List the audience's needs

In this first step, you will be required to identify what the audience needs to know. What is their objective for coming to this talk?

Approach the situation from the audience's perspective. Why is the audience here? What's in it for them to be here? What sort of material are they looking for? Are they seeking information, entertainment or inspiration? Perhaps a combination of the three? These factors have to be considered when planning your speech,

Assess the audience

The next step is assessing the audience. We can remember this with acronym KILL.

K - Knowledge

What is the knowledge level of the audience? Are they well informed of the subject matter or are they encountering the topic for the very first time.

I - Interest

Is the audience eager to hear about this message? Or will it be a hostile audience?

L - Language

Will the audience be familiar with the of the presentation?

L - Level

What is the level of the audience? Will the audience consist of a homogeneous group such as a class of school children? Or will it contain people from all walks of life, of which the presenter will need to strike a good balance to appeal and meet the needs of the entire group.

By KILLing the audience, you will have a better idea of the technical level which you will be going to pitch the idea at. For technical presentations, you might check out the article Presentation Tips for the Technical Professional for tipsthat can help you the next time when you are delivering a technical presentation.

Decide on the outcome

Remember to maintain the focus on the audience. Based on the type of speech, you will need to decide beforehand what you want the audience to know, (for an informative speech).

For a motivational speech, you will need to know what you want them to feel. (Motivated, inspired or excited?)

Alternatively, for a speech which has a call for action, decide beforehand what you want them to do with your message or information. Do you want them to use it? Or perhaps to be invited back for further events? You will have to decide beforehand.

The following three step process should be followed as the very first step when planning a speech. This will allow you to focus and narrow the scope of your speech allowing it to be more focus and relevant. After you have completed analysing your audience, you might consider preparing your speech according to the following six steps. I hope that by following this recommended structure, you will be able to effectively wow your audience with a great prepared speech.

Speaking before a group was the primary fear for the 2,543 male and female adult Americans surveyed by Bruskin Associates (1973). Similarly, data gathered over an eight-year period from 20,000 students at Michigan State University, Illinois State University, and West Virginia University showed that between 15 and 20 percent of students suffered from fears of public speaking (McCroskey, 1977).

How can you face your fears and come to terms with your nervousness?

You are just about to go on stage and give your talk. You are terribly nervous and sweating - what does this tell about you? This just shows that you wish to perform well and you care about the results of your efforts.

Fear is natural, fear is not your enemy and fear alerts you to potential dangers and is at your service. But if fear controls you, you crumble and cannot perform. Stage fright is your body's way of alerting you to prepare. What you do about your nervousness is crucial.

Three things to remember about conquering fear:

The panic intensifies the more you try to escape it.

 

You have to accept your fears and make them an ally working for you rather than against you. Accept your fears as a signalling mechanism that alerts you and then fear will stop torturing you.

Stage fright seems awful to the speaker.

Most of the time, people in the audience may not even notice that you are nervous. Almost everybody in the audience understands that stage fright is human and don't pay much attention to it. But if the speaker is bothered by it, the symptoms escalate. The audience notices it only when you're really messed up.

Accept that nervousness is actually good for you and then learn to use the anxiety to your advantage.

Most speakers are nervous at the beginning of a presentation but get more relaxed as the presentation goes on. If you manage to channel the energy of nervousness in a constructive way it relaxes you.

There are very many techniques for dealing with nervousness and stage fright.

Breathing technique

First clear your nostrils by breathing in and out quickly several times in a row. Next, use the thumb to close your right nostril and your ring finger to close your left nostril alternately. Begin by inhaling through both nostrils. Then breathe out through one nostril, while blocking the other, and then switch and breathe in through the other nostril. After three complete breaths, exhale without switching sides, and do three more breaths. Now rest and breathe deeply and evenly through both nostrils for a few minutes. Then repeat the cycle two more times.

Visualization technique

Visualize your words issuing from you and going over to the audience like a cloud or a wave. Next see the audience feeling energized and good about it. Then visualize them getting interested and asking question or nodding in agreement. Finally visualize them clapping enthusiastically as you finish. See yourself glowing in happiness there in front of the audience after giving your successful presentation.

