Matt Abrahams:

Tips & Techniques for More Confident and Compelling

Presentations
The ability to present your ideas in a clear, confident, and authentic manner
can make a huge difference in your business (and personal) success. Yet
many people are anxious or under-practiced in presenting effectively. The
best way to feel more confident and deliver engaging presentations is
through smart and thorough preparation and practice. From first planning
through actual delivery, these tips and techniques can help you be a more
compelling speaker and ensure your audience gets your message.

Start with a Key Question

Many speakers are anxious because they feel they are under the harsh
spotlight of an audience who is constantly evaluating them. But, interestingly,
incorporating questions from the moment you start planning can help you feel
more confident about every aspect of presenting. Here are two ways to use
questions in planning that will help you structure your presentation, and even
improve your delivery:

Ask Yourself, “What Does My Audience Need to Hear From Me?”

Instead of seeing speaking as a performance, think of it as being in service of
your audience’s needs — this shifts the attention away from you and onto
your audience. The most useful way I know to focus on your audience is to
start by asking yourself the simple question: “What does my audience need to
hear from me?” This not only helps you tailor your message to your audience,
but it also reminds you that they are the ones in the spotlight. Make this
question your mantra as you prepare and practice your presentations.

Outline Your Talk Using Questions

When writing your next outline, create a list of questions to serve as prompts
for what you intend to say. I loathe speaking manuscripts and full-text speaker
notes, which only invite memorization and actually increase performance
anxiety. An outline, on the other hand, is a very practical tool to help speakers
prepare and deliver. And the power of a question-based outline is twofold:

1. It allows you to feel more confident because you know the answers to your
questions — you no longer need to worry you might not know what to say.
2. You will be more conversational, since you are simply answering your
audience’s unasked questions, and conversational delivery is often better
remembered by audiences.

Know Your Audience’s Perspective, and Give Them a Reason to Care

Audiences need help to remember your content. Unfortunately, the norm for
audiences is to “sit back and take it.” This results in unengaged audiences
who are often left to find meaning in the presenter’s message. With careful
crafting, you can include core relevance and an emotional hook in your
presentation that will facilitate your audience’s remembering what you say.

Be Relevant to Your Audience

As a speaker, your job is to be in service of your audience. You need to be
sure that you make it easy for them to understand your message. I am not
suggesting you “dumb down” your content. Rather, I argue you should spend
time making sure your content is relevant and easily accessible to them.
Relevance is based on empathy. You need to diagnose your audience’s
knowledge, expectations, and attitudes, and then tailor your content to their
needs, particularly when presenting statistics.

Too often, presenters deliver numbers devoid of context, which makes it hard
for the audience to see their relevance, much less remember them. For
example,

Another way to make things relevant is to connect your content with

information your audience already knows. Analogies are a perfect tool for this.
By comparing new information to something your audience is already familiar
with, analogies activate the audience’s existing mental constructs, which
allows for quicker information processing and understanding.

For example, when I teach the purpose and value of organizing a

presentation, I often say that a presenter’s job is to be a tour guide. We then
discuss the most important tour guide imperative: “Never lose the members of
your tour group!” This analogy allows my students to leverage all of their
experiences of being on tours to understand not only the importance of
organizing a presentation, but other ideas, as well, such as setting
expectations, checking in with audience members, transitioning between
ideas, etc.
 Include an Emotional Hook
The emotional toll demonstrates a truism that has been known since the
ancient Greeks studied rhetoric: Emotion sticks. People remember
emotionally charged messages much more readily than fact-based ones. In
fact, modern scientists are finding that our emotional responses have a fast
track to our long-term memory. So when possible, try to bring some emotion
into your presentation, whether in the form of your delivery or the content
itself.

