Better Delivery of Presentations

Alexander: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of the effective statistician. Today we want to talk about how you can deliver a presentation like a professional. So I know in all the leadership programs that I’m doing, there’s a lot of people who are afraid of presentations. And I think there’s some research that says people are generally quite afraid of public speaking.

So, if you are afraid of presenting, you are normal. Now, I want to tell you a little bit about what I do, so I am less afraid about the next presentation. The first thing is, start focusing on the audience, not on you. The audience will much more think about themselves and much less think about you. Stop thinking about yourself.

Start [00:01:00] thinking about focusing on how you will help the audience. Your presentation is a service to the audience. You do it for the audience. Mainly. Maybe also a little bit for you. That’s fine. But focus on what’s in it for the audience. The other thing is practice. Do it again and again. Yeah, you can practice this presentation, but generally do more presentations.

Take all the different opportunities to present. Put yourself out there. You can start with smaller settings, you know, whatever small means to you. For some people, it means like presenting to just two peers. For others it would mean like presenting to 20 people. For yet others it will be presenting to 100 people.

And then go for the next step. Push yourself outside of your comfort zone. [00:02:00] I’m speaking about this all the time. Your courage muscle needs to be trained. And it only is trained if you push it a little bit. If you always kind of go a little bit beyond what’s comfortable for you. And then you will over time get actually comfortable with being uncomfortable.

And that’s where you want to be. Then, you know, Every presentation becomes an opportunity for you. Something that is, that has a positive connotation. When I I’m going to do a presentation and a big one. I’ve done so many presentations over, over the years that I really now enjoy these. But of course, if there’s a really, really big presentation, I also feel my body reactions.

I feel my heart is beating faster. You know, there’s, there’s more kind of tightness in the [00:03:00] body. That is normal. No. Tell yourself a different story about this. This is not fear. This is your body preparing you for top performance. The other thing is, if you start thinking about your audience, you will automatically have less of these body symptoms.

Try it. Pretty sure it works for you as well. No. Practicing all these kind of things. definitely helps. One really important thing is in order to master how you deliver. And I’m not speaking about slides and your content or all these kind of different things. No, it’s about how you deliver your presentation.

And the first thing that you need to be really good at is the setup. Both if it’s in an in person presentation or if [00:04:00] it’s a virtual presentation. Master your setup. If you have An in person presentation. Make sure, where do you want to stand? Where can you actually deliver the presentation so you have maximum benefit?

Can you move around? How is it with the audio setup? Can people hear me? All these things. Best is, you test these things before. When I present at a conference, I always try to check out the room before, to see what is the best setup, where is the lighting, should I stand behind? The only opportunity is basically to stand behind this desk.

Or can I stand next to it? Because I really love to stand next to it. Or in front, you know, in the middle of the stage. Don’t hide behind something. Show yourself, because you can speak with your whole body. When you’re [00:05:00] presenting virtually, also stand up. I’m not standing here. You know, this is a virtual setup.

I’m still standing because that gives you so much more energy and power.

This will definitely come across. And for sure, make sure that, you know, all the lighting is good, so the audio is good, all these kinds of different things. Yes, I am not, you know, top super kind of whatsoever Steve Jobs kind of person that has a perfect kind of studio setup and you know professional lighting and everything but do it as good as you can and there’s lots of things you can have an impact on where’s your lighting come from look into the camera don’t look like this and talk to like you’re talking to someone else or like this or like this or like you know face into the [00:06:00] camera That makes such a big difference.

And make sure people see your face. I see it so often that there’s a light behind the people. Guess what? Then there’s a big shadow on your face. And people can see you. And that can so easily be adopted. Or changed. Yes, I have a desk that can go up and down. And that makes it very easy to kind of, you know.

Sit at it and write or deliver a presentation like now. Before I had a, this kind of height-adjusting desk, I just had a box. I had a box, which I was putting under my laptop so that I can look, you know, into the camera while presenting and stand while presenting. Makes a huge difference.