Public Speaking Tips: An Uneasy Silence - Paul M Johnstone

Public Speaking Tips - 

The Pause Paul M Johnstone

www.paradigmshakers.co.uk

As a new speaker just starting out, or a self taught public speaker or presenter, you don’t like to pause because you hate the silence that can descend on your audience.  You are concerned by the ‘dead’ feeling silence, speakers often associate with silence.

You have probably heard a speaker give their presentation and rush through it, with hardly a pause for breath.  The result is normally you don’t remember anything that was said.

The truth is your audience only start listening when you stop talking!

What?    

All of us process what has just been said during the pause.  It allows our brains to make sense of the words and file them in our memory.  Think back to any conversation you have had.  There is information then there are pauses.  This is so everyone in the conversation has time to digest what has been said, filter it and react to it.

There is a phrase that many public speakers use, ‘Pause till it hurts’.  This refers to the uneasy feeling in your stomach you experience when you think things are not as they should be.  And nothing is more so than your audience of 50 or more people looking at you and you are saying nothing. 

The truth is we all pause to emphasise a point.  Be brave and try it next time you are speaking or presenting.  It would be nice if you let me know how you got on.

If you’d like to improve your public speaking and presentation skills – get in touch!

Please feel free to comment if this tip has helped you, share your own ideas or ask a public speaking question Paul will try to help!

Comments and feedback pleas! Feel free to comment on this or any of my earlier Blogs. You guys keep me on track and help me improve.

About the Author

Paul M Johnstone is a Professional Communicator, Speaker, Executive Coach and PowerPoint Guru!  He works with companies, organisations and individuals, helping them improve their communication skills.  Paul helps people want to speak and present more effectively, to improve their personal and professional success. He can be reached at +44 (0)7711 324362or through his website at http://www.pmjohnstone.co.uk/

©Paul M Johnstone

The eye’s have it- Or do they? Paul M Johnstone

At a police and local authority seminar recently, where the topic was police and business crime.  The local MP decided it would be a right and proper place to promote the direct election of police commissioners.  This got him a less than warm welcome from the audience.

What made it worse for him was the way he used his eyes when speaking to us.  At no time when he was selling his idea did he look any of the audience in the eye.  He looked at their faces, out of the window (a lot) and looked for inspiration on the floor.  But not once did he look anyone in the eye.

In a western society we associate looking someone in the eye with truth, veracity, honesty.  When you don’t look your audience in their eyes you loose so much as a presenter or speaker.  You have to work so much harder to win the audience over a second time. It’s best if you don’t fall into that trap to start with.  There are some great techniques to insure you achieve this first time round.

Firstly one I call ‘Lock Jaw’.  Lock Jaw is where you lock your jaw unless you are making eye contact with a member of your audience.  A simple thing to do once you have practiced it – you become good an you will see people actively reacting to your connection.

Second: Your body language tells the audience a lot about you.  The politician I mentioned earlier folded his arms every time he was about to use the phrase ‘elected police commissioner’.  This was almost always followed by time spent looking at the floor or out of the window.

Third: When you find yourself in-front of an audience you don’t know, smile.  This simple, natural act of smiling breaks barriers, and helps people who don’t know each other connect.  Look as humans we are friendly towards each other. A smile is a great way to introduce yourself to people who don’t know you.

Follow these three steps every time you present and you will not end up like the MP who looked and sounded false. 

If you’d like to improve your public speaking and presentation skills – get in touch! Feel free to comment if this tip has helped you, share your own ideas or ask a public speaking question Paul will try to help!

Comments and feedback pleas! Feel free to comment on this or any of my earlier Blogs. You guys keep me on track and help me improve.

About the Author

Paul M Johnstone is a Professional Communicator, Speaker, Executive Coach and PowerPoint Guru!  He works with companies, organisations and individuals, helping them improve their communication skills.  Paul helps people want to speak and present more effectively, to improve their personal and professional success. He can be reached at +44 (0)7711 324362or through his website at http://www.pmjohnstone.co.uk/

©Paul M Johnstone

Comedy, and falling down Person Holes! - Paul M Johnstone

Professor Stanley Unwin the comedian, who is best known for making up a language that you can understand but sounds rubbish.  This in his case is the centre of his humour, rubbish that sounds funny. 

In real life though, malaprops are usually delivered by people who don't even realise they are doing it.  And have no idea of the difference between their condiments of the season and other fox paws.   

An old friend of mine who works in a Government department, OK one of the Home Office departments, told me about a meeting the attended.  The manager a bit of a straight laced humourless chap was loosing the audience.

The humourless manager stood at the lectern in an effort to bring the meeting back on track and said, "I fear our discussions are tangenital to the issues at hand."

At that my friend looked around at the other attendees who were all fighting back laughter. She had to excuse herself from the meeting to keep from laughing out loud, a career halter in the Civil Service. 

A flexible presenter who was truly in touch would have 

1) Realised their mistake quickly,

2) Laughed at themselves, and

3) Used that unplanned comic relief to get everyone's attention so that she could regain control of the meeting. 

Someone really experienced would make the mistake on purpose.

