examples of bad powerpoint presentations

7 PowerPoint mistakes that are killing your presentation

By Paul Moss

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A few careless powerpoint mistakes can dramatically impact both the effectiveness and professionalism of your presentation..

Over the course of my career in consulting and strategy (and as a PowerPoint instructor for those industries), I’ve seen a lot of slides – great slides, terrible slides, and everything in-between. And what I’ve come to learn is that there’s a handful of common PowerPoint mistakes that many people don’t realize are hurting their presentation.

In this post I’m going to talk about the mistakes I see most often. I’ll give some basic examples of each mistake, explain why it hurts the presentation, and show you what you should be doing instead.

For the list, I’ll mostly be focusing on corporate style presentations, like what you’re likely to see day to day in the business world, but many of the lessons can be applied to other types of presentations as well.

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Table of Contents

1. Complicated Visualizations

Your job as a slide creator is to make it as easy as possible for the audience to understand your message, and unnecessarily complicated visuals don’t help you do that. Instead, they just confuse the audience. 

In this slide from Muckerlab there is a simple sales funnel on the left, with various sales channels on the right. With enough time I can figure out the message, but it’s a bit challenging for my brain to map sales channels to the various stages of the funnel.

“Ecommerce & Digital Marketing” Muckerlab, 2014

You might think that your visual is easy enough to understand, but remember that the audience hasn’t had the same amount of time to look at the slide as you have, so it’s much more difficult for them to grasp the key takeaway quickly. 

In the slide below from Edelman there are four different charts, but each one is communicating the same type of information. By mixing up the chart style like this it makes the slide overly complicated. Instead of showing four simple column charts, they’ve forced the audience to understand and interpret each type independently. This just makes it harder for the audience to grasp the key takeaways of the slide.

“Global Deck” Edelman Trust Barometer, 2012

Instead, ask yourself, what’s the key takeaway of the slide, and how does my chart or graphic help support that key takeaway. Avoid trying to make yourself look smart, and instead figure out the simplest way to communicate the idea you’re trying to communicate. 

This slide from Credit Suisse is a great example of keeping the chart simple and clear. It’s just a normal-looking stacked column chart with easy to read data labels, a clear background, and a simple takeaway. The result is an effective and professional looking slide that’s easy for the audience to understand. 

“Analyst and Investor Call” Credit Suisse, 2022

2. Simple Titles

The point of a title on a slide is to get a quick summary of the slide’s main takeaway, so the audience can better read and understand the details.

In this slide from BCG for example, the title says “Rising housing costs may be driving creatives out of the city”. So naturally, the audience is going to skim through the content looking for evidence of rising housing costs and creatives leaving the city, which makes for more effective delivery. (

“Melbourne as a Global Cultural Destination” BCG. For more BCG content be sure to check out our full BCG slide breakdown

But unfortunately, many titles aren’t this descriptive. Instead what I see are titles that tell me the topic of the slide and nothing else . I get an idea of what the slide is about, but I’m forced to come up with my own takeaway.

“Fixed Income Investor presentation” Credit Suisse, 2022

You see this especially on slides with summaries of data, like this slide from Salesforce about its finances. But even on these slides it’s usually a good idea to put a takeaway in the title.

“Finance Update Q4 FY21” Salesforce

In this example from Orsted , they’ve shown some annual financial data, but they’ve also summarized what they want the audience to take away from the slide – that they are in line with expectations. 

“Investor presentation Q4 and full-year 2020” Orsted, 2021

By including a full sentence for your title, ideally one that summarizes the main takeaway of the slide, you make it much easier for the audience to understand what it is you’re trying to tell them.  

3. Default PowerPoint Designs

The third mistake I see more often than I’d like is using default PowerPoint designs. The worst case of this is using old slide themes, like in this example. Anyone who has spent any amount of time in PowerPoint recognizes this design, and aesthetics aside, it just looks like the slide was thrown together last minute. 

“First 30 Days” Markstar, 2017

You certainly don’t want to overdesign your slide, but at the very least try to avoid the out-of-the-box designs PowerPoint provides for you. Many of these designs haven’t changed in years, and usually they’re meant for a different kind of presentation (like a school project). 

And the same goes for PowerPoint shapes, graphics, and even colors. They all come across as unprofessional and overused, so it’s in your best interest to avoid them altogether.  

But where I think this is most easy to mess up is with tables. A table like this for example looks fine enough, but with just a few tweaks it can be made to look significantly better.

In this example, all I did was bold the titles, turn the negative values red, left align the first column and right align the others, make the top line extra thick, then add other lines to separate the regions. The result is a much better looking, and much easier to read table. 

When it comes to design, even just a little bit of extra effort can help you avoid cliche, unprofessional looking slides.

4. Unrelated Content

In corporate style presentations, it’s completely okay to have lots of content, so long as each piece of content has a purpose. What I see way too often is stuff that’s just there to fill space, and doesn’t have an actual purpose. 

In this Starboard Value slide , there are a lot of unnecessary distractions. For example, the box at the bottom is really just a repeat of what’s in the subtitle. Likewise, there’s a lot of text in the bullet points that could be trimmed down or eliminated without changing the message of the slide. It would help the audience focus more on the key takeaways, without getting distracted by all the fluff. 

“Transforming Darden Restaurants” Starboard Value, 2014 See our full breakdown of this slide here .

But what bothers me the most is the picture at the bottom, which really isn’t adding to the slide in any meaningful way. Yes, it’s on topic – the slide is about breadsticks after all – but it’s not giving me any useful information. We all know what breadsticks look like, and this doesn’t help me understand the key takeaway any better. 

Pictures are typically the most common culprit when it comes to unrelated content. It can be really tempting to throw a picture on a slide to fill up the extra space – especially if that picture looks professional and seems to loosely match the topic of the slide. 

Even McKinsey is guilty of this sometimes, as in this example . The picture looks great, but it doesn’t help the audience understand the main message of the slide about digital manufacturing being a high priority for a majority of companies. Instead, it just distracts the audience. 

“Moving Laggards to Early Adopters” McKinsey & Co., 2018 Learn more about how McKinsey designs data heavy PowerPoint slides.

In this example from a different presentation, they kept the slide fairly simple, with only information that supports the main takeaway of the slide, and nothing else. The result is a clear and easy to understand slide with a well-supported takeaway. 

“Capturing the full electricity potential of the U.K.” McKinsey & Co., 2012

So when you’re adding content to your slide, whether that’s a picture, chart, or anything else, make sure it contributes to the message in some way. And if it doesn’t then just leave that part blank and adjust the other parts of the slide accordingly. 

5. Distracting Backgrounds

This is related to the last mistake about unrelated content but is important in and of itself. A bad background can completely ruin a presentation. At best it’s distracting, but at worst it looks horribly unprofessional and makes the content hard to look at. 

Once again this is where PowerPoint is to blame. Some of the default backgrounds make it almost impossible to read the text, especially if that text doesn’t provide any contrast.

But even simple backgrounds can be distracting, as in our previous example from Starboard Value . Shading the background makes it difficult for my eyes to know where to focus my attention. Not to mention it makes some of the text slightly harder to read. 

Even subtle text or images in the background can be distracting, as in this BCG example . 

“Projecting US Mail volumes to 2020” BCG, 2010

The general rule of thumb with backgrounds is if you notice it, you should change it. The idea is you want to reduce the number of distractions on your slide so that the audience can focus on the insights. In that regard, you can almost never go wrong with a plain white background. This keeps the audience focused on your content, and ultimately on your message. 

This slide from Accenture is a great example of a non-distracting background that keeps the emphasis on the content. Nothing is diverting my attention and I can focus on what they’re trying to tell me. 

“Fintech New York: Partnerships, Platforms and Open Innovation” Accenture, 2015

But of course, the background doesn’t always have to be white. Sometimes darker backgrounds work better for longer, live presentations, especially when those presentations are given on a large screen. 

In another example from later in the presentation, Accenture uses a darker blue background that’s simple, clear, and professional. And most importantly, it doesn’t take my attention away from the content on the slide. 

6. Not Guiding the Audience

Most modern business presentations are full of text and data, which can make it difficult for the audience to process the information on a slide and see the key insights . In a live presentation, it is even more difficult – the audience has to simultaneously listen to the speaker, read through the content on the slide, and think critically about the information. 

The easy way to manage this challenge is to guide the audience through your slide with visual cues – things like text, callouts, and boxes. Unfortunately, it is something that many people just don’t think to do.  What this leads to is dense, difficult to read slides , as in these two examples:

“Bridging the Gap Between CIO and CMO” Isobar, 2014

“Transforming Darden Restaurants” Starboard Value, 2014

And the same thing can happen with charts . By just putting up a chart with no real commentary or guidance, you make it hard for the audience to understand what it is you’re trying to tell them. 

“Fifth Assessment Report- Synthesis Report” IPCC, 2014

In many ways, this is the counterpoint to the last mistake. Whereas you don’t want unimportant pieces like your background to be distracting, you do want the important parts of your slide to be distracting, because it helps the audience quickly grasp the key takeaways. 

Returning to our Accenture example, notice how they’ve used bolded text to help call attention to what’s important. Likewise, they’ve also used a line to put emphasis on the title of the slide. 

Check out our full breakdown of this slide here .

This BCG slide has quite a bit of information on it, but they’ve made it easy to work through by drawing the most attention to the title with green font and large text, then the next amount of attention to the subtitles with bold black text and green lines underneath, and then the least amount of attention to the bullet points. It helps the process the information on the slide in the way they want them to – starting with the highest level idea, and working their way through the details. 

“Evaluating NYC media sector development and setting the stage for future growth” BCG, 2012

This chart from McKinsey is another good example of guiding the audience.  Instead of just keeping the chart plain, they’ve added callouts that help emphasize the message in the title. 

“Jobs lost, jobs gained: Workforce transitions in a time of automation” McKinsey, 2017

Guiding the audience can be as simple as adding an arrow or bolding important text. But even small changes like this can make a big difference in your presentation. 

7. Too Many Colors

It can be tempting to use a variety of colors on your slide, but doing so just distracts the audience and takes attention away from the important parts. And not only that, it can look really unprofessional. 

On this slide for example they’ve decided to separate each of these sections by color to make it easier to distinguish between them. But instead of making it easier to read, the slide is difficult to understand and hard to look at. The sections are already naturally separated, with lines, titles, and even icons. But by adding bright colors, in addition to the orange and green that’s already on the slide, they’ve reduced the slide’s readability considerably. 

“Harnessing the Power of Entrepreneurs to Open Innovation” Accenture, 2015

The best slides use color strategically, to help highlight key points and ideas.

In this Bain slide for example, they’ve decided to highlight the important columns in red, while keeping the less important columns in grey. It provides a nice contrasting effect that helps emphasize the message. 

