Presenting Without Notes – Part 1

Everyone recognizes the limitations and loss off effectiveness when you simply stand up and read your speech or read from your workshop handouts. But many people are afraid that if they don’t use their script or their workbook, they will forget what they wanted to say or lose track of what they wanted to say. So how can you learn to present a 1 hour seminar or a 1 day workshop without needing to constantly rely on your notes. In this series of blogs, I am going to give 4 tips or 4 strategies that will help you become less reliant on your notes and your script.

1. Use personal stories

Develop 3 or 4 key points that are the backbone of your presentation. Around each of your key points tell personal stories, examples, anecdotes or case studies that you are very familiar with and have been directly involved with. This then means that you do not have to learn a script, or read from notes, as you are telling a story, your story, that you know well and can recount without notes. And if the order of the story, the exact details change each time you tell it, that does not matter as the crux of the story, the essence remains the same and illustrates the point that you are trying to emphasise.

Build your bank of stories around each point that you speak on. And as you build you these you have more to call upon when you are speaking. You will have both sides of the story with a positive example and a negative example. If your mind goes blank and you forget that particular story which you usually tell to illustrate that point, then you calmly call upon the other example that you have in your story bank. As you build your story bank, you will have different stories that then become more appropriate for different audiences. The stories that I use when speaking to health professionals are different to the stories that I use when speaking to financial advisors.

Your stories need to be short, they need to have a point and the point needs to link to your core message. Build your bank of stories.

Speak With Conviction

One of the keys to being a successful speaker and ensuring that your message is heard, understood and acted upon by the audience, is to ensure you use the right emotion. You need to be genuine, authentic, and honest and you need to be aligned with your message.

The easiest way to do this is to have conviction, absolute conviction in your own message and what you are saying. That is an unwavering belief that your message, your service, your product will really help people in their lives. Your message will help transform people’s lives by addressing some of the issues, pain or problems they are experiencing. Or alternatively your message will help people achieve some success or goal which is important to them and will help them in their lives.

In marketing terms, they say that "the first sale must be to yourself". This simply means that you buy 100% what you are saying. You believe in your message wholeheartedly and you know that it is a message that will help your target audience one way or the other. To not believe your own message lends you to being seen as not honest, not genuine and similar to a snake oil or magic remedy salesperson.

If you don’t speak with conviction, then most audiences will detect this and they won’t buy your message. Have conviction every time you speak, because if you don’t believe what you are saying is important and valuable, why are you saying it. 

Use the most common questions to guide your presentation

Use the most common questions to guide your presentation

Regardless of what you speak on, or your area of expertise, there will always be those 3 or 4 common questions that are frequently asked. And of course as an expert or knowledgeable person in that area, you know the answers, solutions and ways to overcome these problems. Use these 3 or 4 common questions as the 3 or 4 anchor points for your speech and then give the answers and the information needed around each question.

For example, if I was going to give a speech on the 4 most important things that you can do to increase your effectiveness as a presenter, I would say.

            Learn to speak with confidence and reduce any nerves

            Use a simple and effective structure

            Design your core message to meet the needs of your audience

            Build rapport and connect with your audience

I know these 4 questions off by heart and I know the answers, as I have been teaching them for many years. There is speech structure all organised and simple to remember.

The Importance Of Eye Contact

Eye contact is one of the most important aspects of public speaking and can really make or break your presentation. In my public speaking training and coaching, poor eye contact is one of the common problems I see in my students. Many people are just not comfortable using genuine and effective eye contact, and they are unsure how they can best use eye contact - and I am not talking about cultural differences where sometimes eye contact may not be appropriate.

Lack of good eye contact can mean several things and this includes

• A sign of nerves
• Lack of confidence and uncertainty
• Lack of honesty or conviction around what you are saying – if you don’t know the answer – then don’t try and answer it.
• Thinking about the future (eyes to the roof) or searching the past (eyes to the floor)
• Lack of interest or engagement with your audience.

Eye contact is important as it allows you to

• Share yourself openly with the audience- the eyes are the windows to your sole
• Demonstrate sincerity and honesty in your message
• Attend to the audience and read the audience. You will see if they are flagging or going to sleep, or shaking their head in disagreement. This allows you to change tack to reengage the audience.

My philosophy on eye contact is that my lips should never move unless I am looking at 1 person. I encourage you to look at 1 person at a time and spend a few milliseconds and speak to them and then move to another person. Do this in a random but inclusive pattern around the room, remembering that in a big audience, if you look at 1 person, the 10 people sitting directly around that person will think that you are looking at them. If you want use a model to ensure that you cover the room fully, you can use a Z pattern or an X pattern, which enables you to track and ensure that you are covering all parts of the room.

Common errors regarding eye contact include

• Speaking with you back to the audience
• Looking to the back of the room  - over the tops of everyone’s heads
• Looking at the ceiling or the floor while speaking
• Scanning the room with a vacant gaze, not actually looking at an individual
• Lighthouse eye contact, where you move systematically, like a lighthouse, from left to right of the room, without actually stopping to look at individuals as you go.

Use your eye contact when presenting, develop your confidence with eye contact, get feedback on how well you use your eye contact, after all it is one of the keys to building rapport and connecting to your audience.

Learn From Others

Some of the best sources of information and lessons in public speaking come from watching and listening to others. As a public speaking trainer and coach I attend as many seminars and presentations as I can, mostly so I can observe and learn from other presenters.

In my public speaking workshops, I get each person to do mini speeches and I get the other participants to analyse and critique the mini speech. I also analyse the speech and give feedback and comments and I coach for speaking improvement. This way everyone adds to the learning environment, and the student speakers become the teachers, at the same time receiving valuable feedback from myself and the other participants.

I have just conducted a half day workshop in Bunbury and over the 3 mini speeches each person did, people saw amazing growth and learning take place, just by being open to analyzing and watching other students speak.

You have probably watched Anna Bligh speak over the past weeks in relation to the Queensalnd Floods and cyclone. You would have noticed her honesty, authenticity and emotion that she put into her regulat updates to the people of Queensland and Australia. She was realy able to connect and build rapport and trust with the audience. By watching Anna Blight you can learn so much about effective communication and public speaking.

You have probably watched Barack Obamma speak on TV and noticed how he speaks very fast, but has great use of pause and pacing, which makes him very easy to listen too. By watching Barack Obama you can learn the power of using pause and pacing to create interest and impact. If you do speak fast, take a lesson from Barack Obama.

So take the opportunity whenever you can to observe other speakers, either in person or on TV and look for the lessons. There are plenty to be learned.