Last week, on the last episode of the series on the Presentation Skills Checklist, we covered how many slides to put into a PowerPoint Presentation. This week, our topic is "3 Simple Ways to Create Better PowerPoint Presentations."

By the way, if you are using the techniques I outline on other episodes of the podcast, creating a PowerPoint presentation should be really easy. Basically, in a presentation, less is more.

But on this episode, I give you my top three tips that will help you kill your next presentation. First, we cover how to design your presentation first, then create your slideshow. Next, I show you how to use examples from real-life to add credibility to the text on your slides. Ad then, finally, I show you how to create collateral content -- things like handouts -- that can help your audience understand and retain the content of your presentations better.

Show Notes: 3 Simple Ways to Create Better PowerPoint Presentations
(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/three-simple-ways-to-create-better-powerpoint-presentations/)

I hope you have enjoyed the Presentation Skills Checklist series. So far, we covered how to know your audience. Next we helped you create a great presentation title. Then, we helped you organize your presentation outline. And in the last couple weeks we showed you how to add credible evidence to reinforce the points you created in your outline.

The last step is to create your PowerPoint Slideshow. Yes, you heard me correctly. Creating your slideshow should be the absolute last thing that you do. Most people start with the slideshow.

Instead, figure out what you want to say first, then create your visual aids.

The question we get as public speaking coaches most often is "How many PowerPoint slides should I have in my presentation.

On this episode, I'm going to answer that question and many more.

Show Notes: How Many PowerPoint Slides Should You Use in a Presentation?

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-many-powerpoint-slides-should-you-use-in-a-presentation/)

If you want to be a fantastic speaker, you have to be able to make any topic really interesting -- even if you aren't that excited about it. So on this episode, I'm going to give you nine things that I call "Impact Ideas". They are different types of evidence that you can use to make your point more compelling or interesting.

This is a continuation of the series we started a few weeks called the Presentation Skills Checklist. And over the last couple of weeks, we covered the first three items on that checklist, (1) how to know your audience better, (2) how to design a catchy title, and (3) how to create a presentation outline focused on what the audience wants. Last week, we started covering the fourth step in the checklist -- offer compelling evidence to prove each point. And, on that episode, we focused entirely on examples and stories, because they are, by far, your most credible piece of evidence.

So, if you haven't listened to that episode yet, make sure to. I cover a few secrets about how to be a better storyteller and how to use stories to reduce nervousness and make your audience want to really listen to you.

Today, I'm going to give you nine other types of evidence. By the way, the reason why there are nine is that every presentation and every audience is different. I covered stories last week because it doesn't matter what you are speaking about or who is in your audience, a compelling real-life example of what you are talking about can add clarity. These other nine things, though, can be hit or miss. It really depends on the topic and the audience.

Let me give you the nine things quickly

1) Audience Participation: Get feedback from your audience, ask them questions, or get them to talk to each other.
2) Analogies: Compare something complicated to something more common place to make it easier to understand.
3) Anecdotes: A funny story or a story that makes a point is often more memorable than just a bullet point.
4) Demonstration: When you show your audience what you are trying to tell them, they will often have more clarity.
5) Quote: A testimonial from an expert or client at the right time can add credibility.
6) Sample: Something that your audience can see, touch, and feel has more impact than just a description of the item.
7) Name Drop: If you don’t have a quote, you can name drop others who agree with you.
8) Non-PowerPoint Visual Aid: A spontaneous flip-chart drawing, a poster, or board will often have a greater impact on the audience than an image on a slideshow that is more temporary.
9) Showmanship: Never underestimate the entertainment value of your presentation.

So, now that we know the different items, let's explore how they could do very well in one type of audience and backfire i another. Let's take Audience Participation for instance. If you are in an intimate 10 person room, getting the audience to respond is much easier. But, if you are speaking to 100 people, now you have to deal with extra microphones, and your audience will be more self-conscious. So, they may not respond.

Or, if you insert a funny anecdote into a training session, it will likely get people to laugh. If you do the same thing in a finance report, it could really backfire.

So, on this episode, I'll walk through each of these items, and show you ways that you can easily insert one or more of them into your presentation to really elevate that presentation and how to choose the best impact idea for the best topic and audience.

Show Notes: How to Make a Speech More Interesting: 7 Presentation Ideas

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/7-stellar-presentation-enhancers-that-add-impac

Great speakers know how to tell a great story. On this episode, I'll give you the five key steps of storytelling that these great speakers know and use in every single speech that they deliver. (That's hat makes them great speakers!)

