Shining on Stage: Ways to Improve Your Presentation Skills

Presenting effectively is an important part of success in business and personal life. A good presentation allows you to communicate your ideas effectively, persuade your audience, and share your information clearly.

A good presentation is essential to convey information effectively, impress audiences, and convey your message clearly. You too can shine on stage with the effective techniques you apply.

Let’s face it, the nightmare of many of us is “STAGE”. Having more than one pair of eyes watching us is one of the situations that stresses us the most. Most of the time we don’t know where to stand on the stage. Also, not knowing where to put our hands during the presentation makes things even more difficult.

Let’s see what is needed for a successful presentation step by step✨
Preparation Phase:
You can think of successful presentations as interconnected chain links. Each of them is very important and interconnected. Our first step is the preparation phase. We usually ignore this place and may not pay much attention to it. So, what should we do in the preparation phase, which is the cornerstone of our presentation?

Goal Setting: Clarify the main purpose of your presentation and what you want to convey to the audience. If you do not clarify the purpose of the topic you want to explain within yourself, be sure that what you want to convey to the audience will not come true.

Understanding the Audience: Understanding who your audience is, their interests, and expectations helps you tailor your presentation to suit them. We need to explain your presentation in the appropriate languages and expectations for white collar, blue collar, university student, professor, or your top manager.

For example, you attended a university as a speaker and will make a presentation to students. The visuals you prepare should be more animated and eye-catching. Your narrative should include current topics full of more stories. If you are going to make a presentation to your senior managers in the institution you work for, the presentation format you have prepared should be suitable for the language of your institution and your expression should be simpler and plainer.

Defining Your Message: Determine your main message and gather the necessary information to convey that message clearly. Make sure that the information you collect is related to the topic you want to explain.

Visual and Audio Tools: Strengthening Communication
Using visual and audio aids effectively can make your presentation more attractive. It is very important that we choose the images and videos we will use according to the audience.

PowerPoint and Alternatives: Pay attention to simplicity and visual compatibility when creating presentation slides. There are now many different platforms on which we prepare our presentations.

Be careful to use current platforms according to your needs to prepare different and original presentations. These platforms:

Visual Material: Support your content using graphics, images and videos.

Visual materials should help the audience understand your message

Be the one to not make your audience ask this question 😉

Communication During a Presentation: Interact with the Audience

This step is the most important part of our presentation. We have prepared a wonderful presentation file. We have worked hard on the subject and we have mastered it, but if we cannot convey this information effectively to the other party and cannot communicate with the audience, all our efforts will be fruitless.

Interacting with your audience during the presentation will make your presentation more engaging.

Engage and Experience: Encourage your audience’s participation by answering their questions. If you want the subject you are talking about to be remembered, we must make it interactive. According to research, this rate goes up to 90% in learning and remembering “What We Hear, See and Try”. By trying and getting involved, we learn more easily and remember what we learn for a longer time.

The Importance of Our Voice and Diction in Effective Presentations

Voice and diction show that an effective presentation is not limited to just verbal content. Good voice and diction help your presentation make a greater impact on the audience and ensure that your message is remembered. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to your voice and diction during presentation preparation.

Voice and diction help you express your emotions and emphasis better. You can emphasize important points by changing your tone of voice and speaking speed.

You can improve your diction and oratory by incorporating the steps I have shared with you below into your life in the long term.

Listening to Your Voice: The first step to improving diction is to listen to your own voice. Try to understand what your voice sounds like by recording your voice or watching your videos. Identify which words and sounds you have difficulty with.

Language Exercises: You can do language exercises to strengthen your tongue muscles and speak more clearly. Exercises such as rotating your tongue left and right, up and down, and reading out loud texts specially designed for language exercises may be useful.

Speak Slowly and Carefully: Speaking quickly can cause diction problems. Be slower and more careful when speaking. Make sure each word is spoken correctly and clearly.

Exercises in Front of the Mirror: Talk in front of the mirror and observe your lip, mouth and tongue movements. Make sure these movements are correct to improve your diction.

Tone of Voice Studies: Tone of voice is important in emphasizing the meaning. Using different tones of voice, determine the part of the sentence that needs emphasis.

Voice Exercises: You can do voice exercises to strengthen your vocal cords and make your voice clear and strong. These exercises can be thought of as warm-up exercises.

Studying the Words Separately: Identify the words or sounds you have difficulty with and practice them until you can say these words correctly over and over again.

Source Reading and Voicing: Practicing reading books, magazines or articles out loud and vocalizing them can help you improve your diction.

Professional Training: If you want to improve your diction, you can consider working with a diction trainer or speech coach. Professional feedback and guidance can accelerate your progress.

Video Feedback: Record your speeches or presentations on video and watch them back later. You can better observe how your voice and diction sound.

Voice and Breathing Control: Breathing techniques and breathing control are important to achieve a stronger and clearer voice. Correctly directing breathing can improve voice quality.

In order to practice proper breathing, we need to include diaphragmatic breathing in our lives. If you want to improve yourself in correct breathing, I recommend you follow the breathstudio8 page on Instagram.

Conclusion and Recommendations

At the end of each presentation, be sure to reinforce your main message by providing a summary of what you said. It’s also important to give viewers an opportunity to ask questions and get their feedback. Don’t hesitate to get feedback so you can improve your next presentation.

Effective presentation techniques not only contribute to our professional development, but also enrich our communication skills in our daily lives. A stronger voice, clear diction, and active participation by asking questions to the audience are the keys to successful presentations.

Remember, every presentation is a learning opportunity and you can constantly improve yourself by putting these techniques into practice. These skills you acquire will make your future presentations more effective, stronger and more persuasive.

I wish you all wonderful presentations where you shine🌟

See you in my next article 💖