Presentation skills, yo!

We took a presentation skills workshop at Wistia last week (Thanks employer for being awesome).

Here are some of my notes on the workshop and the experience in case you’re thinking of offering one, want to practice your presentation skills, or you think that simple frameworks that you can remember are great and want one for presentation skills.

Here’s the framework!

Good presenting has a what and a how.

1) What is the organization of the content.

You should have a main point, structured supporting points plus examples, and closing.

So this is pretty similar to high school English 101, which is a good thing. KISS.

If you follow this, you’ll make it easy for you and your audience to stay on track, more likely for your message to be understood, and folks will be able to take something clear away from the presentation.

Most people are familiar with this, and the workshop was really good practice.

2) How is the delivery.

Equal parts credibility, enthusiasm, likability, and relevance to audience.

Credibility. You know what you’re talking about and are conveying lots of real content, facts, information.

Likable. You are likable? What is this haha. I guess this is supposed to be self-evident.

Enthusiasm. You’re excited and animated to be there. Infectious!!!

Relevance. You’re directing things for and towards the audience. Basically, refer to “you” the audience as much as possible.

That’s it! We discussed these ideas more and some of the boundaries to the concepts. I found it pretty practical and memorable

3) Feedback I got on my presentation was the most valuable part of the workshop. We used the how and what frameworks to organize our feedback. So I was…

  • Good at being clear, digestible, organized, conveying information in relaxed, calm way.
  • Could move more! Have more energy! Definitely smile more. Feels a bit serious.
  • Our “Um” counter Aaron found that I said Uh or Uhm 6 times in my two minute presentation. That’s an “Um” every 20 seconds. Gotta get that ratio down!

So, to sum up… have real content, be likable, excited, and seek feedback on how you can improve. Applies to a lot in life really, and I was grateful for the chance to practice these skills in such a useful way.

If you have a chance to attend a workshop like this or thinking taking an opportunity to present, I’d definitely encourage you to do so.

Especially if you’re someone like me that public speaking is a bit nerve-wracking for. With the right attitude it is a learning experience and does not need to be that scary.