Yours is a Great Presentation

1
Yours is a Great Presentation

• Shane Austin Boulware
• (presentation slide notes contain detailed
  explanations)

Presenter Notes
Yours is a Very Bad Hotel is an infamously
popular PowerPoint presentation created by two
displeased businessmen who visited a hotel and
received terrible service. They created a
PowerPoint years back describing their experience
and it went completely viral on the internet.
Thats where this title comes from its a play
of words off of that.



This presentation isnt meant to replace your
presentation style, only add to it. We all have
different styles, and some of what Ive presented
to you may not fit, thats okay, take the parts
that do and make your style better.

2
Topics Covered

• The Tangibles
• The Intangibles
• Unique Situations

Presenter Notes
The topics covered in this presentation.

----The tangibles, that which you can touch, see
and feel.

----The intangibles, those you dont necessarily
touch that play a part.

----Unique situations that occur in
presentations.



3
Not an Exact Science

• Be creative
• Innovate
• Be interesting
• Support yourself!
• Audiences arent robots
• Whether a General or CEO
• YOU are presenting!
• Not your PowerPoint

Presenter Notes
If anyone tells you that you have to do of
XYZ and youll have a stellar presentation, they
dont know what they are saying. While there are
things that help transform your presentation into
something spectacular, there is no set procedure
as to what this looks like, only guidelines and
opinions based on prior experience.



Be creative

Use your creativity! Whether you know it or not,
you are selling whatever you are presenting.
Dont be afraid to innovate, some of the best
presentations Ive seen have included very unique
presentation elements that straight-lipped
business people would frown upon. Not everything
will work, but add it to your list of what to
do and what not to do for each audience you
encounter.



Be interesting

Try to be as interesting as possible. If you
have a boring subject, your supplements, whether
they be visual or verbal in nature will be of
tremendous help. However, if you know yourself
well enough to know you arent an interesting
speaker, no worries, we can deal with that too.



Audiences arent robots

Your audience, no matter who they are, are
people, not robots! They have feelings,
thoughts, emotions, enjoy life, make mistakes,
and can be persuaded just like everyone else.
Remember this the next time someone tries to
impose a rulebook when dealing with fancy suited
CEOs. However, this doesnt mean you do not put
some research into your audience and what works
when dealing with them.



YOU are presenting!

Always remember, YOU are presenting! Your visual
aids are an extension of your presentation, they
should not BECOME your presentation.

4
The Tangibles

Presenter Notes
Visual Aids

Visual aids are very powerful and can be the
difference between success, mediocrity, or
failure.

5
Power Your Point

• PowerPoint
• Structure
• Slide per idea
• Bullet per idea
• Make it flow!
• Slides
• Interesting titles
• Brief bullet points
• Minimal punctuation
• Pictures
• Theme
• Choose a design
• Two Content layout

Presenter Notes
PowerPoint is an effective visual aid. Simple,
clean, understandable. Although it isnt
required to make your presentation great, it
definitely boosts your score. It can be as
little or as much (within reason) as you want.

That being said, many people make huge mistakes
with PowerPoints.



Structure

For those of you who require a set rule or
structure to things, there are two useful
structures for PowerPoints you could potentially
use. The first is slide per idea. All this
means is that each slide conveys a different
idea. The second is slide per bullet. Each
bullet represents a different idea, and expands
on each bullet point. The difference between the
two can be a little confusing when you think
about it. To determine which your PowerPoint is,
ask yourself this question Am I separating my
Topics Covered presentation points into
individual slides, or individual bullet points?
This presentation is slide per idea. You can
tell by seeing that my Topics Covered bullet
points have their own slides. You dont have to
create your own individual slide for each bullet
point in Topics Covered as I did here, but it
felt like the right thing to do this time around.
Your bullet points in Topics Covered as slide
titles is good enough.



There really is no guidance on which you should
use. I custom build my presentations using loose
guidelines and methods that will enhance the
current presentation Im doing. Use only one or
a combination of both whichever fits your
style, presentation theme, or just feels like a
better fit. Your presentation should flow as
much as possible, otherwise it will be awkward.



