Struggling to learn how to present confidently? Don’t worry, we will provide you with the essential strategies to help you feel confident and prepared – from organising your content to mastering your delivery. These tips are from Neha Agrawal, Founder of WiseUp Communications. She has successfully applied these expert techniques to deliver presentations confidently in English to audiences of 100 to 200 people.
1. Make your slides ready
The first step to deliver any presentation is to make a power point presentation. For this, you need to know is what is the duration of the presentation you need to deliver. In most cases, it would be around 10-15 minutes. The moment you have that clarity, prepare your slides.
Follow – “1 minute per slide rule”. So for a 15-minute presentation, you would roughly have 12-15 slides. This planning will help you present confidently within the time limit.
To know how to make powerful presentations, check out the video below:
2. Prepare your delivery script to present confidently
Once your presentation is ready, the next step is to make your delivery script ready. In order to do this, follow the following steps.
First Step:
Begin by opening a Word document and divide the document into sections based on the total number of slides in your presentation. Then start adding the points on what you would like to cover under each slide.
These will act as enablers for you to know what to speak under each slide.
Opening Your Presentation:
Once you know what to speak under each slide, it is important to prepare for a strong opening. Follow the given steps:
1. Avoid complex or risky strategies such as starting with a thought-provoking question, story, or joke unless you’re highly proficient in English and have significant experience with public speaking.
2. Opt for a straightforward and professional approach: “Good morning everyone, today we are here to discuss the topic…”, “A very good morning to all present here. Today we have gathered to discuss a very important issue…”
This method ensures clarity and shows your confidence while presenting.
To learn about this live from Neha, check out the video below:
Sharing the Agenda:
After your opening, move on to sharing the agenda of your presentation. Clearly outline the main points you will cover, providing a road map for your audience.
A sample agenda slide is shown below:
Explaining Each Slide:
After your agenda, when you get to the content of each slide, use a top-down method to explain it. Begin by stating the key takeaway or main point of the slide. Then, delve into the details and analysis that support this key takeaway.
Many people tend to do the opposite, starting with details and only revealing the main point at the end, which can confuse the audience. By presenting the key takeaway first, you provide clarity upfront, making it easier for your audience to follow along and understand the detailed information that follows.
The schematic below shows the Minto Pyramid Principle. This is the best strategy to explain any slide in the easiest way!
Closing Your Presentation:
After you have shared all your content, conclude your presentation with a brief summary of all the key points and information you shared. Finally, thank your audience for their attention and invite them to ask questions.
A sample conclusion slide is shown below:
3. Practice to present confidently
Practice is one of the most underrated steps in preparing for a presentation. Practising in front of a mirror or recording yourself on your phone’s voice recorder are effective ways to help you present confidently. By saying out loud whatever you will be presenting, you can connect the points and minimise the chances of making mistakes in grammar or vocabulary.
After recording yourself, listen to the playback and write down any errors you may have made, such as speaking too quickly or using filler words. By consciously working on these mistakes during your next practice session, you can improve your delivery and feel more confident.
Repeated practice will help you become more proficient in your presentation skills.
Look at the short below to see how to do it!
4. Deliver confidently on “the day”
Once you have practised and it is “the day” – simply go on stage and explain exactly how you had done in the practice sessions. On the stage, even if you make small mistakes, don’t worry. The audience is always forgiving as long as you can honestly explain your information 🙂
A secret tip! – before going on stage, try to find an empty place, and stand in the superman pose for a bit. Standing in this posture for 2-3 minutes, will take away your nervousness and make you feel more confident!
Now if you wish to learn in detail, how to design, and deliver killer presentations from scratch, then you can join our presentation skills course, otherwise, if you want to work on your English communication and learn how to speak in English fluently and confidently, then you can join me for our 5-week communication skills course – Accomplish Effective Communication
So, guys, that’s all we wanted to share with you today. Hope this blog will help you deliver your next presentation confidently. All the very best for your career! Do tell let us know in the comments below how your experience has been 🙂
