better at a special and important skill.

Ben Rothke, Slashdot:

[...] Confessions of a Public Speaker is unique in that it takes a holistic approach to the art and science of public speaking. The book doesn’t just provide helpful hints, it attempts to make the speaker, and his associated presentation, compelling and necessary.

Jeff Bailey, Wired Presentations:

If you are new to presentations this should be the first book that you read on the topic. It gives a lot of great advice that many people take for granted.

Rhett Laubach, Authenticity Rules:

I have given at least 100 public speeches each year for the past 18 years and I have found a ton of value in it.

Ian Griffin, Speechwriter:

Confessions of a Public Speaker offers presenters—and those of us who support executives who give presentations—a great source of ideas to improve both the content and delivery of future talks.

Verdict

Here’s my confession… I didn’t want to put this book down.

Confessions of a Public Speaker provides sound advice that can help anyone improve their speaking skills. Highly recommended.

Similar Articles You May Like... What Does Your Personal Brand Say About You as a Speaker? 8 Faulty Speaker Assumptions and How to Fix Them Book Review: The Wealthy Speaker by Jane Atkinson 12 Days of Public Speaking Christmas Book Review: Thank You For Arguing (Jay Heinrichs) Public Speaking Tips: Weekend Review [2010-03-06]

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

Frustrated… by nerves that never go away.

Frustrated… by audience questions that trip you up.

Frustrated… by the process of skills improvement which is more evolutionary than revolutionary.

In this article, we learn how to end the frustration by learning to love the process. We draw five speaking lessons from an extremely unlikely source: a motivational hooping video.

Lessons of the Hoop

A what?
A motivational hooping video.

The video below is just four minutes long, and chronicles the improvement process experienced by Sandra Sommerville (stage name: SaFire) as she develops her expertise as a hooper.

Watch the video first, and then read the rest of the article.
[If you don't see it below, click here to jump to the original article.]

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pretty amazing improvement, isn’t it?

Here are the words which accompany Lessons of the Hoop:

Practice makes… improvement. Try, then try again, and again. Try it slowly, even if it barely counts. Watch for hesitation or you’ll miss your chance. Just keep going. Document, even if you never plan to share. Repeat it over, and over. Stretch your limits. Try different sizes, even if it’s ridiculous. Seize the moment. Celebrate success. Get tangled up. Stop and breathe. Stay creative. Challenge yourself. Remove distractions. Laugh. Accept the uncomfortable. We only learn if we … drop, drop, drop, drop, drop, drop, drop, drop. And most importantly, try not to judge yourself. Practice makes… improvement. Be strong. Find balance. Take risks. Play hard. Smile, and… love the process.

How Does This Apply to Public Speaking?

Many of the lessons learned by Sandra are the same ones that public speakers must learn.

Let’s consider how these five apply to speaking:

1. Practice makes improvement.
2. Document, even if you never plan to share.
3. Accept the uncomfortable.
4. Stretch your limits.
5. Love the process.

Lesson 1: Practice makes improvement.

You won’t get better at speaking by only reading a book. (Or, this blog!)

You can only improve your speaking skills by practicing. Speak at work. Speak at your child’s school. Speak at a town hall meeting. Speak at your cousin’s wedding. Speak in your car. Speak for your cat. Speak in front of the mirror.

You won’t ever achieve perfection. But you will improve. Little by little, your practice will result in improvement. Most of the time, your improvements will be incremental. Other times, you’ll take a giant leap in an epiphany of speaking prowess.

Lesson 2: Document, even if you never plan to share.

You can keep a paper journal, but it’s probably easier these days to keep an electronic record of your speeches and PowerPoint presentations. Date them so you can look back on them someday and marvel at how far you’ve progressed.

Evaluate yourself, and keep track of the specific areas you are working on.

Keep a video record too. Not only will individual videos reveal areas for improvement, but comparing current videos to past ones will be eye-poppingly encouraging. When you are caught up in the process, it’s difficult to see your own progress. A video record won’t lie.

Lesson 3: Accept the Uncomfortable

Accept the butterflies in your stomach before a presentation.

Accept how your heart races when the pressure is on.

Accept that you will forget a word, a phrase, a story, or a punchline.

Accept that PowerPoint malfunctions will happen to you.

Accept that not everyone in your audience is impressed, or even listening.

Accept all of these things, but know that none of them will prevent you from communicating effectively unless you let them.

Lesson 4: Stretch Your Limits

There’s a quote that gets recycled in motivational speeches: If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.

If you are approaching every speech or presentation in the same way… if you are preparing the same way… if you are developing PowerPoint slides in the same way… if you use the same speech opening over and over again… if you always speak from behind the lectern… if you always use typewritten 12-point font speech notes…

If you never try new things, your skills will stagnate.