Slides

Your slide title is an attention getter, and
later in the presentation it will act as a much
needed hook to keep their attention. Dont worry
about your slide title not making complete sense
to your audience as they read it. Remember when
I said your presentation revolves around you?
Youre about to cover the topic. By the end of
the slide what you say to your audience will show
the relevance, even if its just a play on words
like this slide is (Power Your Point being a
play of words on PowerPoint). I would caution
you about putting this random slide title in your
introductory Topics Covered section, or it may
legitimately confuse your audience because too
much time will pass between your audiences
exposure to the phrase and when they see its
relevance (again, I use the term relevance
loosely). See how I preceded the Power Your
Point slide with Visual Aids? Visual Aids is
what I put in Topics Covered, that way the
audience could have a reference as to where I am
in my presentation, and can keep their bearings.
Subpoints explaining the main point are free game
to be modified at your discretion. Make your
title something unique, you shouldnt just label
is as PowerPoint or something mundane.



SOOOO many people create these long bullet
points, effectively creating a wall of text.
This is not a good idea, at all. Usually I see
these same people reading straight off of what
everyone else can read for themselves. Your
audience should never ever be able to just up and
read everything you are presenting to them.
Youre honestly useless when you do that. Your
bullet points serve two functions a reminder to
you and a summary for them. Punctuation is
minimal. You dont need periods or constant
capitalization, except the first word in each
bullet and your slide title. Your slide title
should capitalize all words except little ones
like a of the and, etc.



Finally, the icing on the cake pictures! I
make it a point to put pictures in nearly all of
my slides. Its a visual enhancer, adding that
extra ummph! to your presentation. Do your
best to not include pictures with words, but they
can be tasteful at times. Your picture should be
related to the topic you are covering.



Theme

Choose a design. Please, please, please, dont
use the black and white default. Its a
facepalm moment. PowerPoint software has
built-in design templates and allows you to
create your own.

Most of your layouts will probably be the Two
Content, where your bullet text is on the left,
and the picture is on the right.



6
Examples

Presenter Notes
Here are some examples of good and bad slides.



Constitution Quotes

This one is typical. Has a theme okay, great.
But its nothing but a wall of text. Bad.



Thoughts on Kiwi (left side)

Even though it has a picture and a good layout,
there are complete sentences, as if the presenter
was talking from the slide. No use for the
presenter if the PowerPoint is doing the job for
them. Audience will probably end up reading the
slide more than paying attention to what is being
said. The expanded text repeats what the
presenter is likely to say, plus, we know to the
right of the text is a picture, no need to say
it. Not very good.



Thoughts on Kiwi (right side)

Easy. Simple. Bullet points are a concise
summary of the talking points. Good use of
picture. Id use this slide. You might consider
adding spaces in-between each main bullet point
in order to make it seem fuller, but thats to be
used at your discretion.

7
Anything and Everything

• Props
• Objects, things, exhibits
• Use conservatively
• Gifts
• Candy, food, pens
• Give it way before or after
• People
• Audience, teammates
• Know what you want to do

Presenter Notes
These things can be useful to add to your
presentation



Props

Objects, things, exhibits

Use conservatively, you dont want this to end up
being a re-enactment unless thats exactly what
you intend it to be.



Gifts

Like candy, food, pens, etc.

Give it either way before your presentation or
after. If you give it right before your
presentation or during theyll be distracted. I
saw one presenter give it during a presentation,
but she did so while she had need to pause her
presentation. Very clever!



People

Pick someone out at random in the audience, or
your own teammates.

Know what you want to do with them, otherwise
youre point will be probably be lost.



8
The Intangibles

Presenter Notes
The way you come across, verbally and physically,
has a positive or negative effect on your
presentation.

9
Your Verbiage

• Voice inflection
• Pitch, tone
• Speed at which you talk
• A conversational speed
• Verbal crutch
• No uh, like, um
• Verbal pauses
• Very useful, appropriate
• Voice projection!
• Be confident, be heard

Presenter Notes
Ever heard the expression, Its not what you
say, its how you say it ? That applies to a
presentation.



Voice inflection

Voice inflection is the alteration of your pitch
and/or tone while you talk. It breathes
personality into your presentation. Common
methods of applying inflection are elongating or
shortening the word, lowering or raising the
octave of your voice (referred to as the verbal
highs and lows), and saying it off beat with the
rest of the sentence.



