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One Last Thing
5:17When preparing and delivering your presentation, you must consider what you want your audience to retain, and what action you want them to take.
I wanted to give my friend Ann Handley
some props here.
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She's the head of content at Content
Profs, and
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she has spoken all over the world as well.
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She had a wonderful piece of advice in
terms
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of the tip that she would share with
people.
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Ask yourself, what's the one thing I want
the audience to remember.
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It's a great question, you know.
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When you are
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giving a presentation, I know we focus on,
you know, a lot of us focus on filling
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it with so much information, so much
evidence towards a certain conclusion.
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Towards, you know taking a certain act
type of
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action at the end that we just fill it
with
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information and we sort of lose sight of
the
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really important big picture, one thing
that we want people
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to leave with.
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Now in terms of the audience, data has
shown that
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the audience can sense when a
presentation's coming to a close.
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You know, they might say, well I wanna
wrap up
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here or as I said, you know, one more
thing.
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Kind of, you know it's a signal that we'll
be coming to
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a close soon, the conclusion is coming,
I'll be wrapping things up.
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And a lot of people when they hear that.
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If they're, you know, sitting in the
audience
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kinda taking notes or checking their phone
or whatever.
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They'll perk up.
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You know and they'll actually retain what
gets presented at the end.
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So when you do have their attention you
definitely
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have it and you want to compel people to
act.
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This is a great time to do it.
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So, what would be the one thing for your
presentation?
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Well if you're pitching a client,
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hopefully you've provided great evidence
of financial benefits.
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Or a great plan of action examples of
design elements
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and in the end, you know, you provide them
with a
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recap of all the benefits to doing
business with you, a
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URL for them to visit or an email for
contacting you.
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You know, you wrap up your proposal in a
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nice little bow, present it to them and
basically
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they have no choice but to get back to
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you and respond because it's so great, all
right.
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If you're proposing a site redesign.
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Hopefully, you've spent your presentation
breaking down all the things that need
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to be done showing the data, why you would
do certain things.
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and, you know, the final slides in your
presentation could
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be devoted to a focus checklist or
timeline of action.
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You know, it shows
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very clearly what are the next things that
should be done,
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what to do, when to do them and you've
already explained why.
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Even if your presentation is a book report
or reasons why you know your
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favorite sports team will, will repeat as
world champions you know go Red Sox.
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By the end, you should be reaching a
conclusion where
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you sum up all your major points that
you've made.
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And perhaps you make a call back to
important
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parts that you can reference, or that you
referenced along the way.
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So, what would be one thing for my
presentation?
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Well, I mean, is it about what tools you
can use?
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To make great presentations.
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I mean Keynote, PowerPoint, prezi.com.
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even the camera on your phone, I mean
perhaps.
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But tools don't make the presentation they
are means to making a story
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come to life.
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For me creativity is your greatest
presentation design tool.
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So think about that.
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And also you should strive to be creative,
but also a human being as well.
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Especially when you fall off a stage,
right?
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[LAUGH] Show stories and connect with the
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real people that you're hoping to connect
with.
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You know,
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preparation means that you understand
their needs.
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And by doing this and by
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presenting something that's well prepared
and relevant.
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You can help them accomplish their goals.
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So when we're asked to give a talk or
presentation about
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something, it's not just because we're you
know, a pretty face.
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Right?
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It's because they know that we have
something important to share.
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When we're given this opportunity,
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prepare, deliver, and compel.
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Prepare and deliver what your audience
needs.
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Help them accomplish their goals and
overcome their
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struggles by taking the action that you
recommend.
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And if you can remember these important
points, You're going to be successful.
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But to boil it down to one thing, I'd
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have to say, take advantage of your
opportunity to influence.
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And influence can mean a lot of different
things to different people, but
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by trusting you, the people who have
requested that you give a presentation.
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They believe in you.
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They believe in what you have to say.
And they want to be influenced.
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That's why you're there.
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So, through the research and preparation
that you do, you can help people.
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You can teach them.
It can be for profit, for personal
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goals career aspirations, or for
education, like this is today.
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By making a positive impression you not
only help them but you help yourself.
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