Presenting with slides

Your presentation starts the moment the audience is aware of your presence. The clock starts when you stand up to take the podium, not when you have everything ready and tells the audience you are ready. There is no time-out.

Your appearance
What this means is that your appearance matters a lot. Dress appropriately (however the audience defines that). Wear a friendly expression. There is no such thing as a neutral expression. Your "blank" face will be interpreted as "arrogant," "confident," "business-like," "nervous," or "cocky." So take away that ambiguity from your audience and consciously project confidence with undertones of muted cheerfulness.

Your stance
Once you get up, be mindful of your stance. Stand with your back straight and shoulder back, but not too stiffly. Distribute your weight equally on both feet. Don't lean forward while bending your knee, because you seem like you are crouching. It is an aggressive position. Don't slouch or fidget either.

Keep eye contact with various members of the audience. Do not look at just one person or two, but spread your attention to the room. Take care to jump to all quadrants of the room, and not just to one side.

Your movements
As for your arms, you don't need to pin them on the side, but don't gesticulate wildly either. If you keep them at a neutral stance, somewhat close to the side of your body, any movement you make will seem large. The arc of moving the hands from the side to the front of you will be wider, thus conveysing a lot more drama into whatever you are saying. Your gestures are tools for emphasis, so don't let them fly willy nilly, distracting your audience.

Walking on the stage communicates powerful messages, so don't do it idly or as a means to expend excess energy. Use it sparingly and intentionally. You can use it to emphasize a point or to introduce a transition in thought, for examples.

Your delivery
Your audience take their cue from your energy. If you are excited about your subject, they can't help but be thrilled either. But make sure that your energy matches the subject and the audience. Acting like you just drank 10 cups of coffee when talking about umbrella insurance is incongruent to your topic.

Pauses are OK. Don't be afraid of them. It's a way for giving your audience a chance to intellectually breathe—to process what your are telling them and store them in their brains. If you don't pause, it would seem like you are in a rush or even nervous; also, you leave your audience exhausted as you run a three-legged course for an hour (or however long your session is).

Your rapport
Engage the audience. It's now passe to act like the grand poobah and holder of all knowledge who lectures to weak-minded minions. Instead, treat the presentation like a conversation, where it just happens to be that you are the only one talking.

Ask questions, interact with them, and engage their minds.

Your presentation tools
Your computer, slides, and other tools are meant to aid your presentation. They are not your crutches that you need to lean on to move forward.

To pull this off, you should know your content well. Very well. Know every slide down to its font and pixels, well, okay, maybe not to that obsessive level, but well enough that you never have to look back or at the computer to need to know what's next. And the only way to get there is by hours of practice.

If you need to look at your computer to move forward, you are tethered. Even when you don't pause as you look down, you break the eye contact with your audience (which you should sustain, but not with the same person or small number of persons, because that would be creepy). This have the following consequences: your energy level (perceived) drops and so does your credibility ("What gives?! Why doesn't she know her stuff?!")

It's OK to look from time to time, by know your material enough that you don't have to do this frequently.

When you are moving from slide to slide, do not look back. If you need to look back, do not talk and turn at the same time. You want to create a solid break between "communication" and transitional actions. The best way to handle this is to end at a natural break point, click, look, turn back, then talk again. You do these series of actions sequentially, not simultaneously. And when you turn, don't even move your pivot foot. It should be an uncomfortable (though, not awkward) position for you that would make you want to pivot back.

Your mistakes
If you had practiced like you should, you would not be flustered when your tools fail you. They're just your aid. You (your body language and facial expressions) and what you have to say should be the main points that will carry the presentation forward.

When you fumble, move on. Don't dwell on it. Olympic athletes fall, too, and all the audience pull for them to get back and run or perform like nothing happened. You could crack a joke or not, but move on. Don't be flustered and move on. For the record, I tripped in a job interview once. I got hired anyway. The content of my message was compelling, and no one remembered my lack of grace. Plus, I now have one more funny stories to add to my arsenal of anecdotes.

Deliver a Presentation like Steve Jobs

An article by Carmine Gallo, communication skills coach for the world's most admired brands
Business Week, January 25, 2008

When Apple CEO Steve Jobs kicked off this year's Macworld Conference & Expo, he once again raised the bar on presentation skills.While most presenters simply convey information, Jobs inspires. Below are 10 elements used in Jobs’ presentations, which you can combine to dazzle your own audience.

1. Set the theme. "There is something in the air today." With those words, Jobs opened Macworld. By doing so, he set the theme for his presentation (BusinessWeek.com, 1/15/08) and hinted at the key product announcement—the ultrathin MacBook Air laptop. Every presentation needs a theme, but you don't have to deliver it at the start. Last year, Jobs delivered the theme about 20 minutes into his presentation: "Today Apple reinvents the phone." Once you identify your theme, make sure you deliver it several times throughout your presentation.

