I have been a long time believer in the power of stories as a communication tool.  Stories are the way that humans have passed on learning ever since we started to communicate and they are still vitally important right now in the 21st Century.    I found this great article from Australian facilitator and coach  Jill Chivers.

Its acalled the power of a great story and you can read it by clicking here.

The Talent Code

10,000 hours

Motivation / ignition

It was a beautiful Saturday here in the UK,  sunny and warm yet I spent three hours of it in a hall listening to some of the best speakers in the South of England at a Toastmasters  speech contest.  Why?  Because I  learn so much from listening to and analysing great speakers.      Iain Upton, from Solent Speakers in Fareham Hampshire won the international speech contest with a presentation entitled Spice up Your Speech.  In it he argued that  many speakers are lead to believe that “delivery is everything” and he wanted to redress the balance by making sure that content and language were given at least equal billing.

I think he has a point.   Presentation coaches, including me, bang on about the importance of great delivery and perhaps we are giving people the unintended message that content doesn’t matter.     Listen to many of the political speeches in the media here in the UK in the run up to the general election and you can see the problem.   Many are a triumph(?) of style over substance.

Of course any presentation coach worth his or her salt will agree that content is critical.   Listening to a great speaker without good content is like eating a chinese meal. It fills you up at the time but after a few hours you can’t even remember eating it.     The reason we put so much emphasis on the delivery side of things is because great content on its own is not enough either.      Both are needed  for effective and long lasting communication.

So as a presenter or budding speaker make sure you spend time on both aspects of your speech.  get the content right first.  

• Set yourself a clear objective
• Next assemble a compelling argument which you can support with evidence that will stand up to intellectual scrutiny.   
• Choose your language with care and avoid  falling into the trap of repeating  well worn cliches.

Iain’s powerful message hit home with the audience and with me and so I hope it will with you too.

Recently I posted video about the importance of first impressions both in short networking introductions and in longer presentations. Today I’d like to focus in on the typical 1 minute introductions you get at a Networking group.

This is your chance to showcase your business and educate your fellow networkers on what you do so it is really important. I see that whilst some networkers take it seriously and prepare in advance. Others see it as a chore and tend to repeat the same tired old phrases week after week.

Let’s start by asking ourselves what is the outcome we desire from our pitch? Is it to “fill 60 seconds”? Is it to “talk about our business”, is it to “inform the audience?” – No! You want the audience to do something as a result of your introduction!
How about some of these outcomes?

• Remember what you do!
• Think of someone in their circle that is looking for your product or service right now and refer you to them!
• Be curious enough about what you do to want to ask you some questions about it after the meeting.

That’s more like it. We are talking about getting clear about what we want the audience to do as a result of our mini presentation.

So once you are clear about the outcome, then and only then should you start to pull the content and structure together.

Look out for my next post which will address stage two in more details and give you some ideas to get you thinking.

First impressions really do count, whether you are making a full blown presentation complete with PowerPoint , or you  just speaking informally to clients, colleagues or networking group members.     You probably spend enough time preparing your content but do you spend enough time thinking about your delivery?

Whilst I see and hear some outstanding elevator pitches   , I also see far too many that are  pretty poor.   This is a  shame as it creates doubt in your clients mind which may well stop them from buying your product or service.  It’s tough enough out there without making things any harder than they absolutely need to be.   So follow the tips in this short video to learn how you could improve the way your customers and prospective customers view you and your products.

Happy Easter.

Gavin Meikle
The Presentation Doctor

Learning, Laughter & Lightbulb Moments