There are tons of ways to apply voice inflection,
one great link is (http//www.timelessteacherstuff
.com/OtherLanguageMaterials/VoiceInflection.html)
and video link is (http//www.youtube.com/watch?v
1nXhAjuICTA).



Speed at which you talk

Dont confuse this with voice inflection. I
mention talk speed as it applies only to the rate
at which the presentation is given. If you are a
nervous presenter, understand that more than
likely youll quickly talk through your
presentation unless you properly control
yourself. Talking too fast is the usual problem,
although it is possible to talk too slowly. Talk
as normally as you can. If it helps, think of
your presentation more as a conversation.



Verbal crutch

A verbal crutch is that space between words that
people feel the need to fill even if they dont
have anything to fill it with. They typically
take the form of uh, um, like, you know,
but can be anything you consistently use that
doesnt contribute to what you are saying. A
verbal crutch only acts to unnecessarily
complicate your presentation, and on top of it
all, reduces your credibility by telling your
audience you dont have control over yourself.

I like to go to the store and buy things, has
no verbal crutch. I like to go to the, uh,
store, and, you know, like, buy things, has
three verbal crutches-uh, like, and you
know. The only thing they contribute to that
sentence is confusion.



Verbal pauses

Its okay to have silence, it may feel awkward or
wrong to you, but it isnt. Taking a moment to
collect yourself is 100 times better than using a
verbal crutch. You dont have to be saying
something all the time to give a great
presentation.



Voice projection

This is by far one of the most important and
lacking elements in my experience. Voice
projection conveys how confident you are and
determines if the audience can even understand
what you are saying. Be loud, be heard. Dont
yell, unless the situation calls for it, but be
louder than you would in a conversation. Odds
are, youll be in a room of some sort, where
sound has to travel further than your normal
conversational distance. Sound diminishes as
soon as it is spoken so talk to the person in
the back of the room. The word to subscribe to is
force, apply some force to your voice.

10
Your Body Language

• Gestures
• Use them if you can
• Naturally act out bullets
• Walking
• Slowly, natural
• Dont pace or run
• Body language
• Up, straight, scan
• Dont distract
• Eye Contact
• Look at one at a time
• Roll from person to person

Presenter Notes
They call it body language for a reason, because
the way you act speaks on its own as you present.



Gestures

These are so useful in enunciating your point,
especially when using voice inflection. Gesture
normally as you do in conversations, it should be
a natural thing. It helps ease your audience,
enticing them into the presentation as if you
were talking straight to them one-on-one. A good
consistent gesture you can use is pointing to the
next bullet point you are expanding upon. If you
are just starting out on this, point in
conjunction with saying my next point is _____
or and now on to _____, until you feel
comfortable gesturing at the PowerPoint as you
progress through the slide. Somewhat acting out
what you say is also tasteful, for example,
Hibachi restaurant cooks cut up the food as they
prepare it in front of you could be accompanied
with your acting as though you are slicing
carrots across a cutting board. You dont have
to exaggerate the gesture, just instinctively do
it. Keep in mind that, unless you do it on
purpose, your presentation should not be a giant
movie reel of your acting everything out.

A good video is here (http//www.youtube.com/watc
h?vAPKqEoWsCI4)



Walking

The underdog of presentations, walking is often
an afterthought and confused with pacing. You
dont want to pace, which is just mindless (and
awkwardly) strutting back and forth as you talk.
Nor do you want to walk fast, or march. Its a
slow movement, as you talk. Use this
conservatively. A good example
(http//www.youtube.com/watch?vk9m2FLHlEwA
about 100).



Body Language

Many people also have distracting body language.
Whether it be clapping, snapping fingers,
twirling pencils, bouncing up and down, or
leaning over your podium (if you have one), all
of it takes away from your presentation. If you
know that you cant naturally gesture and will
only end up distracting your audience, here is an
easy fix. Place your hands behind your back and
join them together. Kind of like a military
parade rest, except not as rigid. This is a
defensive stance, useful in very formal
presentations, but can be used in any kind of
presentation to eliminate hand distractions and
firmly root you in the ground.



Have your body facing the audience! Dont turn
your body so that youre half looking at the
PowerPoint screen, half engaged with the
audience. Have your body squarely and solely
focused on them, only briefly turning your body
to the screen as you gesture towards it.



