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turn your talents into talks

November 4, 2010

in Presentation Skills,Say What You Mean,Workshops

I trust that you are always thinking about your audience when you craft a talk, workshop or presentation; right? It’s easy to slip into a couple of less-than-effective habits when turning your talents into talks.

Garr Reynolds changed the face of my presentations three years ago (thanks to Colleen Wainwright for turning me on to him and to Nancy Duarte). His recent piece on using lessons from aikido to deal with difficult audience members is brilliant.

Here’s a quick tips video to get you grooving:

Read more and find out how to apply these tips over on my guest post for the Creative Freelancer Blog.

What are your presentation questions, tips or comments? Let me know in the comments!

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  • kellyharrington

    Thanks for sharing these great tips!

  • dyanavalentine

    my pleasure, Kelly. I have SO much to say about presentations–haven't we all been in one that sucked and thought, “I certainly know what not to do now?” I get the sense that you are a great speaker–what roadblocks do you come up against or what tips that work for you would you add to the mix?

  • kellyharrington

    I would say that my #1 presentation tip is to be yourself. There is this big 'thing' in our society about “public speaking” (insert the 'du-du-du' doom sound here). It makes people get formal, freaked out, nervous, stop breathing, over do it, etc. The crowd really wants to know you… even your humility. If you have one of those 'uh oh' moments, just acknowledge it (maybe even chuckle about it with everyone) and move on. They'll feel more connected and present with you. That's my two cents. Would love to present more. I love it! And, yes, I get nervous just like everyone else.

  • dyanavalentine

    Absolutely, Kelly. We MUST find our own style (sometimes hard to find from the inside) and stay right in the center of that zone. It's true, we do want to know the real person presenting and we want to be US. There are so many rules we get hazed into believing (being an authority means wearing a suit and standing at a podium, for example). I get nerves, too–and I now USE them and ventilate a little extra energy at the beginning of every talk with an exercise/call&response game with the audience to let it out, in a useful way. To everyone, Scott Schwertly over at http://www.ethos3.com/ knows his stuff around presentations. Check him out!

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