By Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com
The Exceptional Presenter by Timothy J. Koegel is another "need to have on your biz bookshelf" book. Everyone is called upon to present to a group, big and small. Those who do it well get the nod for more business.
The Exceptional Presenter is organized and presented well. The regular biz guy can make it work. Even if you are really good at this, it will keep you sharp at doing your best. A great quick reference guide for your next presentation.
"A proven formula to Open Up! and own the room."
The Open communication style will endow you with confidence, professionalism, audience connection and understanding of your message.
"Every time you open your mouth to speak in public,
you are a public speaker."
OPEN UP!
Be Organized
Be Passionate
Be Engaging
Be Natural
Understand your audience
Practice
Organized: Structure your Story
Create a structure that stays relevant and transitions smoothly from topic to topic. Lack of organized flow makes you look sloppy, hinders your credibility.
Keep it short. Keep it focused. Keep it relevant.
(People forget 95% of what you say in minutes. Organize short segments through out. Move from one to another and tie them together.)
Five components of your presentation
1. Begin with a Purpose.
The more defined your purpose, the easier your listener can frame your message and stick with it.
2. Objectives/Purpose/Mission/Goal
“My objective... purpose... mission... goal... today is to....”
3. Position/Situation/Issues
Outline issues, concerns, problems, fears and provide verification they exist.
4. End Results/Benefits/Consequences
Why acting on this is beneficial; the results we will see, and the consequences if we don't do it.
5. Next Step/Action Plan/Time Line
This is a call for action. "Let's meet next Wednesday and develop a plan for..."
"We need this done by... or this will happen..."
Simplify your presentation.
Progressively... identify the purpose... objective... what you want to accomplish... current position, where we are now... how to do it another way, the potential results... how it will be better... and the next step, what we must do to get started, carry this on.
Follow the 60/20 rule.
Arrive 60 minutes early to set up the room, visuals, projection system, table arrangements, handouts, etc. So you have 20 minutes before the meeting time to meet people as they arrive. This is an important part of the connecting process before you present.
Passionate
Passion is expressed through posture, gestures and movement, voice command. Eliminate hesitation and verbal graffiti. Sit straight, stand straight and face audience. Hands to the side and open is the best posture. When sitting it is better to have hands on the table and open for gesturing. (Koegel has loads of visuals which demonstrate this.)
Five Tips:
1. Stand Tall... don't sway, rock, lean.
2. Keep head, eyes, up and in contact with the audience.
3. Smile... sincere, warm.
4. Never retreat... move toward audience, not away from.
5. Move with purpose, energy, enthusiasm.
The Dynamics of Voice
Volume--speak up, vary your volume for deliberate emphasis.
Inflection--vary range from highs to lows.
Pacing/tempo--be natural in flow... speak, pause, breathe, speak.
Do all these in concert with your message and it will be music to the audience ears.
Eliminate Verbal Graffiti
Eliminate the filler sounds we make between phrases...."ums, ahhs, you know."
Instead of these "graffiti sounds" say nothing. Silent pauses by design work the best. Sounds between your thoughts you use as fillers like "to be honest, I guess, frankly" actually disrupt listening. To eliminate them, be aware you are using them, recognize your pattern, anticipate when you use them, pause, and state the next word (easy to explain, but these are voice habits that require specific attention to eliminate.)
Engaging
To earn respect, you must first connect.
1. Speak to the interests of your audience
2. Use stories, examples and anecdotes
3. Eye contact is an essential engagement tool. For large groups look to one person, lock in, then move to another. Be generous. Share eye contact with all. Don't just look to the friendly face.
4. Talk to your audience, not your screen or wipe board and keep shoulders square to your audience... use hands only to gesture toward your screen, wipe board info.
5. Smile... be relaxed, confident, approachable
6. Use names early and often, early and after
7. Get to your feet. Standing gives you more visual authority
8. Use current events, periodicals for freshness.
9. Humor... use books on comedy, famous anecdote books.
10. Read your audience. Observe facial expressions, body postures.
11. Get your audience involved.
Natural
Be prepared. Know your content. Then be yourself.
Use a style that is conversational, open, engaging, spontaneous, off-the-cuff, quick witted. Smile and laugh.
Understand Your Audience
Talk to those who know your audience, ask questions about them and listen, read about what they do.
Practice
Practice doing the right things in this process that you can do to be better. Practice is most important... before a presentation and by doing as many presentations as possible. Take every opportunity to speak, present where you can.