“2011 China Luxury Market Study” Bain, 2011

Likewise, this Deloitte slide contains a minimal amount of color, making it easy to sift through the data and focus on only what’s important. Not to mention it keeps the visuals of the slide clean and professional. 

“Consumer privacy in retail” Deloitte, 2019

It’s a bit counterintuitive, but when it comes to color, sometimes less is more.

Final Thoughts

A few simple tweaks to your presentation can really make a difference in both its quality and overall professionalism. Above all, be sure to focus on your main message, and avoid any distractions that might take away from that message. If you can keep an eye out for cliché, unprofessional, and meaningless content, you’ll be well on your way to creating high-quality, insight-rich presentations.

P.S. – If you’re really looking to up your PowerPoint game, be sure to check out our full courses: Advanced PowerPoint for Consultants and Advanced Presentations for Consultants .

You can watch a video version of this article on YouTube .

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10 Presentation Design Mistakes to Avoid (With Examples)

One of the most important aspects of a successful presentation is designing an effective slideshow. Unfortunately, it’s also a part most professionals often neglect or don’t pay attention to.

This is why most of the bad presentation designs share a pattern. They are usually made using the default PowerPoint templates. They use the same default fonts as every other presentation. They also include terrible stock photos. And try to stuff as much information as possible into a single slide.

We noticed all these mistakes and more while exploring some of the most popular presentations on SlideShare. They were slideshows with thousands and even millions of views. But, they were riddled with mistakes and flaws.

In this guide, we show you how these mistakes can be harmful as well as give you tips on how to avoid them. Of course, we made sure to include some examples as well.

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1. Adding Too Many Slides

One of the biggest mistakes you can do when designing a presentation is adding way too many slides. This not only makes your presentation unnecessarily long but it can also affect the audience’s engagement. After a few slides, your audience will surely lose interest in your presentation.

Rand Fishkin is a well-known entrepreneur in the marketing industry. This is one of his presentations that received over 100,000 views. And it features 95 slides. We believe it could’ve generated more views if he had made the presentation shorter.

A presentation with 95 slides is a bit of an overkill, even when it’s made for an online platform like SlideShare.

Solution: Follow the 10/20/30 Rule

The 10/20/30 rule is a concept introduced by expert marketer Guy Kawasaki . The rule recommends that you limit your presentation to 10 slides, lasting only 20 minutes, and using a font size of 30 points.

Even though the rule states to limit the presentation to 10 slides, it’s perfectly fine to design a 20-slide presentation or even one with 30 slides. Just don’t drag it too far.

2. Information Overload

Statistics and research data are important for backing your claims. Even in your presentations, you can include stats and data to add more validity and authority. However, you should also remember not to over-do it.

A good example is this popular SlideShare presentation with more than 1 million views. Since this is a tech report slideshow, it includes lots of stats and data. But the designer has made the mistake of trying to include too much data into every slide in the presentation.

If this slideshow were to present to a large audience at a big hall, most of the audience won’t even be able to read it without binoculars.

Solution: Visualize Stats and Data

A great way to present data is to visualize them. Instead of adding numbers and long paragraphs of text, use charts and graphs to visualize them. Or use infographics and illustrations.

3. Choosing the Wrong Colors

How long did it take for you to read the title of this slide? Believe it or not, it looks just the same throughout the entire slideshow.

The biggest mistake of this presentation design is using images as the background. Then using colors that doesn’t highlight the text made it even worse and rendered the text completely unreadable.

Solution: Create a Color Palette

Make sure that you start your presentation design by preparing a color palette . It should include primary and secondary colors that you use throughout each slide. This will make your presentation design look more consistent.

4. Using Terrible Fonts

Fonts play a key role in improving the readability in not just presentations but in all kinds of designs. Your choice of font is enough for the audience to decide whether you’re a professional or an amateur.

In this case, the slide speaks for itself. Not only the font choice is terrible but without any spacing between the paragraphs, the entire slide and the presentation is hardly readable. How did this presentation generate over 290,000 views? We’ll never know.

Solution: Avoid the Default Fonts

As a rule of thumb, try to avoid using the default fonts installed on your computer. These fonts aren’t designed for professional work. Instead, consider using a custom font. There are thousands of free and premium fonts with great designs. Use them!

5. Adding Images from Google

You could tell by just looking at this slide that this person is using images from Google search. It looks like the designer lazily downloaded images from Google search and copy-pasted a screenshot onto the image. Without even taking the time to align the screenshot to fit the device or removing the white background of the image.

Or he probably added a white background to the images after realizing the black iPhone blends into the black background. Most of the images used throughout this slideshow are pretty terrible as well.

Solution: Use High-Quality Mockups and Images

The solution is simple. Don’t use images from Google! Instead, use high-quality images from a free stock image site or use a premium source. Also, if you want to use devices in slides, make sure to use device mockup templates .

6. Poor Content Formatting

There are many things wrong with this slideshow. It uses terrible colors with ugly fonts, the font sizes are also too big, uneven shapes, and the list goes on.

One thing to remember here is that even though apps like PowerPoint and Keynote gives you lots of options for drawing shapes and a color palette with unlimited choices, you don’t have to use them all.

Solution: Use a Minimal and Consistent Layout

Plan a content layout to be used with each and every slide of your presentation. Use a minimalist content layout and don’t be afraid to use lots of white space in your slides. Or, you can use a pre-made PowerPoint or Keynote template with a better design.

7. Writing Long Paragraphs

Adding long paragraphs of text in slides is never a good way to present your ideas to an audience. After all, that’s what the speech is for. The slides, however, need to be just a summary of what you’re trying to convince your audience.

Don’t make the mistake of writing long paragraphs that turns your slideshow into a document. And, more importantly, don’t read from the slides.

Solution: Keep It Short

As the author Stephen Keague said, “no audience ever complained about a presentation or speech being too short”. It takes skill to summarize an idea with just a few words. You should always try to use shorter sentences and lots of titles, headings, and bullet points in your slideshows.

8. Not Using Images

This entire presentation doesn’t have a single image in any of its slides, except for the company logo. Images are a great way to keep your audience fully engaged with your presentations. Some expert speakers even use images to add humor as well.

The saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” is popular for a reason. Instead of writing 200-words long paragraphs, use images to summarize messages and also to add context.

Solution: Use Icons, Illustrations, and Graphics

You don’t always have to add photos or images to make your presentations look more attractive. Instead, you can use other types of graphics and colorful icons. Or even illustrations and infographics to make each slide more entertaining.

9. Designing Repetitive Slides

This presentation about Internet Trends is one of the most popular slideshows on SlideShare with more than 4 million views. If you go through the slides you’ll notice the entire presentation is filled with nothing but charts and graphs.

Your audience will easily get bored and lose attention when your presentation has too many slides containing the same type of content.

Solution: Use a Mix of Content

Make sure to use different types of content throughout the slides. Add text, images, shapes, icons, and other elements to create each slide more engaging than the other.

10. Using Complex Infographics

Even though images and graphics are great for visualizing data, it’s important to use the right designs to showcase the data without confusing the audience.

For example, this slideshow made by HootSuite is filled with stats and data. Most of which look fine. Except for a few slides that include complicated designs filled with information all over the place.

Solution: Design Simpler Graphics

There are many great online tools you can use to design your own infographics and visuals. Use them. But, also remember to use simpler designs that are easier to understand for all audiences.

In Conclusion

There’s no such thing as the perfect presentation design. Every slideshow has its flaws. But, if you learn to avoid the common mistakes, you’ll have a much higher chance of winning over your audience and delivering a more engaging presentation.

If you don’t have any slideshow design experience, consider picking one of the bee PowerPoint templates or best Keynote templates . They feature designs made by professionals and you won’t have to worry about making any mistakes again.

The 10 Most Common Presentation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

January 02, 2024

Many of us make common mistakes in our business presentations. Often these presentation mistakes are ways of working that seem efficient (but are not) such as: (1) planning your talk with PowerPoint, (2) writing your talk without planning, (3) skipping practise sessions and (4) narrating dull slides.

To help you avoid common presentation mistakes  that many of us regularly make, you have here some examples of the most common mistakes.

Each of these presenting mistakes are ‘false friends’ – where you feel as if you are making progress but in reality you are diverting from the true path and giving yourself more work than necessary.

Study these presentation mistakes and identify where you can improve.

• Do you avoid planning your presentation up front?
• Are you too quick to start producing presentation slides?
• Are you reluctant to try out your presentation ideas on others early in the process?
• Do you use boring safe language?
• Do you try and say too much in your presentations?
• Are you unsure how to bring your presentation to life with levity.

These are all simple, natural presenting mistakes that cause thousands of presentations every day to be less effective than they should be.

While avoiding these traps will not make you a brilliant presenter, each trap you identify will take you much nearer to being a confident and convincing presenter.

Top ten ways to avoid common presentation mistakes

• Don’t start with PowerPoint. Leave creating visual aids until the end of the process
• Don’t start writing before planning. Have a clear plan first
• Don’t be the centre of attention. Make your talk about your audience.
• Don’t use written language. Translate everything you write into compelling spoken language.
• Don’t try and say too much. Say less, but say it better.
• Don’t be boring. Say something interesting every 10 words.
• Don’t be subtle. Be big, bold, clear and compelling.
• Don’t speak too fast. Leave a pause every 5-10 words.
• Don’t lead with slides or narrate slides. Speak directly to your audience and only use visual aids when they help your audience
• Don’t avoid practising. Dedicate time perfecting your talk and perfecting your performance.

Presentation Mistakes #1 – Do you waste time with PowerPoint?

Summary: powerpoint is a poor planning tool. only open powerpoint after you have decided what you are saying..

Most people, when they start writing a presentation, they open PowerPoint. They create slides, perhaps use old slides, design new ones and feel as if they are making progress because they can see ‘progress’ – something they can print and share.

BUT: Starting with PowerPoint is the equivalent of creating a movie by filming before you have a story or a script. You end up with a lot of footage, but it is near impossible to turn this into anything usable. You waste time and you waste money.

Instead, Create a powerful talk that barely uses any visual aids. Use the planning and language tools outlined in this blog article to create a talk that can work on its own without slides. You may realise that your presentation does not need slides. If you do want visual aids, only start creating them at the end of the presentation process, not at the start.

And why not rename ‘slides’ as Visual Aids. This change of language will help you think differently. Each Visual Aid must help your audience interpret what you say. Only create Visual Aids where they are absolutely necessary. Make life easier for your audience.

“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail”.  – Benjamin Franklin

Avoid Presentation Mistakes – Top Tips

• Stop using PowerPoint to plan
• Only use PowerPoint to create your visual aids or handouts after you have decided what to say.

