Effectively Delivering Your Message
Whether you're preaching a sermon, trying to sell something or
wanting to nail down that presentation, delivery is everything.
The best way to successfully deliver any message is to keep it
fresh, keep it short, keep it simple and keep it fun.
When I started developing my first slide show years ago, I
paused to reflect on what was right or wrong with most
presentations. Placing one slide up on the screen and talking
for an hour was something I didn't want to do. I had seen that
same mistake made over and over in high school and college. The
only things more boring then bad slide presentations are chalk
talks and object lessons.
People new to speaking often depend on gimmicks. They often feel
more comfortable using chalk board, an overhead projector,
audience giveaways or something they can hold in their hand or
place on a lectern for people to focus on. While these kinds of
things can be useful in some cases, they can also be a
distraction. A professional Speaker should never create a gap
between themselves and their audience. You can steer clear of
that pitfall by limiting the use of gimmicks and avoiding topic
saturation.
The worst classroom nightmare that can happen to a junior or
senior high school student is to end up with a teacher fresh out
of college. They are easy to spot because of a misplaced passion
to teach everything they have ever learned in one semester and
burn up more chalk then a cheap ice cream company. Saying too
much about any topic is as bad as not saying enough. An overuse
of presentation graphics and technology detracts from your
subject.
While tools like PowerPoint are a blessing to Speakers who were
once chained to cumbersome and often unreliable slide
projectors, they are not a substitute for content. Content will
always be king. Editing content is an art form that must be
learned through experience. Like many Speakers, most of my early
gigs were for community groups, service organizations and clubs.
They were, needless to say, unpaid. However, those engagements
were excellent proving grounds for my material and provided good
opportunities for me to sharpen my speaking skills.
The best way to understand what's right or wrong with a
presentation is audience reaction. No matter how much you know
about any topic or how passionately you present it, the audience
will decide whether or not your presentation deserves their
attention. Getting that attention means editing and presenting
your content to suit them.
You can grab on to your audience by focusing in on the most
interesting aspects of any topic. Let's say your topic is CORN.
Most people are not going to care about how many tons of it are
produced by farmers each year or what it takes to get it to
market. They have already seen that on the Discovery Channel ten
times over. Tell them what they don't know about the crop. Focus
in on unusual uses, unique growing methods and uncommon
processing procedures. Inform your audience by entertaining them.
Maintaining audience interest means speaking WITH them, not AT
them. An audience will judge you by the first twenty words that
come out of your mouth. This doesn't mean that you have to begin
with a joke or story, it just means you have to start with
sincerity. Say what you feel, not what you know and NEVER
reintroduce yourself. During the first five minutes of your
presentation, you will either gain or lose your audience. Begin
with the WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE and WHY of your topic. Those old
journalistic building blocks serve professional Speakers well.
If content is king, comfort rules! You cannot successfully
deliver your message to a room full of uncomfortable people.
Your audience should be comfortable in every way imaginable.
More then a few event planners have felt my wrath when I found
horrific conditions present at various Speaking venues. I
learned, early on, to verify any and all essential equipment and
set-ups the day before my arrival. Arriving at least two hours
before my audience on the day of a presentation was also
important. That allowed time for any quick fixes.
Every member of your audience must be able to clearly see you,
hear you and view any screen or monitor comfortably. If seating
is portable, rows should be kept short. People like the ability
to come and go as needed. Chilled water must always be
available. A good listener is a comfortable listener.
You cannot get your message across if no one understands what
you are talking about. Speakers often justify boring
presentations by claiming that listeners will not appreciate the
topic if they are not given the 'big picture.' These are
Speakers who imagine an audience filled with Intellectuals or
Professionals who appreciate the highbrow approach and hang on
their every word. Anyone who has ever attended an average
Financial Planning or Real Estate Investment seminar knows how
tragic and ineffectual this kind of presentation can be.
If some Speakers put too much into a presentation, others depend
on fluff and sideshows leaving their audience with nothing but a
momentary high to take home. There is a big difference between a
coaching session and public speaking. Coaches put on a show and
depend as much on audience participation as they do on hype to
get a point across. Coaches create an event and motivate
participants, while professional Speakers deliver a message and
enlighten their audiences.
Most Speakers I have met live on credentials. They write their
own introductions and hope to impress an audience with all kinds
of educational and professional accomplishments. Few live up to
their resumes. That's because the focus is on them, not their
message. With the possible exception of personality cults or
celebrities, most people come out to hear the MESSAGE and not
the Messenger. Given that, your delivery of that MESSAGE had
better be good!
Let's revisit the essentials. Keep your presentation FRESH, keep
it SHORT, keep it SIMPLE and make it FUN. This is a delicate
balancing act. While you never want people to feel cheated
because you didn't say enough, it's no better to say so much
that they end up with a headache from trying to take it all in.
Likewise, you do not want them to perceive you as a novice
because you over-simplified things, depended on gimmicks, told
too many jokes or replaced popular material with new stuff just
to keep it crisp.
Every professional Speaker must balance content, technique,
technology and audience satisfaction. It's a comfort zone that
you reach through trial and error. You'll know you are there
when audiences accept, enjoy and appreciate your message.