How To Ace Presentations?

[Visionary]

Hi guys,

Been on the path for a year and a half now. Anxiety issues decreased to a large extent.

But i can't seem to fucking ace presentations. I'm waaaay too neurotic in these situations. I can't control my thoughts or emotions.

My goal is now: DON'T FUCK IT UP. But it should be: how can i ace this shit and deliver the message properly. That switch is so extremely difficult. Literally giving no shit about other people's opinions. It's the law of attraction at work actually.   

Are there any experienced/talented/master presentators that can help me out?

Thanks

[mostly harmless]

Google 'toastmasters'. There are TMs-groups around the world for people to practice public speaking.

 

Youtube: search 'present like Steve Jobs'. Several very good tips will come up.

 

My personal thoughts:

Think how you would explain something to a friend or a group of friends. 

Can you let go of the idea that you have to show how eloquent you are and amaze people with sentences like you would find in a book, and instead focus on making people understand the topic no matter if you look like a fool? 

I would ask myself: What is interesting about this for the people listening? What do I have to make them understand and take away from the presentation?

A good way to increase engagement, interest and the chance that people get the information is to make it interactive. That means asking questions. That would be on one hand, before giving away some findings of a study for example, to ask the audience what they assume the outcome of the study was. And on the other hand you can ask people to describe what you just told them in their own words. Then you know if you have to clarify this point further or if you can move on. You can also ask what aspects they would like to hear more details about.

This is by no means complete or systematically thought through. Just some suggestions off the top of my head.

 

Good luck. 

 

Edited March 29, 2017 by mostly harmless

[Visionary]

10 hours ago, mostly harmless said:

Google 'toastmasters'. There are TMs-groups around the world for people to practice public speaking.

 

Youtube: search 'present like Steve Jobs'. Several very good tips will come up.

 

My personal thoughts:

Think how you would explain something to a friend or a group of friends. 

Can you let go of the idea that you have to show how eloquent you are and amaze people with sentences like you would find in a book, and instead focus on making people understand the topic no matter if you look like a fool? 

I would ask myself: What is interesting about this for the people listening? What do I have to make them understand and take away from the presentation?

A good way to increase engagement, interest and the chance that people get the information is to make it interactive. That means asking questions. That would be on one hand, before giving away some findings of a study for example, to ask the audience what they assume the outcome of the study was. And on the other hand you can ask people to describe what you just told them in their own words. Then you know if you have to clarify this point further or if you can move on. You can also ask what aspects they would like to hear more details about.

This is by no means complete or systematically thought through. Just some suggestions off the top of my head.

 

Good luck. 

 

Thank you very much! Very helpful advice

Did these things work out well for you, if i may ask?

[mostly harmless]

10 minutes ago, Visionary said:

Thank you very much! Very helpful advice

Did these things work out well for you, if i may ask?

Yes, used this for school. 

[Michael569]

presentations skills come to you same as anything else. 

It is like riding a bike. You need to practice it to become good at it. While some people may naturally be disposed towards an extrovert behaviour and with it easier facing crowds, 95% is practice. The more you do it, the better you get. 

Agree with what was said above, joining toastmasters is your public speaking "bootcamp" especially your first speech haha, that felt like having a billion crazy monkeys in my stomach.

[Visionary]

3 hours ago, Michael569 said:

presentations skills come to you same as anything else. 

It is like riding a bike. You need to practice it to become good at it. While some people may naturally be disposed towards an extrovert behaviour and with it easier facing crowds, 95% is practice. The more you do it, the better you get. 

Agree with what was said above, joining toastmasters is your public speaking "bootcamp" especially your first speech haha, that felt like having a billion crazy monkeys in my stomach.

Haha thnx for the advice bruv! So how are you now? Are the emotions more at the background? Are you able to tell your story from the heart and as you planned to?

[Michael569]

@Visionary I'm still a newbie, I've done 4 speeches. Saw an improvement, especially reduction of fear but I see giant gaps in my delivery, body language, tone of voice as well as the ability to keep the audience entertained. 

But yeah I generally  it gets easier every time, you just have to go there, sign up and get that first speech. And the next and the next. Maybe you'll become a public speaking junkie haha. Anything is possible. 

[pluto]

Authenticity + Passion = Infinite Creativity

[Sage_Elias]

Hey...I have a good amount of public speaking experience for my age, I'm 19 and I have spoken before principals, teachers, ministers and occasionally an audience of 1,500 students of my school.

 

I have only two tips for you. 

1)  Have something that you really want to share with people. You must be interested in sharing the content with the audience. Your zeal to share will get you on the stage and it will make people want to listen.

 

2) Stop giving a fuck what people think about you. Let me repeat, stop giving two fucks about what people think. Be okay with the possibility of them laughing at you. Be okay with the possibility of sounding nervous. Be okay with the possibility of saying the wrong thing and they become confused. When you have done this, all nervousness dissipates.

I hope this was of help. All the best with your speaking. 

 

Ps. Leo did a video titled "How to stop caring what people think of You". Check it out.

 

 

 

[Loreena]

On Wednesday, March 29, 2017 at 3:27 AM, Visionary said:

Hi guys,

Been on the path for a year and a half now. Anxiety issues decreased to a large extent.

But i can't seem to fucking ace presentations. I'm waaaay too neurotic in these situations. I can't control my thoughts or emotions.

My goal is now: DON'T FUCK IT UP. But it should be: how can i ace this shit and deliver the message properly. That switch is so extremely difficult. Literally giving no shit about other people's opinions. It's the law of attraction at work actually.  

Are there any experienced/talented/master presentators that can help me out?

Thanks

I would write down a lot of the stuff on a piece of paper many times to remembder it and fix it in my head so I wont forget while presenting. Also sleep well the night before.

I used to practice in vacant studios/halls or auditoriums of my institutions and tell some friends to sit there and watch and give feedback.

make eye contact during the presentation

keep important pointers in mind. your presentation should be a smooth flow without interruption

Make sure it  is sequential because people don't like disconnected ideas or scattered random stuff

be entertaining . smile often. Make some jokes but only in context of the topic

visualize in your mind that's its going well.

 

you can't believe what I did once. I was nervous as hell because the person I had to present it to was annoying as hell. So I kept praying in my head literally a thousand times. I kept mumbling "everything will be all right ""in my head a dozen times each minute before the presentation was to begin.

[TodImproves]

confidence is key to mastering presentations, so here are some tips on that: i was very afraid of presentations i had to do at school some time ago, but with every presentation i did it became easier and easier to perform in front of people. the only problem i still have is that im nervous BEFORE the presentation if it's an important one, so if thats the same with you: meditate before doing a presentation, really helps because you become peaceful and realise that what others think of you really doesn't matter (no-self)! also what really shot up my confidence is seeing how bad on average other people are at doing presentations, so you can't really embarrase yourself because you know that they will emphasize with you no matter what happens because they unconsciously know that they could be in your place (in case you really fuck up).

[Leo Gura]

@Visionary You just need lots of preparation and rehearsal. Practice, practice, practice at home. Get a camera and record yourself.

Toastmasters is great for beginners.

[Visionary]

11 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

@Visionary You just need lots of preparation and rehearsal. Practice, practice, practice at home. Get a camera and record yourself.

Toastmasters is great for beginners.

Thank you, sir!