This is a continuation of the series we started a few weeks ago about your Presentation Skills Checklist. And over the last couple of weeks, we covered the first three items on that checklist, (1) how to know your audience better, (2) how to design a catchy title, and last week, we covered (3) how to create a presentation outline focused on what the audience wants.

This week, we're going to show you how to add great content to that presentation outline you created last week -- specifically through storytelling.

And, based on my decades of delivering presentation coaching to people from every industry on the face of the Earth, there is a good chance -- a really good chance -- that, right now, you are thinking...

"Oh, but we don't tell stories in out presentations." Or you may be thinking, "I don't think stories will work well for me." And, if you are thinking either of those things, then sadly, your presentations are likely confusing and uninteresting.

Let me give you an example. Think about a time where someone was explaining something new to you verbally, and the more the talked, the more lost you got.

For me, it happened last month here at my office. We bought a 3-D printer. And we followed the instructions to the letter over and over and over again. But every time we tried to sample print an object, the object disconnected from the plate and caused a big mess.

Luckily, my wife knows a teenager who does a lot of 3-D printing. When I told him about what was happening, he started giving me setting adjustments, tips, and a munch of other stuff. that just made the fix more confusing.
I stopped him and said, "Has this ever happened to you?"

He said, "Oh yeah, especially when I get a new printer."

I asked, "So, what did you do... Step-by-step."

And he just remembered what he did to fix his printer, and recited those steps back to me.

That recitation of what he did was a story. And it was way easier for me to follow. Incidentally, me tell you about my printer problem and how I fixed it was also a story.

On this episode, we're going to show you how to insert these pieces of evidence into your presentation in a way that makes you presentation more interesting and easier for the audience to understand.

The clip from The Hangover.

Show Notes: The 5 Steps of Storytelling – How to Tell a Great Story in a Presentation

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/the-5-steps-of-storytelling-how-to-tell-a-great-story/)

A few weeks ago, I gave you my Presentation Skills Checklist. And over the last couple of weeks, we covered the first two items on that checklist, (1) how to know your audience better, and (2) how to design a catchy title.

On today's episode, I'm going to show you how to quickly and easily design your speech in a whole lot less time that what most people take to create a presentation. If you haven't listened to last week's session on how to create a catchy title, don't worry, I give a quick review at the start of this episode.

Once you go through the session, I put a link in the show notes to out Online Speech Creator. Just click the link and answer a few questions, and the website will create a fantastic speech outline for you. 

Show Notes: How to Write a Speech in Just a Few Simple Steps

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-write-a-speech-just-few-simple-steps/)

A couple of weeks ago, I gave you my Presentation Skills Checklist. And last week, we covered step one in that checklist which was know your audience. If you haven't had a chance to listen to that episode yet, the things I covered were essential in creating better presentations and reducing public speaking nervousness.

Most people design presentations by creating a long list of items they could cover. Then, they try to squeeze everything into a short timeframe. It almost never works.

So, last week, we showed you how to determine what your audience wants or needs from your presentation. If you understand that process, designing great presentations is much easier. And those presentations are also easier to deliver -- which reduces that nervousness as well.

On today's episode, I'm going to show you how to get your audience to want to pay attention to every word that you say before you even open your mouth. The absolute most important part of the presentation is the presentation title.

In fact, when you start with a great title, the presentation almost writes itself.

So today, I'm going to take you through our "Presentation Title Generator." The good news is that this process only has two simple steps. But when we show our class members how to do this in our classroom coaching sessions, they are always surprised at how dramatic the differences are in the presentations that they are able to create.

Show Notes: A Catchy Presentation Title Is the Start of a Great Presentation

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/catchy-presentation-titles-are-the-start-of-a-great-presentation/)

Last week, I gave you my Presentation Skills Checklist. And step one in that checklist was to know your audience.

Listen to any speaking coach, go to any Toastmasters, attend any presentation seminar, you will hear a single phrase over and over. “Know your audience.” Sounds really good too. When we hear the phrase, we think, “Well, of course. That makes sense.” But what exactly does “know your audience mean?” Is there a formula to help a speaker know his or her audience better?