Look for opportunities to stretch your limits by:

• trying new vocal techniques,
• incorporating new stories,
• delivering new gestures,
• adopting a new style of visuals,
• discovering a new source of quotations,
• seeking out new audiences and new venues, and
• pursuing the 1-hour keynote when you’ve only ever delivered the 10-minute teaser speech.

Lesson 5: Love the Process

It’s understandable if you feel that the process is drudgery that you are required to endure before — someday — reaching the pinnacle of presentation mastery.

However, that mindset will only sabotage your efforts.

Love the process. Set small goals and celebrate your milestones. Laugh at your mistakes (because you’ll make lots of them).

The truth is that there is no pinnacle — only a lifetime of going through the process of improving your speaking skills.

Similar Articles You May Like... Average Speakers Suck. Don’t be Average. Book Review: Confessions of a Public Speaker (Scott Berkun) 8 Faulty Speaker Assumptions and How to Fix Them How to Deliver Group Presentations: The Unified Team Approach How to Deliver the Talk of Your Life The 7 Deadly Sins of Public Speaking

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

How about you?

In this article, you will learn:

• 8 common faulty assumptions you might be making;
• the subsequent result on your presentations; and
• how to fix your flawed thinking.

8 Faulty Speaker Assumptions

Eight common faulty assumptions that speakers make are:

1. Deep knowledge of a topic alone will enable me to present ideas on it.
2. My audience members are mind readers.
3. I can present information/concepts that took me 3 months to learn in a 20-minute presentation.
4. Everyone in my audience is equal.
5. I don’t need to practice out loud.
6. I’ll have plenty of time to get there.
7. If I get off the platform/stage, I will be closer to audience members.
8. If I speak at my normal speed, everyone will understand me.

Let’s examine each of these a little deeper.

Assumption #1 — Deep knowledge of a topic alone will enable me to present ideas on it

Knowledge of a subject you are going to speak about is critical, but it is only a beginning to have an impact on an audience. You also need to determine:

• What you want to achieve by delivering the message? In other words, what is your purpose? What do you want the audience knowing, doing, and/or feeling as a result of your presentation?
• Who you are speaking to? What are their expectations, level of understanding, and attitudes. Depending on this, you will organize your materials accordingly, and emphasize the information that is most critical to the audience.
• Logistical considerations — How much time do you have? How many people will be in the audience? What types of visuals will work best? You need to understand all of this to determine how much information you will be presenting — and how to present it.

Assumption #2 — My audience members are mind readers

Unfortunately, audience members never know what you want them to take away from your presentation, unless you tell them multiple times.

Despite what you may think, they are not hanging on your every word. The goal is to be clear and concise. Don’t let them guess.

Assumption #3 — I can present information/concepts that took me 3 months to learn in a 20-minute presentation

Frequently, speakers want to look smart — or demonstrate that they have worked very hard — so they do a data dump. They forget that audience members can only absorb so much information at a time.

Step back and determine what they must know. Leave the rest out, or save it for the Q & A.

Assumption #4 — Everyone in my audience is equal

Typically, there are audiences within an audience. There may be a hierarchy or politics involved. Analyze the audience, and determine which members are the decision makers, and who are the influencers (sometimes they can be the same), and then plan accordingly.

If everyone is equal in rank, play to the masses.

Do your homework. Learn exactly who is in the audience.

Assumption #5 — I don’t need to practice out loud

Thinking through a presentation is very different than speaking it out loud, in a simulated environment, using your notes and/or slides.

Actors, musicians, and athletes all practice. Why should speakers be any different?

Practice helps with fluidity, timing and comfort level. Each time, say it differently, so it doesn’t become rote.

Peter Drucker said, “Spontaneity is an infinite number of rehearsed possibilities.”

Assumption #6 — I’ll have plenty of time to get there

Although the unexpected can happen, speakers should do everything possible to arrive at a speaking event/meeting well in advance.

If you don’t do your due diligence in leaving with ample time, or getting directions, you will likely arrive at the last minute — harried and looking unprofessional.

If other speakers are before you, sit in to get a sense of the tone of the meeting, and how the audience is responding.

By arriving early, you can talk to audience members, and further customize your presentation. And, of course, this allows you time to check your appearance, do some breathing exercises, check your equipment, and to be there to welcome the audience members as they arrive.

Assumption #7 — If I get off the platform/stage, I will be closer to audience members

Many speakers wrongly believe getting off a platform or stage will help them better connect with audience members. But, in fact, the majority of the audience won’t be able to see them when on the same level.

Getting into the audience can work effectively only if …

• It’s a small audience
• The room is set up for this
• You are tall enough to be seen.

Most of the time, the speaker’s need to get closer to the audience can be an annoyance to audience members when they don’t know where to look.

Stay on the platform or stage, and connect with large audiences in better ways, like using questions to get participants to raise hands, and interactive exercises in subgroups.