Overall, you want an erect posture. Head up,
eyes straight, chest out, back straight,
shoulders back and down. As you talk, scan the
room. Dont fixate on one person, and dont
focus on one-half of the room. Look at your
entire audience, the front and the back



Eye Contact

Some presenters are guilty of staring at one
person for the majority of the presentation.
This makes things weird for all involved,
including the rest of your audience. Others
stare at their PowerPoint, or look at the wall on
the opposite end of the room. Your presentation
is a conversation, and you should look at those
you are talking to. By look at those you are
talking to, I mean looking into their eyes. I
suggest doing this one of two ways look at one
person at a time, or slowly roll from one person
to the next. In looking at one person at a time,
you pick a person to talk to for about a second
or two, then pick another person. This has the
square feel to it, as your movements are more
deliberate, moving from point to point (person to
person). In rolling from one person to another,
your eyes slide across each audience members
eyes as your head continually moves across the
audiences row. You probably shouldnt slide
your eyes too slowly youll get caught staring
at someone and your head will not be able to
continually turn. Your eyes shouldnt meet any
one persons eyes for more than two seconds.
This has the round feel, as your movements are
more fluid, head never stopping as your eyes roll
from person to person. The difference between
the two suggestions can best be described by a
geometry graph. The square feel represents a
dotted-line graph, each dot representing the
person you talk to. The round feel
represents a straight line graph, the focus being
on the consistency from beginning to end. You
can incorporate both, experiment and see what
works for you.

11
Your Audience

• Research your audience
• Not required, but useful
• Adapt your speech
• Participation
• Involve them
• Keeps interest
• Rhetorical
• No intentional answer
• Thought-provoking
• Tame your use of this

Presenter Notes
The more you can keep your audiences attention
the more successful your presentation will be.



Research

Knowing who your audience is before you give your
presentation can be a bonus. You can cater your
lingo, jokes, examples, and even body language to
match their culture.



Participation

Use your audience! Ask them questions, challenge
them, and even pull some as voluntary
participants. The more lively your presentation
the better. You dont have to necessarily know
the person to interact with them during your
presentation. An easy way to break the ice is
ask your new participant his or her name, then
continue with incorporating them into your
presentation. Or you could gesture to an
audience member and say, You sir/maam, and ask
your question or whatever it is. When gesturing,
dont point at them, this alienates your new
participant and makes them feel put in the
spotlight. You want to keep your presentation
warm and welcoming. Instead, present an open
hand to them. To understand how this looks,
extend your arm straight out, turn your hand so
your palm is facing up, space your fingers
slightly from one another as if giving an
invitation. For you dancers out there, its the
same as offering your hand when you ask someone
to dance. Please thank them when they finish
doing/answering whatever you want them to
do/answer..



Rhetorical

This deserves a bullet point of its own.
Rhetorical questions ask a question without
intending the audience to answer. This is
usually followed by you as the presenter
answering the question you just asked. These
types of questions get your audiences thinking,
without interrupting your presentation. However,
dont go overboard with this. Asking a giant
amount of these types of questions will get your
audience going down mental rabbit holes,
completely withdrawing from your presentation.

12
Your Hail Farewell

• Hail
• Greet audience
• Introduce yourself
• Tell them the end result
• What they should know
• Farewell
• Summarize key points
• Topics Covered
• Give them your closing line
• Dont abruptly end it
• Thank them for their time

Presenter Notes
Your introduction and conclusion sets the mood
and determines the ending thought your audience
has before their response is given (usually in
the form of clapping, dont take this for
granted). You have control over this, please use
it to your advantage.



Hail

Your introduction. Please smile. By the end of
your hail, you want them to be able to answer
the following questions

Who are you?

What are you presenting?

What should I know at the end of your
presentation?

The last question is very frequently left out.
Usually, unless the presentation was completely
clear-cut, the audience is left trying to figure
out by themselves what they should have gotten
out of it. You dont want them to be doing that.
You want to focus that into something you
control. Just tell them up front what they
should know by the end of the presentation, it
will set the mood.



Farewell

Your conclusion. Announce in conclusion or
something similar, so that they know you are at
the end.

When it comes time for your conclusion, rehash
the Topics Covered, summarize those key points.

