A lot of people are really comfortable good communicators one on one small groups giving speeches and
presentations.
But the second you have them give a PowerPoint presentation all their body language shuts down and they
now are as nervous uncomfortable stiff boring as anyone.
And it's just awful.
So I give you a few tips on PowerPoint for starters.
Never look at your PowerPoint the PowerPoint is for your audience.
It's not for you if you need notes.
As we talked about in a previous lecture he has a sheet of paper.
If you are going to read bullet points off a PowerPoint let me ask you this.
How do you like it when people read to you.
This is a question I asked people all over the world when I'm conducting in-person public speaking workshops.
And universally everybody says the same thing.
I hate boring.
I check my e-mail because here's the thing if you are reading PowerPoint.
The one thing we know is you've now completely destroyed your ability to connect with your audience
with your eyes because you can't look at them.
So you can't use this as the poor man's the poor woman's teleprompter if you're using Powerpoint and
hey I'm not anti PowerPoint.
I love PowerPoint I have courses on PowerPoint I use PowerPoint.
Some of my best friends are PowerPoint.
But don't let it destroy your body language.
You aren't giving a PowerPoint presentation you're giving your presentation when you stand up or sit
down and you're using Powerpoint realize you're not giving a PowerPoint presentation any more than I'm
giving an electricity presentation today or a light presentation I'm using electricity I'm using lights
but those are just tools to help me with my main goal of communicating important messages to help you
with your business career.
So when you're using Powerpoint realize it's your presentation you have to make the ideas come alive.
You have to look at people you have to gesture you have to walk around.
You have to ask people questions and then listen to them.
And if you want to use PowerPoint slides fine but realize that is one small piece of the puzzle.
And just because you have PowerPoint slides doesn't mean you're now wedded to standing behind the lectern
walk down like a prisoner for the next hour.
You can get some kind of a clicker.
You can walk over occasionally and manually do it.
You don't want to let that constrain you.
You can give a great PowerPoint presentation and let people have a good impression of your body language.
If you do the right things of course the number one tip get you're not going to like it.
Practice your PowerPoint presentation on video.
Look at it.
Keep redoing it till you love what you see.
Most of my clients when they see a video of themselves delivering a PowerPoint presentation the first
time their first reaction is always oh my god teacher that's boring as all get out.
I wouldn't want to watch it.
What do you think.
And my response to them is well he seemed like a smart person if you think it's really boring.
Guess what it is.
Keep practicing and video until you love your style and your substance with your PowerPoint presentation.