Preparation is critical to avoid any mishaps with AV equipment. Do
you have an extra light bulb for your projector? Let’s even take a step
back and ask if you have your own projector. Will you need to bring
one? What about extension cords and screens? You can’t leave anything
to chance, you can’t assume when it comes to delivering the best presentation.

Have you physically been to the room where you are going
to present ahead of time? The preparation is not just walking in a few
minutes before the event. It is crucial that you talk with the meeting
organizer ahead of time and walk the stage well in advance. I recommend
when practicing on the actual stage that you give a large portion
of the speech, if not all, ahead of time using the live AV equipment.
Saying, “Test 1, 2, 3” into a microphone does not count as preparation.

Have you walked around the entire stage to ensure there are no
extra-sensitive feedback spots for the microphones? Your audience
will appreciate not hearing any high-pitched squeaks. I have a loud
voice naturally, so I also invest a lot of time testing the volume of the
microphones. You should also work with the organizers ahead of time
on microphone options. I personally prefer lapel or the ones connected
to the ear with the speaker near the mouth because I like to use
my hands, and for me it is worth asking ahead of time for one of these.
Have you emailed your material to the organizer? Are paper copies
ready and waiting in case of an AV failure, or can the material be
projected in another way? Do you have a thumb drive, just in case
something goes wrong with the organizer’s version? I know I am at
my best when I have tested and prepared for everything I can control;
therefore, my audience’s ability to receive my message should go up.
Finally, expect the unexpected. It is not a matter of “if ” something will
go wrong, it is “when” it will go wrong. Part of your preparation should
revolve around how flexible your presentation is without the audiovisual
equipment in case it doesn’t work.

Thomas B. Dowd III’s books available in softcover, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only):

• Now What? The Ultimate Graduation Gift for Professional Success
• Time Management Manifesto: Expert Strategies to Create an Effective Work/Life Balance
• Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job…A Reference Guide to Finding Work
• The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing from a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World
• From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide received the Gold Medal at the 2013 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Reference
• The Unofficial Guide to Fatherhood

See “Products” for details on www.transformationtom.com.  Book, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only) purchase options are also available on Amazon- Please click the link to be re-directed: Amazon.com

“Hello. My name is Tom Dowd. How are you doing today? Today
we are going to talk about (insert boring topic introduction here)….”
How many presentations have you heard with this type of canned
opening? It is a mainstay in business presentations. Don’t lose your
audience before you truly get started. Avoid telling them what you
plan to do until you have already grabbed their attention. We have
most likely been taught to tell audiences what we want to tell them, tell
them and then rehash what we have just told them. Sometimes, we are
so literal that the introduction becomes, “I am going to tell you about
blah blah blah…,” which I have heard too often delivered monotone,
with no voice inflection.

Just dive in with your attention-grabbing introduction. You can tell
them what you are about to tell them, but get their attention first. I have
shocked more than one concerned audience when I’ve broken into a
coughing fit as an introduction to an inspirational speech about a childhood
friend with cystic fibrosis. Start a speech with a song, a bang, a
powerful quote, or a question that demands an immediate response.
There are so many more creative openings than “Hello, my name is….”
Your audience should be in for a surprise. You can give them one from
the start. It will set the tone for the rest of the presentation.

Thomas B. Dowd III’s books available in softcover, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only):

• Now What? The Ultimate Graduation Gift for Professional Success
• Time Management Manifesto: Expert Strategies to Create an Effective Work/Life Balance
• Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job…A Reference Guide to Finding Work
• The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing from a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World
• From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide received the Gold Medal at the 2013 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Reference
• The Unofficial Guide to Fatherhood

See “Products” for details on www.transformationtom.com.  Book, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only) purchase options are also available on Amazon- Please click the link to be re-directed: Amazon.com

