Improv­ing your pre­sen­ta­tion skills from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

If you give pre­sen­ta­tions or speeches in pub­lic — rang­ing from a work­shop panel appear­ance to a keynote lec­ture — chances are that you could ben­e­fit from sharp­en­ing your pre­sen­ta­tion skills.

I met Danielle Daly, co-founder of Rexi Media, at Blog­world Expo last month and was imme­di­ately impressed with how she and the Rexi Media team are help­ing to enhance the com­mu­ni­ca­tion and pre­sen­ta­tion skills of exec­u­tives and man­agers at For­tune 500 com­pa­nies. In this 6-minute video inter­view, Danielle dis­cusses 5 ways to make your pre­sen­ta­tion skills more effective.

This week Rexi Media is releas­ing an update to its already pop­u­lar iPhone app, Pre­sen­ter Pro, which lets you bone up on your pre­sen­ta­tion skills dur­ing your spare time (cost: $1.99). Pre­sen­ter Pro focuses on 5 areas for enhanc­ing pre­sen­ta­tion skills:

1) Body lan­guage: This cov­ers areas such as effec­tive ges­tures, facial expres­sions, eye con­tact, cul­tural ges­tures, use of pas­sion, visu­al­iza­tion, descrip­tive ges­tures, and others.

2) Vocal vari­ety: How to add inter­est to your speak­ing style, how to sound more con­fi­dent, how to add ingre­di­ents such as artic­u­la­tion, inflec­tion, rate, pauses, changes in inflec­tion and vol­ume, and so on.

3) Struc­ture: How to plan and struc­ture your talk, how to hook lis­ten­ers with an effec­tive open­ing, how to man­age time and enlist par­tic­i­pa­tion, how to end on a high note.

4) Visu­als: How to think in pic­tures, how to mar­shal facts visu­ally, how to use visual aids, use of color, bal­ance and con­trast, use of rep­e­ti­tion, and so on.

5) The words you use: Think care­fully about the con­tents of your talk — be human and acces­si­ble, know your stuff, relate real expe­ri­ences, be per­sua­sive, be eco­nom­i­cal and descrip­tive, avoid con­de­scen­sion and apologies.

Danielle empha­sizes the impor­tance of a strong begin­ning. “In the first 30 sec­onds of any pre­sen­ta­tion, peo­ple decide whether they’re going to tune you out,” she says. “It’s not about you, it’s about the audi­ence,” and all too often pre­sen­ters start out weakly by talk­ing about themselves.

Watch, embed or down­load the video on Vimeo

Rexi Media coaches on the deliv­ery of pre­sen­ta­tions but also coaches on how to make the con­tent of your pre­sen­ta­tion more effec­tive. The Bay Area-based firm typ­i­cally works with For­tune 500 com­pa­nies, help­ing man­agers in large sales and ser­vice busi­ness divi­sions with an on-site visit fol­lowed by coach­ing them on vir­tual pre­sen­ta­tions and finally offer­ing guid­ance through its mobile app, Pre­sen­ter Pro.

Related

• Pre­sen­ta­tion Secrets for Social Com­mu­ni­ca­tors (chrisbrogan.com)

• Own the Crowd With Bet­ter Speak­ing (chrisbrogan.com)

• A Guide to Pub­lic Speak­ing (ismckenzie.com)

• Two impor­tant speak­ing tips (chrisbrogan.com)

• The 3 Keys to Good Pub­lic Speak­ing (CenterNetworks)

• How to Give a Great Speech, Part 1: Prepa­ra­tion (lifehack.org)

• More effec­tive pre­sen­ta­tions (Ontech)

JD Lasica works with major com­pa­nies and non­prof­its on social media strate­gies. See his busi­ness pro­file, con­tact JD or leave a comment.

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