A short while ago, I gave one of the more interesting presentations I’ve ever given. I stood up in front of over 50 of my peers and spoke about an area I was a passionate about, talked about how my organisation needed to change and most importantly about how people in the field had doing things wrong for too long. It was tough and I was anxious and scared.

The thing is afterwards people told me how well I did and how much they enjoyed hearing me talk.

Now this is a surprise, as I have never considered myself a good public speaker, and leading up until today the thought of getting on stage was enough to send my heart racing. Granted, I have no problem getting up in front of people and making a fool of myself, but doing a structured talk with all eyes on me – yuck. So what I wanted to do was share a few of the tips I picked up over the last year that helped turn me from a nervous wreck in front of a crowd, into a confident looking nervous wreck.

So in accordance with the idea that you never really know anything well until you explain it in your own words, here are the top 5 tips I took away that helped me deliver a killer performance.

  • Open with a bang – This is a tip from The Naked Presenter, and is all about opening your talk in a way that catches people attention. Whether its a joke, an anecdote, an inspiring quote or a controversial sentence that catches people off guard, start off on a big, positive note. More than anything else, people will remember the start and the end of your talk so make sure there is something to remember!
  • Ditch the bullet points – One of the big points that Tufte makes is that Bullet points are for you, the presenter, and no one else – they are your presenter notes. Feel free to consult them to help refresh your mind, but don’t make them visible. People can read faster than they can talk, so while you are still on the first point they have read to the end and are bored. Not only have you distracted them from your talking, but they are forming their own opinions about your notes – and they might not be coming to the ‘correct conclusions’. Use pictures that illustrate the ideas you are talking about,  graphs, quotes (as long as you don’t read them verbatim) or even don’t have a slide at all to distract them.
  • Leave the lectern – The lectern puts a physical and emotional barrier between you and the audience and it makes it harder to connect with them. Where possible, Reynolds suggests moving away from the lectern and getting up close to the audience. This drives home that you want to connect with the audience, which is something you should want. The move the audience feels connected to your talk, the more they take away. The big tip I can offer here is if you do rely on slides, which is often the case, get a presenters wand as it gives you the freedom to walk around the stage and frees you from the lectern. One of the big things I found, was it allowed me to motion in time with the skipping between slides to emphasis change, rather than having to reach for a keyboard.
  • Make a handout – Another suggestion from Tufte, is in place of the more usual handout of printed copies of the slides, is to make a well written handout – no more than a double-sided A4 sheet. Firstly, this gives you more freedom on what people take away, as instead of having to remember how your bullet points worked together, they have a solid document with sentences that they can refer back to. In my own talk, I also used it to provide a practical example of what I was talking about for them to take away (homework if you will) and encouraged listeners to read ahead or catch up by consulting the handout. Lastly, it allowed me to include a detailed diagram that would have been to illegible on a slide, for listeners to closely examine at their own pace as I covered smaller parts of it.
  • Love your topic – This last point is one of my own design, but has been said by many people before. If you aren’t passionate about what you are talking about, perhaps you should rethink why you are presenting it. If you are, then this will show in your talk, and you will share that passion with the audience. One of the biggest compliments I routinely receive is from people  who talk about how obvious it is how enthusiastic I am about what I do, and it is true. People love to hear from people who are love their work, and will genuinely want to understand why you feel that way. Even to the point where, if nothing else, they will overlook all your flaws if they feel that they share that passion too.

The next step to becoming a better present can be summed up as read these two books (Note: The links to these books use my Amazon affiliates code):

The Naked Presenter: Delivering Powerful Presentations With or Without Slides (Voices That Matter) by Garr Renyolds.

The Naked Presenter draws comparisons between public presenting and Japanese nude baths. Garr travelled to Japan prior to writing this book, and had to occasionally attend Japanese baths with colleagues. In the book he talks a lot about the social and physical barriers we put between ourselves and our audience that limit out ability to freely interact. He talks about removing lecterns, approaching the audience before during and after a talk, and focuses on how to structure talks and the appropriate slides that go with them. People likened my talk to a TED talk, and whether or not that is an apt comparison, a lot of what they meant came down to me following the approach of this book, and actively trying to engage with the audience.

The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within, Second Edition by Edward Tufte

Edward Tufte is considered one of the masters in the field of information visualisation and a huge promoter of content and truth in graphics over pizazz. This article comes out strongly against the traditional use of Powerpoint (and other slideware) as a tool for displaying bland bullet points that are often read verbatim by unprepared presenters. Tufte talks about the information presented in slides and how they are often used as standalone documents, rather than presentation aids. Instead Tufte promotes the use of short reports and handouts to augment talks, as well as reexamining the use of slideware to situations where visual aids enhance a presentation rather than dominate it.

However, not everyone may have time to read these books – although they will be a great benefit – but hopefully the abridged version of these books from someone who used to be uncomfortable in front of crowds can help others to also improve their public speaking skills.