Hence, I have created a personal blog (think of it as an extension of Ethos3) to point out the flaws, weaknesses, and dumb crap that presenters do each and everyday.  It’s a reaction to both Stuff White People Like and Stuff Christians Like so I am calling it Stuff Presenters Like.  In a nutshell, it’s a blog about the good, the bad, and the lame things presenters do everyday.

This is what you will find on Stuff Presenters Like:

• The Good Stuff Presenters Do
• The Bad Stuff Presenters Do
• The Lame Stuff Presenters Do
• Public Speaking Horror Stories
• Presentation Tips
• Presentation Articles
• Product and Book Reviews

It just went live, so go check it out.  Also, if you have a funny/horror story related to public speaking that you would like to share on the site, email me at scott [at] ethos3 [dot] com.  I would love to hear it.

How Long Is Too Long?
When making an introduction, it’s important to remember that brief is best. After all, the audience is there to hear a speaker, not an introduction. Your goal is to set the stage in a speedy manner while getting across three important points:

Subject – What is your speaker going to address?
Interest – What makes this subject important to your audience?
Speaker – Who is your speaker?

Serve Your Speaker
Your speaker may have their own ideas regarding the kind of intro that will work best for them. Always share thoughts with your speaker and accommodate their ideas. If you feel like you can enhance or refine the intro they are suggesting, speak up! But, always honor their wishes.

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines
When it comes to introductions, don’t forget, you are performing too. Just because you aren’t making a presentation doesn’t mean you’re off the hook! In fact, a great introduction can create a lot of anticipation and momentum for a PowerPoint presentation. A brief, focused, compelling introduction can push a good presentation into the realm of greatness!

The Ol’ Ed McMahon
When it comes to the end of your introduction – when you are actually welcoming your speaker to the stage – there are a few points to remember. First, you are welcoming your speaker. Think of yourself as a great host introducing a new guest to party-goers at a fabulous fete! When you say your speaker’s name, emphasize their last name, and say it louder than their first name. This will create a natural rise in your voice, anticipating the speaker’s arrival. Think about the way Ed McMahon used to introduce Johnny Carson – “Heeeeeere’s Johnny!” Done correctly, it almost sounds like a drum roll followed by a cymbal splash. Obviously, this example is a bit over-the-top, but you get the point. Also, remember the way that Ed would turn toward Carson extending his arm? This is a great, natural gesture of welcoming, and by focusing your attention on the speaker, you’ll focus the audience’s attention as well.

A good introduction – like a good presentation – requires preparation and practice. Volunteer the next time the opportunity presents itself. Soon you’ll be sending off your speakers with a style all your own.

Now, let’s get ready to ruuuuummmble!

Love him or hate him, no one walks the line between innovative, artistic film making, and popular success like Steven Spielberg. In fact there was no such thing as a blockbuster film until Spielberg made Jaws. There had been very successful films of course, but Jaws remade film distribution – and profitability – into the model we still have until this day.

What does this have to do with your next presentation?

By taking a few notes from Mr. Spielberg, you can incorporate new and interesting ideas into your next PowerPoint, allowing you to tell your unique story in a unique manner that connects with your audience in a brand new way!

Take a second to check out these four lessons from the master:

Use What You’ve Got
When Spielberg made Jaws, he was just another struggling film maker, trying to wrestle with the technical difficulties of dealing with a mechanically fickle shark. In fact, Spielberg had so much trouble with the Great White Dope that he wasn’t able to feature the creature in many of the scenes he’d planned. Instead, he used his camera to represent the shark’s point of view. He also developed an incredibly simple musical theme that haunts us to this day. Implying the presence of the shark without showing the eating machine was the masterstroke that made the film truly terrifying – and it wasn’t even on purpose! The next time you’re putting together a presentation, don’t focus on the limits of your resources or your technical tools. Allow these obstacles to inspire your best!