In a larger venue, try to have the room arranged with several aisles. That way, if you do walk into the audience, you will have a place to go.

Assumption #8 — If I speak at my normal speed, everyone will understand me.

The standard rate of speech in the United States is 120 or 160 words per minute. This varies in different parts of the country.

Speakers need to adapt their rate regionally, as well as when the information is technical and people need time to absorb it, and also when English isn’t a first language. If they don’t adapt, participants may not understood what they’re saying, or key concepts may be missed.

How to Fix Your Faulty Assumptions

Now that you’ve identified these faulty assumptions, how do you fix them?

What do you think?

What faulty assumptions have you made, only to learn the hard way?

Please share your lessons in the comments.

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Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Marjorie Brody is a Hall of Fame speaker, coach to Fortune 500 executives and author of more than 18 books, including Speaking is an Audience-Centered Sport. She is CEO of BRODY Professional Development, a business communication and presentation skills company located in the Philadelphia suburbs that offers tailored training programs, workshops, keynote presentations, and executive coaching. To contact Marjorie, visit www.BrodyPro.com.

When you’re asked to present as part of a panel of experts or a team making a sales pitch, you might think that there is safety in numbers and that you need to prepare less than if you were speaking on your own.

The truth is that, for your audience, a group presentation is only as strong as its weakest presenter. Here’s how to help your team create a strong and unified group presentation.

3 Ingredients of Great Group Presentations

The three ingredients to develop and deliver a unified group presentation are clarity, control, and commitment.

1. Clarity
   • Clarity of Purpose
   • Clarity of Roles
   • Clarity of Message
2. Control
   • Control Introductions
   • Control Transitions
   • Control Time and Space
3. Commitment
   • Commit to a Schedule
   • Commit to Rehearsing
   • Commit to Answering Your Audience’s Questions

Incorporating these elements will give your audience a “seamless” message.

Ingredient #1: Clarity

Clarity means clearness of purpose, thought or style. Developing clarity within your group will help you develop a clear message for your audience.

Clarity of Purpose

Just as your presentation will have a clear purpose, expressed in a thesis statement, your group should create a Charter Statement that explicitly captures the group’s desired outcome.

The charter is different from a thesis statement. The thesis specifically frames the presentation message whereas the charter frames your group’s purpose. This Charter Statement becomes the test of everything that will go into the presentation and help guide the efforts of the team. The charter and the thesis may overlap, but even your thesis statement must be tested against the group’s Charter.

For example, if your group agrees that your general purpose is to sell your product, and, more specifically, you know that the key decision maker in the audience is leery about cutting checks to companies like yours, build that into your Charter Statement.

The purpose of our presentation is to sell our Product to ABC Company by overcoming the objections of the company’s Purchasing Officer through clear examples of how our Product provides a fast return on investment.

The Charter Statement will come in handy when you have a team member who may want to go “off track” to tell personal anecdotes that don’t pass the test of the group’s charter.

Clarity of Roles

Personalities come into play when groups meet to develop presentations. Jockeying for position and ego struggles can quickly deplete the group’s momentum, resulting in hurt feelings and, potentially, a weaker presentation. Providing clarity to group roles helps to establish expectations and keep the entire group moving towards a common objective: a great group presentation.

Identify the roles your group needs during message development. For example, to ensure that team members are meeting assignments, select a Project Manager. This person isn’t the “boss of the presentation”, but rather will focus on schedule and assignments.

Other roles could include a Gap Analyst who is responsible for identifying “gaps” in content and support materials (handouts, graphics, etc.), which in turn could work closely with other roles within the group like the Chief Researcher.

Capitalize on the unique personalities within your group to develop roles that work well for all, but be sure to discuss the roles openly so they are clear to everyone.

Clarity of Message

Instead of writing “speeches” for each individual speaker, try creating one master presentation, a unified narrative, and then decide who speaks to which points, and when.

This is a shift from the traditional segmented method of group presentations where often group members are directed to “give five minutes of talking” and then are left to develop content independently.

In a master presentation, each speaker may weave in and out at various points during the presentation. When done well, this fluid dynamic can hold an audience’s attention better by offering a regular change in speakers’ voices and presence.

By using a master presentation, your group will ensure that each of the presenters will stay “on script” and use cohesive language, smooth transitions, and (when using visuals) consistent graphics.

Ingredient #2: Control

Group presentations face unique logistical challenges beyond just developing presentation content.

Control Introductions

Your audience notices how your group introduces itself, so plan those introductions with your presentation.

Your presentation may be part of a larger event that includes an emcee who will introduce the team. If so, be sure that you provide pertinent information to the emcee that will allow her/him to generate interest in your presentation even before you begin speaking.

If your group is responsible for making its own introductions, however, you will need to decide if you will introduce your group members in the beginning, or when they first speak. Your group also will need to decide if each member introduces her/himself, or if one member will introduce everyone.

