Lessons
Become an Engaging Presenter
1Class Introduction
01:57 2Engage Your Audience Right Away
08:13 3Why Presentations Miss the Mark
03:49 4Tips for Effective Communication
22:04 5Break Down Audience Barriers
04:16 6Stories vs. Statistics
08:44 7Build Your Presentation
05:10Lesson Info
Q&A & Final Thoughts
Does anyone have any questions? (laughs) You mentioned that when you rehearse everything and you record it, and how long do you normally take to kind of feedbackly watch yourself and everything? How long after you recorded yourself do you review everything after that? That's a great question. I'm just kidding. (laughs) Thank you. You're welcome. I do it immediately, because I'm already in the moment. I have an idea when I've been doing it. And the reason that we demand feedback even from the recorder is that it's the only way I'm gonna grow. If I just repeat over and over again and physically do that, I might get into a rut where I'm not being affective, so I'll listen right away. This is a fairly long presentation so it took me a while, but I listened right away to find out what was missing and what actually was working to build up that content, so I like to do it immediately. But I might rehearse once, tape it, watch or listen to it, then the next time I do it, after I watch ...
it or listen to it I might get into just the parts that I need to work on and just record those bits versus the whole thing over and over again. Because especially if you are doing a long presentation if you only try to work on the ending and you start from beginning every time by the time you get there you are like "oh, whatever, I'll, I'll..." then you go, "I'll just wing it." So that's sort of how I do it, and I like to listen to it right away because it's fresh and you get that feedback immediately. That's why if I do a class and I want feedback, I don't say to someone, "can you email me Thursday for the class I did last week," I'm like, "tell me right now." I'll gonna write those things down because it's fresh in my head. Did that answer your question? It does. Yeah. Thank you very much. So that's another thing we can do in Q&A. I literally looked at the audience member and said, "Does that answer your question?" I'm verifying that they've got the answer because I don't want to avoid the answer. I want to make sure you are getting what you need out of this. Chris, lay one on me. Yeah. This one comes from Jay Graydin from Washington. It says, "What do you do when you realize that you've been reviewing your points too quickly and you lost you pace?" You were kind of joking about this, like what if you have ten minutes, and you realize it's eight minutes in, like, oh no, I haven't hit anything. When do you speed up when do you slow done? It's a great point. I sped up a little bit in the end but in a way that didn't affect the audience with all these barriers, but it's really important. The biggest thing is don't start firing through your slides, but be honest about it and say, here's where we're at, I only have a couple of minutes left, I've already built my presentation with my priorities and my logical flow so I'm gonna say I've got two minutes left, I'm gonna give you the two points that I think are most important to this. And I might go right to that slide or I might not. I'm not gonna fire through because I've seen a lot of people go, "that's not important, that's not important, here we go, that's not important." Audience barrier immediately goes, well, now nothing is important. So that's how I would approach it. I would absolutely pay attention to let the audience know and say this is what I've got. So? Any other question here? I can give you one more. Give me one more and then we'll end. So this is, a couple of people had similar questions here, worried about their soft natural voices. They want to become better with our voices. Because I know, you mentioned a few tips, rehearsal, but what if you are just naturally a soft-spoken person, how can you improve that? Yeah. Clearly, I'm not a naturally soft-spoken person. (Chris laughs) I'm loud, I'm extroverted, I come from a big Irish family where I'm like, "Pass the potatoes!" Right? (audience laughing) So that's how we live. But maybe you are somebody who is a little bit quieter and that's where breath is so important. It's not necessarily about those voice, it's about the breath underneath. If you actually expand your diaphragm and take in that breath, you've got something to support that whisper, because here's the thing, this is what we think about, because we watch a lot of television and film now, we don't necessarily see a lot of theater, but whispers like this. But I can actually whisper in a voice that's powerful that you know what I'm getting the point across but I'm elevating it with my diaphragm and I'm giving you that power. So someone with a soft-spoken voice, I would start to exercise and do that diaphragm exercise where you breath in. A great one for me is if you breath in from your chest just in your chest and then you say the alphabet over and over again as many times as you can do it slowly, you probably get through like one and a half alphabets, But if you take in that nice breath and you feel that muscle expand, I can do about seven alphabets slowly, because I'm holding that breath in and it gives me that power to tell you a point. So instead of saying breath is important because I have a soft voice, I might say my breath is important because I'm using that muscle. And that's all we've got. Thank you very much. Wonderful. Thank you. (audience clapping) Alright.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
NeeLee
This is my second time as an audience member for Creative Live, and I have to tell you all - I'm hooked! I decided to give it a shot because I'm genuinely interested in the subject being covered, it is a wonderful networking opportunity, and its free for audience members - so I receive the course and the bonus materials. For those of you that are nervous about the cameras like I was, let me assure you that you hardly even notice them. If you ever watched a few courses before becoming an audience member, you can tell how little the audience is even shown. Now as for Mr. Whelan - CL couldn't have picked a better presenter to present about presentations. His knowledge and experience reflects in his presentation - he's warm, personable, and if he did rehearse and prepare the way he recommends, it's not noticeable. He's natural and you can relate to every point made. I hope there are other Andrew Whelan courses in the future. I highly recommend CL - as a participant and an audience member - for their variety of course content and bonus materials that I continue to use in my day-to-day. I strongly recommend any class or workshop that includes Andrew Whelan. His advice, experience, and genuine empathetic approach to helping others become better, is invaluable. Thank you Andrew and Thank you Creative Live!
Carolyn Winslow
Thank you! You gave me some fresh ideas to share when I am presenting, and when I'm helping folks be more comfortable when they need to speak in front of others. Good examples, to the point without fluff, and even a bit entertaining. Thanks!
Jack Foxe
This was my first live audience experience, and wow was i shocked how engaged i was! Im someone who has an awful attention span so the fact that i was listening and taking everything in was fantastic. Thanks Andrew for some great tips and making me laugh and thanks to Creative Live for having me in the audience. If anyone who interacts with other people on a regular basis this class is essential!