“forgive a stumble, an ‘um,’ or a section where you backtrack as long as they know that your heart is in the right place.”

When you’re segmenting your audience, take a look at: Politics: Power, influence, decision process Demographics: Age, education, ethnicity, gender, and geography Psychographics: Personality, values, attitudes, interests, communities, and lifestyle Firmographics: Number of employees, revenue size, industry, number of locations, location of headquart

What are they like? Think through a day in their lives. Describe what that looks like so they’ll know you “get” them. Why are they here? What do they think they’re going to get out of this presentation? Are they willing participants or mandatory attendees? Highlight what’s in it for them. What keeps them up at night? Everyone has a fear, a pain poi

Similarly, your audience should focus intently on what you’re saying, looking only briefly at your slides when you display them. To create slides that pass the glance test: Start with a clean surface: Instead of using the default “Click to Add Title” and “Click to Add Text” slide master, turn off all the master prompts and start with a blank slide.

The people in your audience came to see what you can do for them, not what they must do for you. So look at the audience as the “hero” of your idea—

Plan content for 60% of your time slot: If you’re given a full hour, take no more than 40 minutes. That will leave time for Q&A, a panel, or some other form of discussion. It’s hard to keep people’s attention for much longer than 40 minutes unless you’ve built in interesting guest speakers, video clips, interactive exercises, and such. As Thoma

Inventory of Personal Stories Important times in your life: Childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, later years Relatives: Parents, grandparents, siblings, children, in-laws Authority figures: Teachers, bosses, coaches, mentors, leaders, political figures, other influencers Peers: Colleagues, social networks, club members, friends, neighbors, team

Your big idea is that one key message you must communicate. It’s what compels the audience to change course. (Screenwriters call this the “controlling idea.”) It has two components: Your point of view: The big idea needs to express your perspective on a subject, not a generalization like “Q4 financials.” Otherwise, why present? You may as well e-ma

If I am to speak for ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now.