There is no one right way to do introductions, but your group must decide how to do them before the day of the presentation.

Control Transitions

Decide how you are going to “hand off” from one speaker to the next. In the “master presentation” approach, you may want to consider simply have speakers pick up a narrative right where the previous speaker left off.

If you use the more traditional segmented approach, each speaker may cue the subsequent speakers by identifying them and their subject matter. For example:

“…and speaking of quality control, no one is more qualified the Bob Johnson. Bob is going to tell us about how this team will deliver a quality project for you.”

Another option is to assign a group emcee who will handle transitions between presentation sections. Your group will need to determine which option makes the most sense based on your presentation style and audience expectations.

Control Time and Space

Multiple speakers translate to occupying more physical space, and the potential to gobble up more time with introductions and transitions.

If you will be presenting in a small room, consider where each speaker needs to be positioned to quickly reach the speaking area, and whether they will sit or stand when not speaking.

Your presentation must fit within your allotted time, so you will need to time your group’s presentation, including equipment set up, introductions, and transitions.

Ingredient #3: Commitment

Commitment from each group member is going to give your presentation the best content and flair that will impress your audience.

Commit to a Schedule

Once you know the date of your presentation, create a schedule that includes specific milestones, such as “presentation draft due” and “final rehearsal”. Having a specific schedule allows members either to agree to the group’s expectations or to offer dates that better fit their personal schedules.

Additionally, you can assign specific responsibilities to the scheduled milestones; for example, who is responsible for bringing the handouts, projector, and laptop to the presentation?

Commit to Rehearsing

Rehearsing is one of the most important steps for presentation success. Have your team members agree from day one that they will make themselves available to practice with the group.

If you find group members who lack the commitment to rehearse, consider finding group members who will commit. Practice makes perfect, and no rehearsal means your group doesn’t know what will happen to the content, timing, or quality of the presentation. Do those sound like things your group would like to leave to chance?

Commit to Answering Your Audience’s Questions

Once your formal presentation is over, you may see some raised hands in the audience, ready to pepper your group with questions. Your presentation is not over yet. How you handle those questions is as important as the presentation itself. A well-done presentation means nothing if presenters fumble questions so badly that they appear incompetent.

Have each member develop a list of potential questions and then, as a group, review the list. Discuss who will be responsible for handling which types of questions. Are there any questions important enough to build into the presentation?

From a Rag-Tag Group of Speakers to a Dynamic Presenting Team

By incorporating these three ingredients into your next group presentation process, you will find that you not only develop a presentation that your audience loves, but your group will transform from a rag-tag group of speakers into a dynamic presenting team.

Similar Articles You May Like... Average Speakers Suck. Don’t be Average. Book Review: Confessions of a Public Speaker (Scott Berkun) Love the Process and Improve Your Speaking Skills 8 Faulty Speaker Assumptions and How to Fix Them How to Deliver the Talk of Your Life The 7 Deadly Sins of Public Speaking

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Chaunce Stanton provides marketing communications support for the professional services industry, including architects, engineers, and scientists. For more than eight years, he has routinely helped teams develop messages and craft polished presentations for multimillion-dollar projects. Chaunce is an enthusiastic member of Toastmasters International in St. Paul, Minnesota’s Metropolitan Chapter.

As a speaker, one major milestone you face is your first highly public speech. Most of you won’t have to give that first talk at a TED conference as I did. However, if you do, it helps to remember that the things which make TED talks great can make all talks great.

TED speakers are asked to do six things in their talk:

1. Distill your life’s work or experience into a 3, 6, 9 or 18 minute talk
2. Be authentic/vulnerable
3. Convey one strong idea
4. Tell a story that hasn’t been told before
5. Tell and not sell
6. Absolutely and positively stick to the time limit

Do those things and you too can give “the talk of your life.”

How I Came to Speak at TED

In 2006 I was living in a Chevy van with my Rottweiler and cat in a Wal-Mart shopping lot in Denver, Colorado. A “grand adventure” had gone awry and left me more homeless than free spirit. My father had recently died. I’d quit a good paying job to escape the stress and grief of his death and recent life changes, and dug my hole of depression deeper. I had become invisible, one of the 3.5 million working homeless in America.

Yet three years later the lowest point of my life was suddenly fodder for a TED talk. I’d just won an all-expenses-paid trip to TED Global 2009, courtesy of Daniel Pink, best-selling author, former speech writer for Al Gore and a professional speaker himself. As an attendee, I was eligible to compete for a chance to talk at TED.

Coincidently, TED Global 2009’s theme was “The essence of things not seen.” It summed up my year of being invisible as a homeless woman. But now that year or more of being invisible to society had the potential to educate and inspire society.

All I had to do was give the “talk of my life.”