Transforming the energy of nervousness

One strategy for transforming the energy of nervousness is to discover the physical feeling of anxiety in our body by paying attention to physical sensations. Where is this feeling centred? Is it in the stomach, throat, hands, feet or somewhere else? When you discover this spot, usually near the stomach, move it up slowly towards your heart or head and notice how the emotion changes. This mental and physical relocation will shift the emotion to the higher, more positive pole of anticipation or excitement. Do this exercise anytime nervousness strikes, even just minutes before the start of the presentation.

Physical activity during presentation

Another tactic to cover up your nervousness difficulty with handling stress is to plan an explicitly physical activity as your introduction or icebreaker. This is not a physical exercise to necessarily get you giggling or sporty, but to activate everyone. Some presenters go and shake hands with everyone in the audience (for small audiences).

Fortunately, people who do not speak regularly in public are rarely asked to do so on the spur of the moment. This means that a person will generally have a few days and maybe weeks to get ready for this assignment. The first thing to do is request a fact sheet about the person being introduced. If he or she is a well known speaker or makes a living by doing public speaking this document will be readily available. If not, it can be constucted by contacting the person to do a brief interview to collect information. Either way, it is important to know a few significant things about the person's qualifications.

Once armed with this information, an outline needs to be formed of how to present the speaker to the group. Start the outline by listing where the person was born and raised if this is available. The geography lesson needs to be followed with two or three sentences about his or her educational credentials. This is even more important if the person graduated from a prominent school like Harvard or has achieved a doctorate. Anything that adds weight to the speaker's expert status is worth saying.

From here, the introduction should briefly cover his or her work history. It is important to distill the best from the rest. The audience should feel that the person has already accomplished the goals that are being discussed. For example, if it is a speaker at an investment seminar, it would be good if the person had been successful working for a major stock broker. Frequently, by the time someone is being invited to speak about a certain field or hot topic, the person's reputation is known. The idea is to remind the group why the speaker's words are important to each audience member.

If the speaker has had a major event happen recently in his or her life that can add a human interest side to their biography, it is important to include this in the introductory remarks. The birth of a first grandchild or marriage of the first or last or only child would be some examples of things people like to hear that make the speaker more human. Listeners like to be able to identify with a speaker as a person as much or more as they do as an expert.

If possible, the introduction should list a few places or groups the speaker has addressed in previous weeks. This will create a sense that everyone wants to listen to what this person has to say. People like to be a part of what is currently popular.

Finally, the remarks might be flavored with a few brief excellent newer jokes or funny stories. These should be told well or not at all. The plan here is to build interest and excitement for the guest speaker not to make the audience run for the doors. The best introduction will introduce the speaker without trying to match or outdo what he or she will say.

While this might seem an obvious one, I regularly encounter speakers who usually under dress or (some) overdress. The thumb of rule is, of course, better be overdressed than under dressed. Your audience wants to look up to you and good "packaging" will enhance your image tremendously. When unsure, contact the organizer and find out what is the expected attire for speakers.

Develop a great intro and closing and practice it till you can say them forward and backward even in your dreams! There are only few things screaming "I'm not a professional" than someone starting their presentation with excuses or some weak mumbo-jumbo. Start your presentation with a quote, an intriguing question, humor, or a short story, or even magic; then link your intro to the topic of the day. Close your presentation by bringing up elements of your intro and build to a strong finish to elicit your well-deserved applause. One of my favorite techniques is the short suspense story that captivates the audience, then without finishing it, link it to the topic of the day. Then as a closing of the presentation, bring up again the suspense story, make a comparison to the topic again, and this time finish it. REPHRASE!!!! Have a second conclusion prepared. After a speech or a presentation usually comes a question and answer period. Once the questions stop coming, it is best to end on a strong note. This is a great time to get your "last word" in.

