TIP: Be a BETTER PowerPoint Presenter: The Real Person's Guide


About this lesson

This training video addresses the common pitfalls and misguided advice found online about giving effective presentations, emphasizing that not everyone can or should try to be a comedian or entertainer. Instead, it offers a practical approach for ordinary professionals who need to present information clearly and effectively. The focus is on creating engaging presentations by understanding your audience, defining clear goals, and crafting slides that support your message without relying on gimmicks or lengthy speeches.

The video highlights seven key factors for successful presentations: knowing your audience, setting clear goals, building relevant content, editing ruthlessly, leveraging your strengths, adding personal sparkle, and practicing diligently. It stresses the importance of authenticity, relatable language, and concise messaging, ensuring that each slide contributes directly to the presentation’s objective. The presenter advises against trying to emulate others’ styles and instead encourages presenters to harness their unique strengths and expertise.

Practical tips include projecting confidence through posture and voice, maintaining eye contact to engage the audience, and handling unexpected questions with composure. The video also recommends using PowerPoint’s Presenter Mode for managing notes discreetly and visiting the presentation room in advance to get comfortable with the setup. Overall, the training aims to equip viewers with realistic and actionable strategies to enhance their presentation skills and deliver compelling, goal-oriented content.

Questions Answered

02:32 What is the difference between public speaking versus slide show presentation
03:08 What are the seven keys to being a better PowerPoint presenter
09:56 Learn how to speak with confidence
10:07 How to Raise Your Voice Volume
10:36 How to Manage Posture and Movement While Presenting
11:10 Where to Put Your Hands When Presenting
12:03 How to Engage with Your Audience
13:42 How to Use Your Voice as an Instrument
15:08 How to Handle Questions During Your Presentation

Topics

00:00 Why The Internet Wants to Destroy Your Presentation
01:05 Why You Can Learn to Excel at Presenting
02:32 Public Speaking versus Slide Deck Presentations
03:08 The Seven Keys to Presenting
03:33 Step 1 – Know Your Audience
04:30 Step 2 – Know Your Goals
05:20 Step 3 – Build Your Slide Deck
05:59 Step 4 – Edit Your Presentation to be SHORTER
07:11 Step 5 – How to Identify Your Strengths and Weaknesses
09:04 Step 6 – How To SPARKLE When Presenting
09:56 Tip to Speak with Confidence
10:07 Tip to Raise Your Voice Volume
10:36 How to Manage Posture and Movement While Presenting
11:10 Where to Put Your Hands When Presenting
12:03 Engage with your Audience – Eye Contact
13:42 Your Voice as an Instrument – Enunciation
15:08 How to Handle Questions During Your Presentation
16:34 Step 7 – Stand Up and Deliver Your Presentation
17:01 Should I Use a Script?
18:52 Time to Stand Up and Present – What do I do?

Details

Subject Microsoft PowerPoint

Software Compatibility All Versions

Level

Course Completed

PDF Files There are not any files associated with this lesson.

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Transcript

Learn to be a Better Presenter Transcript

You have a daunting task:

deliver a slide deck presentation . . . successfully.

You turn to the internet for help on how best to present, only to find misleading YouTube videos that might embarrass you and crush your confidence!

The usual, useless tips are:

– Start with a joke; and risk no one laughing.

– Tell a personal story; and forever lose your audience in 15 seconds.

– Be an entertainer; but you’re a project manager, not some tv talk show host.

– Never, never, never read your notes, and risk rambling on for 20 minutes for a eight-minute presentation.

These tips are useless because we’re not comedians, or storytellers, or YouTube stars.

We’re everyday people, and expecting us to become fabulous performers overnight is unrealistic.

Hi, this is Les from Power Up Training.

Instead of this unobtainable advice, I offer a practical plan based on my decades of corporate boardroom speaking experience to highlight your strengths and refine your style to enhance your presentation.

So, let’s power up and help you, Stand Up and Deliver.

Before diving into our seven tips, remember: you’re not here to entertain; your purpose is to inform and achieve specific objectives.

So, for our goals, clarity is more critical than being hilarious.

Most online advice for speech-giving is wrong because it focuses on entertainment rather than the precise delivery of information through PowerPoint or Apple Keynote or Google Slides.

We’re here to deliver messages, not laughs. Precision communication is critical to persuasion.

Of course, if you’re a skilled communicator with a funny bone, you might be able to do both.

But it is unnecessary, as you will soon see, that PRECISION communication is not DULL communication.

All you need to do is add sparkle.

Let’s find out how.

Tip #1 Know Your Audience

Before we dive into presentation techniques, let’s rewind to the beginning of the creation process.

If your presentation is poorly crafted, you risk public embarrassment when it’s time to stand and deliver.

So, Tip #1 is to tailor your approach to engage your audience at their comprehension level.

Understand what motivates your audience.

For instance, frontline workers are interested in how your message impacts their daily tasks, while an executive steering committee focuses on the long-term effects on the organization.

