There is an old saying ‘You get out what you put in’ which is true in many walks of life but very true when it comes to giving presentations. The more enthusiastic you are and the more energy you put in to a presentation the more the audience will enjoy it.
Luckily enough the way we act and speak when we are excited and enthusiastic is not dissimilar from the way we are affected by nervous energy.
After all it is all energy and driven by adrenaline. Rather than worrying about your nervousness before a presentation, use that nervous energy to inject some enthusiasm into your presentation. In this way, pre-presentation nerves can actually help us to be livelier and enthral the audience.
The opposite is also true. Be very careful if you are giving the same presentation repeatedly. It may be the tenth time you have said it, but it is the first time this particular audience has heard it. You need to give it with the same energy and enthusiasm the tenth time as you did the first time. A colleague of mine used to remind me to ‘sell it not tell it’. It makes an enormous difference. Just saying the words is not enough, you need to perform the presentation, you need to put the energy and enthusiasm into it and you need to sell it to your audience.
Presentation Training and Coaching is available from the author of this blog. Please visit my presentation training website.
Give me a day and I’ll change your presentations, forever
Graham Young
A to Z of Business Presentations 