Media Training Worldwide

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June 22, 2005

Presentation Training A - Z
A Complete Guide To Your Audience
Understanding, Remembering, Acting Upon and Telling Other People About Your Message

By TJ Walker
Media Training Worldwide, New York, N.Y., Feb. 2005, 181 pages
$21.21/Amazon.com

Following his A-Z manual for media training, TJ Walker's latest book is designed to help communicators make motivating, memorable speeches.

The author says the four goals of speeches are:

• Speak so that the audience understands you.
• Speak so that the audience remembers your messages.
• Motivate the audience to act on your message.
• Motivate the audience to tell other people about your message.

The most important point to remember is that a speech isn't about the speaker, rather it is about the audience.

"The audience-centered speaker, from the very second she opens her mouth, says something of interest and relevance to the audience and never uses boring clichéd formalities," writes Walker. "The audience-centered speaker asks, 'Did the audience learn as much as they could? What can I do to give the audience more value? Can I help the next audience learn even more?'"

He explains that really good communicators have fun when they give a presentation and audiences respond well to that type of speaker. Good presenters also never just read a speech, as that will make the audience fall asleep.

In Chapter 2: "The Art of Presenting," Walker notes a speaker must pay attention to the way they dress and look. A good speaker will spend time on grooming and wearing flattering clothing. Good speakers also use their hands a lot when speaking and have good posture.

In Chapter 3: "Building a Foundation," Walker writes about avoiding putting too much data in a speech as that will end up boring the audience. Speakers must edit their data and only talk about the five most important points.

The most important aspect of any presentation is to get the audience to take action. Speakers must encourage their audience to buy their product, grow their business, or sell their product. When the audience takes action, you know the speech was successful.

In Chapter 4: "Once Upon A Time," Walker explains how good speeches can include a humorous story. If you are going to use humor, Walker said to tell a real life story about something funny that happened to you. If you have already told the story to friends or family before, you will probably get a laugh out of the audience.

In Chapter 5: "PowerPoint," Walker cautions that many times PowerPoint presentations can make the audience instantly fall asleep, especially if the lights are dimmed. He wrote, "Your monotone voice reading a bunch of words next to bullet points on a screen is about as interesting as watching a test pattern on TV."

Walker says a good way to give a PowerPoint presentation is to give an interesting two-minute talk before the first slide is shown, then make another point, and show the next slide. Then give handouts at the end.

In Chapter 6: "Speaking Legends," Walker cites some great speakers including radio commentator Paul Harvey, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Walker said good speakers are always trying to improve after each speech and they focus on making their speech memorable so people will talk about it days, weeks or months later.

In Chapter 7: "Question and Answer," Walker explains that a big problem for speakers is they do not leave enough time for questions. He said it is not so bad if you don't fill the whole time speaking, as it's better to leave more time for questions. The audience will appreciate that, as many times the question and answer period can be the most interesting aspect of a speech.

Walker says that becoming an excellent speaker takes a lifetime commitment. He believes speakers should always be watching other speakers for negative and positive examples and should videotape and watch their own presentations in order to continually improve their speaking style.

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