Best for Last
Although Spielberg kept his shark under wraps for most of Jaws, he took it to the limit with Close Encounters of the Third Kind. When is the last time you saw a science fiction movie with no aliens – until the very end? This is a great model for your next presentation. Never show your best cards right away. End strong and they’ll remember you!

Crowd Pleaser
A lot of folks don’t know that Spielberg began his career in television. If you think about it, it’s not that surprising. In fact, it makes sense that this revolutionary crowd pleaser would’ve first spent time in the trenches of the most “mass” of all mass media. Spielberg has made films in every genre, covering every type of story – all the while engaging dazzling technical innovations – but he never forgets that entertaining an audience is his first priority. Never forget that you aren’t presenting to yourself – it’s all for your audience!

Story! Story! Story!
In the ’80’s Spielberg returned to TV, producing a series called Amazing Stories. This was a logical step for a creative person whose best work is always built on the framework of strong, traditional story structures. Keep this in mind with your next presentation. Use the power of stories to make your work truly memorable. Why present a series of displays when you can spin a yarn? Why display a bunch of information when you can tell a story?

If only it was always that easy…

It can be helpful to think about attention in terms of presentations in three ways: First, we need to grab the audience’s attention. We need to find some way to capture them quickly and make sure that they are invested in our message right from the start. Secondly, we need to hold their attention. It serves little purpose to shock our audience into a state of alertness if we quickly lull them back into a stupor of boredom and complacency. Once we have our audience’s attention, we need to pace our presentation in such a way that can keep them coming along for the ride by creating various, dynamic “highs” and “lows” as we build toward our conclusion. The third way to think about attention in regards to our presentations involves what happens after the presentation is over. Did all of our hard work go in one ear and out the other – or did we make it memorable?

Making your presentation memorable can be tricky. Some of the things we do to create excitement in the moment when we are speaking won’t necessarily resonate beyond that afternoon. However, some of the fundamentals of a good presentation will make you compelling on stage and for many water-cooler discussions to come.

Here are a few ways to create a buzz the next time you present.

1. Less Will Impress
Less is more. This is a fundamental rule for any presentation, but it plays an especially important role when it comes to making your hard work something to remember. If your presentation is short, fast, and to the point, you are more likely to capture and keep your audience’s attention. In addition, by not filling-in every single blank, you are inviting your audience to invest their own ideas, creating a dialog that will keep them thinking about your captivating pitch for weeks.

2. Lift Your Language
Obviously, this technique could become overdone in the context of a presentation, but it’s worth considering. Think of the way JFK, RFK or MLK used to speak to their audiences. We certainly remember their speeches decades later and their messages continue to resonate throughout the culture. All three employed two methods: They elevated their audience’s vision while simultaneously speaking in short, simple sentences that anyone could understand. How can you do the same in your next presentation?

3. Centralize When You Organize
When you’re organizing your presentation, it’s important to focus in on one theme and continue to refer back to it as you move from point-to-point. This will insure that your audience won’t lose track of your central theme as you tell your story. If your audience can’t follow, they certainly can’t remember.

4. Make Demands on Your Diction
Choosing exactly the right words in your presentation is crucial. After all, your presentation is mostly made of words. Does your description of this new product actually describe it well or is it simply a jumble of marketing phrases that no one can really grab onto? Keep it clear. Make it simple. Make it memorable.

5. Book ‘em
Don’t be afraid to use literary devices to bring a heightened level of power to your presentation. For instance, the use of alliteration may motivate more momentum in the moment. Metaphors, similes and allusions can also bring unexpected weight to your story. Jesse Jackson once compared unregistered voters to the stone that killed the Biblical Goliath in what is now considered one of the greatest speeches of all time.

6. Content
No matter how well-spoken you are, no matter how well-written your presentation is, no matter how pretty your slides look, you will flop if you don’t have compelling ideas and interesting notions to speak about. A TV show about nothing can be a big hit, but a presentation about nothing will never be memorable.