Notice your tendency to use "Ah's," Mmm's" and other fillers in your presentation! It can become really annoying when a speaker is uncomfortable with pauses in between sentences or while thinking, and fills those gaps with "Ahhh..," "Mmm…," or other sounds. Another, almost equally, annoying fillers are the constantly repeated "You know what I mean," "You see what I'm saying," and other constantly repeated fillers.
There are two good ways to raise your awareness about these fillers: a) record one (or more) of your presentation(s) and listen with an ear for filers; b) Join your local Toastmasters International club - they are really good about helping you break your filler habits. (I had around 60 "Ahh's" and "Mmmm's" in my first speech I delivered at Toastmasters. By the time I gave my 7th or 8th speech I had zero fillers.) Once you are aware of your tendencies of using certain fillers, you can consciously take steps to eliminating them.

Keep eye contact!

One of the biggest difficulties of novice public speakers is keeping eye contact with the audience. However, this is a very crucial element to come across as a great speaker. When a speaker keeps looking above the audiences head, the ceiling, the floor, etc., after a while the audience starts wandering "Who the heck is this guy talking to?"
The easiest method to keeping good eye contact with your audience is by finding one smiling or friendly face and keep eye contact most of the time with that person... Then as the presentation moves on, start making eye contact (for a second or two) with some other audience members, but always returning to your smiling/friendly face. Then once you find another encouraging audience member, start keeping eye contact for some time period with this second person, while also wandering away to make eye contact with other audience members for a second or two.By following this method, usually one finds themselves more and more encouraged and the confidence gained that way will result in an easier flow of the message and more and more audience members will become engaged and be transformed into "friendly and smiling" faces.

Don't overwhelm your audience with too much information!

Do you want your audiences to leave with a sense of "This was great! Today I learned something?" Then narrow down the information you want to present in a way that will not overwhelm your audience. Ask yourself "What is it that the audience really needs to know about this topic?" Then break down that info into chunks that will fit the length of your presentation. At the end of your presentation give your audience information on how they can learn more about the topic - hopefully, by buying your book(s), tapes, CD, extended course, etc.

Avoid PowerPoint blunders!

There are three most common PowerPoint blunders that will scream "I'M A TOTAL BEGINNER!" Filling up each slide with complete paragraphs and reading them off the projection screen Using too many different kinds of animation schemes. Stick with one, or max two, and keep them simple. It gets annoying after a while to wait for sentences to crawl in or to land on the screen like a helicopter.Use of too complex or blank templates. Either keep it simple and professional, or use pictures that are relevant to your topic. Pictures that have a little humorous slant are most effective (in my experience), but be cautious not to fall in extremes where the pictures create too much distraction from your presentation.

Build your presentation in an easy to follow format!

Whether you are using PowerPoint, flip chart, or other methods to stay on track and to keep your audiences on track, make sure that you tell them in the introduction what points you will cover, then stick to the "plan" as close as possible. An easy way to accomplish this is by giving out handouts where participants can follow your train of thought. One of the most effective ways would be to have the main points spelled out on the handout, then have some fill-in-the-blanks fragments relating to each particular point.

Time yourself! When you practice, time each segment of your presentation and prepare a little cheat sheet (a 2 X 4 card, for example) that you will keep in your sight while you speak, right near a timer or watch. With this little "tool" you'll always know whether you are on track. If you are running out of time, speed up or skip parts of your presentation and conclude with your rehearsed closing.

"Ask" for the applause!

As I sit in at beginner speakers' presentations, I often notice a common mistake: ending on a low note and not eliciting applause. As speakers we want to know that we did great, and the way we do that is by allowing the audience to express their satisfaction by a stormy applause. And an easy way to do that is by ending the presentation with a well-rehearsed closing (see point 2 above), bringing it all together, and perhaps giving a last great quote or some wisdom related to the topic. Then pause and give the audience a chance to react to your closing.In order to not break your audience's enthusiasm and response to your presentation, talk about special offers and Q&A after the applause. You can include little plug-ins of your offers in the body of your presentation.

have special offers!

Such as refer your audience to an E-course that they can sign up for on your website, or even better, pass out a sign-up sheet and let them sign up right there on the spot (this would be appropriate with a smaller audience).
Mention related articles available on your website (which each should include special offers as well).
Talk up your book, if you have one.
No matter what your special offer is, the most important thing is to have one that results at minimum in capturing names and contact info.