Emotions are highly motivational, so think about the emotional response

you want from your audience and then plan to present in a manner that
reflects that response.
In planning your delivery style, ask yourself what emotional impact you want
to have on your audience. Too often, presenters focus just on the actions or
thoughts that they desire from their audience without thinking about the
emotional response they want. Emotions are highly motivational, so think
about what you want from your audience and then plan to present in a manner
that reflects that response. In other words, your delivery style and tone need
to be congruent with the emotional impact you desire. Yet at the same time,
you want to be authentic and not theatrical. This requires forethought, and I
recommend practicing in front of focus groups who can give you feedback on
this emotional congruency.

By adding emotion, relevance, and variety to your presentation, you can be

sure the audience will remember what they hear and see. The techniques and
approaches I have described will also help you be more comfortable and
confident in your presenting, which will only amplify your positive impact on
your audience.

Structure Sets You Free

A powerful way to help you remember your presentation — and ensure that
your audience retains what you say — is to plan your content using a
meaningful structure. Research shows that people retain structured
information up to 40% more reliably and accurately than information that is
presented in a more freeform manner. There are many presentation structures
on which you can rely, including:

 Past-Present-Future — good for providing a history or reviewing a process

 Comparison-Contrast — good for showing the relative advantages of your
position
 Cause-Effect — good for helping people understand the logic of your position
 Problem-Solution-Benefit — good for persuading and motivating people
 What?-So What?-Now What? — good for leading people to a call to action
See Text Equivalent

Having a structure helps you remember what you plan to say, because even if
you forget the specifics, you can use the general framework to stay on track.
For example, when using the Problem-Solution-Benefit structure, you first lay
out a specific problem (or opportunity), then you detail a solution to address
the problem, and finally you define the benefits to your solution. If you are in
the middle of the Solution portion of your talk and you blank out, then by
simply thinking back to your structure, you know that the Benefit portion
comes next.

My favorite structure is What?-So What?-Now What? This useful structure

can help you not only in planned presentations but also in spontaneous
speaking situations, such as job interviews. When using this structure, you
start with your central claim (“I am qualified for this position because of my
experience”) and then explain its importance or value (“This experience will
allow me to start contributing to your firm immediately”) before concluding with
a call to action or next steps (“So when can I start?”).

Use Variation in Sight, Sound, and Evidence to Connect with

Your Audience
Your job as a presenter is to engage your audience, to pull them forward in
their seats. Unfortunately, audiences can be easily distracted, and they
habituate quickly. To counter these natural tendencies, you must diversify
your material to keep people’s attention, with variation in your voice, variation
in your evidence, and variation in your visuals.

I often instruct less expressive speakers to plan their presentations by

infusing them with emotive words, such as “excited,” “valuable,” and
“challenging” — then, when they’re actually presenting, they inflect their voice
to reflect the meaning of these words. For example, when you are speaking
about a big opportunity, then speak “big” in a big way. With practice, you will
feel more comfortable with this type of vocal variety.

Try providing three different types of evidence, such as a data

point, a testimonial, and an anecdote.
Varying the type of evidence you use to support the claims in your
presentation is equally important. Too often, presenters exclusively use their
favorite type of evidence. You might over-rely on data or on anecdotes. But
both qualitative and quantitative academic research has found that
triangulating your support provides more compelling and memorable results.
So, try providing three different types of evidence, such as a data point, a
testimonial, and an anecdote. This triangulation neatly reinforces your point,
and it allows your audience multiple opportunities to connect with your idea
and remember it, which is why it’s a technique often used by advertisers to
reinforce that you should buy their product.

By varying your voice and evidence, you will make the words you speak more
memorable. But what your audience sees is also critical. Just as a
monotonous speaker can cause mental shutdown in an audience, repetitive
body movements, and slides jammed with words can fatigue and distract an
audience. People are very poor multitaskers. When distracted by spurious
gestures or a wall of bullet points, audience members have fewer cognitive
resources available to remember the content of what you’re saying. To
increase the variety of your nonverbal delivery (e.g., gestures and movement),
audio record yourself delivering your presentation, then play the recording
while you move and practice your gestures. Since you do not have to think
about what to say, you can play with adding variation to your body movement
without the distraction of speaking.

