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But his chap took it to the extreme. He was darting around the room like a headless chicken and getting right into the person space of the audience. He made the audience very uncomfortable by getting very close to some people’s faces.

And then he made the fatal mistake. He went over his allotted one-hour time slot by 20 minutes. That is a CARDINAL sin for speakers. A good speaker always shows discipline and RESPECTS the audience and the speakers following him by staying on time.

If I were the MC, I would have turned off his mike and ushered him out of the room. Perhaps the reason he was darting around the room so much was that he was trying to avoid the trap door on the floor that would drop him.

A very poor speaker. Very few people remembered his mumblings. But they all remembered his poor performance. Another case of you can’t fix stupid.

So why would anyone in this right mind show the audience a slide that he KNOW to be unreadable? The funny part was that half of the audience was straining to read the tiny little numbers on the slides and paid absolutely no attention to the speaker.

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The brain, as I like to describe it, is an incredibly complex series of neural networks. Specific regions and structures—many of which perform multiple functions—are interconnected to (if you will pardon the expression) a mind-boggling degree. Today, thanks to the amazing advances that have been made in neuroscience, we understand a great deal about how these networks operate, and we are able to capture and analyze the brain’s responses to stimuli at the subconscious level and what effects it most positively.

But here I will touch upon some key learnings derived from the thousands of neuromarketing studies that have been conducted around the world. These findings are ones which every speaker can apply almost immediately.

Faces are Fundamental: the brain simply loves faces. Following many millennias’ worth of neurological development and refinement, we are built to search facial expressions for indications of intent. Are you friend or foe? One of our core recommendations is: find ways to focus on faces in your power points , stories, events etc. Your audience’s brain will (subconsciously) thank you for it.

“The brain dislikes sharp edges and straight lines. To the limited extent they exist in nature itself, they represent a threat to the subconscious mind.”

Curves are Critical: the brain dislikes sharp edges and straight lines. To the limited extent they exist in nature itself, they represent a threat to the subconscious mind. Such features can cut, maim, even kill—and they automatically invoke what is known as an ‘avoidance response’ deep in the brain. We are driven away from them, without even being aware of it. So avoid such things in your visual presentations.

Images on the Left, Words on the Right: The brain is built to prefer this presentation. Apply it to everything from advertising your profile to speaking convention.

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Will someone please help me…I am about to slip into a coma.

One person replied that “But doing that, with one point per slide will increase the total number of slides into hundred. We’re supposed to keep it within twenty.”

Where do you suppose that “keep it within 20 slides” rule come from?

From the horse and buggy days when people were using 35mm carousels at conferences. Since a carousel could only take 80 slides and if there were 4 presenters, the organizer would have to limit each speaker to ‘NO MORE THAN 20 SLIDES”!

But now most computers that I am aware of can accommodate more than 20 slides, I suggest that the old 20-slide-limit rule be thrown out – together with the old horse whip and buggy.

You may have been doing it (cramming 5 bullet points into one slide) for 40 years. That means you have been doing it wrong for 40 years.

The time it takes to talk about 100 points is the same if you present them in 20 slides or 100 slides. You know – 100 pounds of steel weights the same as 100 pounds of cotton.

Go to my website and order a booklet on how to make great presentations.

Then came the doctor’s turn. He was asked the same question and thought “if it worked for the priest maybe it will work for me too,” so he requested to take the blade face up. Again the blade stopped a half inch from the target, and as with the priest, the authorities released the doctor.

Now was the engineer’s turn and, being no one’s fool, he also opted to take the blade face up. As he lay with his neck firmly placed in the crook of the guillotine and looked up to his maker, and to the blade, he exclaimed, “Ooh, I think I see your problem.”

Moral of the story: Quit while you are ahead. No pun intended.

Once you have made a point in a presentation, it is time to move on.

Full credit for this funny tale goes to Barry Trilling – a prominent attorney.

She claimed she was using “subtitles” but she wasn’t.  And she was not reading a script verbatim either. She was speaking full sentences with a bunch of unrelated bullet points on the slides. That was very distracting because the readers cannot decide whether to ignore her spoken words and read the bullet points or close their eyes and just listen to her voice. Very confusing.

She had the worst of both worlds. It is literally like TWO persons “talking” at the same time – one with bullet points and one with sounds.

1. Be on time. Never be late for your presentation.  If you make your audience wait for you (even for 2 minutes), you are not showing them the respect that they deserve. After all, they did show up on time for YOUR presentation. So should you.
2. Be prepared. Understand your topic and be prepared to answer any questions. Go over the possible questions and answers in your head and speak out loud. But do NOT memorize your presentation. You do not want to come across as a robot. Only excellent actors (and they are not too many of them) can memorize their lines and come across as genuine.
3. Dress one notch up. Always come dressed one notch up. In other words, be slightly better dressed than your audience. That too is a sign of respect. You can always dress down afterwards. If none of your audience wears a tie, you get take off your jacket and tie after a few minutes into your presentation and roll up your sleeves. It will put the audience at ease too. It shows you are connecting with them.
4. Look them in the eyes, smile and speak clearly. Look at the audience. Not at your screen. Make frequent eye contacts. It is called listening with your eyes. Get feedback DURING the presentation if you sense that the audience is not getting what you are saying. Invite the audience to ask questions during the presentation and not just at the end of your talk. Speak slowly – at a normal conversation. Remember – your presentation is a conversation with the audience.  A lot of speakers speak too rapidly because they cram way too much stuff in their presentation. They feel that they have to cover the Universe’s entire body of knowledge on the topic in 50 minutes.
5. Finally, thank them twice. Always thank your audience – twice. Once at the beginning for coming to hear your presentation. And thank them again at the end of your talk.