Mindfully Speaking

Have you ever sat through a presentation wondering what on earth the presenter is droning on about? If you have, it’s likely that the content was simply not relevant to you. It can be extremely frustrating listening to irrelevant content. Imagine how you would respond if an audience member stopped you half way through your presentation and asked; ’ Why exactly are you telling us this, how will tha...

The moment you read text on a slide out loud to your audience, you are insulting their intelligence. You are suggesting to your presentation audience that they can’t read and so you will do it for them. I haven’t met anyone who likes or appreciates having slides read out to them. I have however, met countless professionals who agree it’s the ultimate presentation mistake yet continue to read slide...

What is your message? What is the one thing you want your audience to take from your presentation when they return to their car or desk? If your audience could ‘Tweet’ the content of your presentation with one, clear message what would they ‘Tweet’. If you don’t know the answer to that question your presentation will probably be forgotten in a heart beat. Solution  – Set a clear, rich and com...

‘The mediocre presenter believes that they can run through their presentation a couple of times beforehand and if it makes sense to them then it will be fine for their audience. The  Mindful Presenter  does everything they can to make their content a part of themselves and so they spend many hours rehearsing. Not memorising, just rehearsing. They know their content inside and out and lea...

Death by  PowerPoint  is something every presentation audience has experienced. It’s broader than the bullet point phenomenon. Imagine a slide fraught with text, numbers, charts, or data. A slide crammed with data is annoying and unnecessary. Solution  – One idea per slide; no more. Don’t clutter slides; less is more.

The mediocre presenter believes that their slides are their presentation. PowerPoint,  Keynote ,  Google Slides  or any other visual aid software is not your presentation. High-quality presentation software can help your presentation audience receive your content more effectively. This software exists to help rather than replace you as a presenter. Solution –  Remember that you...

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin Solution  – Prepare, prepare, prepare.

Some presenters believe that ‘winging it’ is their way of improvising. This may work for you but it’s not fair to your audience. It’s highly likely that your audience will see that you are unprepared, and they won’t thank you for it. Solution  – Don’t rely on your charm or talent. Do the work.

‘The prerequisite to a brilliant presentation, before focusing on delivery, is to ensure that your message is supported by rich, relevant and rewarding content.’ The primary purpose of any presentation is to share information with your audience. Disorganised, boring or irrelevant content is the fastest way to annoy, bore or lose your audience. Solution  – Make your presentation content rich a...

How do you want your audience to feel? If you don’t have a very clear answer to that question, it’s highly unlikely that you will feel it yourself. If you don’t feel it the moment you begin to craft and deliver your presentation your audience won’t either. There are  two types  of presenter. The mindful minority understand the power of intention. Solution  – Set a clear and meaningf...

What do you want your audience to do when you have finished presenting? If you don’t have a very clear answer to that question, it’s highly likely they won’t do anything at all with the information you share with them. Solution  – Set a clear and meaningful objective for exactly what you want your audience to do at the end of your presentation. Make sure you tell them.

The moment a presentation audience sees a list of bullet points their hearts sink. Bullet points are a signpost that they need to brace themselves for a long, boring presentation. Solution  – Use images instead! If you have to use bullet points have as few as possible and keep the short!

Mindful Presenter is far more than a training and development business helping people to speak with greater confidence and impact. We are in the business of helping people to connect with each other. Connecting themselves and their ideas with others in a way that is calm, creative and compelling. Mindful Presenting is the route to connecting emotionally as well as intellectually with your audience...

Public speaking and high impact presenting is about how we make people feel. It's not simply about sharing knowledge and data, that's easy. The five most important words in presenting and public speaking is Please Make Me Feel Something. Imagine your audience silently screaming those 5 words out to you from their own minds.

You could be the best presenter and public speaker in the world but that doesn't mean you know the answer to everything. Occasionally you will be asked a question during or after your presentation that you either don't know the answer to or have momentarily forgotten the answer. Public speaking and presenting isn't easy but it becomes much easier if we own the entire experience, including the fact...

At Mindful Presenter we don't believe that you can having a boring topic, product, service or idea to present on. We do however, believe that any presentation can be made boring because the presenter is boring. The key reason for this is the lack of energy given in the crafting and delivery of the presentation. Your audience really do need your energy and if you are involved in public speaking or...

If you've been following the Mindful Presenter Truth Series you will have experienced our passionate belief that high impact public speaking and presenting involves far more than simply presenting data. At the heart of our presentation we need to send our audience a sincere feeling of love.

We all need to have our physiological needs looked after, we need to feel safe, we need to feel a sense of belong and connect, we need a healthy self esteem and we all want to be the best that we can be. In public speaking and presenting it's worth remembering that whilst we are all unique and have a vast range of very personal and specific needs at the core we are all the same. That knowledge and...

A high impact presentation is far more than a presenter simply speaking and presenting; it's a conversation. Public speaking success requires us to actively involve our audience in the presentation.

Every presentation has to be personal and relevant to your audience in a specific and meaningful way. Effective public speaking and presenting isn't about simply turning up to tell your audience what you want to see. Mindful presenting and high impact public speaking involves telling your audience what they need to know.

Far to many presenter prepare and deliver presentations without knowing exactly who there audience are, how much they know and how they can help them. Public speaking is about making a difference to people and the only way presenters can do that is by understanding the expectations of their audience and then mindfully managing those expectations.

The challenge of public speaking and presenting is to craft and deliver content and a message which is so mindfully considered that it'e memorable. If your audience don't remember your presentation then you've wasted their time and yours.

PowerPoint and other visual aid platforms are used in all walks of public speaking and presenting. There is nothing wrong with PowerPoint but there is often a great deal wrong with the way we use it. If you have a presentation to craft and deliver soon, watch out for these 5 big mistakes.

If you've ever had to prepare and deliver a presentation you'll realise as most presenters do that there are 3 types of presentation which makes public speaking a challenge. There is the presentation you prepared The presentation you delivered The presentation you wish you had delivered

One of the most important elements of high impact presenting and public speaking is eye contact. If you are giving a presentation its crucial that you make eye contact with your audience. That doesn't mean the presenter scanning the room, it means taking a few seconds to genuinely make eye contact with as many members of the audience as possible.