6 Ways to Not Suck as a Presenter

Wow. Just wow.

I recently sat through an awful presentation. It was just….awful…

It was at a one hour class on gluten free living. My girlfriend is gluten free, so I went with her to learn more about it for myself.

The class, thankfully, was free, but I soon discovered that quite often you do, in fact, get what you pay for…

To put in context, after we left, my girlfriend turned to me and said, “that was the worst thing I’ve ever seen. Wasn’t that the worst thing you’ve ever seen?”

To be fair, I’ve seen a lot of presentations over the years, which means I’ve seen a lot of bad ones. I can’t say this was the worst, but it was up there. At least we got water and a small bite of pizza at the end…

Rather than leave (which, when there are only ten people there and you are on the opposite side of the room from a closed door, can be a bit awkward) or just completely space out, I decided to take some notes about why I felt it was a horrible presentation, and what any presenter can learn from it

Below are six of the biggest mistakes I noted, along with instructions on how you can avoid making those mistakes yourself. These tips apply whether you are a professional speaker, speak as part of your job, or just do presentations to small group for marketing or educational purposes.

1) Telling too Many, “I’m Awesome” Stories

If I had a bag of Doritos for every time this woman launched into some story about what amazing results she or her one of her patients had, I would be able to make the weirdest prom dress ever.

Your audience absolutely wants to know about your successes. They are hoping to learn from you. But you must be very careful with your use of stories that scream “look at how awesome I am!” because you’ll start to sound like an egotistical jackass and alienate the audience.

(Note: telling a story about how awesome someone else did after or because of your intervention is the same thing as telling a story about how awesome you are.)

You’re ok telling one, maybe two tales of your awesomeness. After that, the audience will think, “ok, we get it, move on.” It also never hurts to say, “I’m not saying this to brag, but rather to show you how you can ___,” Then fill in the blank. If you can’t fill in the blank, drop the story because it doesn’t help the audience and is pure ego.

Unless you are speaking purely as an entertainer or humorist, your stories are there to support your points. And your points should be set up to provide action steps for your audience to take. If you tell a story that can not be tied to a clear point and/or action step, then you’re not speaking; you’re bragging.

2) Spending Too Long on the Problem

This was a one hour class. Five minutes were spent distributing and eating the pizza samples. Fifty minutes were spent on why gluten is the worst food product since Soylent Green.

I’m not kidding. By the end of her talk I feel that if I was given a choice between a piece of bread and a jar of gluten free arsenic, I would be better off drinking the arsenic.

To recap the timing: This was a 60 minute class. 50 minutes were spent on the problem. 5 minutes were spent on sampling.  That left only five minutes to talk about solutions, action items, and “to-dos.”

Education is important, but your audience is going to mostly care about what they can do differently to be happier, more successful, or better off. If you spend more than twenty-five percent of your time (at most – ten percent is probably enough) focusing on the problem, you’re not speaking, you’re preaching.

3) Including No Action Items

Over the course of one hour, I can’t say there was a moment where the speaker said, “Here’s what you should do.” Other than, “stop eating gluten,” there were no calls to action.

I wasn’t looking for earth shattering advice, but how about something as simple as, “here are three gluten-free things you can eat for breakfast instead of cereal,” or, “when buying groceries, here are the specific things you can look for on the label to see if it has gluten.”

She even at one point said, “I don’t have a problem traveling,” but didn’t go on to give any of her tips for how to successfully travel while living gluten free. Crazy.

With few exceptions, the goal of any presentation is to get the audience to do something different or new. If you don’t give them some specific what’s and how’s, then you have done them a disservice. If you do this, you’re not speaking, you’re pontificating.

4) Having No Structure Whatsoever

The more I speak and see others speak, the more I appreciate the need for a solid structure. Throughout the class, I had no idea where this woman was going. She just babbled on and on. At one point she even went off on a tangent about the injustices of our legal system (don’t ask, because I couldn’t adequately explain it to you. It had something to do with a Laotian man losing thirty pounds after being unjustly incarcerated…).

Speech structure is easy, but many people blow it. Just have a beginning, have an end, sub-divide the rest of your time into points, and then periodically let the audience know where you are and where you are going.

