Crash course on presentations

To deliver your presentation you need to know what you are talking about. You should be an expert in the field...

This statement scares you? No need. Listen to the definition of an expert and relax.

Hard to relax? Use affirmation technique.

Who are you to your audience? Expert? Lecturer? Peer? Subordinate? Boss?

That will determine certain parts of your presentation.

Before (!!!) you start preparing your presentation find out how are you expected to deliver it. No point loosing time if what you prepare will not be compatible with expectations (or equipment)

A simple presentation should have only one style of slides. Design a Key-slide or Template with me now and duplicate it to cover the entire presentation.

After setting up your template or key-slide this video takes you through the process of composing your first and last slide.

In some presentation you will want the audience to ask questions. There are 3 ways to introduce them:

- during the presentation (allow interruptions)

- at the very end

- just before the conclusion or the take home message slide

When to use each of them is explained in this video.

No jokes. After you introduce yourself ask a question or tell an anecdote.

What you put into content slides depends on the topic of your presentation. There are general rules to do it right though.

The language I recommend to use in your presentation does not come on the list of contemporary languages of the world.

Do not overexert your mind with things to remember. There is enough of them. Write a short plan/template/some notes of your presentation and have them handy.

In this chapter there will be a number of checklist that I suggest you make in preparation for your presentation. You can prepare them a day before or on the morning of your presentation - time allowing.

As you may be short of time each checklist is included beside its respective lesson in a .pdf file. I strongly encourage you though to prepare a handwritten checklist yourself. The power of pen and paper is not in its beauty or neat handwriting. It is in getting your brain to remember things better. If you write something yourself it is imprinting in your memory better.

For this chapter prepare a pen and some paper. Please write things down as I dictate them. Even if you use the .pdf list afterwards this work will benefit you in due course.

On a presentation day start with preparing yourself both mentally and physically.

I would say "get some sleep" but it is often not possible. Other solutions and advices are in the video.

The environment you will enter to present your content may or may not be familiar. Whether it is or not - ARRIVE EARLY and PREPARE.

Things to check are listed in the video.

The last moments before you step onto the stage can be very stressful. A handful of thing 'not to forget' are presented in this video.

They say "It is not how you start that matters but how you finish."

I may disagree with that to some extend but your job is not OVER until it's OVER. The manner of your conclusion and how you close your presentation matters. The way you react to either applause or critique or a question leaves an impression. The simplest way I learned through the years is in this video.

Allow yourself some relaxing time after your presentation. You would most likely feel "hot" just after. Here are some tips for the cooldown period.

If you liked what you've done with a crash course alone and wish to continue to develop in presentations and public speaking visit my profile here on Udemy.

If you liked the way I teach you can find my advanced course on Udemy

Best of luck!

Oskar Zgraj

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the amount of preparation before a live streaming? Have you ever left the preparation for the last minute and it turned into a disaster? Well, I have. So I started to prepare earlier and wiser. This checklist summarises my preparation. I hope it will help you in some way!

Best of luck!

Oskar