Effective communication is crucial in any role. Regardless of who you are presenting to, delivery is what makes or breaks a flawless presentation. Its power makes the difference between success and failure.
As the speaker, it’s up to you to make sure your presentation has the maximum influence, credibility, and impact it can on your audience.
Here are eight proven principles to getting it down flawlessly:
How to Make A Flawless Presentation
1. Make Brief Notes
Every good presenter knows what he or she wants their audience to get out of the meeting before they ever step foot into the limelight. When creating your slides, make sure you take brief notes about your talking points. These will make up the framework of your delivery and set the tone for what you are going to say to everyone.
2. Don’t Write Out Your Talks
When presenting, you never want to look stiff. Coming across as natural as possible means you don’t write out your talks. You are already an expert in whatever you are talking about. Let your knowledge speak for itself like you’re having a casual conversation. Worse, writing it all out will leave you trying to remember what to say instead of trusting yourself to speak naturally with sparkle.
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3. Never Memorize a Talk Word for Word
Worse than looking stiff, is looking canned. Memorizing a presentation word for word will do just that. Your audience will immediately know that you weren’t well enough prepared to genuinely speak on the subject, and instead opted for a presenting method that anyone with or without knowledge on the topic could have done. It’s almost a sure thing that you’ll forget the words, and it certainly won’t add to your credibility either.
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4. Fill Your Talk with Illustrations and Examples
It’s a known fact that visuals aids are an effective way to grab peoples’ attention. By far, the easiest way to make your flawless presentation more interesting is to fill it with illustrations and examples. Giving your audience something other than words to look at activates their minds. If an image speaks to them, it has the potential to become a cue that reminds them of your presentation for much longer than words alone. People are built to remember photos, images, and examples.
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5. Know More Than You Can Use
If you’re about to be up on stage, you should absolutely know what you are talking about. You never know what can happen during a presentation. You may be interrupted. There may be a technology issue. Whatever it is, you should be prepared to keep things going, even without your notes or visual cues. The sign of someone who knows what they’re talking about is able to present through adversity.
6. Rehearse Your Talk
Arriving prepared for your presentation prepared means feeling confident beforehand. Never step up to the podium without having rehearsed your talking points. After all, actors wouldn’t perform a play without practicing first, right? Try speaking to trusted friends or colleagues. Get their opinions on your presentation style. See if your main idea comes across, and they understand the content. Human interaction will always get you better results than speaking to yourself in the mirror.
7. Improve Instead of Worry
What’s the point in worrying about your presentation? It only increases your anxiety and heightens the chance of making a mistake when it matters the most. Instead, focus on how you can improve. Figuring out your weak points and finding ways to make them stronger will give you the confidence to perform at your best. The truth is that when you face an audience, you should forget all about voice, breathing, gestures, posture, emphasis. These are all things that you have practiced and improved upon ahead of time. At the moment, it’s all about paying attention to what you are saying.
8. Be Yourself
Don’t try to imitate others. People value authenticity, and the sooner you develop your own unique presentation style, the sooner you’ll make a real impact on your viewers. Believe in yourself and your abilities. Accept your faults and find ways to overcome them. Focusing on how other people would have done things is only going to lead to over-analysis. Speak in a way that feels natural to you, and let your true self shine through.
Learn More About Dale Carnegie High Impact Presentation Workshops
Learn to communicate with clarity and certainty, interact with a natural and composed demeanor, and convey complex material directly with a Dale Carnegie high impact presentation workshop. If you are interested in being viewed as prepared, informed, and confident, this program will do just that.