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If you are not effectively communicating your ideas…It’s literally costing you your dreams!

Whether you are attending a business networking luncheon, speaking to a group of Sunday school students or attending a one on one business meeting, you are speaking in public. It is something we do everyday.

All our lives we have been speaking in public. However, for most of us we have never been trained. Society expects us to be great speakers without any formal training. All great communicators are committed to learning and growing so they can master the art of public speaking and clear communication.

This fact carries both good and bad news for the student learning the art of public speaking:

First, the BAD news: “The ability to clearly communicate ideas to clients and colleagues is a rare skill, yet one that often makes the difference in whether or not a great concept succeeds.” ~ William Hewlett, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard

Now, for the GOOD news: “Great speakers are not born, they’re trained.” ~ Dale Carnegie

And now for the REALLY GREAT news: To get you moving in the right direction. Here are 7 High Performance Speaking Tips titled “Seven Proven Strategies to Transform Your Presentations.” I created these tips to help you achieve public speaking success.

High Performance Speaking Tip 1: Become a great story teller. Be willing to share your personal stories, as well as “anonymous” client stories. As a result, you’ll be able to support almost any point you want to make and connect with your audience on a heart level. Stories are essential to helping your audience learn from you, follow you and trust you while they are easily absorbing your message.

High Performance Speaking Tip 2: Great writing abilities don’t always lead to an extraordinary presentation. No matter how powerful a speech is written, you won’t know if it really works until you practice it out loud. The ultimate test is when you present it to a live audience and look for their reactions.

High Performance Speaking Tip 3: Treat your audience the way that you would want to be treated. Audience members need to feel like they are appreciated and that their time is valued. The next time you are preparing a presentation, remember to think about what the audience needs and desires first.

High Performance Speaking Tip 4: Every presentation and subcategory of your presentation has a beginning, middle and end. When you are creating your next presentation remember to apply this principle to the overall body of your speech and to every key point you want to make.

High Performance Speaking Tip 5: In the beginning of your presentation, let your audience know exactly what information you are going to share with them. Review the main points you will be covering and why they need this information. When you are done with your presentation, do a quick review by asking the audience “easy to answer” questions. If they can answer them, your points landed. If they can’t answer the questions, your next step is to work on clear communication.

High Performance Speaking Tip 6: You have three to five seconds to grab the attention of your audience. Never start a presentation by asking an audience a question like this “How is everybody today?” Usually you will get one or two individuals that will respond with “Good.” Start your speech with a power packed statement or question that grabs their attention.

High Performance Speaking Tip 7: Individuals often ask me “What do I do with my hands?” The key is to utilize your hands to bring home your points. If it is not natural to you, preplan this in advance. Utilize your hands in your presentation when you want to bring home a point or to accentuate something specific like height, number or size.

The world economy is in a state of extreme tension and competition. The current times are such that all companies expect their employees to prove their efficiency by exhibiting impeccable interpersonal skills and confident public speaking. Doing good work is no longer the only criterion that makes someone successful in their job. Making presentations is also an integral part of excelling in today’s corporate environment. These presentations go a long way in determining the understanding of the individual regarding the topic at hand.

Many people are fearful of making presentations as they wonder if they will be able to pull them off. Also, they are not sure of being able to cover the entire content and prepare a presentation that meets industry standards. Presenting the content in front of many people is another aspect which sends shivers down the spine of persons who have not made a presentation before. The following tips are sure to assist an individual considerably when they are out to make a PowerPoint Presentation.

1. Understand that the presentation is a means to complement your program; your program does not revolve around it.
2. Always remember to take back up of your presentation on a disc to ensure that the content is not lost and can be retrieved in spite of a computer crash.
3. While using handouts, it is always advisable to carry an original copy of the presentation. In cases where the handouts fall short, these copies prove to be saviors.
4. Experts suggest that the person presenting on PowerPoint should always position himself in a lighted area. This ensures that the audience can see the face of the presenter even while the lights have been put off in order to make the screen clearly visible. Not being able to see the presenter adversely affects the efficiency of the presentation.
5. Usually, the final slide of the presentation always contains the contact information of the presenter. It helps to put this slide up while the question-answer session with the audience is on. This tip helps immensely because this way, the details of the presenter is visible to the audience for the longest possible time. The audience is given enough time to take note of the name, email address and phone number of the presenter.

People who keep all the above points in mind while making a presentation can be sure of coming up with a presentation that meets the highest standards of quality and professionalism.

In the feature film RV, Robin Williams plays an advertising executive. His boss orders him around and it looks like Robin will be put out to pasture. Showing no respect to Robin, the boss orders him onto an assignment. To make a presentation in Colorado, Robin must cancel his family’s vacation plans. Hawaii is out. An RV trip to the mountains is in. He is ashamed to admit to his wife and kids that the trip is anything but an attempt to reestablish some quality time in a family that has become fragmented.

Robin stays up at night writing the presentation and fires it off from a mountain peak when he is able to find a signal strong enough. He abandons his family to make the presentation and only then finds out that his boss has brought along a replacement for Robin. Robin is only a backup. The first-string guy fumbles and Robin must step in.

After meeting the clients and noticing their reactions to the first-string guy’s emphasis on profits and money, Robin takes a different tact and talks about nostalgia, love and the environment. He saves the day, and the account.

Whenever I have to make a presentation, I always leave myself some wiggle room. I’ll switch horses in mid-stream if I have to . . . and sometimes I even plan it that way.

Recently, I was to review a fund-raising video with a client. I played the rough draft version of the video they had approved. They were happy. They loved it. I could have walked away and finished the production, but instead I said, “But, that’s not the video I recommend for your fundraising event.” In editing, I had fallen in love with a single interview. I was unable to use any “soundbites” from that interview for the approved video, but with a few simple edits, I was able to use the interview itself as a heartfelt fundraising presentation. There was not a dry eye in the conference room after I played the video.

I was confident with both videos, but if the client had hated the first video, I would have redeemed myself with the second. The client loved them both. The interview video was played at the big fundraising event and they were both distributed on DVD and placed on the web. My budget was increased slightly and the client was extremely pleased with their two fundraising videos.

When making presentations, you must know your clients, you must listen to your clients and by all means you must watch your clients during the presentation. If you need to make adjustments, don’t make them lightly. But if you sense that something else is needed to make the client happy, stay loose and try a little adjustment.