Opposite Day
To help jump-start your team’s brains, try an exercise in words. Choose five random words and ask your team to come up with their opposites. Bright; Dark. Once they have completed that task, ask them to go one step further and come up with three more words that could be considered opposites of the originals. Bright: Night, Dull, Lackluster. Hopefully, your team will come up with less lackluster words. Regardless, you’ll have them thinking about something other than the memos they need to get out by 5:00.

Improvisational Tools
Set up a brief improv performance to encourage your team to put their tin foil thinking caps on. Bring a bunch of ordinary objects to the office and ask people to demonstrate alternative uses for them. You could find out that a grocery bag could double as a papoose or that your sunglasses are really some super x-ray vision goggles meant for use on Neptune. Once your team starts thinking about how to present their ideas, they’ll already be thinking in an inventive way.

Ridiculous Run-through
If you are looking to your team to help you creatively solve a problem, try an outlandish brainstorming run-through first to get them in the mood. Pose a silly problem – how did the legless chicken cross the road? – and ask your team to think of different ways to overcome it. On its wing tips? This exercise should make people relax and get into a creative frame of mind. When you present your real challenge, your team will already be practiced in the art of imaginative problem-solving.

Object d’Office
For this exercise, break down your brainstorming team into smaller groups. Then, present an everyday object like a ballpoint pen and ask each group to come up with as many uses for it as possible. Encourage everyone to be creative and outrageous. Whether or not the proposed uses are completely feasible shouldn’t matter. If a group can explain how a ballpoint pen can help a person take over the world, more power to them!

Get Outside of the Box
Sometimes it really is impossible to be creative in the office environment. Ugh! It’s so beige and boring. Literally get outside of the office box and take your brainstorming team to a different location. Go outdoors, to a coffee shop, to an amusement park – just go anywhere that will get your team to be and think outside of the box. Most of the time, a change in environment works wonders for inspiring creativity.

Not quite.

You may not be a marathon runner, a power lifter or a kick boxing champion, but warming up can be just as important for a presenter as it is for a champion athlete. Although stretching – or even mild calisthenics – can be a good idea before taking the stage, another kind of warming-up is vital.

You need to give your throat a work out!

Just like an opera singer about to solo at The Met, you need to prepare your voice before your big moment. It may seem like a bit of a stretch to compare your presentation to singing La Boheme, but there are a lot of similarities. Just like an Italian diva, you are about to project you voice, in a dynamic manner, for an extended period of time, in an effort to move your audience in a persuasive manner. See! You have a lot in common. It’s actually OK to feel like a rock star when you deliver a great presentation. You sort of are one.

Here are a few tips to make sure you hit every note.

No Moo
If you eat or drink dairy before a presentation you are asking for trouble. Dairy products create mucus that will have your nose stuffing up and your throat getting thick. Unless you want to sound like Bob Dylan or a TB patient, give the dairy a rest until after you leave the spotlight. Water is your best friend before your turn at the podium.

Speak Out
When you are warming up for your speech, don’t just run through the words and highlights in your mind. It’s important to say your speech out loud as you prepare. Not only will this loosen up your vocal cords, it will also create muscle memory just like a musician or a singer practicing a song. This means that your mouth will learn your speech at the same time as your mind, and even if you get distracted you can rely on your auto pilot to kick in.

Hummm
Something as simple as humming can do wonders for your voice before a presentation. Humming will open your throat, relax your face and neck, and generally raise your energy level just in time for your big moment. This is a tried and true exercise for all singers, but you don’t need any special training to do it, just pick a song and get started. “Pop Goes the Weasel,” anyone? “Welcome to the Jungle?”

Twist your Tongue
Tongue twisters are a great way to loosen your lips and sharpen your ability to articulate before speaking. If you can remember how much wood a woodchuck would chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood, something tells me your presentation will pack a powerful punch, producing much pride!