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Presentation Mistakes #2 – Do you make yourself or your idea the focus of your presentation?

Summary: while your presentation might be about your product or your business, you will be more effective if you make your audience the centre of attention..

A typical bad presentation starts: “In today’s presentation I will talk about how we performed last month, what our plans are for this month and how we are changing the way numbers are reported. I’ll talk about project Pegasus and give an update on the latest company sales figures”

Why is this not good? This presentation opening is more like a table of contents than anything else – and it contains little that is useful for the audience.

The art of communication is translating what you want to say into what it means for your audience. You’ll grab your audience if you talk about them and their interests. If what you say is useful, your audience is more likely to pay attention.

Instead, start like this: “As we all know, this has been a tough month. You’ll hear more about last month’s disappointing performance and learn about our plans for this month and what that means for your departments. I’ll also share with you the changes you can expect to see in how we report our numbers. You’ll also be pleased to know that project Pegasus is on track. We can already see a positive impact on our sales numbers – which I am sure we are all very pleased to hear.”

What has changed?

• Each ‘I will talk about’ has been translated into a ‘you will….’
• By using many more personal pronouns (we/ our/your) the talk is easier to listen to.
• In the revised text you hear much more useful information (is it good news, bad news) and
• The audience is involved in the story (‘we are all very pleased to hear’).

In short, the audience is now the centre of attention of this talk.

“Nobody cares what you think until they think that you care” – Maya Angelou

• Give your audience useful information from the start.
• Talk about them and what your information means for them
• Avoid ‘tables of contents’. Say something interesting in every phrase.

Presentation Mistakes #3 – Is your presentation a data dump?

Summary – a data dump is not a presentation. the real job of a presentation is to analyse and interpret information so it means something for your audience. you must add value..

A typical bad presentation sounds like: “Sales last quarter were 3.6m, this is up 3.2% on last quarter and down 2.8% on the previous year. This is 4.6% behind budget and 4.5% better than forecast. Breaking it down by division we can see that North was 8.2% over budget while South was 1.2% behind budget…….”

What’s wrong with this?  If you compile data then it’s tempting to share your hard work. But talking through raw numbers is a waste of everyone’s time. Instead, you want to look impressive.

That means, you must add value. You should describe what those numbers are saying. For example, you might say:

“As we can see, sales at 3.2m last month were as expected. The important thing to note is that North won the new IBM contract, which was unexpected, while South had three customer delays which pushed their sales back by a month. We are still pretty confident of reaching our end of year numbers.”

By speaking in this way you are giving your audience valuable information throughout (sales: “as expected” …. North: Unexpected IBM contract….South: customer delays,… pushed sales back by a month…’confident of reaching end of year numbers”).

The real art here is doing the hard work for your audience. If you make it easy for the audience you’ll not only have a better presentation, you will also look more impressive in front of your audience.

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I’ll spend the first four sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln

• When you report data, add value.
• It’s your job to do the hard work.
• Explain what the data means for your audience.
• Make it easy for your audience.

Presentation Mistakes #4 – Do you use written language in your talk?

Summary – the written word and the spoken word are two different languages. one belongs on the page, the other in the mouth..

A typical bad start: “It is a pleasure to welcome you to this symposium, which is part of our programme to mark the 75th anniversary of the Central Bank of Ireland. I am especially delighted that Francois Villeroy de Galhau is joining us today to give a keynote address. I am looking forward also to learning from the excellent lineup of speakers later in the afternoon. “The topic of financial globalisation is a natural theme for the Central Bank of Ireland. At a macroeconomic level, the global financial cycle is a primary determinant of financial stability conditions in small open economies. This lesson was painfully learned across the advanced economies during the international credit boom that occurred over 2003-2008.” Remarks by Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, to the Financial Globalisation Symposium as part of the programme to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Central Bank of Ireland, Dublin, 2 February 2018

What is wrong with this?  When you preparing words for a talk or presentation, you want to avoid planning through typing. The spoken word and the written word are like different languages.  If you type first, you’ll probably find:

• The sentences are too long,
• The words are too complicated
• The rhythm of spoken language is lost
• You miss powerful rhetorical tools that make spoken language interesting and easy to listen to.

Written language must be translated into spoken language.

So, instead, say it first then write it. Then say it out loud again. Check that you are using plenty of rhetorical tools.  Listen for the rhythm of your speech and whether it’s easy to say (and easy to listen to). For example, this might have been a speech writer’s first draft for the Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland.

“Welcome everyone to this great occasion. It’s 75 years since the Central Bank of Ireland was born. In that time we have grown up. – We were born as a new institution in a new country – and we are now standing tall alongside our brothers and sisters in Europe and around the world, a full participant in the global economy. In our busy life we’ve lived through financial cycles, a few near misses and, most recently, an international credit boom. “Financial globalisation is a topic close to our heart. What happens globally determines what happens locally. The global credit boom that ended in 2008 showed us how our financial stability is at the mercy of global forces.”

“Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.” – Herman Hesse

• Always speak words before writing them down
• Use plenty of rhetorical tools
• Use an audience to test that it’s easy to understand

Presentation Mistakes #5 – Are you trying to say too much?

Summary – great talks usually say less, but use more reinforcement, illustration and examples.. the art of presenting is knowing what to take out..

Imagine an over-enthusiastic primary school teacher explaining atoms to her students.

“Atoms are the basic building blocks of everything around us. And each atom is made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. These atoms are very small – you can fit 10^19 atoms into a grain of sand. The really interesting thing about electrons is that they are both particles and waves – they have a duality. In fact all matter demonstrates duality – but it is most easily seen in electrons. Now let’s look at protons and neutrons. These are made up of more elementary particles call quarks. The Standard Model of particle physics contains 12 flavours of elementary fermions and their antiparticles……”

By now the children are very confused.

What went wrong? When you say too much you give your audience a problem. If your audience has to work hard to interpret what you say, you have failed in your job as a presenter.  Your job as a presenter is to make it easy for your audience. 

Great communication involves simplifying, reinforcing and giving examples.  Imagine this alternative start:

“Atoms are the basic building blocks of everything around us. The air we breathe is made of atoms. The ground we walk on is made of atoms and we are all made of atoms. Atoms are very small. See this grain of sand here? Guess how many atoms are in this grain of sand? It’s a big number: a one followed by nineteen zeros. That’s a lot of atoms. There are roughly as many atoms in this grain of sand as the total number of stars in the observable universe. To look at it another way. If this apple were magnified to the size of the Earth, then each atom in the apple would be approximately the size of the original apple……”

“Simplify, then exaggerate” – Geoffrey Crowther, Editor, Economist Magazi ne

• Say less, but say it better
• Cut out non-essential information from your talk
• Don’t be afraid of reinforcing, illustrating and repeating what’s important

Presentation Mistakes #6 – Are you guilty of Death by PowerPoint?

Summary – death by powerpoint happens when bad presenters let their slides lead. they ‘talk through’ what’s on the screen. instead, you want to talk directly to your audience, using visual aids as support..

Imagine this bad, and typical presentation: “As you can see on this page, we have looked at fifteen initiatives to revitalise the businesses. We examined the pros and cons of each initiative, as outlined in the table below. Following our analysis, it looks like initiatives 3, 7, and 8 are the most interesting. We’ll now look at each of the fifteen initiatives and explain why we came to our conclusions.”

That’s what death by PowerPoint feels like.

Death by PowerPoint has three causes.

• The speaker is narrating slides rather than speaking directly to the audience. i.e. the speaker expects the audience to both read and listen at the same time.
• The speaker talks about HOW they have done the work they have done rather than WHY this work matters and WHAT their work means.
• The speaker adds little value in what they say.

To Avoid Death By PowerPoint, get straight to the point.

Try this alternative start (read it out loud) “As you know, we were asked to find ways to revitalise the business. After speaking to everyone in this room, we identified the three projects that will make a real difference. We’ve chosen these because they deliver the greatest return on effort, they have the lowest risk and they can be implemented fastest. By the end of this meeting, we want all of us to agree that these are the right projects and to get your full support for rolling these out over the next 6 weeks. Is that OK?”

“I hate the way people use slide presentations instead of thinking. People confront a problem by creating a presentation. I wanted them to engage, to hash things out at the table, rather than show a bunch of slides” – Steve Jobs

• Get to the point immediately.
• Don’t rely on your audience reading. Tell them directly what’s important.
• WHY is more important than WHAT is more important than HOW

Presentation Mistakes #7 – Do you use meta-speak?

Summary – meta-speak is talking about talking. avoid it. speak directly to your audience..

Imagine this bad presentation: “I was asked today to talk about our new factory. In putting together this talk I wanted to tell you how we designed it and went about planning it. I also wanted to cover the process we used to get it delivered on time and on budget.”

What wrong with this? It’s as if the speaker is narrating their thought processes about planning this talk. While that might be interesting to the speaker, it is of little value to the audience. Avoid.

Instead, get right to the point, Speak directly.

“We have just opened our new factory. And we did this in just 12 months from board approval to the cutting of the ribbon in the loading bay. How did we achieve this? And how did we deliver it on time and on budget? Today I’ll share some of the lessons we leaned over the last 12 months. And I’ll reveal some of the mistakes we nearly made. And I’m doing this because it just might help you when you are faced with what seems like an impossible problem…”

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” – Albert Einstein

• If you see meta-speak creeping in, cut it out
• Make your language direct.
• Get right to the point.

Presenting Mistakes #8 – Do you gabble or speak too fast?

Summary – speaking too fast helps nobody. you should learn how to incorporate pauses – many pauses – long pauses – throughout your talk..

Try saying this out loud:  “A-typical-speaker-will-speak-in-long-sentences-and-keep-speaking-linking-phrases-together-so-that-there-is-no-gap-and-no-time-for-the-audience-to-absorb-what-the-speaker-has-said-and-no-time-to-plan-what-to-say-next-this-causes-the-speaker-to-feel-more-nervous-so-they-speed-up-and-it-frustrates-the-audience-because-they-have-no-time-to-process-what-they-have-heard-before-the-speaker-is-onto-their-next-point…”

This typically happens when a speaker is nervous. So they rush. And it is then hard for the audience to listen.

Instead, try speaking this out loud:  “Good speakers use short phrases — They share one thought at a time — — By leaving gaps — it’s easier for the audience. — The good news is — it’s also easier for the speaker. — When a speaker uses pauses — they have time to compose their next sentence. — This helps the speaker look more thoughtful — and more convincing. — It also helps the speaker feel more confident.

“The most precious things in speech are….. the pause.” – Ralph Richardson

• Pausing takes practice. Few people do it instinctively.
• Use shorter phrases – one idea at a time.
• Aim for a pause at least every ten words
• Record yourself, listen to your pauses and hear how they add gravitas
• Keep practising until your pauses feel natural and sound natural.

