Pro Speakers on How to Give a Perfect Keynote Presentation

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Two years ago, I used to be asked to give a display about my HubSpot post on emotional marketing. It was by far the both thrilling and nerve wracking experience of my professional life.

Really dont necessarily hate public speaking. However , leading up to the event, I experienced the full responsibility of not just delivering a good presentation but additionally teaching the audience valuable, actionable information — which was very intimidating.

I desired to do a good job, and I wanted to be a good instructor.

Therein lies the importance of keynote presentations: to be effective, they should be educational and entertaining. Do you have a keynote presentation in your future? Read on for some advice from professional speakers.

First, just what keynote presentation? Glad a person asked.

You may also be tasked with a keynote presentation in order to secure funding, make a purchase, or update stakeholders or executives. Whatever stage you are on, delivering a keynote presentation is an important responsibility being a public speaker.

How to Give a Perfect Keynote Presentation, According to the Specialists

I spoke with four professional speakers on how to deliver a near-perfect presentation. Here are five pieces of advice they shared.

1 . Rehearse, practice, rehearse.

When it comes to public speaking, practice quite literally makes perfect. Every expert I talked with mentioned how frequently they rehearse their presentations.

“However much you think you should rehearse, rehearse 10 instances more than that. When you show up to a concert, you expect the musicians know their tunes, and you certainly don’t desire the first time they try to perform it to be right there on stage. You owe your audience as well as the folks hiring you to talk the same respect, ” mentioned Melanie Deziel, international keynote speaker and founder of StoryFuel. (She received these tips herself from Michael plus Amy Port at Heroic Public Speaking. )

Melanie Deziel keynote speaker hubspot

Offered by Melanie Deziel

As more presentations and events become fully virtual, the likelihood of technical difficulties also grows. Rehearsing your content can help you weather conditions any interruptions or last-minute changes.

Rehearsal not only results in content mastery; it enables freedom in your presentations. “The more you rehearse and turn into comfortable with the content, the freer you’ll be to take chances, test, and truly focus on your own delivery, rather than trying to remember what comes next, ” shared Deziel.

 

Just how do these experts recommend practicing your presentations? “[Use] a mirror, ” said Olivia Scott, keynote speaker and founder of Omerge Alliances. “I take the time to observe how I’m being received, I look at my body posture, and I look at everything to make sure that Personally i think good about what I’m delivering. This isn’t exactly a tool or technology, but it’s a method to practice and rehearse. ”

olivia scott keynote presentation hubspot

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Additionally , consider asking close friends, family, and trusted co-workers to listen to your practice operates and provide feedback on your demonstration.

2 . Ask for feedback.

Talking about feedback, expert orators understand to ask for it on a regular basis — from friends, peer groupings, mentors, audience members, plus clients. “Find a support crew and connect with other loudspeakers in the industry, ” mentioned Karen Hopper, keynote speaker plus data strategist at M+R. Hopper personally recommends Glow Bootcamp, which provided her with lifelong friendships, useful feedback, and a priceless education and learning about public speaking.

Karen Hopper keynote presentation hubspot

Provided by Karen Hopper

“We help each other along with feedback on our pitches, topics, outlines, and presentations, and we celebrate each others’ is victorious, ” said Hopper. “… It’s well worth surrounding your self with people who will cheer for you and who will give you truthful feedback — the fastest way to get better is to ruthlessly seek out that feedback. ”

Clients can also be an incredibly helpful source of feedback. If you’re inquired to speak at an event or conference, consider requesting the people who hired you. “I ask my client for their reaction immediately after every single presentation. It’s important to know how they felt, and whether or not the presentation achieved their objectives. Every time my client will be happy, that’s my most successful presentation, ” said Jeff Toister, keynote loudspeaker, author, and customer service expert.

jeff toister keynote speaking hubspot

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Lastly, the very best feedback often comes from the original source — in this case, your audience. Whether you ask questions in your presentation (which we’ll discuss next) or ask for comments following your presentation, it’s never a bad idea to know exactly what your audience thought about your own keynote.

Feedback may seem different if giving a web-based keynote presentation, but that it is still possible.