I have consistently been coached to find my unique and differentiating
factors and to emphasize them during presentations. For example,
I have the luxury of having low-cost, professional posters available. I
was convinced that these posters would become my way to be remembered.
As a frequent presenter with these posters, I was receiving positive
feedback. I found my use of them got to a point of dependency. I
wouldn’t necessarily call it lazy with my writing, but my incorporation
of the props became a focal point, thus a distraction from the main
messages. I learned as a speech contestant that I would receive rave
reviews in the early stages because judges often thought the posters
were a nice touch and separated me from other competitors. As I progressed
further in the competitions, so did the judges. Their experience
level typically increased and they wanted a picture to be painted
vividly with words, not an actual picture. In a key competition, I excitedly
turned a poster around from its blank-white back to the high school
yearbook picture of a friend of mine who had passed away. I
lost the competition.

After losing, I received some feedback that although the poster
was nice, many people thought it took away from my message. Obviously,
I had leaned on my prop as a principle focus instead of just as a
supporting tool. Some feedback also indicated that right from the start
the audience was guessing what was on the front of the poster, so I
was losing their attention before I had even started. At the point when
I turned the poster around, it hit the stand slightly. Although subtle
to me, apparently the distraction was bigger in the eyes of the judges
because they saw the risk ahead of time, and I fulfilled their prophecy.
The most important feedback given to me on that day was that
the line I delivered in the speech before I turned the picture around—
“He was four-foot-eleven with a five-foot smile”— had described in
words everything people needed to envision this person properly on
their own. Unfortunately, I showed them the movie immediately after
they had just read the book. Whatever picture they had in their own
mind was instantly ruined. It was as if I had just stolen the audience’s
imagination. Finally, I was told that the audience at times felt my stage
presence was hindered or even predictable because the props dictated
where I was going on stage. Thus, the supporting props had become a
distraction.

I may have lost the competition, but I guess I really won going forward
if such caring people were willing to provide me substantial,
easy-to-act-on feedback. I learned a lot that day about ensuring that
visual aids and props support the message, but don’t take away from it.

Thomas B. Dowd III’s books available in softcover, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only):

• Now What? The Ultimate Graduation Gift for Professional Success
• Time Management Manifesto: Expert Strategies to Create an Effective Work/Life Balance
• Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job…A Reference Guide to Finding Work
• The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing from a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World
• From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide received the Gold Medal at the 2013 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Reference
• The Unofficial Guide to Fatherhood

See “Products” for details on www.transformationtom.com.  Book, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only) purchase options are also available on Amazon- Please click the link to be re-directed: Amazon.com

You will want to emphasize key points with the audience but in the
excitement of the presentation, the risk of leaving out one or more of
these key points is real. Have the messages you want the audience to
remember in an easily accessible spot to review before the presentation,
during the presentation, and at the conclusion, to ensure that all
pertinent points are covered. It is easy to get caught up in a discussion
or even go down a different path based on the interaction with the
audience, so it is important that the points you want taken away are
there to reference, to ensure that they are not forgotten.
These points should be written out, bolded, underlined, and reiterated
throughout your outline and eventual speech. They are the focal
points of the presentation, so you should also have indicators written
out for how you want the points to be made. Delivery of these points
can be critical in how your message is received and retained. Your cue
may be adding it to the story you want the point to support, repeating
the line, increasing your volume, or slowing down intentionally. You
don’t necessarily need to script out every move you make, although
this might be a good habit early in your speaking evolution. The key
is to ensure that your points resonate with the audience. The goal is to
build muscle memory through practice so that the key points become
so natural that the audience will be scrambling for their notebooks,
saying, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Good muscle memory starts with
a good plan.

Thomas B. Dowd III’s books available in softcover, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only):

• Now What? The Ultimate Graduation Gift for Professional Success
• Time Management Manifesto: Expert Strategies to Create an Effective Work/Life Balance
• Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job…A Reference Guide to Finding Work
• The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing from a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World
• From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide received the Gold Medal at the 2013 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Reference
• The Unofficial Guide to Fatherhood

See “Products” for details on www.transformationtom.com.  Book, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only) purchase options are also available on Amazon- Please click the link to be re-directed: Amazon.com