Some guys have it all.

If you’ve never had the chance to see the master in action, you might be pleased to know that Jobs isn’t really doing anything special. But he is doing everything that makes a presentation work. And he’s doing it very, very well.

Create Immediate Rapport
Jobs routinely makes his entrance unannounced, with no music or fanfare. He also holds off on the presentation and the visuals in order to address the audience directly. He’s humble, he’s welcoming, and he puts the emphasis on the people in the seats, reassuring them that they are the reason he is excited about all the new developments he’s about to show them.

Throw Them a Bone
We all cringe when presented with a slide outlining the agenda of a coming presentation. Imagine if the entire plot of a film was revealed just as the opening scene began. Time to hit the buffet! Jobs is great at remaining ambiguous, but still letting an audience know what they are about to see. Keep it general. Keep ‘em guessing. But keep ‘em engaged!

Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm.
Just as most presentations tend to be too long, most presenters tend to lack the requisite amount of enthusiasm to keep and audience engaged. Using energetic language (“incredible”, “ground breaking”, “unbeatable”), and not being afraid to gesture and move about the stage with purpose, will energize your presentation and your audience. Don’t be insincere, but be passionate!

What Does It Mean?
All too often, our presentations can get mired down in statistics and data. There will be plenty of time for specific questions about numbers during the Q&A. Present your numbers quickly and immediately jump to a meaningful interpretation so your audience can see their relevance to the bigger picture. Don’t tell them “what.” Tell them “why.”

Don’t Pancake
One of my favorite comedians once commented that comedians had to start strong and end strong. “Not like pancakes, where you’re really excited at first but by the end you’re @#^#^# sick of ‘em!” This same theory applies to a great presentation. You need to be dynamic right out of the gate, but if you end with a fizzle, it’s all for naught. Save your best for last!

These are the folks that brought you rock ‘n roll, The ’60’s, Women’s Liberation, Sesame Street, JFK, Nixon, the Vietnam War, and any number of other cultural touchstones that changed our culture – and our country – drastically and forever.

Despite their radical beginnings, many of the Boomers eventually transformed from Hippies to Yuppies, ushering in an age of unfettered capitalism and glamorized money-culture in the 1980’s. This means that some of those Boomers are probably still the big-fish movers and shakers in your industry, and knowing how to speak their language may make all the difference when it comes to your next PowerPoint presentation.

Know Your Knowledge
The Boomers grew up watching the 6 o’clock news in an era when reporters were actual journalists – not just models with teleprompters. Boomers like to sit down on Sunday nights and watch 60 Minutes – for an entire hour! The Boomers were the last generation in America that boasted a high number of book readers. These folks want to know things and they want to know them deeply and fully. Unlike Generations X, they didn’t grow up on a steady diet of manic, MTV-style, jump-cut edits. They have long attention spans – if you can keep ‘em interested.

Back To School
Boomers were the first generation to get ahead through education. The G.I. bill made higher learning available to soldiers after the War and – for the first time – college wasn’t just for rich kids. The Boomers were the first generation who saw this kind of higher education as a birthright. As a result, these folks value learning and appreciate the dynamics of interactive discourse. When you are making a PowerPoint pitch to a room full of Boomers, consider encouraging questions and statements throughout your presentation. Maintain control over your message, but don’t wait for the Q & A before getting this generation more actively involved.

Fine Wine
Although The Boomers are getting older, you can’t tell them that. You’ve probably seen Dennis Hopper on TV recently, pitching the need for retirement planning. He’s not offering a stoic message about responsibility. He’s advocating a renaissance: retirement as a second act, a second chance, a brand new you! This generation has never stopped dreaming of the next horizon, so – while you better speak slowly and keep those fonts on the large size – you never want to treat The Boomers like they are fading away. They see themselves as only getting better with age.

Time has passed and styles have changed and one of the biggest TV hits of all time is a legitimate talent show that has already launched the careers of a number of talented singers.