“It’s been a creative challenge to adapt a talk I’d hoped to give in person to work in the virtual environment. It’s much harder to tell how your talks are received on the internet, without being able to see nodding and note-taking and hear laughter and clapping. Yet all the feedback I have received [over email] indicated that my talk successfully changed the way many people are thinking about their content idea generation process, and that was the best goal of the talk: to change how people think , ” discussed Deziel, referring to her recent keynote at Content Marketing World 2020.

3. Employ your audience.

Nobody enjoys being talked at . Sure, delivering a keynote presentation consists of you doing most of the talking, but it doesn’t have to be a visible conversation. Many of the experts I interviewed encouraged some sort of audience engagement or interaction to improve your presentation.

“People love to be involved in a presentation. Rather than explain a concept to my market, I find a way to have all of them experience it, ” said Toister. “For example, after i share how multitasking affects productivity and causes us to make more errors, I use the audience try a short multitasking exercise so they can experience the problem themselves. ”

Are you aware that audience engagement levels fall considerably (14%) if a presenter does most of the talking, versus if the audience talks just as much? Moreover, 64% of people think that a presentation with dual end interaction is much more engaging than a one-way presentation.

Presentation engagement also takes practice — just like your presentation articles itself. “… Entertainment originates from the performance itself: how you deliver that content material and the energy you provide for that delivery. This is a separate skill you need to practice. Work with a coach, watch back recordings of yourself to identify opportunities to improve your craft, and watch video clips of top-notch comedians, poets and other speakers to see that which you can learn from them, ” encouraged Deziel.

Lastly, as important as engagement will be, don’t let technology remain in the way. While smartphones and polling software can make viewers interaction easier, they can buy in the way of you connecting along with your audience. “I prefer to just have people stand up, raise their own hand, or clap in order to participate in the poll. It gets the audience moving, and I don’t have to worry about WiFi contacts or whether the polling software is working, ” said Toister.

4. Prioritize your content just as much as the delivery.

While entertaining and interacting with your target audience is helpful and exciting, this shouldn’t take precedence more than your presentation content by itself. “Nearly all of what the audience can learn from you originates from the content: the stories you tell, the examples you share, the facts you cite and the other information you clarify. Carefully crafting those materials and testing it out there ensures that the audience will get the information they were promised from the session, ” said Deziel.

Tools like PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides, and Canva can help you hone your content and develop a story within your presentation. A 2018 Prezi research (another presentation tool option) showed that 90% of people believe a strong narrative makes for a more engaging, interesting presentation. Data can help form arguments and explain facts, but stories stay with your viewers long after your time on stage.

Storytelling is yet another way to engage with your own audience, especially by evoking emotions like humor. “It’s entertaining to ask questions, stating, ‘Can anyone relate to this particular? Has anyone ever had this kind of experience before? ’ after which getting them involved with a few laughter around those encounters. Laughter always helps, ” said Scott, who presented at INBOUND 2020.

Hopper, who was also a Breakout Speaker at INBOUND 2020, agreed: “Don’t be afraid to be funny or drop in comedies — there are studies that show that laughing really helps your brain retain details better, so not only may your audience have a good time laughing with you, but they’ll also get more out of your presentation. It’s a win-win! ”

five. Focus on the audience.

Finally, everyone can agree that public speaking is either adored or feared. If you relate to the latter and find yourself nervous when giving presentations, change your focus on the target audience.

“Speakers easily get nervous when they focus on themselves and worry too much about their own performance. Focusing on your audience first takes the spirit away and redirects your attention to making sure your target audience gets something of value from your keynote, ” contributed Toister.

That’s the goal of a keynote presentation — to deliver value to your audience. No matter what story you’re telling, exactly what tools you’re using, or even how you’re engaging the crowd, as long as you deliver a presentation that inspires your own audience to think differently — even for 30 minutes — you’ve given a perfect keynote presentation.

Note: HubSpot Marketing teams reserve the appropriate to use guest blog author’s likeness across our content material as we see fit, which includes but not limited to HubSpot’s social networking channels.

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