There are many articles and essays that have been written about the founder of Apple and his masterful presentations. What's more, entire books have even been written on how this expert communicator was able to convey his messages in a memorable way. In our post, and with the help of Garr Reynolds and his book "The naked presenter", we are going to list practical and concrete aspects that can help us make better presentations. Here are some of their tips:
- Build a relationship with the audience. Jobs was an expert on this question. From his clothes, his walks on stage, his eye contact and above all, his position of humility, made him connect with the audience immediately. And this is our recommendation, move, act, interact with your audience always having a maxim: the protagonist is your audience and you are their mentor, give your audience an idea of where you want to go. It is not necessary that you reflect on a slide the summary of what you are going to talk about, but you do need to tell them what is the map of the journey that you are going to start together. Tell them why you want them to join you and that it will be worth it to stay by your side. Show passion. Passion is the engine of any great presentation. It does not matter what you do or what your role is within an organization.Passion is essential to be able to connect with your audience and convey your message. However, we understand that this must be modulated depending on the audience you are going to address. Do not forget to use terms such as amazing, incredible, spectacular in your presentations, which will help you convey your enthusiasm. And above all, be sincere, as this authenticity is immediately captured by those attending your presentation. And if you do not believe what you are telling… better not tell. Keep optimism and good humor. Even in bad times, you should be optimistic and uphold your beliefs. You must believe in what you transmit or you will never be able to sell it to anyone. And also, if you use humor wisely, getting the audience laugh at the right times,you will establish a connection that there will be no way to break it. However, we want to emphasize that using humor as a resource in our presentation does not mean playing the clown. Be careful with it, it's not the numbers, it's what they mean. The audience doesn't want to see numbers and numbers in your presentations. What the audience wants is to know what your interpretation of those numbers is. Simplify the data as much as possible, and if you see it necessary, complement the presentation with the delivery of separate documentation where attendees can see where you have drawn your conclusions from and gain credibility. Make it visual. Use clean, professional and simple images. Forget about long texts or bullet points. Slides are your ally and not an enemy, so don't make slides that put your audience to sleep.People love the unexpected. They do not love the news and what surprises us. Use the surprise to hook your audience, and you will get spectacular results. Include only what is necessary. Leonardo Da Vinci already said it: "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." In your presentation you cannot say everything. You have to discern what is essential from what is not, and this is not an easy exercise. The same goes for the design of your slides. Stay with the essence and transmit it, if you want your audience to remember something of what you have said after 24 hours. Change the rhythm and use a variety of techniques. Jobs was an expert at changing the pace, juxtaposing ideas, contrasting features, etc. In short, he was a master of action, and this included it in all his presentations. In addition, he used a multitude of resources,constantly varying them: videos, stories, data, images. In short, use contrast if you want your audience not to lose the thread, save the best for last. Your audience will judge your presentation in the first two minutes, and then they will get an idea of whether or not what you are about to tell them interests them. It is very difficult to win the interest of the audience if you have not achieved it in those first two minutes. So you should start with a grand opening. In turn, the final message is the one that best fixes in our mind, so we will have to leave the most striking and spectacular for this moment. Do not forget, the most important parts of a presentation are the beginning and the end, so here it will be necessary to give the “chest do”. Give the appropriate duration. Do not extend yourself more than necessary.Tell the essentials and do not extend yourself too much, otherwise you will fall into repetition, anecdotes and boredom. And never, never, exceed the stipulated time. The moment you exceed your time, the audience disconnects. Better to leave them hungry…
Bibliography
- REYNOLDS, Garr. The naked presenter. Berkeley: New Riders 2011.http: //blog.xplica.es/#sthash.zQdQIRdP.dpuf
