THIRTEEN techniques

Finally, here are THIRTEEN techniques you can use to liven up and illustrate the points of your presentation:

Quotations. Quotations can be a great tool for not only supporting a premise or point, but also as a brainstorming tool to develop presentations. For more information on this, take a look at my article elsewhere on this site: "Quotations: They're Not Just for Drunks Anymore."

Analogies. I do a seminar called "The Five Habits of Highly Effective Leaders." In distinguishing between management and leadership, I use a quotation as an analogy: "Efficient management without effective leadership is like straightening deck chairs on the Titanic." An analogy makes a point more memorable.

Definitions. If you're making a presentation on politics, you'll want to define a Politician: Someone who will borrow $20, repay you $10, then say you're even because you both lost 10 bucks! Or, how about an Auditor: Someone who goes in after the war is lost and bayonets the wounded. Or, an Attorney: Someone who goes in after the auditors are through and pick the pockets of the dead. Caution: be wary of how you use these definitions...believe me, if you're speaking to attorneys, they won't appreciate attorney jokes...besides, they've heard them all before.

Anecdotes. If you listen to the well-known professional speakers, most of them build their presentations around humorous or inspiring anecdotal stories. In the unabridged (hopefully) forthcoming book version of this program, we give you a number of anecdotes you can use and show how you can use your own experiences in your presentations.

Rhetorical Questions. One caveat: if you use a rhetorical question, be prepared for someone to actually respond. I once sat on the front row to hear an absolutely gorgeous speaker start her presentation with the question, "Did you ever have a sexual fantasy?" Without missing a beat, I responded, "Does right now count?"

Direct Statements. These are usually statements you make about yourself or an action you took. They work best when you poke fun at yourself, although Don Rickles has made a career of insulting his audience. Just be careful how you do it.

Startling Statistics. Statistics are too often used improperly in a presentation but, if used effectively, they can make the subject matter more interesting, understandable, and memorable. For example, I've often cited a university study that alleges that, at any given time, 20% of the audience listening to a speaker is thinking about sex. You can have fun with that statistic! A point to keep in mind is that the audience doesn't care about "data"...just what the data means, why it's important to them, and what they should do about it. In other words, present statistics as information, not facts.

Historical Events. There are a number of books and Internet sites along the lines of "On this day…." I once did a September 28 presentation on quality management and mentioned that on that date in 1930, Lou Gehrig committed his first error in 885 games...almost six years without an error. On the date you are to make a presentation, check on of these references and see if there were any historical events on that date that you could tie into your material.

Personal Secrets. Remember the "coming out" episode of the TV sitcom "Ellen"?

Cartoons. I have a large file of cartoons for all occasions. In one presentation I do, an element of the program involves interpersonal effectiveness. I use an overhead with a cartoon of a man on a couch with his psychiatrist. The caption has the man saying, "If you weren't so stupid, you could tell me why people automatically dislike me." An important caveat with cartoons is that, if they are copyrighted (and they almost always are), you must get permission to use them. In many cases, you will have to pay a fee ranging from $15 to $150.

Games & Gimmicks. I have several "tricks" that I've used for years. For example, when I do this presentation, to illustrate the "Magical Rule of 3," I put up an overhead with six playing cards and ask the audience to think of any one of the cards. Then I replace the overhead with another one that has five cards and I ask them if their card is missing. No matter which card they chose, it is always missing! How does this work and how does it tie into the "Magical Rule of 3"? My seminar and (hopefully) forthcoming book explain (rats!).

Participative Exercises. You have to do something about every six minutes during your presentation that require some sort of audience participation or response. There are lots of exercises you can do and plenty of sources of information on this subject. A good one is "Games Presenters Play" by Lilly Walters & Jeff Dewar.

Props. I'm not Gallagher or CarrotTop, but I have a few props I use in my seminars and presentations. A great one is used by Stephen Covey in his "7 Habits" workshop and involves a jar, sand, gravel, and rocks. Dealing with priorities and "putting first things first," by filling the jar with sand and then gravel, you'll find that there's not enough room left for all of the big things in life (in this case, the rocks). However, if you put the rocks in first, and then pour the gravel, then the sand into the cracks, you'll find that everything will fit if you "put first things first."

By following these simple tools of the trade, you can indeed dramatically improve your public speaking.