Over the years of writing speeches I’ve learned, that many times the mistakes are much funnier than the planned presentation.  These days I plan mistakes when appropriate.  This has a great affect on your audience frequently opening up the presentation. 

The next time you experience a tangential experience use it to your advantage.  Relax your audience, smooth your way through the situation and you will have delivered a more memorable presentation.  Well Done.

If you’d like to improve your public speaking and presentation skills – get in touch! Feel free to comment if this tip has helped you, share your own ideas or ask a public speaking question Paul will try to help!

www.paulmjohnstone.co.uk

and

www.paradigmshakers.co.uk

 Paul M Johnstone

Catch up with you again soon!

Paul Johnstone is the founder of

The Paradigm Shakers

Providers of Thought Provoking Training

Delivered by Subject Matter Experts

http://www.paradigmshakers.co.uk/

©Paul Johnstone

Top Presentation Techniques - Paul M Johnstone

Presentations are something that we’re all familiar with. Unfortunately there are estimated to be over 50% of the 1.3 Million presentations delivered every day, are rubbish (conservative estimate).    

To help you get the best from your presentations here are just a few tips that will help you achieve the goal of any presentation. The effective transfer of information from you the presenter to the audience in a way they understand and use your information. 

Don’t abuse your visuals – Always, always use quality images.  Avoid clip art go for quality.  If you want to use a cartoon get a cartoonist to draw one for you!   Whatever your visuals may be, keep them simple and try to use three or four words only. The audience isn’t there to read your slides, they are there to listen to your presentation.

Eye to eye with the audience – A fantastic technique for engaging the audience 

is……….Look them in the eye.  Don’t spray your eyes round the room look at one person, deliver a sentence then move on to the next person.  If no one is looking at you, stop talking.  When they look up, look the next person in the eye, deliver a sentence and move on.

Show your personality – It doesn’t matter if you are presenting to a corporate crowd or to senior citizens, you need to show some of your character when presenting. When you just stand and deliver you become wooden and any enthusiasm you have for the topic is lost.  Be yourself, be natural and you will deliver better presentations.

Make them laugh – Although you want to educate your audience, humour will help your presentation be better remembered.   No this doe not mean you have to become a stand up.  Tel your story and lighten it up with humour or an anecdote.  This keeps the audience alert and they’ll learn more from you than someone who just educates.

Talk to your audience, not at them – Don’t you just hate it when people talk at, so don’t do it. You need to interact with your audience and create a conversation. An easy way to do this is to ask them questions as well as letting them ask you questions.  I know someone who asks one person in his audience “What do you expect to achieve from this presentation”?

Honesty is your best Policy – A lot of people present to the audience what they want to hear, instead of what they need to hear. Make sure you tell the truth even if they don’t want to hear it.  There are lots of words you can use to prepare your audience for bad news. It will help you if you collect a library of these words and phrases for when you need them. Oh and if you don't know the answer to a question, tell them you don't but you will get back to them with an answer.

Please Don’t over prepare – If you rehearse your presentation too much it will sound like it (in a bad way). Granted, you need to be prepared enough to know what you are going to talk about but make sure your presentation flows naturally instead of sounding memorized. Usually if you ask experienced speakers what you shouldn’t do, they’ll tell you not to rehearse your presentation too much because then it won’t sound natural.

Get out of the Grow Bag– You probably know it’s good to move when you are presenting.  The phrase motion comes from emotion is key here. Don’t stand in one spot, like you are trying to take root, (in your grow bag) a little movement and encouraging gestures help when making a point. People are more engaged with an animated speaker.

Watch what you say – You usually don’t notice when you say “err”, “ah”, or any other filler word frequently, but the audience does. It can get irritating; so much that some members of the audience will probably count how many times you say these filler words.

Differentiate yourself – If you don’t do something different compared to all the other presenters the audience may have heard.  You are branding yourself when you speak, so make sure you do something memorable.  I find your own enthusiasm for your subject is a great place to start.

Catch up with you again soon!

Paul Johnstone is the founder of

The Paradigm Shakers

Providers of Thought Provoking Training

Delivered by Subject Matter Experts

http://www.paradigmshakers.co.uk/

 ©Paul Johnstone

Public Speaking, what a great sales tool! Paul M Johnstone

Humour and tales with a humorous punch line can help you get the sales presentation. They are great for helping you stay upbeat and on the ball.   

Here is a story of a friend of mine and how humour helped him.

One of the ways professional speakers get business is if you have to deliver free demonstrations, always make sure you get a tangible return.  My colleague was presenting for an advertising company in London. After the presentation, a lady came approached him and asked him to call her. She then went on to tell him, his information would be perfect for the employees at her place.

So he called three times that week, guess what no return call. Called three times the next week and did not get a return call. And on to the third week, no return calls.   Finally, he decided to sent a humorous fax.

Guess What?  She called back within the hour.  And as a result he got a large contract for a years work  When asked why she replied to he fax, her reply, She said the fax really made her laugh in the midst of all the pressure she was under and that's why she called.

Oh and it was a government department! 