Cement yourself, solidify your position give
them that killer closing line end on a good
note. Theres a hundred ways to say it, in the
end, leave them with something to remember you
by. I sometimes end with a simple quote,
somewhat related to what I presented (which I do
at the end of this PowerPoint). Other times I
display a funny picture, and end with a catch
phrase. I either go for a laugh or a wow,
thats cool ending note.



Finally, thank them for their time. They
listened to you, even if they had to. Thank them
for their time. And thats the end of your
presentation.





13
Unique Situations

Presenter Notes
Speeches arent always these perfect glamorous
things. There are situations you may find
yourself in where you cant give a PowerPoint, or
you only have one minute to prepare, or the topic
is so dull you dont know what to do with it.
Id be a fool if I didnt warn you of the
possibility, and give you potential responses
available to you. These responses are far from
comprehensive. Like I said in the beginning of
this PowerPoint, be creative!

14
As Boring as it Comes

• Boring topics
• Bound to happen!
• Pick up the slack elsewhere
• Rely on supplementals
• Visual Aids
• Voice inflection
• Participation
• Rhetorical

Presenter Notes
Boring topics

You get a boring topic to cover. Its bound to
happen to you at some point in your presenting
career. While what you say isnt cool, the rest
of your PowerPoint can be.



Rely on supplementals

Give them the necessary information and add more
to your supplementals (everything else). All
these supplementals are designed to enhance your
presentation and keep the audiences interest, so
ratcheting it up should yield better results.
Better pictures, more participation,
though-provoking questions youre effectively
trying to drag your presentations feet through
the mud, and the mud is the topic.



Just do your best.

15
Improv, Improv, Improv!

• Impromptu Speeches
• Off the cuff, random
• Without warning
• No time to prepare!
• Take a moment
• Try for at least a minute
• Tell your audience
• Im collecting my thoughts
• Structured by heart
• Intro
• Three points
• Conclusion

Presenter Notes
(Improv Everywhere is a reference to the famous
group that does seemingly random and completely
awesome group improvisation activities around the
United States.)



Impromptu Speeches

They dont have to be formal impromptu speeches
to be impromptu. I once walked by an officer
talking to a group, the officer randomly asked me
a question to help clear up something. When I
answered his question, he realized that I knew
about the topic he was covering, and asked if I
could explain the topic more to the group. Boom.
Impromptu speech off the cuff. They are often
random and you probably wont have the time to
think of everything you would normally want to
say. This is okay! You give more impromptu
speeches than you probably realize. Here are
some tips



Take a moment

You want a minute of preparation if you can
manage it. Whether you can get it or not, dont
jump right into it, even if the crowd in front of
you is waiting for you to start. Take at least
10 seconds to gather your thoughts. If you feel
this may create an awkward situation, tell your
audience that you are collecting your thoughts,
theres nothing wrong with that at all!



Structured by heart

Ever heard of muscle memory? Its when you
practice something so many times your body
instantly reacts. You can apply muscle memory to
impromptu speeches, so that when you have to give
one, all you need to worry about it filling in
the blanks. It may seem a silly concept to you
right now, but give this a real shot and youll
see the benefit of having it. Your mind wont
have to grasp for how to give the impromptu
speech in addition to everything else, all it
will be doing is figuring out what to say. When
you get your mind going in that rhythm, youll be
calmer, more confident, and your mind will open
up more as you formulate your response. Believe
me when I say, you dont want to be grasping for
everything at once when put in the spotlight,
especially when some of it can be taken care of
beforehand. This structure can apply to any
impromptu speech. Please feel free to develop
your own structure, whatever helps you most. The
below is what I use and it has helped me a lot.
Mine has three parts to it, the intro, three
points, and a conclusion.



----Introduction. Good morning/afternoon/evening
, my name is my name, and today I will be
briefing/talking to you about my topic. I will
be going over how it is point a, point b, and
point c.

----Three main points. The first thing is
explain point a. Transition into point b.
Explain point b. Transition into point c.
Explain point c.

Do I always have three points? No, but I shoot
for three and expand as much as I can on each
(given your time limit, if applicable).
Transitioning can be simple or complex, simple in
that it could be as easy as now this leads me
into my next point or now on to my 2nd/3rd
point

----Conclusion. Always have a conclusion, even
if things went terribly wrong, end it on your
terms. In conclusion, today I talked about my
topic. I explained how it was point a, point
b, and point c. This concludes my briefing,
have a great day. ---OR--- Thank you for your
time, have a great day.



