What do you want your audience to do when you have finished presenting?

If you don’t have a very clear answer to that question, it’s highly likely they won’t do anything at all with the information you share with them.

Solution – Set a clear and meaningful objective for exactly what you want your audience to do at the end of your presentation. Make sure you tell them.

How do you want your audience to feel?

If you don’t have a very clear answer to that question, it’s highly unlikely that you will feel it yourself.

If you don’t feel it the moment you begin to craft and deliver your presentation your audience won’t either.

There are two types of presenter. The mindful minority understand the power of intention.

Solution – Set a clear and meaningful intention for how you want your audience to feel emotionally.

‘The prerequisite to a brilliant presentation, before focusing on delivery, is to ensure that your message is supported by rich, relevant and rewarding content.’

The primary purpose of any presentation is to share information with your audience. Disorganised, boring or irrelevant content is the fastest way to annoy, bore or lose your audience.

Solution – Make your presentation content rich and compelling

Some presenters believe that ‘winging it’ is their way of improvising. This may work for you but it’s not fair to your audience. It’s highly likely that your audience will see that you are unprepared, and they won’t thank you for it.

Solution – Don’t rely on your charm or talent. Do the work.

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin

Solution – Prepare, prepare, prepare.

The mediocre presenter believes that their slides are their presentation. PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides or any other visual aid software is not your presentation. High-quality presentation software can help your presentation audience receive your content more effectively. This software exists to help rather than replace you as a presenter.

Solution – Remember that your audience have come to hear you, not to see your slides. If visuals don’t add significant value to your audience, don’t use them.

Death by PowerPoint is something every presentation audience has experienced. It’s broader than the bullet point phenomenon. Imagine a slide fraught with text, numbers, charts, or data. A slide crammed with data is annoying and unnecessary.

Solution – One idea per slide; no more. Don’t clutter slides; less is more.

The moment a presentation audience sees a list of bullet points their hearts sink.

Bullet points are a signpost that they need to brace themselves for a long, boring presentation.

Solution – Use images instead! If you have to use bullet points have as few as possible and keep the short!