(For more info, read this post: How to Quickly Put Together a Great Speech)

Follow a simple structure and you’ll keep your audience engaged. Don’t do that and you’re not speaking, you’re rambling.

5) Passing off Opinions as Fact

I realize I am about to walk into dangerous territory here, and I want to be clear: my goal is not to get into the “is gluten dangerous or not?” argument.  I have seen the benefits of gluten free living in enough people to accept that gluten has its issues. I 100% believe that some (maybe many more than we know) people are intolerant, allergic, or have full on Celiac disease.

However, there’s a difference between opinions you and I form based on our experiences and hard data based on controlled research and studies.

The instructor’s blatant disregard for the scientific method was mind numbingly deplorable. I’ve heard the Trix Rabbit make more cogent arguments while trying to explain that Trix is not only for kids, but also for rabbits, hares, and the occasional pika.

At one point she said, and I quote literally here, “all skin problems are gluten.”

Really? All skin problems? Every last one of them?

This was just one in a long line of gross assumptions and misleading statements she passed off as fact.

There were two big mistakes she made, which you, if you ever speak to a group, should avoid:

1. Not understanding the difference between correlation and causation – Just because two things seem related, doesn’t mean that one caused the other. She repeatedly pointed out, with great glee, how every time a patient came in with any problem, she would ask them about their diet and they would all say they ate bread and cereal. This was her proof that all of her patients’ problems stemmed from gluten. I felt like pointing out to her that all her patients probably slept at night, and drank a glass of water at some point during the day too. That doesn’t mean those things caused all their problems.
2. Not understanding the difference between anecdotal evidence and data – Every bit of proof the speaker provided to support her points was based on her own experiences, whether from living gluten free herself or working with her patients. Nothing wrong with that, but when you pass off your personal experiences as hard data, well, that’s a problem.

I want to stress again that I am not arguing against gluten-free living. However, when you base your arguments on poor logic and faulty assumptions, you not only don’t make your case, you actually weaken it.

Speaking to groups is awesome, but it comes with a responsibility. First and foremost is the responsibility to not lie to, mislead, or hoodwink your audience.

If you want to use anecdotal evidence, great, just make it clear that’s what you’re doing. If you want espouse your opinions without presenting hard data, fine, just be clear that this is what you believe.  If you don’t, you’re not speaking, you’re lying.

6) Focusing on Personal Mission Instead of the Audience’s Needs

Here’s a harsh truth for you: your audience doesn’t really care about your personal mission to change the world.

Sure, if you’re giving a TED talk or keynoting a symposium on your topic, then people may be interested in your global mission. But if you are speaking to a small group of people about how to improve their health and energy, well I’m guessing they don’t much care.

Many, many times this speaker talked about the dietary problems in the world, and how mothers in Africa are miscarrying, and how people in China are now getting obese, all due to gluten. Clearly she had a passion for this stuff.

Unfortunately, while her stories may have pulled at the audience’s heartstrings, I feel pretty confident saying that no one there really cared. The class wasn’t advertised as, “gluten’s impact around the world.” The title was, “Gluten Free: Losing Weight & Loving Life.”

I would bet real money that the attendees were mostly interested in learning:

1. What gluten free eating was
2. How it could help them lose weight
3. How living gluten free could help them “love life.”
4. Whether gluten free living would make their various digestive issues go away

Notice how “health trends on the other side of the ocean” is not on this list.

Your greatest success as a speaker will come when you touch upon the primary concerns of your audience. If you have a world changing life mission good for you! You can even talk about it if you:

1. Keep it brief
2. Tie it back to the audience’s self interest

If you don’t do those two things, you’re not speaking; you’re proselytizing.

In Conclusion

As bad as I thought this presentation was, I do applaud the instructor for two things:

1. She clearly had a passion for her message and a deep desire to help people get better
2. She was out there doing something, spreading her message.

I hope you have the same level of passion for something and that you get out there and do something about it.

If you do, and if you use speaking as one of your methods, than please, review the six tips above to make sure your message gets heard, appreciated, and spread. If you don’t, you’re not speaking, you’re just babbling…

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Do you want help making sure your next presentation (and every one after that) doesn’t suck? Then sign up for some Smart Ass Mentoring now!