Tailor your language and approach to suit your target group’s motivation.

Understand your audience’s preferred language comprehension level.

Remember, using complex jargon with a casual crowd won’t resonate, just as using slang unnaturally can backfire.

Hey dudes, waz up.

Instead, imagine yourself chatting with two of your target audience members and adopting that tone in your presentation.

So be BOTH relatable and authentically you.

Rule #2 – Know Your Goals

Without a clear presentation goal, you will fail

PERIOD. STOP.

And afterward, you will wonder,  why did that fail?

Because you don’t know what your expected results are supposed to be.

 

Goalless presentations are a waste of your and your audience’s time.

However, when you know your goal, you can emphasize it with your voice and tempo, increasing the likelihood of success.

Example:

Slide presentations are focused goal-oriented, not entertainment!

Note how I used voice, loudness, pausing, hand motion, and drama to prove the point.

Tip #3 Build a Presentation to match the AUDIENCE & GOALS

With a clear understanding of your audience and well-defined goals, it’s time to start building your slides, step by step.

The process of creating your presentation will be smoother when you can vividly picture your target audience and are fully aware of your objectives, as outlined in Steps #1 and #2.

This will set you up for success when the time comes to stand and deliver.

I will not explore the presentation creation steps; I have a whole collection of tutorials at my free PowerPoint training school. Use the links below, and do subscribe to Power Up Training to become a pro slide deck creator.

Tip #4 Brutal Editing

Great. You have finished making your presentation.

Now go back and Make it Shorter!

With every minute too long, you will lose people’s attention . . . they will daydream or start looking at their phones, or the worst: fall asleep and maybe SNORE.

If you can do your presentation in 10 minutes, great.

Even better, get it done in 8 minutes.

Fancy animation or “funny” stories eat up valuable presentation time; if you want to entertain, do it after work.

Always go back and trim down the slides to the central ideas.

No more and no less.

And sure, if a short story adds insights to your goals, then keep it, but make sure it ADDS value for the time allotted.

 

Now, let’s dive into the most critical aspect: mastering the art of being a better presenter with my Tips and Tricks.

#5 Identify Your True Speaking Strengths

Avoid mimicking the styles of others; it will come across as insincere. Or even phony.

Those who interact with you daily know who you are, and attempting to suddenly become a storyteller, or a jokester, risks making you look like a fraud—unless you can pull off a magical, Cinderella-like transformation, which is possible but rare.

Instead, identify your strengths and acknowledge your weaknesses. Focus on boosting your strengths and mitigating your weaknesses.

For example, are you an authority on a topic?

Then, use that expertise to speak with strength and confidence. Let that fuel your enthusiasm.

And enthusiastic passion is SPARKLE.

Are you a seasoned company veteran?

When presenting your talking points, draw upon your experience to underline the reasons people should listen to you.

(But don’t talk down to the group…like “back in the old days . . . “)

Or, if you are the new kid on the block, it is okay to acknowledge your recent tenure at the organization but let your outside experience bring a NEW PERSPECTIVE to it.

Freshness is an excellent method to shake things up. In a respectful manner.

Can you speak reasonably well in front of a group? Or are you scared to death? If the latter (and yes, even I will get butterflies before speaking on a new stage), you can overcome it through lots of practice and SPARKLE.

Which brings up #6 – Sparkle

Learn to SPARKLE as YOU!

Yes Sparkle!

Here, I will give you concrete advice to accentuate you and your strengths.

Start off with CONFIDENCE.

Lean in. Believe in yourself and speak with confidence.

If you don’t trust yourself, it will show.

Strong slide show content from our stage 3 advice will help build your confidence by knowing you have solid ideas backing your delivery.

Strong Content plus Confidence in your speaking part will result in success.

And there are more subtle tricks to portraying CONFIDENCE:

Speak forcefully.

Raise your voice and speak from your body core to project your words and ideas.

I am not asking you to yell,

But you must raise your voice’s volume louder several notches for confidence.

If possible, go to the presentation room in advance and have a trusted coworker listen to help you judge what volume level will best fill the room.

Trust me, speaking at a “confidence volume” will help you feel confident.

Trick yourself into being confident. And your audience will follow.

The next trick to sparkle with confidence is Posture and Movement. While it is not always possible to stand and present, standing is the most authoritative position to use. A straight posture (even if in a chair) will not just show confidence in the room but also make you more forceful internally.

If you are restricted to sitting, a subtle trick is to physically raise the chair in advance to look taller than normal.

Sitting or standing, do practice what to do with your hands.

Don’t make them nervous distractions or glue them to your side, work on using one or two hands to punctuate ideas and pull the audience in with you.

Even if you are presenting when sitting down.

And yes, your audience will be looking at your slides for the foundation ideas, but your oral presentation will bring their eyes to you from time to time, especially if you are using my SPARKLE voice tricks.