2. Demonstrate enthusiasm. Jobs shows his passion for computer design. During his presentation he used words like "extraordinary," "amazing," and "cool."  Most speakers have room to add some flair to their presentations. Remember, your audience wants to be wowed, not put to sleep. Next time you're crafting or delivering a presentation, think about injecting your own personality into it. If you think a particular feature of your product is "awesome," say it. Most speakers get into presentation mode and feel as though they have to strip the talk of any fun. If you are not enthusiastic about your own products or services, how do you expect your audience to be?

3. Provide an outline. Jobs outlined the presentation by saying, "There are four things I want to talk about today. So let's get started…" Jobs followed his outline by verbally opening and closing each of the four sections and making clear transitions in between. For example, after revealing several new iPhone features, he said, "The iPhone is not standing still. We keep making it better and better and better. That was the second thing I wanted to talk about today. No. 3 is about iTunes." Make lists and provide your audience with guideposts along the way.

4. Make numbers meaningful. When Jobs announced that Apple had sold 4 million iPhones to date, he didn't simply leave the number out of context. Instead, he put it in perspective by adding, "That's 20,000 iPhones every day, on average." Jobs went on to say, "What does that mean to the overall market?" Jobs detailed the breakdown of the U.S smartphone market and Apple's share of it to demonstrate just how impressive the number actually is. Jobs also pointed out that Apple's market share equals the share of its top three competitors combined. Numbers don't mean much unless they are placed in context. Connect the dots for your listeners.

5. Try for an unforgettable moment. This is the moment in your presentation that everyone will be talking about. Every Steve Jobs presentation builds up to one big scene. In this year's Macworld keynote, it was the announcement of MacBook Air.
To demonstrate just how thin it is, Jobs said it would fit in an envelope. Jobs drew cheers by opening a manila interoffice envelope and holding the laptop for everyone to see. What is the one memorable moment of your presentation? Identify it ahead of time and build up to it.

6. Create visual slides. While most speakers fill their slides with data, text, and charts, Jobs does the opposite. There is very little text on a Steve Jobs slide. Most of the slides simply show one image. For example, his phrase "The first thing I want to talk to you about today…" was accompanied by a slide with the numeral 1. That's it. Just the number. When Jobs discussed a specific product like the iPhone, the audience saw a slide with an image of the product. When text was introduced, it was often revealed as short sentences (three or four words) to the right of the image. Sometimes, there were no images at all on the slide but a sentence that Jobs had delivered such as "There is something in the air." There is a trend in public speaking to paint a picture for audiences by creating more visual graphics. Inspiring presenters are short on bullet points and big on graphics.

7. Give 'em a show. A Jobs presentation has ebbs and flows, themes and transitions. Since he's giving his audience a show instead of simply delivering information, Jobs includes video clips, demonstrations, and guests he shares the stage with.

8. Don't sweat the small stuff. Despite your best preparation, something might go wrong as it did during the keynote. Jobs was about to show some photographs from a live Web site, and the screen went black while Jobs waited for the image to appear. It never did. Jobs smiled and said, "Well, I guess Flickr isn't serving up the photos today." He then recapped the new features he had just introduced. That's it. It was no big deal. I have seen presenters get flustered over minor glitches. Don't sweat minor mishaps. Have fun. Few will remember a glitch unless you call attention to it.

9. Sell the benefit. While most presenters promote product features, Jobs sells benefits. When introducing iTunes movie rentals, Jobs said, "We think there is a better way to deliver movie content to our customers." Jobs explained the benefit by saying, "We've never offered a rental model in music because people want to own their music. You listen to your favorite song thousands of times in your life. But most of us watch movies once, maybe a few times. And renting is a great way to do it. It's less expensive, doesn't take up space on our hard drive…" Your listeners are always asking themselves, "What's in it for me?" Answer the question. Don't make them guess. Clearly state the benefit of every service, feature, or product.

10. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Steve Jobs cannot pull off an intricate presentation with video clips, demonstrations, and outside speakers without hours of rehearsal. I have spoken to people within Apple who tell me that Jobs rehearses the entire presentation aloud for many hours. Nothing is taken for granted. You can see he rehearsed the Macworld presentation because his words were often perfectly synchronized with the images and text on the slides. When Jobs was showing examples of the films that are available on the new iTunes movie rental service, one poster of a particular film appeared at the exact moment he began to talk about it. The entire presentation was coordinated. A Steve Jobs presentation looks effortless because it is well-rehearsed.