Guest blogger: Nick Diakanastasis
So you’ve been invited to speak at an industry event. Congrats! Maybe you’re even the keynote speaker. Or you need to do a business presentation to key stakeholders. Here are three things people often forget to check for:
Does it, uh…make sense?
If you’ve been reading my blog or newsletter for a while, you already know I’m a BIG fan of practicing. As in: NO, your presentation will most likely not be good if you just ‘mentally go over’ the whole thing, or simply ‘know what you’re talking about’. Doing it OUT LOUD is key. And the added benefit (other than helping you not be awkward or full of ‘ummmmm…’ is that you get to HEAR what it sounds like. So many of my clients realize whole sentences don’t make sense, only after they’ve written the whole damn thing.
Tip: read it out loud, just as you would to an audience – preferably paragraph/page by paragraph/page.
Are you making your points clear?
This is extra-important if your audience isn’t composed of your colleagues and peers. If you’re too theoretical, they’ll struggle following you. If you’re a professional marketer and addressing newbie freelancers…you can’t keep talking on a conceptual level, about ‘calls to action’, ‘client avatars’, and ‘positioning’. To them that’s just word salad (I should know, I’ve been that freelancer…?)!
^ See what I did there? I gave you a concrete example. Make sure you have concrete examples or stories for the concepts you mention.
Are you confusing quantity for quality?
When I work with clients, they almost always have to shave off a chunk of their speech/presentation. Because they end up either repeating themselves, or adding random details and veering off track. More isn’t more – always bear in mind that the goal is for the audience to understand your message. Not to learn everything there is about the topic, or about you! So check your presentation for unnecessary deets and chuck them.
If you struggle with that, take it sentence by sentence and ask yourself ‘what am I expecting by saying this?’ If you can’t find a good reason (eg. ‘I expect the audience to understand my concept by giving this example‘), you can probably chuck it.
To get more great tips from Nick check out his blog
Also get in touch with Nick on LinkedIn
Nick is a trained actor-turned-public speaking coach. These days, he uses the techniques and tricks he learned at a top UK drama school to help business owners nail their
speaking gigs – from TEDx talks to industry keynote speeches. His motto is ‘skillset over mindset’, and he’s not afraid to rant over it!
Dan Ram ignites the stage as an in-person event and virtual event MC/ Moderator & Speaker at over 100 events a year. He has shared the stage with international luminaries including President Barack Obama, Sir Richard Branson, Reid Hoffman, Nico Rosberg, and Grammy-winning artists and celebrities. He has also been recognized as a Top 40 under 40 leader 2020 as well as a Top 100 Yale Alumni in Technology 2021. Level up your communication skills through his course and mastermind “Speaking Success”. His passion is to inspire people with his motto ‘Start Now Start Simple’ in building a future we all want to live in.
Thanks for these suggestions Nick. When working on my speech I often just go over it in my head because I don’t want to hear my own voice. I have to admit you’ve got a good point about practicing out loud. I look forward to the benefits this will make to my delivery.
Thanks Dan for bringing in such wonderful guest blogs with great value-adds. Shaving-off extra content is a valuable tip. Audience get distracted by unnecessary repeats and off-tangent comments. Thanks for the reminder.