52 Weeks of Plan, Do, Track - Week 35: Presentations 101

​Week 35 Focus – Presentations 101
Focus Question: What is important to communicate in your next presentation? How do you want to capture people’s attention?

Description
As a solopreneur, it's likely that you'll be giving presentations to a wide variety of audiences from webinars, to lunch and learns, to speaking at conferences. Section 3 goes into many different ways you can be thinking about creating content and positioning presentation.
 
Fear of public speaking is usually listed as a Top 10 fear of adults. So how can we prepare to give a WOW presentation?
 
As a starting point, take 5 minutes to brainstorm. Make a list of everything you could possibly talk about. What are the topics that your clients or customers would really appreciate?
 
As someone who's been involved in presentation skills training for almost 2 decades, here are a couple of key things to keep in mind:

• Speak in bullet points – reinforce what the main points are at the start, middle and end.
• What would you like people to take away from the presentation?
• Connect people early on to what’s important about the topic for them. We often call this the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?)

 
Research/Story
One of the biggest pitfalls you can experience as a presenter is that no one wants to participate.
 
 Tips to get participation happening:

1. Be clear with process let people know what process will unfold. Describe what they can expect to take away from the session (3 bullet points). Return to this throughout your session.
2. Connect them with their WIIFM – What’s In It For Me? Connect people early in your presentation to how this topic has relevance to them. You might do this by asking the question – What’s important about this topic to you right now?  OR Who has a story that they can share? Consider how you will connect people early on.
3. Have a variety of strategies to engage people on a regular basis. From the litmus test of incorporating a pace change 7-10 minutes, to a more frequent pace change virtually, we want to keep things moving and involve the audience. Virtually, this can range from breakouts to annotation to polls. Get people involved in the presentation. Bring in their stories and voice.

 
Activity
Consider an upcoming presentation:

• What is important to note about the process? What is the purpose? What is the presentation all about?  What do you hope people will take away?
• What will you do to connect people to their WIIFM?
• What are the strategies you will use to connect people to their WIIFM? When?

 
Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Refer to Section 3 of the Coaching Business Builder and the section specific to presentations. Take a look at the textbox on presentations which you will find on page 77 of the Coaching Business Builder.

Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Plan, Do and Track here.

Best wishes, 
Jennifer

Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Plan, Do and Track

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​Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019),  Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Pick up a copy of any of her books at Amazon
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