51. Five mistakes presenters make

If you want to give a fantastic presentation with slides - either online or in person - this is the episode for you. I cover off five mistakes I commonly see and share easy ways to fix them.

Transcript

Um, so I'll just bring up my slides for you. And I'm talking about five mistakes presenters make, and I just made one of them.

I'm Sally Prosser. You're listening to That Voice Podcast, no matter who you are or what you do, your voice matters. So unless you've sworn a lifetime vow of silence, this is the podcast for you.

If you'd like to speak with confidence, clarity, and charisma, join My Six Week Voice Makeover I'm not running a new intake until 2021, but get your name on the list at sallyprosser.com.au.

Welcome to episode 51 of That Voice Podcast. If you're here for the first time, thanks so much for stopping by if you're a loyal listener. You'll know, I often talk about how, how we deliver. Today's a little bit different. I'm talking about content. I'm talking about what we say and in particular, what to say when using a slide deck, and that's because it's been the theme of the day for so many private clients I'm working with at the moment, whether they're presenting a project update back to the team, pitching for a new client or conducting training -I've been sharing all these strategies with them, and I thought it would make a helpful podcast ep.

And so here we are. At the moment everyone's presenting online, but the tips I'll share with you today also work in person. So if you're back to in person presentations, then you can still tune in. And these are tips around the language you use the words you choose what you say. And I have five mistakes I see presenters make.

Mistake number one, diving into detail without framing the why diving into detail without framing. The why, what do I mean by that? Well, often presenters will bring up their slide and read the title of the presentation like I did at the very beginning of this episode. And then dive straight into slide one. That is very much making the slides the boss not making you the boss. It also doesn't give the audience a clear idea of where you're going or why they're there. And it's not a mystery flight in a good way.

You want to start your presentation before you even bring up the slides if you're online and you want to start it with an umbrella statement or two about why the audience should care, why are you presenting? So I might say, I understand you're doing a lot of presenting at the moment, especially online and you don't present to present. You're presenting to persuade, to inform, to give your audience what they came for. And so today I'm keen to share with you the top five mistakes I see people make with the language they choose. And if any of these hit home for you, don't worry. I'll of course share how you can easily fix them. So you can hear that's a lot more inviting for people than me bringing up a slide and saying, okay, five mistakes presenters make.

And that brings me to the next mistake I see. Number two, which is breaking up the flow of the presentation with each slide. There's no talking while the slide changes, except for phrases like let's go to the next slide or okay, on this slide. And look, I use those phrases too sometimes it's not a blanket ban on those phrases. Rather, you don't want the flow of the presentation to be dictated by slide change. Remember, you're the boss of the slides. They're not the boss of you. And if the way you speak is heavily demarcated by each slide, one, it draws the audience to read and daydream and not listen to you. And two, it can seem like you're not really prepared and don't know what's coming until you get to it. So you need to see the slides to know what to say and you won't be saying, ah, yep. Sal. That is often the case I'm preparing at the last minute. And I do need to see the slides to know what I'm saying? Well, you know, that's not ideal. You want to be prepared enough to at least know what's coming on each slide coming up so you can convey confidence and competence and use effective segue statements. So these are statements that you say while you're changing slides, they link the slides together beautifully. I did this earlier in the podcast when I said, Oh, and that brings me to the next mistake. Great little segue line. It could be, let's dive deeper into this idea or that's closely linked to X. Of course it depends on your content. So as you're preparing, don't just prepare what to say ON each slide, but what to say BETWEEN each slide and practice. So not just what to say on each slide, but what to say between each slide. If your speaking flows through the slide deck, your audience will be more engaged and you'll seem more in control.

All right. Number three. The third mistake I hear is presenters talking about their audience, not TO their audience, about their audience, not to their audience. For example, rather than saying many clients feel afraid of public speaking, I might say you might feel afraid of public speaking. Talk to your audience, not about them. Frame in the YOU, remember your not the center of attention. The audience is the center of your straight out of episode 49 for you. And this can only take a small tweak. It doesn't need a big change. Instead of many companies choose to invest in their people. Many companies similar to yours, invest in their people, make the audience's ear prick up and say, Oh, you're talking to me. And if you don't know much about your audience, then point number four, mistake.

Number four is super important and that is presenters not gathering useful information or just not using it, not gathering information and / or not using it. So if you have a chance to interact, find out more about who you're speaking to and make your content super relevant to them. In My Six Week Voice Makeover course, I ask questions in all my lives for those tuned in. I might ask, how do you feel when you speak, let me know in the chat, how do you feel when you speak? Patrick says he feels breathless. Then later on when I'm going through a good breathing technique, I can refer back to Patrick and say, it's not just about breathing in low and deep, but letting the air flow out freely. Because as you mentioned, Patrick, you feel breathless. And that could be because you're tensing in your throat and not letting that air flow out freely. I use Patrick's name because he's my boyfriend. I didn't think he'd care. So what it's all about is creating personalized service in your presentation. And nothing gets people listening more than when you are speaking to them, asking them and not just making assumptions about them, especially online, especially when people find it easier to mute, put the camera off and drift away. If you can be speaking directly to them, Whoa, they'll be back on and engaged faster than you can say That Voice Podcast.

And finally, the last mistake I hear presenters make is their language is void of feeling. Language is void of feeling. Remember Theodore Roosevelt - nobody cares how much, you know, until they know how much you care. Nobody cares how much, you know, until they know how much you care. So put some care and feeling and passion into your language. You know, it breaks my heart to see people struggle with speaking, helping people speak lights me up and gets me out of bed in the morning. It's frustrating when my voice starts to go on me, I'm excited to take you through how this product works. I'd love to hear your feedback. So it's putting those emotive words into your script - care feeling passion breaks my heart. Frustrating, excited, love, angry, annoyed, anything that's a feeling word. Put it in there. If your language is void of feeling, your speaking is more likely to be void of emotion and you don't want that. You want to be making that emotional connection when you're speaking and you can map this out in your presentation. If you can map out the emotional journey, the feeling you want the audience to feel at each point in your presentation, then you'll know what language to use. It's a really helpful exercise when preparing a presentation, what do I want my audience to be feeling at each point in this presentation.

A little bonus tip for you. Negative language might hook people in. That's why I call this episode five mistakes. Instead of five tips. If we frame a problem, people are more likely to look for a solution and that title mistakes might be what got you here today. But I believe even if you hook with the negative, you release with a positive. If you hook with the negative, you release with a positive, you might get your audience there because they feel like they've got a problem that you're going to help solve, but you don't want to release them back out into the world with those feelings. I hope not. I always want my audience. I want you right now to be walking away from this podcast going, Oh, hell yes. I've got some really useful information. I'm feeling great. Hell yes, queen that's one of my other podcast eps. Can't remember the number of it off the top of my head.

So I'll leave you with the positive today. Number one, use beautiful umbrella phrases before diving into the detail. Number two, have a segue statement between each slide. Number three, talk to your audience, not just about them. Number four, ask questions and use those answers and number five, infuse feeling into your language.

If you enjoyed today's episode and thought, Oh my gosh, there is so much I could learn about this. Then consider joining my Members Only. There's a bunch of amazing people. They're doing lots of presentations asking the questions I'm sure you have, and giving each other really, really helpful advice and encouragement so that's Sally Prosser Members Only you can sign up month to month or for the year. And I will link to more info in my show notes.

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