Years ago, I remember driving to an Opera Australia audition in my ex-boyfriend Alpha Omega sports car. I was singing as I drove, practicing my audition piece, instinctively I press down on the accelerator to reach the high note and rammed into the back of a BMW, my Ex's car crumpled like an accordion. Apparently, they meant to do that it's a safety feature. I probably shouldn't have but I drove the mangled piece of scrap metal to the audition, and somehow managed to sing my piece. So much can go wrong when you're about to get up and present but there are ways to make sure you perform no matter what. Imagine you have a major presentation you need to get right you come to me and ask, how should I prepare? How do I structure my presentation? How do I make sure my audience does what I ask them to by the end of it? I'd like to invite you to step into a coaching session with me, this is how I lead politicians, CEOs, and executives from around the world in presentation creation. It's called "My no-fail keynote structure." Just this week, a client based in Asia came back to me saying that his company couldn't stop complimenting him on what an incredible presenter he was, this was after doing a ten minute intro and throwing to his team member, how did he do it? What is it that works so well? Why does it work every time? We simply go through this process, you may recognize a few of the steps. Step 1, follow the "WISH" principal. Who is in the audience.? What are their major issues? What are your solutions? How can you help them? These are four separate brainstorms. The more time you spend here the more robust your presentation will be. When you look at who is in your audience get as specific as possible. You may have an audience of eight people which makes doing a separate brainstorm for each person even easier. If you have hundreds however, get a list of who's in the audience and categorize them into groups. For example, if you're speaking to an audience in construction, you may have property developers, investors, construction companies, and commercial real estate teams. Each will have a very different perspective and need a different brainstorm. Once you've done the brainstorms, decide who you need to influence the most. This may be different categories or individuals. Even though you'll address the whole audience, most of your presentation needs to talk to the core group, the decision-makers. What are their biggest issues in their sector, globally, locally, in their company, and of course personally? Solutions, all the ways that you can solve their problems. Once you've brainstormed who they are, their biggest issues, and your solutions, now it's time to help them. Choose the three biggest issues and your three best solutions to those issues, then structure them in an easy to remember way, maybe as an acronym, a word or alliteration. You could have three words starting with the same letter. For example the three Ps or even assonance where they have the same sound, for example, project, connect, dissect. Step 2, now look at what you'd like the audience to think, feel, and do by the end of the presentation. Think that it's crucial to-. Feel motivated, inspired, reassured. Do contact you to consult for them, change their processes, review their policies. Step 3, put it all together and decide on your intention. When you choose an intention it colors the way you deliver the presentation, also if you get lost at any point you can go back to your intention. There are thousands of intentions, you can choose to motivate or to inspire, to reassure, to coax, but what are you trying to motivate your audience to do or inspire them to do or reassure them about. This one goal sets up the whole presentation like a logline to a film. For example, you may want to reassure them that you have the processes they need to grow their target market now. Step 4, once you know your overall goal, choose your theme. This takes the most time. It's a luxury but if you do have the chance, take a day or two to mull this over. For example, it's time to review your processes like Marie Kondo reviews you're cupboard or we can now fix what is broken and make it better than before like renovating an old house. Step 5, now it's time to structure your presentation. In the next video, I'll share with you the no-fail keynote structure based on the psychology of influence. No fail, because if you follow it you cannot fail. You also get very familiar with the structure and soon you have to do it without following notes. You'll notice not once did I say pull out your computer and write your speech on PowerPoint or Keynote slides, not once. The goal is to do your preparation and structure your presentation in a way so that if something goes wrong, your computer shuts down, you leave it back at the office, your speech gets wiped, there's a blackout, whatever, you could theoretically stand up in front of everyone with no PowerPoint, no notes, no nothing and talk your audience through what they need to know. Now, I hope that doesn't happen to you, but I've been presenting far too long to know that it's rare for everything to go right. I spoke about the computer mishaps, but what about personal dramas like crashing your ex's car, you get the point. Cut it delete you're all safe but make sure your presentation is too by preparing properly.
