#TuesdayTopTips How to master the art of presenting with Robin from CoachBright
This week we spoke to #CollectiveFam Robin Chu, CEO and founder of CoachBright, to find out how to give a gripping presentation that doesn’t leave your audience falling asleep!
1) Speak from the heart: when preparing take time to really appreciate and understand why you personally care about this topic. For example, think about weddings and the bride and groom’s speech. Done without heart, its just two people reciting names of people that feel they ‘need’ to thank because that’s the done thing. Done with heart, its two people bringing to life their love and warmth they have for the room. The same applies to talking about your start-up, a founder with heart will make an audience go with them and want to buy into their mission.
2) Stories stories stories: help your listener truly understand the core message you are trying to tell. Commonly, an anecdote will bring to life the data or problem you are talking about. For example, at CoachBright, we start our trainings talking in depth about ex-pupils that we worked with so its clear for the audience the challenge we’re tackling in educational disadvantage has a real human element. Coupled with point number 1, audiences will leave feeling an emotional attachment to the issue.
3) Know your audience…literally: everyone will feel a sense of nerves and apprehension before presenting and this will be magnified the more important the speech is. A great tactic to help ease those nerves is stolen from Ed Balls! He has a stammer and to ease tensions he arrives at any speaking arrangement deliberately early so he can speak to several members of the audience beforehand, that way knowing he at least knows some friendly faces out there!
4) Be unexpected: we all from time to time rely on Powerpoint and find ourselves reading off the slides. Now I’m not saying each speech has to be a TED Talk. However, do take time to mix up your speech and see if you really need slides. Remember they are a visual aid. Can your message land even stronger with no slides or just pictures? I know an amazing social entrepreneur who turned up to pitches in an elephant costume to address the issue of ‘the elephant in the room’ being student finance. Be creative in how you present and that unexpected nature will lead to you being remembered.
5) Use humour: again you don’t have to be a comedian or crazy creative but a bit of lightness or well-timed joke will be much appreciated by the audience. It helps to string together the presentation and keeps the audience with you. A great example of this is Ken Robinson’s Ted Talk which mixes a serious topic with light anecdotes throughout.
6) Be concise: broadly speaking, we can’t concentrate for long periods of time. Neuroscientists call it ‘cognitive backlog’. After 10 minutes our brain starts to wander. That’s why TED has an 18 minute limit on all their talks. Don’t worry though — a lot can still be done in that time frame. JFK persuaded America to reach for for the moon in 18 minutes and most commencement speeches last 15 minutes. Keep it short and it’ll be that bit more impactful.
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