To address the issue of slides that are “eye charts” full of details in small
fonts, challenge yourself to think visually. Is there an image that could
represent your point in a more meaningful way? Could you create a diagram
or flow chart to help get your point across to your audience? A useful tool to
get your creative visual juices flowing is Google Images. Type in the concept
you are trying to convey and see what comes up in the search results. The
images you find might have copyright issues, so I don’t recommend using
everything you find, but you’ll get an idea of the type of visual variety that is
possible.
The Right Way to Practice
Practice is clearly important for delivering an effective presentation; however,
many presenters don’t practice properly. They simply mentally rehearse or flip
through a slide deck, passive approaches that don’t really simulate the
conditions of a presentation. To practice effectively, you also need to stand
and deliver — even if you are presenting virtually, you need to physically
stand up to project effectively. Rather than only thinking through a
presentation, standing up and practicing your speech helps you remember it.
Specifically, hearing your own voice and using relevant, appropriate gestures
improve later recall. You remember more because your mental imagery and
physical practice use overlapping neural networks in your brain, improving
what’s known as memory consolidation, or the process by which a thought
becomes cemented into your long-term memory.

One very useful technique, called focused practice, involves taking one aspect
of your presentation — say, the introduction — and delivering it repeatedly
until you become highly familiar and comfortable with it. (You should not
memorize your presentation, because memorizing invites blanking out.) Next,
you move on to another aspect of your presentation, such as transitioning
between two specific visual aids. Focused practice allows you to feel less
anxious because you do not have to spend valuable mental effort thinking
about all the particular aspects of your presentation at once.

The location where you practice your presentation should be in the place
where you’ll be presenting, or at least in a similar place. For example, if you
are going to give a speech in a large room with big windows where people are
quiet and attentive, you should practice giving the speech in a large room with
windows. The context in which you learn helps you remember and will boost
your confidence, since the surroundings will feel comfortable. This advice also
works for presenting via the Web or teleconference. Practice in the room with
the technology that you will be using. In fact, practicing with the technology in
advance is always a good idea.

Managing Anxiety
Presentation Hygiene: The Good Habits of Effective Speakers

Your parents were right! By eating healthfully, keeping fit, and sleeping well,
you can improve your well-being — plus help alleviate your presentation
anxiety and improve your memory, increasing the chance that you’ll
remember all your points in a presentation. Like a long-distance runner carbo-
loading for a marathon, you will find it helpful to eat certain foods — in this
case, to facilitate memory formation and retention — ahead of your
presentation. Complex carbohydrates, nuts, oils, foods rich in omega-3 fatty
acids, and foods that contain flavanols (such as grapes, berries, apples, and
cocoa) are good choices. Avoid simple sugars and sweets because they
provide a quick energy boost that is often followed by sluggishness and
mental haziness. And plan your caffeine consumption wisely: Caffeine
facilitates creativity and productivity, but it also invites jitters, dry mouth, and
flighty memory. It may make some sense to go for the triple mocha latte when
you’re preparing a speech, but it’s not a good idea the day of. (Remember, the
effects of caffeine linger in the body for a number of hours.) Finally, it may be
tempting to use alcohol to calm your nerves, but evidence suggests it causes
forgetfulness and “loosens the tongue,” which could lead to regret.

A healthy diet, proper rest, and exercise can help alleviate your
public speaking anxiety.
Exercise plays an important role in both memory and anxiety resilience. Fit
presenters respond better to both the mental and physical aspects of stress.
Additionally, physical activity increases lung capacity and bolsters mental
focus, two very important aspects of speech delivery. Finally, exercise
provides an avenue for releasing pent-up anxiety and stress. Try to go for a
quick swim, jog, or walk prior to writing or practicing a speech. The resulting
calming effect comes not just from getting outside and distancing yourself
from the stressor, but also from your body’s natural endorphins, which are
often released when you exercise. Memory research clearly shows that the
less stressed you are, the more information you will retain. Exercising after
practicing a presentation can help, too: Short, intense bursts of exercise that
follow new learning have been shown to increase memory retention.

