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HOW to create

POWERFUL PRESENTATIONS

Akash Karia www.CommunicationSkillsTips.com

Simple, Easy, Quick

10 Step System for Creating Great

Presentations and Speeches

Even when you don’t have much time!

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The Promise:

In this short e-book, you will discover a step-by-step

proven plan which teaches you how to create powerful

presentations and speeches – even when you’re running out

of time!

When you follow this 10 step system, you will be able to

easily and quickly create presentations which engage,

motivate and inspire your audience.

If you find this e-book useful, then please share this e-book

to your friends and colleagues because I’d appreciate it.

Akash. P. Karia

www.CommunicationSkillsTips.com

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Step 1:

Before you begin writing a single word of your

speech or start designing your Powerpoint

slides, you must identify the purpose of your

presentation. Knowing the objective of your

presentation will help you decide which points

to include in your presentation and which ones

to toss out. As a result you will be able to

deliver a focused presentation that drives home

your key message.

To help you identify the purpose of your

presentation, ask yourself:

What’s Your Purpose?

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“What do I want my audience members

to do, think and feel after the end my

your presentation?”

“What information does the audience

expect me to cover?”

Identifying the purpose of your presentation

may sound like a very basic step, but it is

crucial to the success of your presentation. For

example, I once attended a recruitment talk by

an organization that I was hoping to work for.

The presenter believed that her purpose was to

give us (her audience) as much information

about the company as possible. Therefore, she

spent the better part of an hour talking about

company's timeline, starting with when it was

founded and detailing all the events that had

allowed the firm to become one of the largest in

Asia. The audience's purpose for attending the

talk was to find out what sort of benefits they

could get from working with one of best firm's

in Asia. Unfortunately, the presentation was a

complete failure because the presenter

identified the wrong purpose.

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The lesson here is simple yet powerful: Make

sure you identify the correct purpose of your

presentation.

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Step 2:

Presentations are not about the speaker. They

are about the audience. Presentations and

speeches should be about the value that the

speaker can add to the audience members lives.

Therefore, you should spend some time

researching who your audience is and how you

can add value to their lives.

It is best to know who your audience members

are early on because this information will help

you decide which examples will be most

relevant, how much time you should spend

addressing each point and what objections and

Who’s Your Audience?

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questions you need to address in order to

persuade your audience.

If you already personally know most of the

people who will be attending your presentation,

then this step will most likely take only a

couple of minutes. However, if you are invited

to speak at a large conference, then this step

may take a lot longer because you may need to

send out a pre-event questionnaire to find out

more information about your audience

members. Below are a couple of questions that

will help you find out more gather important

information about your audience:

Who will be in your audience?

(Age/Occupation/Gender/Education Level)

How many people will be attending your

presentation?

What are they expecting from you?

How much knowledge do they have of the topic

you are talking about?

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If you are trying to persuade them, what are the

possible objections you will face?

If you are trying to inform them, what

difficulties will they have in understanding?

Can you interview any audience members in

order to include their stories and experiences

in your presentation?

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Step 3:

Once you have identified your purpose and

gathered some information about your

audience members, you need to create your

Core Message. Your Core Message is the most

essential concept/idea in your speech. Which

one concept/idea do you want your listeners to

understand and remember? Or, alternatively,

what one single action do you want your

listeners to take after they have heard your

speech?

Write Your Core Message in less than 20 words

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To help you identify the core message of your

speech, answer these questions:

If your audience was to forget everything

else that you said, what is the one single

thing that you would want them to

remember?

If you are delivering an informative

presentation, then what one piece of

information do you want your audience to

remember?

If you are delivering a persuasive presentation,

then what one point are you trying to prove?

If you are delivering an inspirational/

motivational speech, what action do you want

your audience members to take at the end?

You should be able to write out this core

message on a piece of paper in less than 20

words. If it takes you longer than 20 words to

explain your Core Message, then it is not clear

enough.

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Step 4:

After you have written down your Core

Message, write down several key points that

you can use to support your Core Message.

For example: if you are pitching a

new business to a group of venture-capitalists,

then your key points might be:

(1) There's a lot of demand for this product

and

(2) There's very little competition

Identify Your Key Points

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Also, arrange your key points into a logical

sequence so that each point naturally leads to

the next one.

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Step 5:

After deciding on your key points, you need to

“tie them down” with an anchor? An anchor is

a tool which will hook the Point into the

listener’s memory. There are three anchors that

you can use. You don’t need to use all three, but

make sure that you use at least one for each key

point:

Anecdote – Tell a story that illustrates your

main point. A well-told story acts like a

memorable testimonial. Learn more about

the power of stories in this post (click here)

Anchor Your Key Points

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Activity – If you can create some sort of quick

game/role-playing activity that will solidify

your point, then be sure to include it. Just

make sure that the purpose of the activity is

clear to everyone.

Analogy – Here’s an example of an analogy

from the book The Mars and Venus Diet and

Exercise Solution by John Gray:

“Think of your body as an old-fashioned steam

engine. You need to feed the fire with coal.

