Powerful Presentations and Conversations

Professional Development Series with Kristi Royse

Opportunities to present yourself occur every day. You start presenting when you walk out the door. Sharing ideas in public is essential to your success in life and business.

Kristi Royce, CEO of KLR Consulting, shared with the FWSF East Bay group techniques to use now to make every opportunity a success.

First, there are two success factors in every presentation – the opening and the closing. You should always open with a BANG! A speaker has 15-30 seconds to grab an audience, to answer the WHY – why should I care, the HOW – is the content going to change my life and the WHAT – am I going to do different as a result.

The close should always be yours. Don’t close on Q&A. After Q&A, close your presentation with your thoughts and summary of the accomplished goal. Leave your audience wanting more.

Next, Kristi told us to remember 1st impressions do matter. The two C’s – courage and confidence come from practice and building good habits. Movement is good, but must be deliberate. Use gestures, but be aware of what you are doing. Stand on the left side of the stage as people read left to right. Focus on the friendlies, not those folks not paying attention. SMILE, this is the #1 way to engage the audience. Adjust your energy level throughout the presentation. Building good habits and practice ensure you will connect with your audience.

All the practice and good presentation techniques won’t help if your message is unclear or boring. According to Kristi, less is more and simple is better. Sometimes the hardest part is what not to include. A successful presentation is 65% stories that are relevant and show vulnerability and achievement. The other 25% is figures, but your slides should be mostly pictures not words and only rarely numbers.

Finally, there are a few things that you can do to ensure your success. Collect stories, both your own and others. Treat others the way they would want to be treated. Focus on the audience. Include detail, but not too much. Never turn your back to the audience and finally, practice, practice, practice.

Thanks to Kristi for sharing her stories and knowledge with the East Bay group. For more information from Kristi go to www.klrconsulting.com.