Don't be average when you can practice and be exceptional.
Select areas you can improve and practice them.
Koegel also covers how to handle question and answer sessions. Learn to look at questioner, pause, then answer. This buys time to gather your thoughts and shows respect that you are contemplating the question. Ask a question when needed to clarify a question.
Use your nerves to your benefit. Everyone gets nervous. Focus on your message and helping your audience understand. Keeping your focus on them keeps the nerves off you.
The more prepared you are, the more confidence you have, more organized you look, passionate you are, engaging you become, and natural you can be... then you are the Exceptional Presenter.
Koegel has many presentation outlines you can use in the book. Also note:
http://www.theexceptionalpresenter.com/
The best presenters that ever lived had an unusual system for their great skill. It is reported that they were regular folks but had personal intense encounters in the Holy Spirit. As leaders of their day observed:
"The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. "
(Acts 4:13, NLT)
Their secret formula was their intense times in the Spirit. Again reported:
"After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness."
(Acts 4:31, NLT)
Their secret was it was always back to pray as a group,
intense prayer.
It was so intense the place where they met began vibrating like an earthquake.
Now, That’s a Power Focus!
They met constantly and reviewed the power of the Spirit on their lives and constantly encouraged each other. They helped each other where their gifts complemented someone else… becoming an unprecedented powerful social system engineered by the Holy Spirit.
Spirit Himself empowered it, directed it. So unique, it struck the intrigue of everyone. Living and flowing in the Spirit had this distinguishing characteristic…They spent time in the Presence of Spirit, and leaned on and operated in the very Spirit of God.
"And all the believers were meeting regularly..."
(Acts 5:12, NLT)
Here, these common men, with the Spirit of God on them where described as having boldness... walking with an inherent authority in their presence, because their presence consisted of frequent times in the Presence of God. They had knowledge beyond their training or experience.They spoke in a language everyone could understand which was obviously Supernatural.
"They were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers."
"And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done! They stood there amazed and perplexed."
"…The apostles were performing many miraculous signs and wonders among the people.... more and more people believed and were brought to the Lord—crowds of both men and women.
(Acts 2:5,11,12; 5:12, NLT)
People were amazed of where this all come from. The Believers were courageous and talked to leaders of their day with confidence and assuredness. They spoke with a power that everyone, in their own dialect, understood. They performed miracles for many and many watched in wonder at their normal day at the "office." And many, in large numbers, were converted to their ideals.
"All the believers were united in heart and mind.
And they felt that what they owned was not their own,
so they shared everything they had."
"There were no needy people among them,
because those who owned land or houses would sell them
and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need."
(Acts 4:23, 34 NLT)
There was power, miracles and an internally strong social system.
Is this at all possible for today?
Can a social system in a business, and among businesses be built with strength, miracles, and social responsibility as this?
Here's the key principles:
All believers met regularly, were of one mind, and heart. They shared all things in common in that they saw ownership as a community of individuals and they went out boldly because the Spirit of God was on them. When meeting in Jesus Name, the Holy Spirit comes to join you.
“For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them,”
Jesus said. (Matthew 18:20, NLT)
Social connection as one heart, brought the authentic Presence of Jesus Spirit.
With the new message of Jesus as Us,
we as a group represent Jesus,
that Power of God in all its greatness released in man.
We now walk in the same Power Of God.
We share in the unlimited resources of God with each other
.... WOW...!!!
What an idea!
What Possibilities!
Is This Possible today?
I believer it is.
And it will happen in the day to day occurrences in the marketplace…if we practice what they practiced on a day to day basis. If we live like this, if we live in Spirit-driven Power, we too will be Super-Exceptional Presenters.
We can add this to our lives as well. Seek the Spirit above all things, before you do all things and live in this when you do all things.
There is power in Spirit and you can tap in it daily, if you choose to go there and just do it. Spirit says, "Seek Me with all your Heart...and you will not be disappointed in what I will do for you." Isaiah says,
"For the mountains may move
and the hills disappear,
but even then my faithful love for you will remain.
My covenant of blessing will never be broken,"
says the L ORD, who has mercy on you.
I will teach all your children... "
(Isaiah 54:10, 13, NLT)
Spirit will teach you. When in Spirit, He teaches you.
When we meet in love and generosity, Spirit will
give Supernatural power to everything He guides us to say and do.
Your presentation skills will be Super-exceptional.
You will have exceptional influence
and it will be simply amazing.
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