Well, yes, there is. In fact, every presenter should use this formula before creating any speech or any PowerPoint slide. Because the answers that you get from following the formula will greatly change what content you cover in your presentation. The answers will also allow you to change your delivery so that your audience is more likely to agree with you.

So, on today's episode, I'll show how to research your audience and identify exactly what they need to take away from your presentation and why. If you understand this, design great presentations and reducing presentation nervousness is a piece of cake.

Show Notes: Know Your Audience before Designing Presentation

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/know-your-audience-before-designing-your-sales-presentation/)

On today's episode, I'm going to give you a presentation skills checklist that can make designing and delivering a presentation easier and less risky. When folks go through our presentation skills classes, they are often surprised at how simple public speaking really is. That is if you have a great structure and follow a simple checklist.

Before pilots take a plane off the ground, they always follow a written checklist. They don’t follow this process by memory. Instead, they check off each task one by one.

There is a reason why every pilot does this. The process takes a tremendous amount of risk out of the equation. The checklist also takes something very complex and makes it very simple.

Great presenters do the same thing. If you follow a simple presentation checklist, you make delivering the presentation less risky.

In my classes, I teach students how to design an entire presentation, from start to finish, in fifteen minutes or less. These class members are often shocked at how fast they can design their presentations. They finish in minutes what would have typically taken hours (or weeks) to complete.

On this episode, I cover a simple presentation checklist that you can use when you design PowerPoint presentations. It will help you shorten your preparation time and also reduce your fear of public speaking.

Then, in the next few weeks, we'll go into each step in a little more detail.

Show Notes: Presentation Skills Checklist

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/checklist-presentation-skills/)

!!ANNOUNCEMENT!!

We are super excited to announce the new way we will be doing our Fearless Presentations classes and if you are interested in hearing all about it I cover it pretty extensively from 2:33 - 15:32.

For those that are more of our loyal listeners to the podcast, y'all probably started listening in the first place because you were wanting to reduce nervousness when you present. Of course a lot of our episodes are built around that idea but what a lot of people seem to underestimate is the fact that a large reason they're likely nervous is they are trying to stand up and deliver a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad speech. 

Even the absolute best speaker or presenter on planet earth trying to deliver material that absolutely sucks, will almost always still end up sucking. So between you and I, most people that are struggling with nerves and fear of speaking aren't due to anxiety or anything like that, it's due to delivering a bad speech. Too many points in too little time being the main problem I see. 

So in this episode, I'm gonna cover how you can not only throw together an entire presentation relatively fast, but also end up with a speech that's well laid out and won't make you even more nervous cause of how bad it is. 

Online Speech Creator

How to Design a Good Title

How to Design Better Bullet Points

How to Use Better Examples and Stories

Show Notes: How to Design Presentations Quickly

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-to-design-presentations-quickly/)

A few years ago, my wife and I went to see the movie Bohemian Rhapsody. When I was a kid, I remember hearing Another One Bites the Dust and We Are the Champions, but I was by no means a Queen fan. I was surprised, though, how many songs from the movie I knew every word to.

But, I have to admit, the most surprising thing to me was that Freddie Mercury was a Persian Indian man who lived in England. When I listened to the songs, there was no Persian accent. No Indian accent. And there was no British accent. It reminded me of a conversation I had with one of my instructors who specialized in accent reduction.

She told me that, “Music is the secret weapon for accent reduction. When people sing, everyone sounds like they speak American English with no accent.”English is a musical language. If it were a band, it wouldn’t be a quiet little string quartet. It would be a jazz ensemble — bold, abrasive, and filled to the brim with rhythm and melody changes. And to speak American English fluently, you have to master those rhythmic and melodic changes.

There are three main components that influence your accent:

-- Vowel Sounds (consonant and vowel pronunciation)
-- Rhythm (stress patterns between words and syllables)
--Intonation (the rise and fall of pitch in a sentence)

Music mimics all three of these elements, and trains your ears and mouth at the same time. So, on this episode, I'm going to break each of these three items down and look at how real language learners have used music and speech techniques to achieve clearer communication.

By the way, although this episode is focusing on the non-native English speaker, the tips can help anyone who wants to become a better presenter. If you think of great speakers like MLK, one of the reasons why he was so popular was that he spoke with a rhythm.You can do something similar to captivate your audiences as well.

Show Notes: Music 101: A Musical Guide to Accent Reduction

(https://www.fearlesspresentations.com/music-101-the-key-to-accent-reduction/)