What an honor! I was recently featured in an article on RoundTheTable.org, the official publication of the Million Dollar Round Table…

PRESENTATION SKILLS ~

Ed Tate, a trainer specializing in professional development, shared his strategies for making business presentations memorable.

1. Stories are sticky

“What we remember most are the stories we hear,” he said. Tate encouraged attendees to use stories about their services helping people — as opposed to statistics — whenever possible in their presentations. Stories are relatable and memorable — they “stick” with you.

2. Open your presentations creatively

“In my opinion,” Tate said, “there is nothing worse than opening with ‘Hi, my name is Ed Tate, and I’d like to tell you five strategies to make your presentations memorable.’ That’s a boring opening.”

Instead, Tate recommended opening up with a story to be more creative and more interesting. After the story, he said, frame the message by explaining what you will talk about in one sentence or less. Then, Tate said, it’s time to jump into the content.

3. Four secrets of storytelling

Tate took attendees through an exercise to explain that any story has to have four parts:

1. The head — it makes you think.

2. The heart — it makes you connect.

3. The stomach — humor causes a belly laugh.

4. Heavy hitting — the message of the story.

He conceded that humor is optional. “Sometimes presentations lend themselves to humor,” he said.

Tate emphasized the importance of the heart — the connection. “The heart (or connection) is just as important as content,” he said. “Here is what most people do: They run to their computers, they create their content and spend very little time figuring out how their content is going to relate to their audience.”

4. Focus on your outcome

He advised having a call to action in every presentation. “Before you even go into a presentation,” Tate said, “focus on your KFD first.”

K — What do you want people to know?
F — What do you want people to feel?
D — What do you want people to do?

Tate recommended practicing your presentation in front of others, and named Toastmasters as a good organization to join to improve your confidence and presentation skills. “Speaking is an active skill,” he said.