At our Conferences
we see a lot of presentations and I have given a fair share of presentations
myself. I often see people making the same mistakes and cringe when I hear the
same excuses or basic errors when people get on stage.
The easiest way to
lose an audience is to make a mistake in the first minute, and that is exactly
where most mistakes are made. Here is my list of 10 things you shouldn’t say
during presentations:
1: I’m very jet-lagged/tired/hungover
Not sure where this
comes from but one in five presentations at any conference will start with an
excuse. ‘They only invited me yesterday’, ‘I’m really tired from my trip’ or
another lame excuse that the audience really doesn’t want to hear. We, the
audience, just want to see you give it your best. If you feel like shit and
can’t give it your best than maybe you should’ve cancelled. Take a pill, drink
an espresso and kill it!
2: I’ll get back to that later
If you happen to
stumble upon an audience that is eager to learn and interact you should always
grab that chance and enjoy it. If someone has a question that you will address
in a later slide just skip to it right away! If someone is brave enough to
raise their hand and ask you a question you should compliment them and invite
the rest of the audience to do the same. Don’t delay anything.
3: Can you hear me? Yes you can!
This is how a lot of
people start their talk. They will tap a microphone three times, shout ‘can you
all hear me in the back’ and then smile apologetic when it becomes clear that,
yes, everybody can hear you but nobody raises their hands.
It isn’t your
responsibility to check the audio. There will be people for that. If you speak
into the microphone and you get the impression that it’s not working, just
relax, count to three, and try again. If you still think the sound isn’t
working just calmly walk to the edge of the stage and discreetly ask the
moderator to check for you. Smile at the audience and look confident. Assume it
all works until the opposite has been proven, then stay calm and wait for a
fix.
4: I can’t see you because the lights
are too bright
Yes, when you are on
stage the lights are bright and hot and it will be difficult to see the audience.
But they don’t have to know about all that. Just stare into the dark, smile
often and act like you feel right at home on there. Feel free to walk into the
audience if you want to see them up close. Don’t cover your eyes to see people
but politely ask the lights people to turn on the lights in the room if you
plan to count hands or ask the audience a question. Even better, talk to the
lights people in advance so they are prepared when you are going to ask them.
5: Can you read this?
The common rule is to
make the font size on your slides twice the size of the average age of the
audience. Yes, that means that if you expect the audience to be 40 on average
you are stuck with a font size of 80 points. You won’t be able to fit a lot of
text on the slide that way, which is a good thing, and brings us to the next
point.
6: Let me read this out loud for you
Never ever, ever, ever
in a million years add so much text on a slide that people will spend time
reading it. And if you do, make damn sure you don’t read it out loud for them!
The best way to lose your audiences attention is to add text to a slide. Here’s
what will happen when you have more than four words on a slide; people will
start reading it. And what happens when they read it? They will stop listening
to you!
Only use short titles
on your presentations and memorize the texts you want them to read. Or, if you
MUST include an awesome three-sentence quote, announce that everybody should
read the quote, then shut up for six seconds so they can actually read it.
7: Shut off your phone/laptop/tablet
Once upon a time you
could ask an audience to shut off their devices. That was a long time ago. Now
people tweet the awesome quotes you produce or take notes on their iPads. Or
they play solitaire or check Facebook. Times change. You can ask if people turn
their phones to silent mode but apart from that you just have to make sure that
your talk is so incredibly inspiring people will close their laptops because
they don’t want to miss a second of it. Demanding their attention is just not
going to work.
8: No need to write anything down or
take photos, the presentation will be online later
It is really cool that
you will upload your presentation later. But if it’s a good presentation it
won’t contain too many words (see point 4) and it won’t be of much use to them.
For a lot of people writing something down is just an easy way to memorize
something you’ve said. The act of writing down a sentence also embeds it in
your brain and who knows, they might be really inspired and come up with
something they’ve heard in between your lines that might change their business.
Allow people to do whatever they want during your presentations.
9: Let me answer that question right
away
Of course it is
awesome if you answer a question right away, but you need to do something else
first! Very often the question from an audience member will be very clear to
you but not to the rest of the audience. So please say “I’ll repeat that
question first so everybody hears it and THEN I will answer it”. Make it a
habit to repeat questions also because the extra time it takes to repeat it
gives you extra time to think about an awesome answer.
10: I’ll keep it short
10: I’ll keep it short
This is a promise
nobody ever keeps. But a lot of presentations are started that way! The
audience really doesn’t care if you keep it short or not. They’ve invested
their time and just want to be informed and inspired. Tell them “This
presentation is going to change your life” or “This presentation is scheduled
to take 30 minutes, but I’ll do it in 25 minutes so you can go out and have a
coffee earlier than expected.”. Now all you have to do is keep that promise,
which brings me to the last point.
Bonus tip: What, I’m out of time? But I have 23
more slides!
If you come unprepared
and need more time than you are allowed you’ve screwed up. You need to practice
your presentation and make it fit within the allotted time-slot. Even better,
end five minutes early and ask if anyone has questions, and if they don’t
invite them for a coffee to talk one-on-one. Giving an audience five minutes
back will earn their respect and gratitude. Taking an extra five will annoy and
alienate them.
Conclusion: come
prepared, be yourself and be professional. The audience will love you for being
clear, serious and not wasting their time.
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