Presentation Mistakes #9 – Are you too serious?

Summary – levity can help you look more professional and will help your audience pay attention to what you say..

Too many presentations overly serious, dull and un-engaging.

Why? When we have something important to say we want to look ‘professional.’ But professional and serious are not the same. When you are too serious it’s harder for your audience to connect with you.

If you really want to look professional, bring the audience into your world. Levity and humour helps you achieve this. This does not mean you should tell jokes, but you should help the audience smile and feel clever for understanding what you say.

See how you can do it differently.  This is the third paragraph of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s EU Privacy speech . He uses humour followed by flattery to get his audience open and receptive to what he is about to say.

“Now Italy has produced more than its share of great leaders and public servants. Machiavelli taught us how leaders can get away with evil deeds…And Dante showed us what happens when they get caught.

“Giovanni has done something very different. Through his values, his dedication, his thoughtful work, Giovanni, his predecessor Peter Hustinx—and all of you—have set an example for the world. We are deeply grateful.”

“Inform, Educate & Entertain”. – Sir John Reith, BBC

• Have a smile on your face when preparing your talk
• Look for opportunities to introduce humour and lighten the tone
• Play with ideas.

Presenting Mistakes #10 – Do you avoid practising?

Summary – it’s tempting to avoid practise and to wing it on the day. this is the amateur approach..

The best presenters, like great athletes, do all their practising in advance , so that their performance on the day  looks effortless.

People make excuses to avoid essential practise:

• “I’m always better without practice”
• “I don’t want to over-prepare”
• “I sound wooden when I over-rehearse”
• “I’m more natural on the day”
•  “This is an artificial environment. I’m much better in front of a real audience.”

But many people are deluded. They believe themselves to be good speakers.

So, instead, think of yourself as a professional athlete, actor, pilot or dentist. These professionals make their work appear effortless only because of hours of preparation. A great presenter should think the same.

Use your rehearsal to try out every aspect of your talk and to iron out what works. Use a critical audience. Keep changing and improving it until it’s as good as it can be. If you are not a brilliant speaker, then spend time building your skills. This practice includes:

• Cut any waffle or anything boring
• Say something interesting at least every 10 words
• Use more rhetorical tools (see Chapter x)
• Keep reinforcing your key points
• Start strong, end strong

“The more I practise, the luckier I get”. – Gary Player, champion golfer

• Dedicate proper practise time – at least three sessions for an important talk.
• Use a critical audience
• Keep cutting, changing, fixing and tweaking
• Only stop when you are able to pay attention to your audience’s reaction rather than remembering what you want to say.

Summary – key presentation mistakes to avoid

When you understand the common mistakes presenters make, you will find it easier to create and give a compelling, successful presentation.

Reminder: Top ten ways to avoid common presentation mistakes

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5 Worst Presentations ever & Why They Went Wrong

I like building and growing simple yet powerful products for the world and the worldwide web.

Published Date : December 7, 2020

Reading Time :

Introduction

Think about the worst presentation ever experienced by you or someone you know. What do you remember about it? Do you remember the topic? Your answer is most probably no. Everyone wants to* deliver a great presentation , so we have ways to help you avoid giving the worst presentation ever of your career, as you’ll see later. First, let’s look at some examples of terrible presentations.

What is the worst presentation you have ever seen?

There are so many examples of the worst presentation ever you can find both online and in real life. These examples show some of the worst presentations ever; some of which make the whole slide painful to look at or read. Can you point out the reasons why each one fails?

5 examples of terrible presentations

The tragic overuse of visual aids.

Image address

The slide has an overlay of text on images showing the topic of the presentation. While* using visual aids is good , it requires a lot more tact to pull off than this worst presentation ever.

Overcomplicated graphs and charts

This slide tells you everything and nothing at the same time. Whatever the graphs are meant to portray is lost in the overwhelming number of charts in the slide.

Too much information

All this text packed into one slide cannot be easy to read. If the audience has to read everything on the slide, there is no need for a presentation.

No one can read this

This is what happens when people go overboard with fancy fonts. How can anybody be expected to read this while listening to the presentation?

Splash of color

Using bold colors is a great move – as long as you don’t pack them all into a painful collage. The colors have no contrast, and thus, the slide is impossible to read.

What makes a presentation terrible?

Several factors go into what makes the worst presentation ever terrible. Now, there are specific rules you have to follow when creating a presentation, and we will get into that. First, let us look at some of the things that ruin a presentation – you might recognize a few of them.

Ten things that make a presentation bad

1. emotionless and stiff delivery.

One mistake many people make is delivering it in a flat, monotonous tone . You need to show some emotion during a presentation, so you don’t lose their attention. Speak with passion and enthusiasm to keep their attention on you.

2. Lecturing instead of presenting

When you’re explaining something, it is very easy to fall into a pattern of talking down to your audience. It is one fast way to lose the audience’s attention. Your tone has to be polite but engaging instead of condescending. The worst presentation ever shark tank viewers know are usually lectures.

3. Blending all your points

You need to have a central topic. And you have to stay on the theme throughout, with your closing statement tying up the central message neatly. If you speak with no defined points, you will give your worst presentation ever. 

4. Avoiding eye contact

Eye contact is a way to get people to focus on you, especially when they don’t know anything about you. If you avoid eye contact with the people listening to you, you can quickly lose their trust. People want to listen to those they trust, and if you seem unsure, it will be harder to pass your message.

5. Not relating to the audience

Many people jump into a presentation without knowing their audience. You need to anticipate their needs, expectations, and questions before you go in to present. Otherwise, you can be saying the right thing to the wrong person.

6. Overdoing your slide design

Your slide design is one of the first things that can make your presentation the worst PowerPoint presentation ever, so don’t mess it up. Be careful, so it doesn’t look tacky and unprofessional. It should reflect the topic and theme.

7. Being too formal

Being formal in the right situation is great, as long as you don’t become stiff and robotic. In the wrong situation, however, you can come off as boring, and ruin your presentation.

8. Using bad body language 

Body Language <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:307">In <strong>public speaking</strong>, body language refers to the non-verbal communication cues you give with your body, including posture, facial expressions, gestures, and eye contact. These elements play a crucial role in conveying your message, enhancing its impact, and connecting with your audience.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:34"><strong>Importance in Public Speaking:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-11:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:136"><strong>Complementing your words:</strong> Body language reinforces your spoken message, emphasizing key points and conveying emotions effectively.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:157"><strong>Building credibility:</strong> Confident and positive body language projects professionalism and sincerity, making you appear more trustworthy to your audience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-9:142"><strong>Engaging your audience:</strong> Dynamic and intentional body language keeps them engaged, prevents monotony, and sparks interest.</li> <li data-sourcepos="10:1-11:0"><strong>Projecting confidence:</strong> Confident body language can help overcome nerves and stage fright, making you appear more relaxed and in control.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="12:1-12:33"><strong>Key Aspects of Body Language:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="14:1-18:0"> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:96"><strong>Posture:</strong> Stand tall with your shoulders back and relaxed, avoiding slouching or fidgeting.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:124"><strong>Facial expressions:</strong> Smile genuinely, express appropriate emotions with your face, and avoid frowning or looking bored.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-16:119"><strong>Gestures:</strong> Use natural and purposeful gestures to emphasize your points, but avoid excessive or nervous movements.</li> <li data-sourcepos="17:1-18:0"><strong>Eye contact:</strong> Make consistent eye contact with different audience members, conveying genuine connection and confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="19:1-19:22"><strong>Mastering the Art:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="21:1-25:0"> <li data-sourcepos="21:1-21:122"><strong>Observe effective speakers:</strong> Pay attention to how successful speakers use body language and analyze their techniques.</li> <li data-sourcepos="22:1-22:144"><strong>Practice in front of a mirror:</strong> Record yourself or practice in front of a trusted friend to assess your body language and make adjustments.</li> <li data-sourcepos="23:1-23:151"><strong>Take a public speaking class:</strong> Many classes incorporate dedicated sessions on body language, providing expert feedback and practice opportunities.</li> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-25:0"><strong>Be mindful and intentional:</strong> Focus on using your body language consciously and strategically to support your message and connect with your audience.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="26:1-26:349"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="26:1-26:349">Effective body language is not about rigid positions or forced gestures. It's about finding a natural and authentic way to use your body to support your spoken message and engage your audience. By mastering this crucial aspect of <strong>the art of public speaking</strong>, you can significantly enhance your impact and leave a lasting impression.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/body-language/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">Body language is as important as your spoken language . You can use it to pass across many messages. So, when you have poor Body Language <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:307">In <strong>public speaking</strong>, body language refers to the non-verbal communication cues you give with your body, including posture, facial expressions, gestures, and eye contact. These elements play a crucial role in conveying your message, enhancing its impact, and connecting with your audience.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:34"><strong>Importance in Public Speaking:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-11:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:136"><strong>Complementing your words:</strong> Body language reinforces your spoken message, emphasizing key points and conveying emotions effectively.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:157"><strong>Building credibility:</strong> Confident and positive body language projects professionalism and sincerity, making you appear more trustworthy to your audience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-9:142"><strong>Engaging your audience:</strong> Dynamic and intentional body language keeps them engaged, prevents monotony, and sparks interest.</li> <li data-sourcepos="10:1-11:0"><strong>Projecting confidence:</strong> Confident body language can help overcome nerves and stage fright, making you appear more relaxed and in control.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="12:1-12:33"><strong>Key Aspects of Body Language:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="14:1-18:0"> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:96"><strong>Posture:</strong> Stand tall with your shoulders back and relaxed, avoiding slouching or fidgeting.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:124"><strong>Facial expressions:</strong> Smile genuinely, express appropriate emotions with your face, and avoid frowning or looking bored.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-16:119"><strong>Gestures:</strong> Use natural and purposeful gestures to emphasize your points, but avoid excessive or nervous movements.</li> <li data-sourcepos="17:1-18:0"><strong>Eye contact:</strong> Make consistent eye contact with different audience members, conveying genuine connection and confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="19:1-19:22"><strong>Mastering the Art:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="21:1-25:0"> <li data-sourcepos="21:1-21:122"><strong>Observe effective speakers:</strong> Pay attention to how successful speakers use body language and analyze their techniques.</li> <li data-sourcepos="22:1-22:144"><strong>Practice in front of a mirror:</strong> Record yourself or practice in front of a trusted friend to assess your body language and make adjustments.</li> <li data-sourcepos="23:1-23:151"><strong>Take a public speaking class:</strong> Many classes incorporate dedicated sessions on body language, providing expert feedback and practice opportunities.</li> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-25:0"><strong>Be mindful and intentional:</strong> Focus on using your body language consciously and strategically to support your message and connect with your audience.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="26:1-26:349"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="26:1-26:349">Effective body language is not about rigid positions or forced gestures. It's about finding a natural and authentic way to use your body to support your spoken message and engage your audience. By mastering this crucial aspect of <strong>the art of public speaking</strong>, you can significantly enhance your impact and leave a lasting impression.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/body-language/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">body language , you pass the wrong message.

