5 Tips for Better Presentations

In April 2016, I gave my first TEDx talk at CSULB. If you’re not familiar with it, the TED format is great for the viewer because it’s short, informative, and entertaining. For the presenter– to be concise, engaging, and gift the audience with an idea worth sharing in 12 minutes– it’s hell.

I’m a classic introvert, and it took me hundreds of hours of research, writing, editing, and rehearsal for me to become presentable on stage. For those of you looking to give your own presentation, I’ve put together the top 5 things that have helped me craft an engaging talk for the TEDx stage.

1. Tell YOUR Story

You have a point to make, an insight to share, to get your audience to think, and to act. Stories are the best way to pass on information, because they’re engaging, repeatable, and easily remembered. It’s how all relevant cultural information gets passed around.

I know you’ve heard this all before, but it’s really easy to fall into the trap of reporting on your idea, vs. telling a story from your POV. In this short clip TEDx speaker, Nancy Duarte goes in depth on the impact of stories, and how you can still fold in facts and data into them– giving more meaning to your findings.

Relive the experience. All great stories are about drama and conflict. People especially love hearing it if it’s something you personally went through. To hear of your struggles and life-changing moments makes you relatable and entertaining.

The first few drafts of my TEDx talk were very robotic sounding– focusing on the sequence of events and the details that got me to the point of insight. It was boring, and lacked my POV on the situation. To truly share a great story, is to relive it. You’ll need to dig deep down and express it in a visceral way. What’s going through your head at that moment in the story? How did it feel to fail and succeed on your journey to insight? Were you scared, nervous, confident?

Stretch out and dramatize the important moments of your story. Make everything feel a life or death situation, and appeal to the audience’s senses (sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste), so that every moment becomes real, and the audience can relive that moment with you.

I’ve learned a lot on how to tell a great story from my mentor, Chris Do. Check out his 5 tips here.

2. Make it About Them.

To really engage your audience, find as many moments as possible to involve the their input and thinking. Instead of making the stories only about you: “this is how I felt,” simply change it to “how would you feel?” If you can make your audience be a part of the presentation, they go from being passive listeners, to active participants. Here are a few other examples on how to bring the audience into your talk:

• “Imagine if you had to speak up here on stage”
• “Think of the worst rejection you’ve ever had”
• “What would you do in this situation?”

There’s a whole chapter in Jeremey Donovan’s book with plenty of examples of how to include the audience in your talk.

3. Use Minimal Slides. Less is More.

Don’t make the mistake of creating information-heavy slides or worse, reading directly off of your presentation. It disengages the audience, makes you sound robotic, and takes the attention away from you.

In all of my presentations, my slides are usually a single word, image, or phrase. Your slides should be minimal in content and count. Use them as a reminder to you of where you’re at in your talk, and provide context to the audience.

The beauty of having simple slides is it that it allows you the room for ad-lib (cause you’re not locked into reading the screen verbatim). You’ll sound more natural and conversational, and no one will ever know if you veer off script, or choose to spend more time on a section that your audience is really into.

4. Win the Audience with Your Intro.

When I delivered my TEDx talk, I didn’t feel confident or relaxed on stage until the moment I heard a laugh or response from the audience– which was about 30 seconds into my talk. An eternity on stage. Once I had some feedback from the crowd, my nerves calmed down, and I no longer felt like audience was judging me, but instead it felt like we were enjoying a conversation with each other. I felt like I had won them over.

For my open, I used a combination of what I learned from master speakers, Guy Kawasaki and Jason Teteak to let the audience know: I have something of value to share with them, and that I won’t be boring.

I started with a modified version of Jason Teteak’s Killer Open formula to summarize why I’m speaking to the audience, the benefits they’ll get from my talk, and how to accomplish it. From there I went into a contextual story, like Guy Kawasaki often does, to connect with the local audience and to elicit feedback or laughs.

Fellow introvert and designer Tobias van Schneider shares his experience in his article on public speaking. His tip: start with a joke.

The key is to capture and keep the audience’s attention with your intro, and shake the jitters and nervousness you may be feeling right off the bat.

5. Control the Energy With Your Voice.

After reviewing a lot of my early self-recorded video rehearsals, I noticed that I didn’t know how to maintain the flow of energy in my talk. I usually started off well, and then the rest of the talk would sound monotone and dull, as if I was just reciting words on a page.

Delivery is just as important as the content of your presentation. What really helped me was Julian Treasure’s TED Talk “How to speak so that people want to listen.” I learned that by speaking quickly and loudly, I could build up energy and intensity. Alternatively, I could pause, have the audience lean in and really pay attention to what I’m saying by speaking quietly and slowly. I worked out the flow in my delivery by incorporating these changes in pacing and volume, to build up tension and have moments of release.

Comedians are amazing when it comes to controlling energy and telling stories. The great ones, like Jamie Foxx, mix up pace and volume often, and utilize body language to emphasize the point. If you can master delivery on this level, then you can read a car manual to an audience, and they’ll still be entertained.

These 5 tips have helped me improve my speaking and presentation skills tenfold, and have made this introvert more confident on stage. I hope they help you in your next presentation. What other tips and resources have been helpful to you? I’d love to hear from you.

If you found this piece valuable, can you do me a favor by recommending it below? Have thoughts? Leave a comment. I’d love to discuss further. Thanks!

About the Author

Matthew Encina is a creative director at Blind, focusing on brand strategy, design and video content. He also authors content on pitching, design, and animation for The Futur Network.

Follow him everywhere @matthewencina

For those of you who have to pitch creative ideas to win business, but are struggling to land these opportunities, check out The Pitch Kit. I created this for those seeking clarity and structure in their design and pitch process.