How to Write the Talk of Your Life in Six Minutes

Easy? Not really. Not only was I not a speaker, I’d never given a formal, prepared talk to a large group before. This would not only be the first professional speech of my life, it would be about the most emotional and trying year of my life.  I had less than two months to prepare. It was a challenge.

I turned to a variety of sources, including Six Minutes, for help. Here’s what I learned:

1. Distill Your Life’s Work or Experience into a 3, 6, 9 or 18 minute talk

Any of us could fill books with the story of our lives. But how do you narrow your focus and distill a life to mere minutes? Determine your message – is it to educate? Motivate? Persuade? Entertain? Or inspire? I wanted to do all those things.

I had lived in my van for a year with a dog and house cat while working a full-time job.  I was dealing with heat, depression, hassles from police and security guards whose job it was to make sure I didn’t sleep in my van on their property. There was the day-to-day struggle to eat, sleep, work, shower and survive on the streets. There was the struggle to remain true to the vision I had of being a free spirit on an adventure while fighting clinical depression. As I prepared for the talk, I was living in an apartment, and couldn’t decide what part of the van-dwelling experience I wanted to convey.

2. Be Authentic

I kept asking myself, what was my message? Where did I focus? It wasn’t easy to decide. I finally climbed back into my van, closed my eyes and asked myself, “What will the audience want to know? What would I want to know if I heard a similar story?” Simple. I’d want to know how I escaped. What got me out of the van and homelessness and back into an apartment? That was the message, the quality, the focus. From there it just got easier.

3. Convey one strong idea

The theme for TED Global was, “The essence of things not seen.” My talk was about being one of the invisible working homeless – the essence of things not seen. But it was also about the essence of things – like perspectives and judgments, that influence our lives. In this context, my message was clear: “People are not where they live, where they sleep, what they are doing at any given moment. People are their dreams and visions.”

Tip: Take time to focus each idea you want to express, then pick the most compelling, the strongest idea.

4. Tell a story that hasn’t been told before

As a journalist I had an advantage. I’m a professional storyteller. Yet I still had to find a new story, a story about being homeless that hadn’t been told before. So I told my story. It’s easy to hide behind talking about other people in similar situations, with similar issues, but the powerful story, the one people want to hear, is your story.

Once I believed that, I could start looking at how my experience, my journey through homelessness, while the same on many levels, was also new and untold in many other ways. I also noticed that with many stories about the homeless, it’s easy to resort to playing on the audience’s heart strings and going for the pity pull. I didn’t want that. I wanted my audience to be with me emotionally, but to identify with me, not to feel sorry for me. I wanted to come across as authentic, not as a victim.

To do that I focused on the facts, not on the trauma of the pain or the emotion. Own the situation, don’t blame the situation.  Tell the story and let the reader or listener make their own choice about the outcome.

5. Tell and not sell

One of the strongest “rules” that TED organizers establish is to not “sell” anything, or use your time to pitch your book, organization, or business. It’s great advice.

Tell the audience something, don’t sell them something. They want solutions. If you can provide that, the rest will come. I had nothing to sell, so abiding by that rule was easy! If you have a great message, a fabulous idea, or an amazing story or product – people will want to buy. You don’t have to sell them. Focus on being remarkable, not profitable.

6. Stick to the time limit

TED organizers don’t budge on this one. I watched several people interrupted when they breached their time limit. The same holds true for any venue where you talk. Even if you go over your limit, the audience is watching the clock. Their timers will go off and you’ll lose them if you talk too long. Set your own limit and keep it.

Practical Speaking Tips

I also learned numerous practical speaking lessons along the way. In terms of preparation and practice, here’s my advice to you:

• Memorize your talk where possible and refer back to notes or prompters
• Get 8-hours sleep after practicing. This helps your brain commit, process, and store the speech, allowing you to remember what you’ve crammed for.
• Give the speech to a small audience the day before
• Give the speech to yourself an hour before your actual speech
• Practice in the venue where you’ll be talking – get on the stage if possible beforehand.

Learn From the Best You Can Access

I also got fantastic advice from some of the best speakers at TED.

From Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO and founder of the Accumen Foundation:(Novogratz is not only a seasoned TED speaker, she’s married to Chris Anderson, moderator for TED.)

• Give your speech (no matter how often you’ve given it before) to a close friend, or out loud to yourself before you actually get on stage for your real talk.

From Daniel Pink, professional speaker, best-selling author, former speech writer for Al Gore, and TED talker:

• Remember your audience wants you to succeed
• Relax and enjoy your time on stage

From June Cohen, TED University Moderator,

• Stand, move, and walk around on stage, but don’t stand and sway or shuffle
• Smile
• Don’t block the TED logo
• Don’t walk out of the camera range
• Don’t worry about looking perfect. We edit out all the mistakes and the parts where you forget your place. The video makes you look perfect, but no one gives an error free presentation.

