"Like, it was totally, like, awesome."
The old Saturday Night Live skits making fun of Valley Girls poked at the exaggerated use of filler words like "like" and "totally." Exaggerated, but humorous because we all know people who use filler words. Filler words provide placeholders for the speaker to decide what to say next. Eventually, they become a habit even when the speaker knows what to say.
Often, the speaker is not aware of the use of filler words unless someone is kind enough to point it out. Speakers who use an excessive number of filler words detract from the experience of the audience.
You can eliminate filler words by finding a speaking partner who will help, by getting a speaking coach or by recording your speeches and critiquing them yourself. A speaking coach should have a framework to guide your improvement but the following framework can be used by those taking the self-help route.
Presenting your Speech
As you are critiquing your presentation or having your presentation critiqued by a colleague, consider these points:
? Track filler words ("like" is a popular one) and verbal ticks ("um" is popular). By tracking them, you will become more conscious of their use and will be able to avoid them. (Like all habits, removing the filler habit will take 10 to 20 speeches to break.)
? Look at the audience when you are speaking. The audience should be focused on you, not on your PowerPoint presentation or other props. To encourage this, focus on the audience. Glancing at the screen or using a pointer to draw attention to a prop one to three times in a one-hour presentation is okay. Do much more than that and your audience will be wondering about your role.
? Look at members of the whole audience. Move your eyes around the room. Turn your head or your entire body to take in different parts of the audience. Every audience member is important and you want each to think you are focusing on them.
? Only look at each person for two to five seconds. You do not want audience members to be uncomfortable with the attention you are paying them. Many people will become so after about five seconds.
? If seeing slides will reduce your need for notes, have your laptop in front of you with the screen facing you instead of the audience. You can see the slides while continuing to face the audience. You do not need to turn around to look at the screen.
? Move around the room purposefully. You should not hide behind the lectern or pace across the room. Constant movement suggests nervousness just as reliably as hiding behind the podium. Move from one area of the room to another so the audience follows your movement and changes their position. You can position an easel with markers in one corner of the room, a white board in another corner and the podium in between. Moving between the three stations every seven to fifteen minutes gives the audience a change of scenery.
Preparing your Speech
? Most of your presentations should be prepared to be used multiple times. With new presentations, you will find audiences that have difficulty understanding a key point or missing the point of your joke. By giving a presentation multiple times, you have a chance to improve the presentation and your delivery of the presentation.
? Write out the entire presentation (or transcribe the presentation from a recording). By having the text written out, I know what I said to accompany slide 13 and I can remember the detail I added to flesh out point number two. I can reduce my notes to a few bullets for a live presentation after reading the text once or twice. If I fall in love with a phrase, I can memorize it and transcribe it word for word in my notes.
? If you use cryptic notes for your presentations in front of a live audience, make sure you memorize your opening and closing remarks. Those sections of the presentation set the stage and summarize the key points you want the audience to remember. Practicing your opening and closing at least six times will allow you to get those sections right. Be sure to have two closings for presentations with a question and answer period so you can close out your formal remarks and then reemphasize that summary after the questions.
Many presentations use PowerPoint, which creates its own set of issues. It is important to remember that the speaker and the spoken word are the presentation; the slides are not the presentation. The slides are there to support and summarize the key points. As the speaker, you should be making your points verbally and using graphic slides and key phrases on the slides to reinforce your message.
? Think in words, not pictures. When I create a presentation, it is all text and I have to review the presentation to find images that can represent the words. You should do this exercise because many people think in images; words on a slide are not nearly as powerful. By using both words and pictures, you can connect with more people.
By mastering these ten tips you can create a powerful experience for your audience and increase the chances that you will achieve your own goals. Practice these tips (one at a time) until they become second nature. Your audience will appreciate it.
John Comer, CFP, is principal of Comer Consulting, LLC, a marketing firm in Plymouth, Minn. He can be reached at john@jcomerconsulting.com.
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