Sleep is also critical. Good-quality, deep sleep prepares your brain for
learning and consolidates newly learned memories so that you can recall
them more easily. When you are preparing a speech, pulling an all-nighter is
the worst thing you can do.

Use Questions to Connect with the Audience

Audience connection is the key characteristic that distinguishes a memorable
presenter from an average one. Are audience members participating with the
speaker, or simply listening to the speaker? Questions provide a great way to
foster engagement. Questions by their very nature are dialogic. They’re two-
way: You ask and your audience responds. I recommend using three types of
questions throughout your presentation to get your audience’s attention:

Rhetorical Questions Build Intrigue

Asking your audience a question for effect (rather than one you expect them
to actually answer) prompts them to think about the issue.

Polling Questions Make the Audience Part of Your Point

When asking your audience to respond to your query, be sure to signal how
you want them to do so (e.g., model raising your hand as you ask your
question, or explain how the online poll works if you are virtually presenting)
and comment briefly on the response you get (e.g., “Just as I expected, about
50% of you … ”).

“What if?” Questions Root Your Presentation in Time

Inquire about a possible future or the historical past; and as with rhetorical
questions, you may not expect a literal response, but you definitely focus your
audience’s attention on the time period you’re describing.

Body Language
The Art of the Graceful Recovery
Drawing a blank when you’re standing before an audience can have dramatic
and traumatic implications. Consider politicians and how memory gaffes can
damage their credibility. So what can you do if you forget parts of your
presentation?

First, try not to be too hard on yourself. Often, speakers blurt out comments
that reduce their credibility: “Sheesh, how could I forget?” “I’m so nervous” or
“I can’t believe how stupid I am!” If you must overtly acknowledge your
forgetfulness, simply apologize and collect your thoughts.

One of my students once addressed her forgetfulness in a clever way that

portrayed a potentially negative occurrence as a byproduct of a positive trait:
“You’ll have to excuse me, but I am so passionate about my topic that I
sometimes get ahead of myself. Allow me to review my previous point.” Most
audiences are very forgiving, and some may actually be thankful for the pause
because it allows them time to process what you’ve presented.
To help get yourself back on track, focus on what you’ve just said. Too often,
people who blank out try to figure out what they need to say next. But you are
more likely to continue smoothly if you reorient yourself by looking to what you
said previously.

The following techniques can help you get past a memory block:

Paraphrase Your Previous Content

Pausing to say, “So just to step back for a moment, I’ve already covered how
X and Y are relevant … ” gives you a moment to remember point Z, and even
frame it as a point you’ve been building toward.

Ask Your Audience a Question — Maybe Even a Rhetorical One

“What seems to be the most important point so far?” Asking a rhetorical
question not only provides you with a chance to collect your thoughts, but it
also boosts your confidence because you know the answer, and launching
into that answer will likely get you back in the flow.

Review Your Overall Speaking Purpose

“So we can see that [insert your core message] is really important.” This
option works well when you are struggling to remember your place at big
transition points because it allows you to return to the overall importance of
your message. Mistakes happen. It’s a simple fact of life. But when you’re in
front of a roomful of people and you’re trying to think of your next point, but all
you can picture is … nothing, the key to a graceful recovery is to step back for
a moment and regain your bearings.

The Power of the Paraphrase

When you are giving a public presentation, don’t you hate it when you face …
the dreaded question. You know the one: the emotionally loaded challenge
that serves to undermine everything you presented prior. You had hoped you
wouldn’t get it, but here it is. Or, you may face … the obnoxious meeting
participant. You know this guy: He thinks he’s Mr. Smarty-Pants and wants
everyone to know it. He ruins your meeting by going on long rants that
contribute little and waste much.

These two situations can make even the most confident and calm speaker
nervous. One powerful way to navigate your way through these two tricky
communication situations is to rely on paraphrasing. Paraphrasing is a
listening and reflecting tool where you restate what others say in your own
words. The most effective paraphrases concisely capture the essence of what
another speaker says.

Make Sure You Understood the Question Correctly

After your paraphrase, the question asker has the opportunity to correct you
or refine his or her question.