9. Trying too hard

Very few things turn people off than a try-hard. Keep things natural, and be your confident self. Trying too hard is a symptom of unsureness, and it can make you lose favor with the crowd.

10. Making inappropriate jokes and comments

Humor is a great way to connect with your audience and create rapport, but it has to be done right. If you introduce jokes at the wrong place or time, your presentation can become the worst presentation ever very quickly. Study the audience and know when to be serious and when to be funny. Also, keep your jokes clean. 

Avoid embarrassing moments while giving a presentation. Download Orai and start practicing

How do you deal with embarrassing moments?

Everyone has embarrassing moments *sometimes, but it’s how we handle them that makes the difference. Have you recently embarrassed yourself on stage by delivering the worst presentation ever? Well, that’s not the end of the world for you. There are several ways you can get over those embarrassing situations.

• Don’t dwell too much on the situation

These things happen, so the worst thing you can do is dwell on them and let them affect you. Accept that they happened and look for ways to keep them from happening again. For example, if you forgot parts of your Speech <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:271">A form of communication involving spoken language, it is used to express ideas, share information, tell stories, persuade, or entertain. Public speaking is a powerful tool used in diverse contexts, ranging from casual conversations to formal presentations.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:27"><strong>Components of a Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-10:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:73"><strong>Content:</strong> The information, message, or story conveyed through words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:106"><strong>Delivery:</strong> The vocal and physical presentation, including clarity, volume, gestures, and eye contact.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-10:0"><strong>Structure:</strong> The organization of the content, typically following an introduction, body, and conclusion.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="11:1-11:21"><strong>Speech in Action:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="13:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="13:1-13:88"><strong>Informing:</strong> Sharing knowledge and facts, educating an audience on a specific topic.</li> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:119"><strong>Persuading:</strong> Advocating for a particular viewpoint, using arguments and evidence to influence thoughts or actions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:93"><strong>Motivating:</strong> Inspiring and energizing an audience, fostering action and positive change.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0"><strong>Entertaining:</strong> Engaging and delighting an audience through humor, storytelling, or creative language.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:32"><strong>Public Speaking and Anxiety:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="20:1-20:227">Many people experience <strong>public speaking anxiety</strong>, a fear of speaking in front of an audience. While it's common, effective preparation, practice, and breathing techniques can significantly reduce anxiety and improve delivery.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="22:1-22:32"><strong>Different Types of Speeches:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="24:1-28:0"> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:81"><strong>Informative speech:</strong> Focuses on conveying information clearly and concisely.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:102"><strong>Persuasive speech:</strong> Aims to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take action.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-26:99"><strong>Motivational speech:</strong> Inspires and energizes the audience, building enthusiasm and commitment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="27:1-28:0"><strong>Entertaining speech:</strong> Aim to amuse and delight the audience, often using humor, storytelling, or anecdotes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="29:1-29:33"><strong>Crafting a Compelling Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="31:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:106"><strong>Know your audience:</strong> Tailor your content and delivery to their interests, needs, and prior knowledge.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:107"><strong>Have a clear message:</strong> Identify the main point you want to convey and structure your speech around it.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:111"><strong>Engage your audience:</strong> Use varied vocal techniques, storytelling, and visual aids to keep them interested.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0"><strong>Practice, practice, practice:</strong> Rehearse your speech out loud to refine your delivery and build confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:13"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="38:1-38:281">Speech is a powerful tool for communication, connection, and influence. By understanding its elements, addressing potential anxieties, and tailoring your delivery to different contexts, you can harness the power of speech to achieve your intended goals and captivate your audience.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech , you can prepare better next time or carry some flashcards to help.

• Talk to someone about it

Talking to a trusted friend or family member can help you with the embarrassment. It can also change your perspective on things after hearing from someone else. You would be surprised by how many people believe they have given the worst presentation ever.

• Learn to laugh at yourself

When you know how to laugh at yourself, it is easier not to take yourself too seriously, it can help you think positively and learn how to go easier on yourself. 

• Look for a teachable moment

If you see every situation in life as a teachable moment, it can help you put things in perspective . Next time you feel embarrassed, look for the lesson in that situation and learn from it, to not fall into that situation again. You can also learn from others , like the worst presentation ever shark tank shows on TV.

How to avoid the fear

It is very normal to feel fear before a big presentation, especially if you don’t do it often. The fear of Public Speaking <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Public speaking refers to any live presentation or speech. It can cover a variety of topics on various fields and careers (you can find out more about public speaking careers here: https://orai.com/blog/public-speaking-careers/.  Public speaking can inform, entertain, or educate an audience and sometimes has visual aids.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --><br /><!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Public speaking is done live, so the speakers need to consider certain factors to deliver a successful speech. No matter how good the speech is, if the audience doesn't connect with the speaker, then it may fall flat. Therefore, speakers have to use a lot more nonverbal communication techniques to deliver their message. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --><br /><!-- wp:heading --> <h2>Tips for public speaking</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --><br /><!-- wp:list --> <ul> <li>Have a sense of humor.</li> <li>Tell personal stories that relate to the speech you're giving.</li> <li>Dress appropriately for the event. Formal and business casual outfits work best.</li> <li>Project a confident and expressive voice.</li> <li>Always try to use simple language that everyone can understand.</li> <li>Stick to the time given to you.</li> <li>Maintain eye contact with members of your audience and try to connect with them.</li> </ul> <!-- /wp:list --> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/public-speaking/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">public speaking is one of the top phobias among adults, and everyone is scared of giving the worst presentation ever. But there are ways you can get over that fear and speak a lot more confidently in public.

Helpful tips for getting over your fear of presenting

1. prepare adequately beforehand.

Practice is important because you don’t want to go in front of your audience and mess up your Speech <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:271">A form of communication involving spoken language, it is used to express ideas, share information, tell stories, persuade, or entertain. Public speaking is a powerful tool used in diverse contexts, ranging from casual conversations to formal presentations.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:27"><strong>Components of a Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-10:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:73"><strong>Content:</strong> The information, message, or story conveyed through words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:106"><strong>Delivery:</strong> The vocal and physical presentation, including clarity, volume, gestures, and eye contact.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-10:0"><strong>Structure:</strong> The organization of the content, typically following an introduction, body, and conclusion.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="11:1-11:21"><strong>Speech in Action:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="13:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="13:1-13:88"><strong>Informing:</strong> Sharing knowledge and facts, educating an audience on a specific topic.</li> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:119"><strong>Persuading:</strong> Advocating for a particular viewpoint, using arguments and evidence to influence thoughts or actions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:93"><strong>Motivating:</strong> Inspiring and energizing an audience, fostering action and positive change.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0"><strong>Entertaining:</strong> Engaging and delighting an audience through humor, storytelling, or creative language.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:32"><strong>Public Speaking and Anxiety:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="20:1-20:227">Many people experience <strong>public speaking anxiety</strong>, a fear of speaking in front of an audience. While it's common, effective preparation, practice, and breathing techniques can significantly reduce anxiety and improve delivery.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="22:1-22:32"><strong>Different Types of Speeches:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="24:1-28:0"> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:81"><strong>Informative speech:</strong> Focuses on conveying information clearly and concisely.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:102"><strong>Persuasive speech:</strong> Aims to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take action.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-26:99"><strong>Motivational speech:</strong> Inspires and energizes the audience, building enthusiasm and commitment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="27:1-28:0"><strong>Entertaining speech:</strong> Aim to amuse and delight the audience, often using humor, storytelling, or anecdotes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="29:1-29:33"><strong>Crafting a Compelling Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="31:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:106"><strong>Know your audience:</strong> Tailor your content and delivery to their interests, needs, and prior knowledge.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:107"><strong>Have a clear message:</strong> Identify the main point you want to convey and structure your speech around it.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:111"><strong>Engage your audience:</strong> Use varied vocal techniques, storytelling, and visual aids to keep them interested.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0"><strong>Practice, practice, practice:</strong> Rehearse your speech out loud to refine your delivery and build confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:13"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="38:1-38:281">Speech is a powerful tool for communication, connection, and influence. By understanding its elements, addressing potential anxieties, and tailoring your delivery to different contexts, you can harness the power of speech to achieve your intended goals and captivate your audience.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech or forget important parts of the Speech <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:271">A form of communication involving spoken language, it is used to express ideas, share information, tell stories, persuade, or entertain. Public speaking is a powerful tool used in diverse contexts, ranging from casual conversations to formal presentations.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:27"><strong>Components of a Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-10:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:73"><strong>Content:</strong> The information, message, or story conveyed through words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:106"><strong>Delivery:</strong> The vocal and physical presentation, including clarity, volume, gestures, and eye contact.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-10:0"><strong>Structure:</strong> The organization of the content, typically following an introduction, body, and conclusion.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="11:1-11:21"><strong>Speech in Action:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="13:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="13:1-13:88"><strong>Informing:</strong> Sharing knowledge and facts, educating an audience on a specific topic.</li> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:119"><strong>Persuading:</strong> Advocating for a particular viewpoint, using arguments and evidence to influence thoughts or actions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:93"><strong>Motivating:</strong> Inspiring and energizing an audience, fostering action and positive change.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0"><strong>Entertaining:</strong> Engaging and delighting an audience through humor, storytelling, or creative language.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:32"><strong>Public Speaking and Anxiety:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="20:1-20:227">Many people experience <strong>public speaking anxiety</strong>, a fear of speaking in front of an audience. While it's common, effective preparation, practice, and breathing techniques can significantly reduce anxiety and improve delivery.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="22:1-22:32"><strong>Different Types of Speeches:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="24:1-28:0"> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:81"><strong>Informative speech:</strong> Focuses on conveying information clearly and concisely.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:102"><strong>Persuasive speech:</strong> Aims to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take action.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-26:99"><strong>Motivational speech:</strong> Inspires and energizes the audience, building enthusiasm and commitment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="27:1-28:0"><strong>Entertaining speech:</strong> Aim to amuse and delight the audience, often using humor, storytelling, or anecdotes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="29:1-29:33"><strong>Crafting a Compelling Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="31:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:106"><strong>Know your audience:</strong> Tailor your content and delivery to their interests, needs, and prior knowledge.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:107"><strong>Have a clear message:</strong> Identify the main point you want to convey and structure your speech around it.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:111"><strong>Engage your audience:</strong> Use varied vocal techniques, storytelling, and visual aids to keep them interested.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0"><strong>Practice, practice, practice:</strong> Rehearse your speech out loud to refine your delivery and build confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:13"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="38:1-38:281">Speech is a powerful tool for communication, connection, and influence. By understanding its elements, addressing potential anxieties, and tailoring your delivery to different contexts, you can harness the power of speech to achieve your intended goals and captivate your audience.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech . You have to practice at least a few days before your Speech <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:271">A form of communication involving spoken language, it is used to express ideas, share information, tell stories, persuade, or entertain. Public speaking is a powerful tool used in diverse contexts, ranging from casual conversations to formal presentations.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:27"><strong>Components of a Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-10:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:73"><strong>Content:</strong> The information, message, or story conveyed through words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:106"><strong>Delivery:</strong> The vocal and physical presentation, including clarity, volume, gestures, and eye contact.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-10:0"><strong>Structure:</strong> The organization of the content, typically following an introduction, body, and conclusion.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="11:1-11:21"><strong>Speech in Action:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="13:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="13:1-13:88"><strong>Informing:</strong> Sharing knowledge and facts, educating an audience on a specific topic.</li> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:119"><strong>Persuading:</strong> Advocating for a particular viewpoint, using arguments and evidence to influence thoughts or actions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:93"><strong>Motivating:</strong> Inspiring and energizing an audience, fostering action and positive change.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0"><strong>Entertaining:</strong> Engaging and delighting an audience through humor, storytelling, or creative language.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:32"><strong>Public Speaking and Anxiety:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="20:1-20:227">Many people experience <strong>public speaking anxiety</strong>, a fear of speaking in front of an audience. While it's common, effective preparation, practice, and breathing techniques can significantly reduce anxiety and improve delivery.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="22:1-22:32"><strong>Different Types of Speeches:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="24:1-28:0"> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:81"><strong>Informative speech:</strong> Focuses on conveying information clearly and concisely.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:102"><strong>Persuasive speech:</strong> Aims to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take action.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-26:99"><strong>Motivational speech:</strong> Inspires and energizes the audience, building enthusiasm and commitment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="27:1-28:0"><strong>Entertaining speech:</strong> Aim to amuse and delight the audience, often using humor, storytelling, or anecdotes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="29:1-29:33"><strong>Crafting a Compelling Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="31:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:106"><strong>Know your audience:</strong> Tailor your content and delivery to their interests, needs, and prior knowledge.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:107"><strong>Have a clear message:</strong> Identify the main point you want to convey and structure your speech around it.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:111"><strong>Engage your audience:</strong> Use varied vocal techniques, storytelling, and visual aids to keep them interested.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0"><strong>Practice, practice, practice:</strong> Rehearse your speech out loud to refine your delivery and build confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:13"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="38:1-38:281">Speech is a powerful tool for communication, connection, and influence. By understanding its elements, addressing potential anxieties, and tailoring your delivery to different contexts, you can harness the power of speech to achieve your intended goals and captivate your audience.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech .

