Dummies Guide to Dominate Presentations at Work
There’s a big difference between speaking in front of people you don’t know…
And speaking in front of people you do know.
Think about it like this.
If you mess up in front of a group you don’t know, then who cares?
They could gossip about you and you’d never know!
However, with people you do know, the narrative changes.
The ego is like:
‘What if I fumble and these people make an inside joke about it?’
Anything with rewards in life has risk.
The people on the battlefield deserve the utmost respect.
You have a presentation at work coming up.
Public speaking nerves are present.
It’s time to redirect those nerves to your favor.
Why Presentations at Work are a Good Thing
I used to have this fat coworker named Kevin.
When I say fat, he was really fat.
I think he had some sort of medical issue.
One time, the workers got paired up for a project.
At the end of the project, we had to give a presentation.
Kevin was my partner.
Kevin was an easy guy to work with.
He had a sense of humor & was laid back.
Once we were wrapping up our project, Kevin said:
‘Hey Armani, I can’t present with you tomorrow. I can’t stand for too long & speak due to medical reasons.’
I looked at him in shock.
Everyone was going to be presenting with their partners.
This fool was going to make me go out there by myself??
Did I mention we were going to have a question and answer section??
Long story short…
I ended up going out there by myself.
The nerves were present.
However, the nerves turned into adrenaline 14 seconds into the speech.
Once I was done, the questions weren’t too hectic.
After the talk, Kevin gave me a pat on the back.
He told me his medical issue was bad, but not that bad.
It was the nerves that bothered him more.
He was self-conscious about his weight.
The idea of him standing on stage looking so vulnerable terrified him.
Kevin bought me lunch that day.
I could tell by his eyes that he had regret for not going up on stage.
That feeling of regret is so common for those who don’t take strategic risks.
Mindset HACK to Dominate Presentations at Work
What Kevin’s story shows is that being called for a presentation at work is an opportunity.
Frame the narrative to your favor.
Don’t say:
‘I have to give a presentation at work.’
Say :
‘I get to give a presentation at work.’
This is a subtle shift in thinking that leads to monumental changes.
Words are perception programmers.
Just like Python, C++ and Java tells the computer what to do.
Words tell our nervous system what to do.
When you say, I get to give a presentation, that’s when you begin thinking a chain of empowering thoughts.
Some of those thoughts will be:
- I’m really moving forward in my career to get speaking opportunities.
- I can now educate the company on what my team does.
- This will give me an opportunity to exercise my speaking skills.
One sentence is a snowball.
The chain of thoughts that follow is the avalanche.
Finding the Idea for your Presentation at Work
The ultimate goal of a speech is to:
Transfer the idea from your mind to the audiences mind.
‘I thought the purpose of a speech was to get others to like me?’
Nope! That’s an egotistical goal.
Keep the idea the king, and you’re the prince.
OR
Keep the idea the queen, and you’re the princess.
With that being said, we need to know what the idea is.
Just a general vibe.
What are you talking about and what do you want others to learn?
Here’s a bad way to answer this question:
‘I am going to talk about processors and the mico nodes on the processors. Why the code needs a new debugging system….blah blah blah.’
Too detailed!
That’s like you going to McDonald’s and saying:
‘I want pickles, bread, sesame seeds, meat, ketchup, mustard…. blah blah blah.’
Too detailed!
Just say, ‘I would like a burger.’
Then go more detailed when needed.
For your speech, find the burger.
A good example is:
‘I’d like to educate the audience on the role our team provides to the company.’
Here’s a mental cheat code:
Whatever your idea is, add ‘for dummies’ at the end.
Example:
‘I’m going to explain what my team does, for dummies.’
When you add ‘for dummies’ it STRESSES the importance of simplicity.
Creating the Talk
From the general idea, we go specific.
Divide the talk into 3 parts.
- Introduction of what you’re going to talk about.
- Your talk.
- A recap of your talk.
From there, brainstorm a bunch of ideas.
Allow the brainstorming stage to be messy.
Jot down any idea that is of interest.
It’s better to have a lot of content that you can trim away from vs having little content that you have to add on to.
After brainstorming, we have a bunch of ideas.
Your goal is to pick the most important ideas and eliminate the ones that are not as important.
Then intertwine the remaining ideas in a way that matches the purpose of your talk.
The goal is to build a prototype/rough draft.
Beginning, middle, and end.
The more you articulate your speech out loud, the more polished it will become.
That’s all you need to transfer the topic from your mind to the audience’s mind.
Notice, we aren’t being too detailed or complex.
With simplicity, we can show our personality.
Dominate Presentations at Work
Give speeches from the heart rather than the ego.
When you speak from the ego, it’s all about how you can get others to like you.
When you speak from the heart, you become secondary to the idea.
Recap:
- Say, ‘I get to give a speech.’
- Focus on transferring your idea to the audience’s mind.
- State your idea and add ‘for dummies’ at the end.
- Then break the speech into what your talk is about (intro), the talk (middle), and a recap (end).
So easy, a dummy can do it.
So easy, dummies can understand it!
For more practical insights into public speaking, be sure to check out the Speaking Wizard ebook!
You’ll learn how to manage speech anxiety, create speeches & deliver with the utmost confidence!
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