Think Before You Respond

Paraphrasing is not very mentally taxing, so while you are speaking your
paraphrase you can begin to think of your response.

Acknowledge Emotions Prior to Addressing the Issue(s)

Occasionally, you may find yourself confronted with an emotionally laden
question. In order to be seen as empathetic, and to get the asker to “hear”
your answer, you should recognize the emotion as part of your paraphrase.

Reframe the Question to Focus on Something You Feel More

Comfortable Addressing
I am not recommending pulling a politician’s trick and pivoting to answer the
question you wanted rather than the one you got. Instead, by paraphrasing,
you can make the question more comfortable for you to answer.

Using paraphrases can also help you in facilitation situations, such as a

meeting. In meetings, paraphrasing allows you to:

Acknowledge the Participant’s Effort

For many people, contributing in meetings can be daunting. There are real
consequences for misspeaking or sounding unprepared. By paraphrasing the
contributions you get from others, you validate the person’s effort by signaling
that you really listened and valued their input.

Link Various Questions/Ideas

You can pull together disparate contributions and questions and engage
different participants by relating a current statement to previous ones. For
example, you might say: “Your comment about our profitability links to the
question a few minutes ago about our financial outlook.”

Manage Over-contributors
Someone who over-shares or dominates a meeting with his or her opinions
can be very disruptive and disrespectful. If it is your meeting, then the other
participants will expect you to manage the situation. If you don’t, you will lose
control and potentially credibility.

Avoiding Speaking Habits That Can Damage Credibility

Even the most confident and compelling speakers can work against
themselves by allowing certain credibility-killing words and vocal habits to
creep into their presentations. As a presentation skills coach and teacher, I
often hear presenters chip away at their command of the room with three
common speaking habits: hedges, tag questions, and up-talking. These verbal
and vocal habits cause an audience to pause and question the assertiveness
and commitment of a presenter. Here’s what they are, and how to stop them.

Hedges
Hedges are soft word choices such as “I think,” “sort of,” or “kind of” that litter
many a presentation. In some interpersonal conversation situations, phrases
such as these can actually help by allowing you to appear less dogmatic and
more open to collaboration. But in presentations, hedges have the effect of
softening your position, reducing your authority, and making you seem wishy-
washy and unsure of what you are saying.

The best way to address hedging? Substitution. Find stronger, more powerful
words to replace these less assertive ones. For example, “I think” becomes “I
believe” or “I know.” “Kind of” and “sort of” can be replaced with “one way.”
Finding more assertive substitutions affords you a way to make your point
more clearly and definitively.

Tag Questions
These occur when you add a question to the end of a phrase, such as “This is
a good hamburger, isn’t it?” Again, in interpersonal situations tag questions
can work in your favor, in this case by inviting participation from your
interlocutor.

Up-talking
This habit centers not on the words you choose but rather on how you speak
your words — specifically at the end of your sentences. If you are an up-
talker, then the ending of your sentences rises in pitch, essentially making
your declarative sentences sound like questions. Nothing can be more
confusing (and annoying) to an audience as when a speaker makes an
important point like “our profits are expanding,” yet it sounds like “our profits
are expanding?” Your goal as a speaker is to use your voice — its volume,
cadence, and tone — to help your audience understand your message, not to
confuse them.

The best way to correct up-talking is to focus on your breathing. If you are an
up-talker, then you likely take a quick inhalation prior to the end of your
sentences because feel you are running out of air to support the remainder of
your spoken thought. This inhalation is often followed by a rise in pitch. To
address this, you need to practice what I term “landing” your sentences and
phrases. Rather than inhale close to the end of your sentences, focus on
exhaling completely as you finish your thought. (This does not mean lower
your voice volume, but instead empty out your breath while maintaining your
volume.)

A useful way to practice this is to read out loud while placing a hand on your
belly. When you up-talk, your belly will contract inward as you end your
sentence (this results from your inhalation). If you land your phrase, your belly
will extend with your exhalation at the end of your sentence.