When you prepare adequately, you feel more confident in your stance, and this Confidence <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:305">In the context of <strong>public speaking</strong>, <strong>confidence</strong> refers to the belief in one's ability to communicate effectively and deliver one's message with clarity and impact. It encompasses various elements, including self-belief, composure, and the ability to manage one's <strong>fear of public speaking</strong>.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:16"><strong>Key Aspects:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-12:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:108"><strong>Self-belief:</strong> A strong conviction in your knowledge, skills, and ability to connect with your audience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:95"><strong>Composure:</strong> Maintaining calmness and poise under pressure, even in challenging situations.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-9:100"><strong>Assertiveness:</strong> Expressing your ideas clearly and concisely, avoiding hesitation or self-doubt.</li> <li data-sourcepos="10:1-10:104"><strong>Positive self-talk:</strong> Countering negative thoughts with affirmations and focusing on your strengths.</li> <li data-sourcepos="11:1-12:0"><strong>Strong body language:</strong> Using gestures, posture, and eye contact that project confidence and professionalism.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="13:1-13:27"><strong>Benefits of Confidence:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="15:1-19:0"> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:99"><strong>Reduced anxiety:</strong> Feeling confident helps manage <strong>fear of public speaking</strong> and stage fright.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-16:133"><strong>Engaging delivery:</strong> Confident speakers project their voices, hold eye contact, and connect with their audience more effectively.</li> <li data-sourcepos="17:1-17:137"><strong>Increased persuasiveness:</strong> A confident presentation inspires belief and motivates your audience to listen and remember your message.</li> <li data-sourcepos="18:1-19:0"><strong>Greater impact:</strong> Confidently delivered speeches leave a lasting impression and achieve desired outcomes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="20:1-20:15"><strong>Challenges:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="22:1-26:0"> <li data-sourcepos="22:1-22:112">Overcoming <strong>fear of public speaking</strong>: Many people experience some level of anxiety when speaking publicly.</li> <li data-sourcepos="23:1-23:101"><strong>Imposter syndrome:</strong> Doubting your abilities and qualifications, even when objectively qualified.</li> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:92"><strong>Negative self-talk:</strong> Internalized criticism and limiting beliefs can hamper confidence.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-26:0"><strong>Past negative experiences:</strong> Unsuccessful presentations or negative feedback can erode confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="27:1-27:24"><strong>Building Confidence:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="29:1-36:0"> <li data-sourcepos="29:1-29:102"><strong>Practice and preparation:</strong> Thoroughly rehearse your speech to feel comfortable with the material.</li> <li data-sourcepos="30:1-30:101"><strong>Visualization:</strong> Imagine yourself delivering a successful presentation with confidence and poise.</li> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:100"><strong>Positive self-talk:</strong> Actively replace negative thoughts with affirmations about your abilities.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:106"><strong>Seek feedback:</strong> Ask trusted individuals for constructive criticism and use it to improve your skills.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:157">Consider a <strong>speaking coach</strong>: Working with a coach can provide personalized guidance and support to address specific challenges and confidence barriers.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-34:114"><strong>Start small:</strong> Gradually increase the size and complexity of your speaking engagements as you gain experience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="35:1-36:0"><strong>Focus on progress:</strong> Celebrate small successes and acknowledge your improvement over time.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="37:1-37:282"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="37:1-37:282"><strong>Confidence</strong> in public speaking is a journey, not a destination. By actively practicing, embracing feedback, and focusing on your strengths, you can overcome <strong>fear of public speaking</strong> and develop the <strong>confidence</strong> to deliver impactful and memorable presentations.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/confidence/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">confidence can help drive away some of the fear you might have had. Practice your Speech <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:271">A form of communication involving spoken language, it is used to express ideas, share information, tell stories, persuade, or entertain. Public speaking is a powerful tool used in diverse contexts, ranging from casual conversations to formal presentations.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:27"><strong>Components of a Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-10:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:73"><strong>Content:</strong> The information, message, or story conveyed through words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:106"><strong>Delivery:</strong> The vocal and physical presentation, including clarity, volume, gestures, and eye contact.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-10:0"><strong>Structure:</strong> The organization of the content, typically following an introduction, body, and conclusion.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="11:1-11:21"><strong>Speech in Action:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="13:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="13:1-13:88"><strong>Informing:</strong> Sharing knowledge and facts, educating an audience on a specific topic.</li> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:119"><strong>Persuading:</strong> Advocating for a particular viewpoint, using arguments and evidence to influence thoughts or actions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:93"><strong>Motivating:</strong> Inspiring and energizing an audience, fostering action and positive change.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0"><strong>Entertaining:</strong> Engaging and delighting an audience through humor, storytelling, or creative language.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:32"><strong>Public Speaking and Anxiety:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="20:1-20:227">Many people experience <strong>public speaking anxiety</strong>, a fear of speaking in front of an audience. While it's common, effective preparation, practice, and breathing techniques can significantly reduce anxiety and improve delivery.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="22:1-22:32"><strong>Different Types of Speeches:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="24:1-28:0"> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:81"><strong>Informative speech:</strong> Focuses on conveying information clearly and concisely.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:102"><strong>Persuasive speech:</strong> Aims to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take action.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-26:99"><strong>Motivational speech:</strong> Inspires and energizes the audience, building enthusiasm and commitment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="27:1-28:0"><strong>Entertaining speech:</strong> Aim to amuse and delight the audience, often using humor, storytelling, or anecdotes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="29:1-29:33"><strong>Crafting a Compelling Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="31:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:106"><strong>Know your audience:</strong> Tailor your content and delivery to their interests, needs, and prior knowledge.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:107"><strong>Have a clear message:</strong> Identify the main point you want to convey and structure your speech around it.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:111"><strong>Engage your audience:</strong> Use varied vocal techniques, storytelling, and visual aids to keep them interested.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0"><strong>Practice, practice, practice:</strong> Rehearse your speech out loud to refine your delivery and build confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:13"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="38:1-38:281">Speech is a powerful tool for communication, connection, and influence. By understanding its elements, addressing potential anxieties, and tailoring your delivery to different contexts, you can harness the power of speech to achieve your intended goals and captivate your audience.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech right before your presentation so you can make last-minute adjustments.

2. Find out the root of the problem and take care of it

As with other phobias, y our Glossophobia may come from past trauma or another psychological problem . Some people associate presentations with embarrassing events from their past, some have low self-esteem, and some might have legitimate reasons to be afraid of delivering their worst presentation ever.

Whatever your reason, you have to* find out what it is and deal with it . If you’re lucky, you may be able to handle them yourself. Make a list of your worries and find a solution for each one. Otherwise, you can talk to a professional to guide you through it.

3. Think positive thoughts

If you have bad thoughts towards your speaking engagement, try to get your mind positive before your presentation is meant to start. You can do that by meditating, doing some breathing exercises, and getting rid of the negative thoughts in your mind. Try to visualize yourself, giving a good presentation and not the worst presentation ever.