So always help by emphasizing your ideas with your body.

 

Do be careful about too much movement or repeating the same motion . . .

Isn’t this back-and-forth a bit awkward? Even for just a few moments?

One possible trick is employing a presenter clicker. Some may see this as a crutch, but I see it as a stage prop to focus my audience’s attention.

A wireless mouse will also work to advance slides and be used as a Theatrical prop.

After Confidence, the next SPARKLE ingredient is ENGAGE.

Look people in the eyes, survey the room; don’t shut them out of the discussion by just looking at the screen and your notes.

If you are not engaging with people by looking at individuals, then you might as well have just made a pre-recorded video and sent it via email.

If done right, PowerPoint is a powerful way to interact with a live group of humans, something that cannot be achieved by phone or video conferences. Live eye-to-eye contact is powerful.

Trust me. If you engage with the room, you may find that you can identify potential confusion, which would indicate the need for a mid-presentation detour to better explain more, or if you start to see boredom on a topic, speed things up.

So ENGAGE and ADAPT.

Taking cues from the room is a pro technique. And yes, this is not easy with all that you must do: track your slide advancements, your spoken presentation, your voice, posture and movement and now reading the room . . . it will take some time, but you can learn to pull them all together with practice; and experience.

Now to keep the SPARKLE sparkling,

Work with your voice as a communication instrument.

At a minimum, speak clearly and do not mumble, mumble, mumble.

Focus on using your mouth, jaw, lips, and throat to fully enunciate your words so people can clearly understand what you are saying. If you need help, you have my permission to search YouTube for recommendations on improving vocal clarity.

More sparkle speaking suggestions:

Sparkle Speaking Suggestions

 

Vary your pitch to avoid talking in a monotone voice, combined with changes in sentence tempo  . . .

Vary your pitch to avoid talking in a monotone voice, combined with changes in sentence tempo to bring drama and emphasis; such as the ultimate in speaking tempo change . . . .

the pause. Yes . . .

the dramatic . . . pause.

Lastly, the repeat.

Note the moment that I did pause and repeated the word “pause.” If used sparingly, the repeat of key phrase,

just key phases,

can be effective.

The last SPARKLE tip is about handling questions. . wildly unexpected questions.

Never FROWN or react negatively. People could interpret that as you questioning the intelligence of your audience.

And that is hard, when caught by surprise.

Beware of the “I don’t believe you asked such a stupid question” face.

A better solution is to put on the look of “that is interesting” as the question is being asked.

While a common technique is to say “that’s a great question” personally, I find that a bit tired and sometimes a bit fake because there can be and will be insane questions.

Instead acknowledge the question and summarize it like “If I understand, you want to know how better to address questions with empathy. Correct?”

This does confirm your understanding of the question and gives you a chance to think of your response . . . and if you don’t know, do not fake it, but commit to finding out AFTER the presentation . . . avoid going down rabbit holes that you can’t control.

Or worse yet, losing your credibility just because you had a lame answer.

Research and respond later.

Tip #7 Stand UP and Deliver with Confidence

 

Before you deliver your presentation, the most important thing you can do is practice.

The more important the presentation, the more you should practice.

You could potentially be ready a week in advance and practice multiple times a day.

Do it standing up. Do it in front of a mirror or a trusted friend or coworker for feedback.

And that does bring up the question of whether you memorize your presentation, speak off notes, or work with a full-blown written speech.

Obviously, speaking with notes is top-tier, but that is hard.

Memorizing a 10-minute presentation is not easy and could work perfectly when practicing at home, but you could get lost on, say, slide 6 or after a question interruption.

If you can do it, then excellent.

The alternative is using talking points; look at your slides and use them to keep your presentation going forward . . . but

NEVER, NEVER read your slides.

Always rephrase the text. Practice that.

Personally, I do not mind a presentation speaker looking down at their notes to keep track of their thoughts . . . but the presenter should never just READ their notes. That is also a big mistake.

Print your notes pages in large fonts and potentially double-spaced so you can easily refer to them in a dark room. I will add large SLIDE numbers so I can easily recover if I get lost based on what slide number is on the screen.

And practice them over and over again; so that you only need to glance at notes to refresh your memory.

From a technology perspective, PowerPoint does have a Presenter Mode that can display talking points for each slide that only you can see if you are working with a laptop and a presentation screen. This may be an alternative to printed notes. Look for my tutorial link above.

Another bonus idea is to visit the presentation room in advance, just to get comfortable with the physical space layout and where you might stand.

Time to give the presentation.

 

It’s best to bring water and Kleenex, if possible. Then, take several deep breaths before you begin and tell yourself that you are ready.

Know that people do want you to succeed. They are rooting for you.

Then SMILE, look around the room, and GO.

You are ready to sparkle.

To learn more about presenting, follow these links, which provide details about preparing your slides for better conference room presentations.

So do subscribe, thumbs up, and until next time

Go Power Up!