From the guys who ran the sound checks…
From Bruno Giussani (European Director of TED Global Conferences)…
From Sam Martin, TED Magazine editor…
And from all the TED Global Fellows:

• Breathe
• The louder your voice, the more you’ll naturally gesticulate
• Enjoy the ride
• Be authentic
• It’s not a competition

The advice I would give now?

Practice, practice, practice – in front of mirrors, in front of friends, in front of small audiences before you make your debut in your final venue. And then relax and enjoy it. You’ll be fine. You may not be perfect, but you’ll be fine.

Honestly? I don’t remember the six minutes at all. It was the longest and the shortest six minutes of my life. But for the rest of the week at TED, I was gratified to find those who heard the talk come up to me to thank me for speaking. I swallowed my tendency to protest (“It was no big deal”) and to just say “Thank you,” and take it all in. I resisted the temptation to compare myself to any other speaker. It would have been counterproductive.

Perhaps the most important thing I learned was that the best talks of our lives are the ones that focus on describing the journey more than the outcome.

Watch Becky Blanton’s TEDGlobal Talk

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related to This Story…

• You can read more about Becky’s story in a TED Magazine article.
• Three other TED speakers — Al Gore, Hans Rosling, and Majora Carter — have been featured on Six Minutes previously

Similar Articles You May Like... Average Speakers Suck. Don’t be Average. Book Review: Confessions of a Public Speaker (Scott Berkun) Love the Process and Improve Your Speaking Skills 8 Faulty Speaker Assumptions and How to Fix Them How to Deliver Group Presentations: The Unified Team Approach Watch Becky Blanton’s TED Talk

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Becky Blanton is currently back in her van, with her Rottweiler, traveling across the USA and documenting her journey the second time around, this time as a writer, not a homeless woman. Discover more about Becky at beckyblanton.com.

Other speaking sins are so grave that when you commit them, your speech or presentation is certain to fail. This article reveals the seven deadly sins of public speaking.

Deadly Sin #1: Sloth

Sloth, or laziness, is committed by speakers who fail to prepare.

Speaking in public, whether formally or informally, is an essential activity that requires effort. Yet, the majority of people expend no effort to improve their effectiveness as a speaker. Tragically, they are content to drift from one frustrating presentation to the next.

You can avoid sloth in a number of ways:

• Enroll in a public speaking course
• Read public speaking books
• Read public speaking blogs
• Join Toastmasters or another local speaking club
• Study great speakers
• Hire a speaking coach

(By reading this article, you’re making the effort to improve. Sloth has no claim on you!)

Failing to prepare for life by improving your speaking skills leads to a chain of excuses, characterized by…

Deadly Sin #2: Envy

Envy is characterized by a false belief that great speakers are simply lucky to have been born with natural speaking skills.

You’ve heard the excuses from your colleagues, haven’t you?

• “She’s so lucky! She’s a natural speaker!”
• “Hmph! It’s so easy for him to speak in front of people.”
• “No, I couldn’t deliver the proposal. I’m not a speaker.”

People who are envious of the “natural” skills of others are more likely to apply misguided solutions when confronted by an unavoidable speaking situation:

• They steal stories and anecdotes from others rather than creating original ones
• They copy PowerPoint slides from others even if they don’t quite apply
• They mimic the oratorical style of others and lack authenticity

Because of bad habits like this, speakers suffer from lack of confidence. They know the stories, the slides, and the words are not their own. Nervousness results because they fear being exposed, and this nervousness leads to crazy behaviors like…

Deadly Sin #3: Lust

The lustful speaker attempts to calm their nerves by applying the common (yet terrible) advice to picture the audience naked!

Please don’t picture the audience naked, especially if I am in your audience.

In theory, picturing your audience naked makes them seem as vulnerable as you feel. It may provide a brief lighthearted moment to feed your teenaged appetite, but it won’t help you speak better.

More likely, it will cause an additional distraction and impede your efforts to connect with your audience. Consider this: how easy is it for you to communicate something meaningful to a room full of naked people? Can you inspire them? Impossible.

Nervous speakers who avoid this lustful deadly sin are, unfortunately, still prone to committing another deadly sin…

Deadly Sin #4: Gluttony

Gluttony is exhibited by speakers who believe that more is always better.

More slides, more bullets, more examples, more facts, more numbers, more details, more words — more of everything.

Packing all possible material into your presentation and then speeding through it is flawed, despite your best intentions to provide maximum value. More is (usually) not better. Cognitive research shows that people have a limited capacity to absorb information (see Kosslyn’s Clear and to the Point and Mayer’s Multimedia Learning). Overloading that capacity will reduce their ability to absorb anything at all! Quantity is no substitute for quality.

It is better to focus your presentation on your core message, select only the very best support material (facts, slides, anecdotes), and speak at a reasonable pace. Supplementary material, if necessary, belongs in a handout.