4. Organize your speech 

When your Speech <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:271">A form of communication involving spoken language, it is used to express ideas, share information, tell stories, persuade, or entertain. Public speaking is a powerful tool used in diverse contexts, ranging from casual conversations to formal presentations.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:27"><strong>Components of a Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-10:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:73"><strong>Content:</strong> The information, message, or story conveyed through words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:106"><strong>Delivery:</strong> The vocal and physical presentation, including clarity, volume, gestures, and eye contact.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-10:0"><strong>Structure:</strong> The organization of the content, typically following an introduction, body, and conclusion.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="11:1-11:21"><strong>Speech in Action:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="13:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="13:1-13:88"><strong>Informing:</strong> Sharing knowledge and facts, educating an audience on a specific topic.</li> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:119"><strong>Persuading:</strong> Advocating for a particular viewpoint, using arguments and evidence to influence thoughts or actions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:93"><strong>Motivating:</strong> Inspiring and energizing an audience, fostering action and positive change.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0"><strong>Entertaining:</strong> Engaging and delighting an audience through humor, storytelling, or creative language.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:32"><strong>Public Speaking and Anxiety:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="20:1-20:227">Many people experience <strong>public speaking anxiety</strong>, a fear of speaking in front of an audience. While it's common, effective preparation, practice, and breathing techniques can significantly reduce anxiety and improve delivery.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="22:1-22:32"><strong>Different Types of Speeches:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="24:1-28:0"> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:81"><strong>Informative speech:</strong> Focuses on conveying information clearly and concisely.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:102"><strong>Persuasive speech:</strong> Aims to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take action.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-26:99"><strong>Motivational speech:</strong> Inspires and energizes the audience, building enthusiasm and commitment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="27:1-28:0"><strong>Entertaining speech:</strong> Aim to amuse and delight the audience, often using humor, storytelling, or anecdotes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="29:1-29:33"><strong>Crafting a Compelling Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="31:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:106"><strong>Know your audience:</strong> Tailor your content and delivery to their interests, needs, and prior knowledge.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:107"><strong>Have a clear message:</strong> Identify the main point you want to convey and structure your speech around it.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:111"><strong>Engage your audience:</strong> Use varied vocal techniques, storytelling, and visual aids to keep them interested.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0"><strong>Practice, practice, practice:</strong> Rehearse your speech out loud to refine your delivery and build confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:13"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="38:1-38:281">Speech is a powerful tool for communication, connection, and influence. By understanding its elements, addressing potential anxieties, and tailoring your delivery to different contexts, you can harness the power of speech to achieve your intended goals and captivate your audience.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech is properly organized, you will be a lot less nervous. Create a plan of action and organize everything to the minute. Before you start, check all your props and aids, and make sure they are in place. Go over your Speech <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:271">A form of communication involving spoken language, it is used to express ideas, share information, tell stories, persuade, or entertain. Public speaking is a powerful tool used in diverse contexts, ranging from casual conversations to formal presentations.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:27"><strong>Components of a Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-10:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:73"><strong>Content:</strong> The information, message, or story conveyed through words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:106"><strong>Delivery:</strong> The vocal and physical presentation, including clarity, volume, gestures, and eye contact.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-10:0"><strong>Structure:</strong> The organization of the content, typically following an introduction, body, and conclusion.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="11:1-11:21"><strong>Speech in Action:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="13:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="13:1-13:88"><strong>Informing:</strong> Sharing knowledge and facts, educating an audience on a specific topic.</li> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:119"><strong>Persuading:</strong> Advocating for a particular viewpoint, using arguments and evidence to influence thoughts or actions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:93"><strong>Motivating:</strong> Inspiring and energizing an audience, fostering action and positive change.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0"><strong>Entertaining:</strong> Engaging and delighting an audience through humor, storytelling, or creative language.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:32"><strong>Public Speaking and Anxiety:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="20:1-20:227">Many people experience <strong>public speaking anxiety</strong>, a fear of speaking in front of an audience. While it's common, effective preparation, practice, and breathing techniques can significantly reduce anxiety and improve delivery.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="22:1-22:32"><strong>Different Types of Speeches:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="24:1-28:0"> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:81"><strong>Informative speech:</strong> Focuses on conveying information clearly and concisely.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:102"><strong>Persuasive speech:</strong> Aims to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take action.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-26:99"><strong>Motivational speech:</strong> Inspires and energizes the audience, building enthusiasm and commitment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="27:1-28:0"><strong>Entertaining speech:</strong> Aim to amuse and delight the audience, often using humor, storytelling, or anecdotes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="29:1-29:33"><strong>Crafting a Compelling Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="31:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:106"><strong>Know your audience:</strong> Tailor your content and delivery to their interests, needs, and prior knowledge.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:107"><strong>Have a clear message:</strong> Identify the main point you want to convey and structure your speech around it.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:111"><strong>Engage your audience:</strong> Use varied vocal techniques, storytelling, and visual aids to keep them interested.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0"><strong>Practice, practice, practice:</strong> Rehearse your speech out loud to refine your delivery and build confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:13"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="38:1-38:281">Speech is a powerful tool for communication, connection, and influence. By understanding its elements, addressing potential anxieties, and tailoring your delivery to different contexts, you can harness the power of speech to achieve your intended goals and captivate your audience.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech and arrange your flashcards accordingly. Check your PowerPoint slides themes and designs.

5. Make sure you know what you’re talking about

No matter how good your Speech <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:271">A form of communication involving spoken language, it is used to express ideas, share information, tell stories, persuade, or entertain. Public speaking is a powerful tool used in diverse contexts, ranging from casual conversations to formal presentations.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:27"><strong>Components of a Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-10:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:73"><strong>Content:</strong> The information, message, or story conveyed through words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:106"><strong>Delivery:</strong> The vocal and physical presentation, including clarity, volume, gestures, and eye contact.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-10:0"><strong>Structure:</strong> The organization of the content, typically following an introduction, body, and conclusion.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="11:1-11:21"><strong>Speech in Action:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="13:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="13:1-13:88"><strong>Informing:</strong> Sharing knowledge and facts, educating an audience on a specific topic.</li> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:119"><strong>Persuading:</strong> Advocating for a particular viewpoint, using arguments and evidence to influence thoughts or actions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:93"><strong>Motivating:</strong> Inspiring and energizing an audience, fostering action and positive change.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0"><strong>Entertaining:</strong> Engaging and delighting an audience through humor, storytelling, or creative language.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:32"><strong>Public Speaking and Anxiety:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="20:1-20:227">Many people experience <strong>public speaking anxiety</strong>, a fear of speaking in front of an audience. While it's common, effective preparation, practice, and breathing techniques can significantly reduce anxiety and improve delivery.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="22:1-22:32"><strong>Different Types of Speeches:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="24:1-28:0"> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:81"><strong>Informative speech:</strong> Focuses on conveying information clearly and concisely.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:102"><strong>Persuasive speech:</strong> Aims to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take action.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-26:99"><strong>Motivational speech:</strong> Inspires and energizes the audience, building enthusiasm and commitment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="27:1-28:0"><strong>Entertaining speech:</strong> Aim to amuse and delight the audience, often using humor, storytelling, or anecdotes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="29:1-29:33"><strong>Crafting a Compelling Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="31:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:106"><strong>Know your audience:</strong> Tailor your content and delivery to their interests, needs, and prior knowledge.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:107"><strong>Have a clear message:</strong> Identify the main point you want to convey and structure your speech around it.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:111"><strong>Engage your audience:</strong> Use varied vocal techniques, storytelling, and visual aids to keep them interested.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0"><strong>Practice, practice, practice:</strong> Rehearse your speech out loud to refine your delivery and build confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:13"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="38:1-38:281">Speech is a powerful tool for communication, connection, and influence. By understanding its elements, addressing potential anxieties, and tailoring your delivery to different contexts, you can harness the power of speech to achieve your intended goals and captivate your audience.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech is, you won’t feel confident unless you know it well. People make the mistake of memorizing the lines of the Speech <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:271">A form of communication involving spoken language, it is used to express ideas, share information, tell stories, persuade, or entertain. Public speaking is a powerful tool used in diverse contexts, ranging from casual conversations to formal presentations.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:27"><strong>Components of a Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-10:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:73"><strong>Content:</strong> The information, message, or story conveyed through words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:106"><strong>Delivery:</strong> The vocal and physical presentation, including clarity, volume, gestures, and eye contact.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-10:0"><strong>Structure:</strong> The organization of the content, typically following an introduction, body, and conclusion.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="11:1-11:21"><strong>Speech in Action:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="13:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="13:1-13:88"><strong>Informing:</strong> Sharing knowledge and facts, educating an audience on a specific topic.</li> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:119"><strong>Persuading:</strong> Advocating for a particular viewpoint, using arguments and evidence to influence thoughts or actions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:93"><strong>Motivating:</strong> Inspiring and energizing an audience, fostering action and positive change.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0"><strong>Entertaining:</strong> Engaging and delighting an audience through humor, storytelling, or creative language.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:32"><strong>Public Speaking and Anxiety:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="20:1-20:227">Many people experience <strong>public speaking anxiety</strong>, a fear of speaking in front of an audience. While it's common, effective preparation, practice, and breathing techniques can significantly reduce anxiety and improve delivery.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="22:1-22:32"><strong>Different Types of Speeches:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="24:1-28:0"> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:81"><strong>Informative speech:</strong> Focuses on conveying information clearly and concisely.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:102"><strong>Persuasive speech:</strong> Aims to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take action.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-26:99"><strong>Motivational speech:</strong> Inspires and energizes the audience, building enthusiasm and commitment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="27:1-28:0"><strong>Entertaining speech:</strong> Aim to amuse and delight the audience, often using humor, storytelling, or anecdotes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="29:1-29:33"><strong>Crafting a Compelling Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="31:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:106"><strong>Know your audience:</strong> Tailor your content and delivery to their interests, needs, and prior knowledge.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:107"><strong>Have a clear message:</strong> Identify the main point you want to convey and structure your speech around it.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:111"><strong>Engage your audience:</strong> Use varied vocal techniques, storytelling, and visual aids to keep them interested.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0"><strong>Practice, practice, practice:</strong> Rehearse your speech out loud to refine your delivery and build confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:13"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="38:1-38:281">Speech is a powerful tool for communication, connection, and influence. By understanding its elements, addressing potential anxieties, and tailoring your delivery to different contexts, you can harness the power of speech to achieve your intended goals and captivate your audience.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech without really understanding them. Then, if someone asks a question they didn’t prepare for, they panic. 

