I recently read in the metro that 43% of adults said they thought that standing up in front of strangers and speaking was brave. So if you are one of that 43% rest assured you’re not alone. As someone who also sits in the 43% I asked Sally to give me some of her key tips
- Preparation is essential to all presentations! You should know what you want the audience to take away with them before you’ve even stepped into the room.
- Good Posture! Posture can do more than just make you look more confident (which is very important) but will also help with your breathing. Good breathing technique reduces panic and increases oxygen to your brain which in turn helps you to think.
- PowerPoint is the icing on the cake, NOT the cake ingredients! You should only be using it to add to your presentation; you should never be reliant upon PowerPoint to support you. You should be able to carry on with your presentation even if the technology fails you or there is a powercut.
- Your slides, hand-outs and notes are different! They are not the same thing; they serve different functions!
These are all in addition to the techniques our actors can give you on looking, sounding and feeling more confident. If you feel like you could do with some guidance when it comes to presenting, we run presentation and confidence building workshops. At the time of writing our next public presenting workshop will be 29th April 2014 but we will always have them planned.
Using the talents of professional actors, this presentation workshop offers tools and techniques to help you look, sound and feel more confident and therefore more professional when in front of an audience of any size. During the workshop led by 2 professional actors we work with the attendees to bring their personalities into their presentations; we concentrate on the way you look to others and the image that you portray, working towards creating a pleasant voice with authority and variety and how to be natural in what for many is an unnatural environment.