Create a Mood for Positive Perception of Presentation Messages

Recently, a friend and I have started a Tony Robbins audio program. Of course, we are preparing ourselves for the beginning of a new year with new resolutions to keep. While listening to the first tape of this particular audio exercise, Tony describes a common phenomenon among human beings through one of his encouraging tips. He tells listeners to snap out of defeatist mindsets by focusing on the positives instead of the negatives. According to new research from Ghent University, Tony is on to something with his advice. The researchers discovered that adopting a happier mood doesn’t only encourage you to ingest a wider range of ideas and experiences. It actually helps you achieve what the researchers call “cognitive control.” You become the captain of your own thought process. Although individuals are responsible for making this mood shift, there are many opportunities for presenters to inspire positivity.

How Mood Impacts the Perception of Presentation Messages-image

Select the setting

Place your presentation in a distinct setting by telling a story from the beginning. Involve characters that represent the conflict of your presentation topic. If the physical location of your story provides vital context, spend time in your presentation script describing the attributes of the scenery. Contrast different settings to aid in character development and engage your audiences in a meaningful way.

Think about theme

Is the theme of your content growth? Or is it fear? Is the theme of your content love and family? Or is it death and destruction? Help your audience shift their own moods through establishing an appropriate theme.

Determine the diction

The type of words you choose in your script and on your slides indicates a certain mood your audience should adopt. How you describe specific characters, locations, or events through text and speech has an extensive impact on how your audience perceives each element in relation to the greater narrative. Words have unique characteristics that when used alongside other words, create any kind of mood the writer wants. If you want to convey disgust and concern for a situation that is paramount to your presentation message, use words that would evoke this reaction from your audience.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet utilizes setting, theme, and diction to cultivate a sinister mood and foreshadow the events to follow. In the opening scene, for example, two guards converse about a ghost they had seen recently. At the end of the scene, the ghost appears. The theme of tragedy and change is clear in this scene. And the setting of a change of guards further plays to that theme and works with other components to create the overall mood. For more storytelling tips and tricks, check out the resources below:

Storytelling Tips from TED: Jia Jiang and Rejection

Fact or Fiction? A Presentation Storytelling Decision.

3 Signs of Presentation Storytelling Doom


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