When there is no coal available, the stoker

slows down so that all the available fuel is not

consumed. Likewise, your metabolism slows

down for the rest of the day when you don’t

eat breakfast.” – John Gray

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Step 6:

The beginning of a presentation is one of the

most important parts of the presentation due

to the primacy effect. If you do not get the

attention of your audience members within the

first 30 seconds of your opening, they will

mentally tune out your presentation. Therefore,

you should take your time to craft a powerful

opening:

Do Not Begin with "Hello, I'd like to talk

about..." This is a boring line that makes you

seem like a dull presenter. Instead, dive right

into your presentation.

Create an Attention Grabbing Opening

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Do Not Begin with a "Ladies and

Gentlemen, good morning. Thank you

for having me..." Do not spend a the most

important part of your presentation on trivial

formalities. A simple "Good morning" and a

smile is great, then dive straight into your

speech.

Begin with a Story: Stories are an effective

way to start because they are inherently

interesting. For example, Barack Obama began

his speech at the 2004 Democratic National

Convention with his personal story: "Let's face

it. My presence on this stage is pretty unlikely.

My father was a foreign student..."

Begin with a Shocking

Statement/Statistic: If you can surprise

people with a shocking statistic or a statement

that goes against conventional wisdom, then

this will surprise your audience members and

increase alertness.

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Begin with a Question: Questions are a very

powerful way to begin because questions get

people thinking.

Since the beginning of your presentation is one

of the most important parts of the

presentations, I recommend that you write

your opening. This way, you can edit the

opening until you have it perfect.

Which of the four proven openings will you use?

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Step 7:

Powerful presenters take their time in creating

powerful endings. Instead of ending with,

"Thank you for having me" or the horrible

"And that's the end of my presentation", you

should use your conclusion to re-emphasize

your most important points. They then end

with a powerful call to action, letting the

audience what next step they should take.

When creating your conclusion, think about

what you what your audience to do as a result

of your presentation. What's your powerful call

to action? What's the next thing that you want

Craft a Powerful Call to Action

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your audience to do as a result of listening to

your speech/presentation?

The ending of your presentation is your

opportunity to leave a lasting impact, so I

suggest that you write out the closing of your

speech. This way, you can edit the ending until

you have its perfect.

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Step 8:

After you've written out the opening and

closing of your speech, it's time to rehearse

your speech.

Wait, what? What happened to the middle of

the speech and all the key points? Why haven't

we written those out yet?

I recommend that you verbally go through your

speech once so that you can get a feel of how

the speech fits together. Since you've written

out the opening and closing of your speech, you

Rehearse Your Presentation

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should have no problem with those two parts.

However, when you get to Key Point #1, you

may find yourself struggling. Don't worry, keep

talking and link Key Point #1 to Anchor #1.

Then transition to Key Point #2 and explain

Anchor #2. Do the best you can and don't

worry about how you sound. However, as you

ad lib your way through the key points and the

anchors, the best part is that you will find new

ideas occurring to you. Write those new ideas

down as they come to you.

I also recommend that you video-tape this ad-

lib session because you can use the recording to

create a first draft of your speech in Step 9.

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Step 9:

At this point you may be wondering, "Is it

necessary to write out my speech/presentation

word for word?" My recommendation is that if

the presentation is an important one and is less

than 15 minutes long, then you can script your

full speech. Use the recording from the

previous step to help you. The advantage of

writing your speech out is that you can edit the

content until it all flows smoothly. However, do

not try and memorize your script word for

word because this can lead to you sounding like

a robot. On the day of the presentation, don't

worry about sticking to the script...you'll know

your material well enough deliver it fluently

enough without having to stick to the script.

Now…Edit

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If you are scheduled to deliver a 1 hour

presentation, then it may not be a good idea to

try and script the whole thing. Instead, write

a couple of bullet points for each Key Point

and related Anchor and think carefully about

the transitions between different points. Ad lib

each Key Point and Anchor until you're pretty

good at fluently explaining each of the key

points and associated anchors.

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Step 10:

The final step is to practice your presentation

in-front of a live audience. Gather a couple of

friends and colleagues at your house and try

and go through your presentation as you would

on the actual day. At the end of your

presentation, ask them for their feedback

("What can I do to improve this presentation?").

Push them until they give you actual points for

improvement, and then go back and smooth

out your presentation.

Practice, Get Feedback &

Improve

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Wrap-Up:

To wrap it all up, here’s your simple 10 step system for

creating powerful presentations, even when you’re running

out of time!

1. What’s your Purpose?

2. Who’s your Audience?

3. Write your Core Message in less than 20 words

4. Identify your Key Points

5. Anchor your Key Points

6. Create an Attention-Grabbing Opening

10 Step System For Creating

Powerful Presentations

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7. Craft a Powerful Call to Action

8. Rehearse your presentation

9. Now…Edit

10. Practice, Get Feedback & Improve

PERMISSION IS GRANTED TO REPRODUCE

THIS E-Book in whole or in part. Feel free to email this

e-book to your friends and colleagues, share it on your

Facebook and Twitter pages and to post it on your

blog/website. While you certainly don’t have to, I would

appreciate it if you could link back to my website:

www.CommunicationSkillsTips.com

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Let’s

Connect

www.CommunicationSkillsTips.com

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https://twitter.com/Speaking_Coach

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