Organizing Killer Presentation Content
The meat of any presentation is content. In order to get to your presentation destination, you need to have killer content. We have talked about how to assess your goals for speaking success and overcoming the barriers that hold us back. Now it is time to examine the C of the ABCs of your presentation destination – CONTENT!
Content is so important that I am dedicating two weeks to it. This week we will talk about organizing that content and next week we'll chat about crafting killer content.
Table of Contents
What's your KABOOM statement?
Before you even open your mouth, you need to figure out your KABOOM statement. Ash Ambridge at The Middle Finger Projects talks about 
the BOOM statement in her course Clients + Cash. I love the idea and am adapting it slightly for speaking. For a presenter the KABOOM statement is the idea you want to leave your audience with. It is the entire purpose of them sitting through your presentation.
Here's the catch for a presentation – you're BOOM statement needs to be LESS THAN 10 WORDS! Oh my!
If you are clear on the BOOM, then it is easier to craft your killer content.
Open with Power
After the big KABOOM, you need to open your presentation with power.
Far too many presenters walk on a stage and start with “Thank you so much for having me. Let me wax poetically about myself for five minutes.”
That's not the way to START any presentation – in fact I wrote about 5 other ways to bore your audience in the first 30 seconds. Speak with your audience in mind. What would compel you to listen to you? Be creative in your presentation opening. Capture their imagination. If you captivate the audience, they are yours forever (or at least until you finishing speaking).
Organize with the audience in mind
Listening is tough work. Your job as a speaker to make it easy on your audience. What is the best way to organize your audience to get you big KABOOM message across? Is it a chronological story you are telling? Do you need to compare/contrast two ideas? How do the ideas logically flow? No matter what organizational style you choose, you need to answer this one question:
How can I help my audience understand my message?
Need help organizing? Here are some additional tips and tricks.
Conclude with style
Too many speakers, make two critical errors when concluding their presentation. First, they end with a question and answer session. Never end with Q&A. You want to end with your KABOOM message. It is your last chance to make the message resonate. Not to leave your audience with some radom question or answer that might not have anything to do with your core message.
The other mistake is not ending. Just running away. Research shows that people remember MOST what they hear first and last. Open strong and conclude with power and style. You'll leave the audience with a lasting impression.
Next week we are going to talk about crafting the killer content. Finding the best stories and speaking to your PowerPoint so it doesn't speak for you.
[ois skin=”Relationally Speaking”]
Such great advice! My favorite key points: 1. Make it easy on your audience 2. Disappear when you are done. I often have ended with Q&A, in an effort to be accommodating, and the result is: a weaker impact! These are really solid tips and I look forward to putting these ideas into practice in my keynote and workshops later this week!
Thank you Chris. Glad you found the information useful. Making it easy on the audience is key to keeping them engaged. You don’t want them to be thinking “where is this guy going next? I’m so confused.” You want them actively involved thinking about your message.
Good luck with you keynote and workshop!
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