All of this gluttony — too many slides, too many stories, too many details — leads the speaker down a dark and dirty path towards…

Deadly Sin #5: Greed

Greed is the deadly sin of excess, and is committed by a speaker who goes over time.

Does this sound familiar?

• “Oh, is that clock correct? I’m only halfway through…”
• “I haven’t gotten to the good part yet…”
• “Are there any objections to cutting our lunch break in half so I can finish this?”

Speaking for more than your allotted time violates the contract you have with your audience, and that’s never good. People are busy and do not appreciate having their time wasted. Nobody will complain if you finish a few minutes early.

If you go over time, negative emotions begin to fill the room, making you more susceptible to experience…

Deadly Sin #6: Wrath

Wrath, or uncontrolled anger, is committed by a speaker who handles problems in the worst possible way.

As a speaker, you should always remain in control. No matter how bad your presentation is going, keep calm. Don’t let these frustrations provoke you:

• When you make a mistake (even a big one), resist the urge to draw more attention to it by cursing yourself in an attempt to draw pity.
• When an audience member is disrupting the room, resist the urge to “solve” it with sarcasm.
• When the room or venue logistics fail, don’t start blaming the organizers or anyone else. Instead, roll with in and move on.
• When an audience member is heckling you, do not take the bait.

Getting angry — whether at yourself, someone in the audience, or some other factor — is one of the worst things you can do. Your audience will feel uncomfortable and your credibility will be diminished considerably.

Finally, the first six speaker sins are all symptoms of the deadliest speaking sin of them all…

Deadly Sin #7: Pride

Pride is committed by a speaker who believes that public speaking is about them.

It’s not.

• It’s never about you.
• It’s never about your impressive accolades in your introduction.
• It’s never about your dazzling delivery where you channel Churchill.
• It’s never about your sumptuous slides which prominently feature your company logo beside dazzling 3-D pie charts.

Public speaking is always about the audience and the message you want to convey. Failing to put the audience first will kill any presentation. You need to perform audience analysis to discover how best to structure your presentation and deliver the message.

Avoid this sin by starting to analyze your presentation from the audience’s perspective. Amazingly, most of the other speaking sins will go away.

• You’ll recognize that you need to prepare. (Sloth)
• You will realize that you are uniquely capable of delivering your message to this audience. (Envy)
• You will trim all of the fluff to deliver a message which is focused and easy-to-understand. (Gluttony)
• You will respect the time your audience has given you. (Greed)
• You won’t saddle your audience with your problems. (Wrath)

As for Lust when speaking, well… that’s just silly.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Public Speaking

1. Sloth: failing to prepare for your speech or presentation
2. Envy: believing that great speakers are born with their skills
3. Lust: quelling your nerves by picturing the audience naked
4. Gluttony: believing that more words/slides/facts/numbers is always better
5. Greed: speaking over your allotted time
6. Wrath: rigidly reacting to problems and losing your cool
7. Pride: placing yourself ahead of the audience

How many of these speaking sins are committed in presentations you attend?

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Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

Have you heard this claim?
“Practicing makes me robotic. My speeches are better and more natural if I just work from my outline.”

This may be acceptable for scenarios where you don’t care about the result, but in all other cases, it’s hogwash.

The eighth in the Speech Preparation Series, this article provides practical ideas for maximizing the benefit from your practice time.

Why Practice? Does Practice Make Perfect?

Practicing your speech is essential, but I’d be foolish to suggest that practice alone will result in a “that was the best speech I’ve ever heard” response from your audience. For this, you need to master essential public speaking skills and build up experience doing so.

So, while practice you won’t necessarily make you perfect, you will reap significant benefits by practicing your speech at least a couple times:

• Discover awkward phrases and tongue-twisters that you did not notice when writing and editing. Speaking the words out loud exposes flaws that reading does not.
• Gauge your energy level. Does delivering this speech fire you up? Or are you bored with it?
• Gauge your timing. Once you get more experienced, you will learn how many words can fit in a 10-minute time slot. Until then, however, practicing the complete speech is the best way to know if you are under or over time.
• Reduce nervousness. Rehearsing even one time will improve your confidence in your material.

