Fundamentals of Effective Online Presentations

• 00:04 If you're giving a presentation in an online meeting,
• 00:08 realize that many of the things that work in real life when you're
• 00:12 giving presentations also work when you're giving an online presentation.
• 00:16 On the other hand, the things that hurt you in real life will also hurt
• 00:21 you if you do the same thing in an online presentation.
• 00:25 Let's look at the biggest blunders most people make when they are giving speeches,
• 00:30 presentations, talks in real life or online.
• 00:32 The number one blunder is a big data dump.
• 00:35 More and more facts, more and more numbers.
• 00:38 Here's all the charts, here's all the graphs, and
• 00:41 it's just mind numbingly boring.
• 00:43 Remember, if you're asked to give a presentation
• 00:47 so much of your job is to provide judgment on what is truly important.
• 00:52 What do the people you're meeting with really need to know in order to take
• 00:57 specific actions?
• 00:58 They don't need to know every single thing you know about the subject,
• 01:03 otherwise they would have your job.
• 01:05 So don't drown people in data.
• 01:09 Don't show bullet point after bullet point after bullet point.
• 01:13 And don't stay in the abstract realm.
• 01:17 You've got to make your ideas come alive.
• 01:21 So let's start at the beginning.
• 01:23 The first thing you need to ask yourself for any presentation is,
• 01:27 in one sentence what is it I want the people I'm speaking to to do?
• 01:32 That's the first step.
• 01:33 The next step is then to ask yourself what messages are most likely
• 01:38 to motivate them to do what I want them to do?
• 01:41 And to narrow it down to just five, just a handful.
• 01:45 I've been teaching people how to speak online and in the real world for
• 01:49 more than 30 years.
• 01:51 And I've always asked my students the very same question,
• 01:55 can you think of the best speaker you've ever seen in your life?
• 01:59 Now, can you tell me how many messages you remember from that speech or
• 02:04 that presentation, whether it's online or in person?
• 02:07 I've never yet had anyone remember more than five ideas from people
• 02:12 they heard in their industry, sometimes it's zero.
• 02:16 Often it's one or just two or three, but it's never been more than five.
• 02:21 So I believe whether you have a five minute presentation online or
• 02:26 a 90 minute presentation, you truly need to narrow your
• 02:31 messages down to just a handful, literally five or fewer.
• 02:36 Next, you need an actual story to bring each message point alive.
• 02:43 Human beings remember stories, they visualize stories, they process stories.
• 02:50 Yes, they can understand facts, but facts are quickly forgotten.
• 02:54 When I asked my clients all over the world,
• 02:56 what do they remember from the best speaker?
• 02:58 They always say, TJ, I remember the story that this woman said and
• 03:02 they go in and tell the details of the story.
• 03:05 Even if it's been ten years since they heard it, people remember stories.
• 03:09 Now, important that the stories are relevant to your audience
• 03:14 what they need to know.
• 03:16 It can't be personal or self indulgent.
• 03:19 It can be personal if it relates to how you help other clients,
• 03:23 colleagues, customers solve a real problem.
• 03:27 Then the personal stories are the absolute best.
• 03:32 If you have extra facts or figures, have them on a sheet of paper and
• 03:36 glance down at them.
• 03:38 If you want to put up a particularly powerful image, put it up on the screen
• 03:43 for people to look at or one or two facts put it up there for people to look at.
• 03:48 If you have a traditional PowerPoint slide deck,
• 03:53 my recommendation, email that in advance,
• 03:57 offer to email it to them after the online meeting.
• 04:01 But don't just be going through a deck quickly fast while you're
• 04:06 talking over a bunch of slides.
• 04:08 That just puts everyone to sleep.
• 04:13 Now, you need to practice your speech, really, rehearse it.
• 04:17 When I say speech, presentation, talk, I just mean your mouth is moving,
• 04:21 you're trying to communicate ideas.
• 04:23 In this case online you need to practice it on video until you like it.
• 04:29 And then ideally, if you have a good one on video before your actual live event,
• 04:34 send it out to a few colleagues, get feedback from them.
• 04:38 These are the fundamentals that will really carry you a long way when it
• 04:42 comes to your online meeting.
• 04:45 So many people make the mistake of fixating on the right camera and
• 04:50 the right light, and the right microphone, and makeup, and all this.
• 04:55 But then they start to speak and it's boring because they're reading or
• 04:59 it's just a data.
• 05:00 None of this other stuff matters if you're putting everyone to sleep.
• 05:04 And as you've heard me mention, one of the aspects of online meeting
• 05:09 is it's never been easier for people to literally fall asleep.
• 05:13 They can hit the mute button.
• 05:14 The camera isn't on them.
• 05:16 And you don't want to make it easier for them to do that.
• 05:19 So these are the fundamentals of the presentation.
• 05:23 You still need to speak in a way that's interesting,
• 05:27 understandable, and memorable.
• 05:30 If you do that online or offline, you'll be in great shape.

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