American Idol is an obsession for fans who watch it with a fervor that borders on zealotry. Following the would-be idols from their initial auditions, through the elimination rounds, all the way to the finals provides drama, entertainment and the kind of must-watch-tonight momentum that has become the hallmark of the show’s success.

It’s easy to see how the qualities that make a great ‘Idol are the same qualities that can help you have success at your next PowerPoint presentation. Chances are you won’t be required to sing or put up with Simon, but there is still a lot to learn from America’s favorite show.

No Sweat
We all know what it’s like to be nervous before we take the stage for our presentation. Imagine what must be going through the minds of the wanna-bes on ‘Idol. How could you possibly cope with a theater full of screaming fans, hanging on your every word? How do they remember their lyrics, hit their marks, smile for the camera, and sell themselves to the millions of fans who are watching at home, deciding their fate? The next time you get a case of nerves about standing at the front of the boardroom, remember how the ‘Idols handle the pressure and take a chill pill.

No Natural Idols
During a given season on ‘Idol, we can see some amazing transformations take place. Every year there is at least one contestant who starts out as a bit of an ugly duckling only to make a legitimate run for the big prize by the end of the season. The contestants get more comfortable performing for the huge audience and you can literally see some of them blossom as they learn to relax. Other performers take criticism to heart – Simon is a jerk, but he’s not stupid – and their performances shine accordingly. Some of the singers find inspiration working with one of the many star performers who tutor them as the shows progress. No matter how it happens, every one of the performers improve on the road to becoming ‘Idols. Great presenters aren’t born either. Seek out advice, guidance, inspiration and direction. Take criticism seriously and model yourself on those who’ve come before you.

Make a Connection
For a novice viewer, it can seem like the judges on ‘Idol wield tremendous power. Of course, that’s not the case. The only people who really matter to the singers are at home watching the performances on their television sets. When you’re launching your presentation the most important goal is creating a connection with your audience. If you make that connection, you’re on your way to being a presentation star in your own right!

Simple Structure
We often talk about how a presentation is really a storytelling form.  Basic stories have a very simple structure: the rising action leads to a crisis, which is followed by the dénouement.  Take away the English-major language and you basically have a beginning, middle and an end.  This configuration should serve as your presentation’s overarching structure.  Introduce your subject, present your arguments and data and summarize your message to conclude.

Selling Ideas
Within the above framework, you should ensure that facts and data logically support your arguments.  Think about stating your conclusion only after you have presented your supporting data.  Instead of stating, “Company X should sell products in department stores because the target consumer shops there, the competitors are well-represented there and department stores are awesome,” begin with your supporting points so that your audience feels that they came to your conclusion (Company X should sell products in department stores) with you.  Let’s face it – people are much more likely to implement ideas they think they thought of themselves.

Draw It Out
Before you draft your presentation, consider what your audience will think is logical.  If you are presenting to an audience outside of your industry, using a lot of industry-specific jargon won’t help guide your audience.  If they don’t understand what you are saying, your structure is really beside the point.  Draw out your presentation like a map with facts leading to conclusions and conclusions working together to form your larger message.  Is it clear how you got from point A to point B?  Once it seems clear to you, ask others to review your presentation and comment on the structure.  Our minds work differently, so what may seem like brilliant logic to you, may not even make sense to others.

Ergo . . . .
When it comes to creating your presentation, you can use verbal and visual cues to denote logical structure.  To help your audience hear your logic, use words and phrases like “first,” “second” and “third,” “because of A, B and C” or “therefore,” “so then,” and “it follows.”  It may not make for beautiful prose, but it works.  When illustrating processes, organization or cycles, use that PowerPoint Smart Art tab.  Hierarchal charts to show decision-making processes or images connected by arrows to illustrate how your recycled paperclip eventually becomes part of a space shuttle work wonders when trying to logically explain a multi-step process.

Now, go forth and present logically!