Influence any audience and ensure your message is heard by leveraging these powerful public speaking tips in your next presentation or pitch.
Beyond the public speaking basics of knowing your content, strong eye contact, smile, etc.; there are other public speaking tips and tactics that can enhance the influence of your next presentation or pitch. As a professional Millennial and Generation Z speaker, these are just a few of the advanced tactics I use to give my message the best chance of influencing an audience.
1. Harness the power of repetition
What gets repeated gets remembered. "Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them." This is an infamous line in the speaking world, but it stresses the power of repetition. Identify the central theme or message of your presentation and repeat it often throughout your presentation. The pithier the better. What gets repeated gets remembered.
2. Address the elephant
Anything that will distract your audience--a loud noise coming from another room, a wardrobe malfunction, or any technology mishaps--need to be addressed as soon as possible. Addressing the elephant in the room will free you to move past it, and it will give your audience permission to move past it as well so they can get back to focusing on your content.
3. Provide a roadmap
With any audience, there is a certain level of angst when settling into a presentation. Questions that roll around in their heads are: "What am I going to learn?" "Will it be applicable to me?" "How are we going to get there?" By providing a roadmap or an agenda slide that addresses those questions will help put your audience at ease. Knowing where they are going will also allow them to be fully present and discourage them from mentally jumping ahead. Give them enough guidance to put them at ease while still peaking their interest and surprising them along the way.
4. Never end with Q&A
Q&A is helpful in so many ways. It provides valuable insights into what your audience is thinking and allows the audience to gain greater clarity. Use Q&A but don't end with it. End with Q&A and you run the risk of your presentation being hijacked by an audience member with an off topic or negative question which will be the last impression your audience has of your presentation. Instead, leave 2-3 minutes after the Q&A and end with a story. Use a story that reinforces the purpose of your presentation and inspires your audience to act. End on your terms.
Question: What are your presentation best practices?
Consider Ryan Jenkins to be your next Millennial/Generation Y or Generation Z keynote speaker by clicking here...
This article was originally posted on Ryan's Inc.com column, Next Generation Insights.
