The Successful Speaker

October 2008

Contents This Month

· A Word about Speaker Notes

· Compress, Impress, Depress

· Fiddling with Your Audience

· Quotations

· Update Your Email Address

· Refer Madness

A Word about Speaker Notes

Many speakers struggle with speaker notes. They struggle with what to write and how much to write. Others don’t struggle at all because they put everything they’re going to say on PowerPoint slides! (If you are the latter, I’ll deal with you later in the newsletter!)

In previous newsletters, I’ve shared some guidelines about using multiple colors, printing large, and using symbols and images. Yet one of the most common mistakes by presenters is including too many words in their notes. Including too many words in your speaker notes is counterproductive for several reasons:

· Creating a script gives you “permission” to not rehearse as much since you have a script to help you.

· When having to refer to a script, you have to sort through more words to find your place. While this may take only five seconds, it feels much longer when you’re in front of an audience.

· Speaker notes that tell you what to say make you focus too much on using the right words. While it’s nice to be eloquent, remember that communication is inexact at best. Your audience will not remember your exact words and may remember words you didn’t say! Focus on remembering the ideas and communicating them clearly.

What your speaker notes should include are “trigger words.” These are usually nouns or verbs that trigger your memory of what to speak about. By having fewer, more important words in your notes, you’ll reduce both the need to and time spent looking at your notes.

Compress, Impress, Depress

I recently worked with a presenter who told me he was done preparing for his presentation. When I asked what he meant, he told me that he had finished all of his slides. I then corrected him, “You’re only done preparing your slides…you think. Even if your slides are done, you’re not even close to being prepared for your presentation.”

When he showed me his slides, I saw what too many presenters do with their slides. He tried to compress his entire presentation into as few slides as possible. He hoped that this would then impress his audience. I told him that what he had created was likely to depress his audience.

I shared with him that reading dense slides with a lot of text interspersed with complex charts and graphs can be overwhelming for an audience. While reading all of this, audience members can’t possibly listen to what is being said. They will then get further and further behind. Okay, they may not get depressed by this, but I like the poetic sound of “compress, impress, depress” more than “compress, impress, overwhelm.”

Keep your slides simple. Put only one chart on a slide and get rid of all of the extraneous text (the words that are there to serve as your notes rather than to enhance your audience’s comprehension).

Fiddling with Your Audience

I like giving out small toys to my audience to fiddle with. I’ve been asked many times, “Doesn’t that encourage your audience to get distracted?” No. If I’m doing my job as a presenter, they won’t get distracted too often. Still, we all get distracted at times and having a little toy to fiddle with is convenient. If we didn’t have that toy, there’s no telling where our minds would wander.

The added benefit for me is that when I do lose an audience member’s attention, I can often quickly see it – they’re playing with a toy!

Quotations

“My rests are as important as my notes.” – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

“I can never remember being afraid of an audience. If the audience could do better, they’d be on stage and I’d be out there watching them.” – Ethel Merman (American singer, actor)

Update Your Email Address

Don’t miss an issue of The Successful Speaker. If your email address is going to change, let me know about it.

Refer Madness

If you had a good experience in my workshop/seminar, share it with someone you know. If you provide me with a lead that generates new business for me, I’ll pay you (or your favorite charity) $250 (less if it is less than a full-fee engagement).

If you belong to a professional organization that needs a speaker or If you know any business or non-profit organization (including your own), that could benefit from my workshops, presentations, coaching, or needs a facilitator:

1. Tell your contact about me.

2. Tell me about your contact. Call me at 972-378-0937 or write me at dgunby@mindimensions.com

3. Wait for your check (if I get your contact’s business)

If you would like to be removed from this distribution list reply to this email with “unsubscribe” in the subject line.