1. Your presentation is not about YOU.  Your presentation is about the audience. 

Just like your website, your marketing brochures, and your products and services, it is not about YOU but about your audience.  Know your audience!

What do they want and need most?  How can you be the expert on that topic and give them something new and fresh that is just what they need RIGHT NOW?  This is the key to keeping their interest, and making your time and theirs worth the investment.

2. Use stories to illustrate your point, rather than MORE slides.

When you tell a personal story, or a story about a customer who has the same needs as your audience, you will appeal to their emotional senses.

Fact is, people remember things that speak to them emotionally.  A story is not only more interesting than more text on your slides, it is much more memorable.  Think about which stories from your life or your customers’ lives can illustrate a complex point, and tell it like a pro.

3. Make your presentation interactive.

The average focused attention span of a human being is just 8 seconds, and the average sustained attention span is about 20 minutes.  That means your presentation has to be dynamic and include ‘breaks’ from your sustained talking.

You need to involve the audience to keep their focus.  Make it interactive.  Give them a quiz to test their understanding, show a video, and break up the monotony.  Your job as a presenter is to keep them engaged, so use your creativity and brilliance to get them involved.

4. Have key points based on results.

This one is a biggie, and where most presenters go wrong.

Before, during and after the event, make sure the key points are based on the results the audience will get, and keep it exciting.  During the event, keep coming back to how the audience can use your points to achieve results in their own lives, and at the end of the presentation always give them a next step to implement what they have learned.

This can be a challenge you set them, such as an opportunity to connect with you on Facebook and share what they have done since the event, or an opportunity to work further in one of your programs that goes deeper with the topic.

If you’re not experienced in public speaking, don’t let that hold you back.  Now is the time to learn the art of being on stage, even if you need to hire a speaking coach to help you get your skills up to speed.  You will soon reap the benefits that will pay for the investment.

If you want to become a speaker or grow your own speaker business, contact me today at mail (at) reneemoore.com. My 1:1 Speaker Business Transformation program is helping speakers around the world to rock the stage and make more money in their business by gaining a committed audience.  This program is a completely private experience, with you and me working together to make your business and your next keynote a hit.