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You have to get a remote control. Really.

This is a small but vital piece of equipment. The number of presentations I have seen where the presenter stays rooted to the spot next to their computer and has to lean forward every time they want to move on to the next slide is shameful.

At the opposite end of the scale are the people who wander around and forget where they are up to and end up dashing across to the computer to click the mouse or keyboard. This is a huge distraction and disrupts the flow of the presentation.

Don’t let your equipment dictate the pace and energy of your presentation.

If your equipment isn’t helping to make things seem smooth and effortless then you only have a few options:

• Change the equipment
• Change how you use it
• Get rid of it.

None of your equipment should interrupt the flow of your presentation.

Get a remote control or presentation mouse (the wireless ones with a little laser pointer built in) and then work out how to use it. I don’t just mean read the instructions. Test the range it works over, the angles it works from, find any blind spots there may be and be aware of them. Make sure it is always charged before a presentation and then use it! Learn how to use it well and practice with it. As regular readers will know, practice makes habit.

Having this piece of equipment in your toolbox makes a huge, if unconscious, impression on your audience. They won’t notice you using it but you can bet they will be distracted if you aren’t!

A top complaint from audience members is that many presenters put too much emphasis on PowerPoint and technology while neglecting the message and interaction with participants. One way to deliver more effective presentations that improve your connection to your audience is to add a remote control to your presentation tools.

Why would one more piece of technology actually switch your focus from PowerPoint to your audience? Have you been distracted (or bored) as a presenter stopped the flow of their talk to pace back to the laptop to change to another slide or as they waited for a partner to move to the next slide? This is one of the 6 reasons why you need a remote for your PowerPoint presentations:

• Break Down the AV Wall. Without a remote, you are limited to the area by your laptop which builds a wall between you and your audience;
• Get Control. You never want someone else to control the computer while you have to keep saying, “next please” or flash hand signals. This approach breaks the flow of the speech, annoys your audience, and risks that your helper moves to the wrong slide;
• Fewer Distractions. Use a remote to stop distracting others who watch you walking back to your computer to move to the next slide. Plus, a remote helps you maintain eye contact with the audience instead of looking at your laptop;
• Smoother Animations. The impact and flow of most animations is lost when you run animations manually from your laptop;
• More Professional. Presenting without a remote takes away from the professionalism of a presenter and directs the focus to the technology (or to the lack of tech-savvy if anything goes wrong);
• Cool Factor. Okay, maybe not a key justification, but a remote is a nifty and useful addition to your technology tools.

With a presentation remote control, you can more effectively and smoothly deliver an electronic presentation and communicate your message. That said, even though I am a huge fan of remotes, you always want to know multiple ways to navigate with the keyboard while delivering a PowerPoint presentation. Keyboard commands may sometimes be faster or at least give you a backup plan.

Some say the secret to being a good presenter is to visualize the audience naked. I say if you really want to be a great speaker, it’s the speaker who must strip for the audience.

Great speakers and presenters are not afraid to bare their souls to the audiences. They strip away their masks and illusions allowing audiences and prospects to see them for whom they are. Audiences walk away not only with increased knowledge but some insight into the presenter as a person.

Whether our goal is to sell, educate, or inform every speech or presentation has a goal, and key to reaching that goal is generating trust. In order to trust us, people must know us, like us, and believe we are credible.

It’s no wonder so many of us are terrified to speak in front of a group. Presenting speaks to our greatest insecurity – people may not accept us as we are.

Each person has a unique presentation style, and while some elements work well, others do not. Regardless of the presenters’ skill level, I have found most presenters can increase their likeability, credibility, and authority by at least 25 percent by unlocking the “four-second window.”

Within four seconds, most of us form an immediate impression and then spend the next 30 minutes justifying our impression. Think back to a blind date, first interview, or social situation. Did you make a snap judgment as to whether or not you were going to like him or her? Most of us do.

We do it to others, and others do it to us. Most audiences decide whether or not they like us before we utter our first word.

For some, this “four-second window” is a breeze. These rare men and women have naturally-high “likeability factors,” a face, smile, or presence in which people find instantly attractive. For most of us, however, this is not the case. We have to earn our positive rating in an incredibly short period of time.

Six factors contribute to first impressions: gestures, stance, movement, dress and grooming, stance, and eye contact. Of these, dress and grooming, stance, and eye contact are most important.
Experts abound on the subject of proper dress and grooming for presentations, yet the best advice I found came from one of my seminar participants. She suggested looking into the mirror and noticing if anything stood out, and if it does, taking it off and changing it.

One man I coached loved loud ties. While his neckwear reflected his outgoing personality, it also distracted from his presentation. The audience focused on his ties rather than his face, missing much of what he had to say.

Like appearance, stance contributes to instant credibility, and for many women, stance is a challenge.

Most women are taught at a young age to assume a dancer’s pose, feet close together with one toe pointed out at a 90-degree angle. While this stance may be feminine and pretty, it holds no authority.

Instead, I counsel both men and women, to stand tall, feet shoulder width and pointed outward, hands at their sides. While it is important to gesture naturally, hands should drop to the sides when not in use.

Stance is important in establishing credibility so don’t hide it. At no time should speakers stand behind a podium, desk, table, or other obstacle. Great speakers allow the audiences to see all of them – physically as well as emotionally.

The eyes have been called the “windows of the soul.” As such, they are one of our greatest weapons in winning audiences. When it comes to eye contact, great speakers use a rifle instead of a shotgun.

I coach executives to begin their presentations by standing in silence, finding a friendly face, establishing eye contact, taking a deep breath, and then beginning their talk. This simple tip helps speakers become grounded and start their presentations with authority.

Many presenters talk while moving their heads from person to person like a sprinkler system, or worse they lose all connection with their audience by staring at one person, the slide screen, or into space. I train presenters to pick one person and maintain steady eye contact with that person until they have delivered a complete thought. Intensive eye contact can be uncomfortable, yet it is also highly effective in generating trust.

Discomfort is a constant companion for great presenters for they know no matter how good they think they are they can always be better. Using appearance, stance, and eye contact, they generate instant credibility while constantly challenging themselves to share more of themselves with their audiences.