Public speaking is a vital skill for anyone in business, yet so many of us are bad at it. The Brand Newsroom team has been delivering presentations for years. Today they swap notes and share advice to help you make your presentations the engaging, lead-generating business tools you need them to be.

Here are some key take-outs:

• Being able to present well allows you to demonstrate your knowledge, authority and expertise. It helps people connect with you and understand where you’re coming from.
• It adds an element of the “personal” that sending email or giving them written information to read simply cannot do.

“When you can stand up and talk with ease and confidence about something, people really respond to that”. — Sarah

• You don’t need to be cut and polished with everything you say, but talk with a clear objective. Leave the audience with a clear idea of what to do next.
• Put some expression and some personality into your presentation. So many presentations are dull and almost ‘proforma’.

“It comes back to authenticity. In general life we don’t have everything scripted. If we’re meeting with someone and we’re telling them about our brand-new fantastic idea, we don’t suddenly whip out our PointPoint presentation”. — James

• Make sure you know your material. If the power went out, you still want to be able to get your message across. When you practice, say it out loud. That’s the difference between a speaker and a good speaker.
• This is NOT the same as being scripted. Scripted presentations do not feel authentic. You’re busy thinking about the next word, not the meaning of what you’re trying to say. You will lose connection with the audience.
• If you’re using slides, they should really just be a queue for you to mark transitions. They shouldn’t be overloaded with text. These also allow you to be flexible.

“The people in the audience don’t want you to fail; they want you to succeed. They’re there to listen to you; you’re the expert. You’re the person they want to hear from”. — Nic

Have you heard the one about…

Recently James, Sarah and Nic took a close look at the benefits of podcasting for brands.

And here’s a discussion about where to share your content.

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For more information about the show, visit the Brand Newsroom website, where you can join the Brand Newsroom Community and receive exclusive content and opportunities to meet James, Nic and Sarah.