When it comes to my automatic impromptu
structure, whenever I have to give an impromptu
speech I look to just fill in the blanks as much
as I can. It has saved me so much time, allowing
me to only focus on what I want to say, not how I
want to say it. Solidify your structure, get it
ingrained in your mind so that you instantly have
it ready when you have need to give an impromptu
speech. Take a moment to collect yourself, a
minute if you can, before giving the speech. All
other things mentioned in the intangibles section
applies and would greatly enhance your impromptu
presentation.





16
You Turned at Albuquerque

• Something went wrong
• We all make mistakes
• Time to deal with it!
• You forgot your point
• Read out loud
• Skip
• Move on
• You spoke wrong
• Collect yourself
• Excuse me
• Let me try that again
• You froze
• Read point out loud
• Collect yourself
• Ask partner to add

Presenter Notes
(Wrong turn at Albuquerque is a reference to Bugs
Bunny).



Something went wrong

Somewhere while you were talking, you forgot
what your point was, or you said the wrong thing,
or you stammered and froze. It happens, Ive
done it numerous times. Heres how to deal with
it.



First off, no one is perfect, understand that.
Just because you may be a strong speaker doesnt
mean you dont froth at the mouth before you
speak it just means you push through it and
appear calm. Thats great! But not everyone can
muscle through fears and brush aside mistakes so
easily. Regardless, its time for you to deal
with the here and now. As you make more mistakes
(and we all do), youll learn some pretty cool
ways to deal with them as you present. Here are
some Ive found to be helpful



You forgot your point

----Read your point out loud. Hopefully this
will jog your memory, if not move on!

----Skip the point. Sure, the audience will
wonder about it, but its better than sitting
there wondering about it yourself, holding up the
presentation. You could use transitions such as
Moving on or The next point it control the
redirection if you feel the need.

----Make your audience laugh. No, Im not
talking about pulling an Ashley Simpson where
youre caught lip syncing and suddenly do the
barn dance to bail yourself out. Terrible idea.
Redirect more smoothly. I once gave a
presentation and I got to a bullet point that I
forgot the explanation to. So I read it out
loud, couldnt remember what to say, and just
randomly said Hmm. Im sure that was
important. To my surprise, the entire audience
laughed, and I used the opportunity to move on to
my next bullet point. I didnt mean to say that
last bit, it just came out, but it gave me an
opportunity to use to my advantage.



You said the wrong thing or stammered

Maybe you were talking too fast, maybe your mind
just substituted different words. Nonetheless,
you just explained your point wrong, or stuttered
through the sentence. Never say, Im sorry,
or Sorry, those words should never come out of
your mouth, unless you are in a very unique
circumstance you deem necessary. Here are some
other ways to deal with it

----Say Excuse me, not Sorry, it makes you
sound more in control, more like a presenter, and
less like you need help.

----Say Let me try that again, or Im going to
try that again, then rephrase it correctly.

----Take a moment to collect yourself. It will
feel more awkward to you than it will to the
audience so dont let that get to you. Just
focus on what you shouldve said, then say it.



You froze

17
Conclusion

• The Tangibles
• PowerPoint
• Anything you can find
• The Intangibles
• Verbiage
• Body language
• Audience
• Intro Conclusion
• Unique Situations
• Boring topics
• Impromptu speeches
• When things go wrong

Presenter Notes
In conclusion, we talked about the tangibles of a
presentation, the intangibles, and unique
situations you may find yourself in. I hope you
learned something. Again, this isnt meant to
replace your presentation style, only add to it.
We all have different styles, and some of what
Ive presented to you may not fit, thats okay.
Take the parts that do and make your style
better.



Thats all this is!

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A good speech should be like a woman's skirt
long enough to cover the subject and short
enough to create interest ? Winston Churchill

• shane_at_theorybee.com

Presenter Notes
A simple quote on public speaking Google search
found this quote.



A good speech should be like a womans skirt
long enough to cover the subject and short enough
to create interest. Winston Churchill.

A little lewd and crude? Sure, but it supports
this PowerPoint to a T.



If you have questions, contact me via email
shane_at_theorybee.com

http//theorybee.com



Thank you for viewing this presentation!