How to Rehearse Your Speech

You might practice for 60 hours. You might practice for 60 minutes. Either way, here are a few tips that will help you achieve maximum benefit from time spent rehearsing:

• Re-create the speech setting
  Reading your speech at a desk (or from your computer screen) is not optimal unless you are preparing for a webcast. Try to duplicate the speech setting as much as you can.
  • Practice in the room where you’ll be speaking, if you can.
  • Stand up. You get more realistic voice projection.
  • Rehearse with props and visual aids.
  • Arrange an audience. Practicing with an audience is better than practicing without one… even if it is not your target audience.
  • Consider what you will wear when your speech will be delivered. Will it add complications? Inhibit gestures or movement in any way?
• Take notes
  Don’t hesitate to stop yourself in the middle of your rehearsal to jot down ideas as they come to you. Capture internal feelings immediately.
• Experiment
  Try out different voices, gestures, or staging. This is especially important for your opening, conclusion, and any other key points. Give yourself confidence knowing that these lines will be delivered precisely as you intended.
• Time yourself
  You can easily do this yourself, but it helps if someone else can time you. Insert planned pauses, and insert delays when you expect laughter or some other audience response. This may feel funny, but an accurate timing estimate will tell you if you need to do more editing.
• Use all that you learn to edit your speech and make it better.

Soliciting Feedback

Practicing your speech is good.
Practicing your speech with an audience is better.
Practicing your speech with someone who will give you honest feedback is best.

Practicing with an audience gives you valuable feedback:

• Is your humor drawing smiles and laughs or is it missing completely?
• Are you keeping the audience’s attention throughout?
• Are you receiving positive feedback in the form of nodding heads and smiles, or is a blank stare the most common expression?

After the rehearsal, actively solicit feedback. Make it clear that you want honest opinions about what could be improved. A dozen “Good speech!” comments may boost your ego, but it won’t boost the quality of your speech. To reap feedback that will improve your speech, ask open-ended questions like these:

• What was your favorite element in the speech? Why?
• What would you like to see improved?
• How can I improve my speech for next time?

This is far better than asking yes/no questions such as “Did you like it?”

If the presentation is important to you, and you don’t have a test audience that provides you with valuable feedback, hire a coach! Hire me or one of thousands of speech coaches.

Audio Recordings

Audio recordings help you gauge many delivery qualities, including speaking pace, pitch, and pauses.

• Assess which phrases sound “good” and which are awkward to listen to.
• Listen for um’s, ah’s, and other filler words.
• Notice if and when you stumbled.
• Time the overall speech (which would be easy to do with a watch), as well as individual segments of the speech (which you cannot do unless you stop and start numerous times).

I recently acquired the inexpensive Olympus WS-311M digital voice recorder for speech rehearsals. It is small (easy to carry) and has all the features I need for recording and playing back speeches. I encourage you to check it out along with competing products.

• As I’m writing this article, it is selling for $79 US [$49 off the list price]. That’s much less than I paid. That’s life.

Video Recordings

A video recording of yourself speaking is an incredibly powerful tool. All of your habits — both good and bad — are captured. In addition to the audio assessments mentioned in the previous section, you can also learn:

• Are your gestures working?
• Are your gestures synchronized well with your words?
• Are your gestures varied, or are they monotonous?
• Are you smiling?
• Are you fidgeting, or displaying any other distracting mannerisms?
• Does your body sway from side to side?
• Eye contact is difficult to assess if the recording was made without a full audience, but you should be able to tell at least if your eyes are up, or down at your toes.
• If you are using visual aids, are your transitions smooth?
• If you are using a prop, was it handled smoothly?

I own an older model Sony DCR-TRV33 which records digitally on MiniDV tapes, but I’m sure any modern video camera is sufficient. The one luxury upgrade I wish I had is a lavalier microphone to capture better sound quality than the camera’s built-in microphone.

Practical Example — Face the Wind

I practiced my 2007 contest speech Face the Wind more than any other speech I’ve ever delivered. Here are the most valuable lessons I learned:

• The speech (in various iterations) was delivered formally four times at the club, area, division, and district speech contests.
• I rehearsed over 100 times. I rehearsed the speech in the car driving to/from work every day for about six weeks. I rehearsed in front of my wife and daughter. I rehearsed in the hotel room before the district contest. I rehearsed every chance I could.
• In the car, I obviously couldn’t do the gestures or staging, but I experimented heavily with different vocal variety, and then jotted down my observations when I reached my destination.
• After each of the first three contests, I sought feedback from audience members. In all cases, I received wonderful suggestions which made the speech better. Significant editing was performed after each contest.
• I sat down with a trusted fellow speaker and walked through the entire speech, line by line. This detailed review helped me perform some tough editing. It is easier to cut lines you love when someone looks you in the eye and tells you that they aren’t working.

Next in the Speech Preparation Series

You are ready to deliver your speech. Good luck! You will be awesome.

Immediately after the speech, the time is ripe for preparing for the next one. Productive self-critiquing is the focus of the next article in the Speech Preparation Series.

Similar Articles You May Like... Speech Preparation #9: Prepare Now for Your Next Speech Average Speakers Suck. Don’t be Average. Book Review: Confessions of a Public Speaker (Scott Berkun) Love the Process and Improve Your Speaking Skills 8 Faulty Speaker Assumptions and How to Fix Them How to Deliver Group Presentations: The Unified Team Approach

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.