You might be wondering how he could call someone 12 times in a month and not be considered a pest. Well she asked him to call. To me that means I'm going to call her the rest of her life until she tells me to stop.

Secondly, he knew she was a fun and lively sort of person, because he saw her enjoying the presentation where they first met.

So use humour words and phrase like I know your in box resembles Everest or I'll bet people are camping outside your office just to get to see you.

If you can use humour as an aid to your selling, try lots of things like these. 

You could sing on a prospect's voicemail (not if you’re tone deaf), send humorous post cards.    E-mail that makes people smile, make your mailers unforgettable. Why not send a packet of grass seed to help them grow their business, biscuits for their much needed coffee break.  Chewing gum for those sticky situations, in fact anything that will make you stand out. To stand out you need to be different from the crowd. Prospects are much more likely to remember you when they want something you do.  

Make your reminders witty, humorous, and different, as this  will help you get the call when they have a need.  For more tips like this please vist either www.pmjohnstone.co.uk 
Or the Paradigm Shakers who's link is at the end of this page

Catch up with you again soon!

Paul Johnstone is the founder of

The Paradigm Shakers

Providers of Thought Provoking Training

Delivered by Subject Matter Experts

http://www.paradigmshakers.co.uk/

Stick In The Mud or Confused, Who do you know? Paul M Johnstone

More on getting more from your netwoking opportunities.

Sixty Seconds Part 2:

What you say

I don’t know about you, but I have listened to some truly awful 60 second presentations. You find that people who miss the point when delivering their 60 seconds and they fall into one of three camps.

The Stick in the Mud’s: They do not change their script from week 1 to whenever they stop going. I was a member of a group where a tradesman said exactly the same thing week on week. Even when we had to reduce ours to 30 or 45 seconds, he still ploughed on with his single prepared commercial. The effect on the members is they stop listening.

The Readers: Who insist on typing out their 60 seconds (a good thing to do) but then insist on reading it without looking at the audience. Preparing your 60 seconds is defiantly a great idea, but then you should take time to learn it so when you deliver it sounds passionate. When you read aloud it sounds forced and often fake. Also as they avoid the audience they do not engage the audience. The effect is that your potential sales people and Advocates switch off.

The Confused: Also often a member will tell a different story each week, which keeps their message fresh. However, all too often this sort of presentation changes the essential message of the product or service.

With all things in life consistency brings greater rewards. The more you change your offering the more confusion you bread.  

Oh and then there is the down right boring who are probably best left alone.

SO what should a good 60 seconds contain?

If you think of it as a commercial you will start to realise what goes in the commercial:

·         Your name and company 10%

·         What you do, your service product description 30%

·         Both of these should be the same or broadly the same every week.

·         Either a testimonial, further product or service description or new product news 30%

·         Who you would like an introduction to 20%

·         Finally a hook or a repeat of who you are and what you do 10%

There are stacks of techniques for delivering a successful and profitable 60 seconds
Keep an eye out for the third part of a 60 second presentation which will be on how you get what you really, really want as the Spice girls once told us.

A series of occasional pieces on how to construct a 60 second pitch that GETS RESULTS

Catch up with you again soon!

Paul Johnstone is the founder of

The Paradigm Shakers

Providers of Thought Provoking Training

Delivered by Subject Matter Experts

http://www.paradigmshakers.co.uk/

Public Speaking: Audience Humour - Paul Johnstone

Audience Humour is it just a gag?

Audience humour is offbeat asides and jokes that occur unexpectedly during a presentation. 

An old stand by often used be Dr. Joel Goodman, is where a telephone rings during his presentation. He answers the phone that was hidden in the lectern and pretends to talk to his mother. The same joke would be called a running gag if the phone rang at several other times during the program.    

I believe the two Ronies used a similar technique in their long running series on the BBC.

Graveyard Wakeup

This is great if you have drawn the short straw and have to present imediatly after lunch, the graveyard slot.  It’s another tried and tested piece of humour, which is lots of fun and takes almost no time to set up.  

Before the presentation, pick out about 10 willing audience members to help you. All you do is give them simple that they share with no one else. This instruction leads them to a course of action that is carried out on a certain cue during the presentation. To start the gag, have an assistant interrupt the seminar to give you an important note. 

The note read (for effect it helps if you use a serious expression):

"It appears that someone is in attendance today with another man's wife. There is a large and irate man on his way here right now. If you want to get out quickly, there is a backstage door you can use to disappear through."

At this point, 10 men jumped up out of their seats and ran crazily out the door. Once they realized what was happening, several women jumped up and ran out too. It was great fun and wakes up everyone who had just lunch and were feeling a little snoozy. 

Your turn now to tell me is humour in presentations just a gag?  

Or you could share with others your experiences of humour in presentations - Good or Bad - but please keep it appropriate!

Paul Johnstone is a Speaker, Trainer and Paradigm Shaker. Founder of The Paradigm Shakers and a Subject Matter Expert.

Paradigm SHakers - Providers of Thought Provoking Training

Check out other free speaking tips:

http://www.paradigmshakers.co.uk/

P.S I always appreciate feed back and comments and new followers!

©Paul Johnstone