Your Presentation Best

Stressed-Out Before your Presentation ? Managing Presentation Nervousness and Stress, Part I One of the most asked questions I get during my presentation workshops is: How can I get control of my nervousness and stress before I present? The good news is:  you are not alone.   Unless you are dead or drugged, the vast majority of presenters have this challenge.  It is your body going on "High Alert", the same basic as the "Flight or Fight" mechanism that automatically kicks in when faced with danger. Now, most presentations are not dangerous, although it might feel that way.  (thus the High Alert reaction).  In my 15-plus years of coaching, I've found that the driving force behind this stress is insecurity.   It could be that you don't know the material or message as well as you would like.  Maybe you have so many slides you "need" to present that you're afraid you might forget some key info. Or you simply have too

The Story Formula Communication experts all agree that the best way to transfer information is in story form.  There's something about the classic formula of Good vs. Evil that makes stories effective.   You can use the example below to develop the story line for your  next presentation. In Steve Jobs's iPhone presentation, he uses the Nokia, Palm and Blackberry as the villians.  The problems are the difficult to use keyboards, the overall difficulty of use, and the not-so-good software. The victim, of course, is the user:  you and me. The good guy then comes riding to the rescue:   iPhone solves all these problems and so much more. It's a simple but very compelling story arc.   The Story Structure Set up   Conflict   Resolution The Bad Guy Who’s the villain? The Problem What problem(s) does it represent? The Victim Who is affected? How are they affected? What are the tragic results? The Good Guy Who is the h

What the ?$%!§#?!%& is the message?! The Three Slide Test Try this:  show your 3 most important PowerPoint slides to someone  not on your team and count to three. Three seconds per slide. Ask if he or she got the message from each slide. Ask him or her if they can remember all of the messages. If not, your slides are too complex. If so, keep rockin' and spread the Gospel of Clean Slides.  Be Your Preseentation Best www.boswell-training.com