You need to understand your presentation’s topic well enough to talk about it in your own words. The Confidence <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:305">In the context of <strong>public speaking</strong>, <strong>confidence</strong> refers to the belief in one's ability to communicate effectively and deliver one's message with clarity and impact. It encompasses various elements, including self-belief, composure, and the ability to manage one's <strong>fear of public speaking</strong>.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:16"><strong>Key Aspects:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-12:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:108"><strong>Self-belief:</strong> A strong conviction in your knowledge, skills, and ability to connect with your audience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:95"><strong>Composure:</strong> Maintaining calmness and poise under pressure, even in challenging situations.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-9:100"><strong>Assertiveness:</strong> Expressing your ideas clearly and concisely, avoiding hesitation or self-doubt.</li> <li data-sourcepos="10:1-10:104"><strong>Positive self-talk:</strong> Countering negative thoughts with affirmations and focusing on your strengths.</li> <li data-sourcepos="11:1-12:0"><strong>Strong body language:</strong> Using gestures, posture, and eye contact that project confidence and professionalism.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="13:1-13:27"><strong>Benefits of Confidence:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="15:1-19:0"> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:99"><strong>Reduced anxiety:</strong> Feeling confident helps manage <strong>fear of public speaking</strong> and stage fright.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-16:133"><strong>Engaging delivery:</strong> Confident speakers project their voices, hold eye contact, and connect with their audience more effectively.</li> <li data-sourcepos="17:1-17:137"><strong>Increased persuasiveness:</strong> A confident presentation inspires belief and motivates your audience to listen and remember your message.</li> <li data-sourcepos="18:1-19:0"><strong>Greater impact:</strong> Confidently delivered speeches leave a lasting impression and achieve desired outcomes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="20:1-20:15"><strong>Challenges:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="22:1-26:0"> <li data-sourcepos="22:1-22:112">Overcoming <strong>fear of public speaking</strong>: Many people experience some level of anxiety when speaking publicly.</li> <li data-sourcepos="23:1-23:101"><strong>Imposter syndrome:</strong> Doubting your abilities and qualifications, even when objectively qualified.</li> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:92"><strong>Negative self-talk:</strong> Internalized criticism and limiting beliefs can hamper confidence.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-26:0"><strong>Past negative experiences:</strong> Unsuccessful presentations or negative feedback can erode confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="27:1-27:24"><strong>Building Confidence:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="29:1-36:0"> <li data-sourcepos="29:1-29:102"><strong>Practice and preparation:</strong> Thoroughly rehearse your speech to feel comfortable with the material.</li> <li data-sourcepos="30:1-30:101"><strong>Visualization:</strong> Imagine yourself delivering a successful presentation with confidence and poise.</li> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:100"><strong>Positive self-talk:</strong> Actively replace negative thoughts with affirmations about your abilities.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:106"><strong>Seek feedback:</strong> Ask trusted individuals for constructive criticism and use it to improve your skills.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:157">Consider a <strong>speaking coach</strong>: Working with a coach can provide personalized guidance and support to address specific challenges and confidence barriers.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-34:114"><strong>Start small:</strong> Gradually increase the size and complexity of your speaking engagements as you gain experience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="35:1-36:0"><strong>Focus on progress:</strong> Celebrate small successes and acknowledge your improvement over time.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="37:1-37:282"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="37:1-37:282"><strong>Confidence</strong> in public speaking is a journey, not a destination. By actively practicing, embracing feedback, and focusing on your strengths, you can overcome <strong>fear of public speaking</strong> and develop the <strong>confidence</strong> to deliver impactful and memorable presentations.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/confidence/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">confidence that comes from knowing something can overshadow whatever doubts and fear you had before, and you won’t worry too much about giving the worst presentation ever.

How do I calm my nerves before my speech?

The closer a big presentation is, the more nervous you will be . Even accomplished speakers , like the people who give the worst presentation ever shark tank shows, deal with some nerves before a big presentation. However, you need to get rid of them before you deliver your presentation, so they don’t turn out to be your worst presentation ever. 

Ways to calm the nerves before a big talk

• Practice your Speech <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:271">A form of communication involving spoken language, it is used to express ideas, share information, tell stories, persuade, or entertain. Public speaking is a powerful tool used in diverse contexts, ranging from casual conversations to formal presentations.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:27"><strong>Components of a Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-10:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:73"><strong>Content:</strong> The information, message, or story conveyed through words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:106"><strong>Delivery:</strong> The vocal and physical presentation, including clarity, volume, gestures, and eye contact.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-10:0"><strong>Structure:</strong> The organization of the content, typically following an introduction, body, and conclusion.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="11:1-11:21"><strong>Speech in Action:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="13:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="13:1-13:88"><strong>Informing:</strong> Sharing knowledge and facts, educating an audience on a specific topic.</li> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:119"><strong>Persuading:</strong> Advocating for a particular viewpoint, using arguments and evidence to influence thoughts or actions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:93"><strong>Motivating:</strong> Inspiring and energizing an audience, fostering action and positive change.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0"><strong>Entertaining:</strong> Engaging and delighting an audience through humor, storytelling, or creative language.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:32"><strong>Public Speaking and Anxiety:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="20:1-20:227">Many people experience <strong>public speaking anxiety</strong>, a fear of speaking in front of an audience. While it's common, effective preparation, practice, and breathing techniques can significantly reduce anxiety and improve delivery.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="22:1-22:32"><strong>Different Types of Speeches:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="24:1-28:0"> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:81"><strong>Informative speech:</strong> Focuses on conveying information clearly and concisely.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:102"><strong>Persuasive speech:</strong> Aims to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take action.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-26:99"><strong>Motivational speech:</strong> Inspires and energizes the audience, building enthusiasm and commitment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="27:1-28:0"><strong>Entertaining speech:</strong> Aim to amuse and delight the audience, often using humor, storytelling, or anecdotes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="29:1-29:33"><strong>Crafting a Compelling Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="31:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:106"><strong>Know your audience:</strong> Tailor your content and delivery to their interests, needs, and prior knowledge.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:107"><strong>Have a clear message:</strong> Identify the main point you want to convey and structure your speech around it.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:111"><strong>Engage your audience:</strong> Use varied vocal techniques, storytelling, and visual aids to keep them interested.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0"><strong>Practice, practice, practice:</strong> Rehearse your speech out loud to refine your delivery and build confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:13"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="38:1-38:281">Speech is a powerful tool for communication, connection, and influence. By understanding its elements, addressing potential anxieties, and tailoring your delivery to different contexts, you can harness the power of speech to achieve your intended goals and captivate your audience.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech

The importance of practice before any speaking engagement cannot be overemphasized. You can rehearse your Speech <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:271">A form of communication involving spoken language, it is used to express ideas, share information, tell stories, persuade, or entertain. Public speaking is a powerful tool used in diverse contexts, ranging from casual conversations to formal presentations.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:27"><strong>Components of a Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-10:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:73"><strong>Content:</strong> The information, message, or story conveyed through words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:106"><strong>Delivery:</strong> The vocal and physical presentation, including clarity, volume, gestures, and eye contact.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-10:0"><strong>Structure:</strong> The organization of the content, typically following an introduction, body, and conclusion.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="11:1-11:21"><strong>Speech in Action:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="13:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="13:1-13:88"><strong>Informing:</strong> Sharing knowledge and facts, educating an audience on a specific topic.</li> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:119"><strong>Persuading:</strong> Advocating for a particular viewpoint, using arguments and evidence to influence thoughts or actions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:93"><strong>Motivating:</strong> Inspiring and energizing an audience, fostering action and positive change.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0"><strong>Entertaining:</strong> Engaging and delighting an audience through humor, storytelling, or creative language.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:32"><strong>Public Speaking and Anxiety:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="20:1-20:227">Many people experience <strong>public speaking anxiety</strong>, a fear of speaking in front of an audience. While it's common, effective preparation, practice, and breathing techniques can significantly reduce anxiety and improve delivery.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="22:1-22:32"><strong>Different Types of Speeches:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="24:1-28:0"> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:81"><strong>Informative speech:</strong> Focuses on conveying information clearly and concisely.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:102"><strong>Persuasive speech:</strong> Aims to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take action.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-26:99"><strong>Motivational speech:</strong> Inspires and energizes the audience, building enthusiasm and commitment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="27:1-28:0"><strong>Entertaining speech:</strong> Aim to amuse and delight the audience, often using humor, storytelling, or anecdotes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="29:1-29:33"><strong>Crafting a Compelling Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="31:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:106"><strong>Know your audience:</strong> Tailor your content and delivery to their interests, needs, and prior knowledge.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:107"><strong>Have a clear message:</strong> Identify the main point you want to convey and structure your speech around it.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:111"><strong>Engage your audience:</strong> Use varied vocal techniques, storytelling, and visual aids to keep them interested.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0"><strong>Practice, practice, practice:</strong> Rehearse your speech out loud to refine your delivery and build confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:13"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="38:1-38:281">Speech is a powerful tool for communication, connection, and influence. By understanding its elements, addressing potential anxieties, and tailoring your delivery to different contexts, you can harness the power of speech to achieve your intended goals and captivate your audience.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech a few times before you’re due to speak, and that can help you relax a little. You can practice anywhere, as long as you’re comfortable.

Practice your Speech <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:271">A form of communication involving spoken language, it is used to express ideas, share information, tell stories, persuade, or entertain. Public speaking is a powerful tool used in diverse contexts, ranging from casual conversations to formal presentations.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:27"><strong>Components of a Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-10:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:73"><strong>Content:</strong> The information, message, or story conveyed through words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:106"><strong>Delivery:</strong> The vocal and physical presentation, including clarity, volume, gestures, and eye contact.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-10:0"><strong>Structure:</strong> The organization of the content, typically following an introduction, body, and conclusion.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="11:1-11:21"><strong>Speech in Action:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="13:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="13:1-13:88"><strong>Informing:</strong> Sharing knowledge and facts, educating an audience on a specific topic.</li> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:119"><strong>Persuading:</strong> Advocating for a particular viewpoint, using arguments and evidence to influence thoughts or actions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:93"><strong>Motivating:</strong> Inspiring and energizing an audience, fostering action and positive change.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0"><strong>Entertaining:</strong> Engaging and delighting an audience through humor, storytelling, or creative language.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:32"><strong>Public Speaking and Anxiety:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="20:1-20:227">Many people experience <strong>public speaking anxiety</strong>, a fear of speaking in front of an audience. While it's common, effective preparation, practice, and breathing techniques can significantly reduce anxiety and improve delivery.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="22:1-22:32"><strong>Different Types of Speeches:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="24:1-28:0"> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:81"><strong>Informative speech:</strong> Focuses on conveying information clearly and concisely.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:102"><strong>Persuasive speech:</strong> Aims to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take action.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-26:99"><strong>Motivational speech:</strong> Inspires and energizes the audience, building enthusiasm and commitment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="27:1-28:0"><strong>Entertaining speech:</strong> Aim to amuse and delight the audience, often using humor, storytelling, or anecdotes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="29:1-29:33"><strong>Crafting a Compelling Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="31:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:106"><strong>Know your audience:</strong> Tailor your content and delivery to their interests, needs, and prior knowledge.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:107"><strong>Have a clear message:</strong> Identify the main point you want to convey and structure your speech around it.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:111"><strong>Engage your audience:</strong> Use varied vocal techniques, storytelling, and visual aids to keep them interested.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0"><strong>Practice, practice, practice:</strong> Rehearse your speech out loud to refine your delivery and build confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:13"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="38:1-38:281">Speech is a powerful tool for communication, connection, and influence. By understanding its elements, addressing potential anxieties, and tailoring your delivery to different contexts, you can harness the power of speech to achieve your intended goals and captivate your audience.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech with Orai. Get feedback on your tone, tempo, Confidence <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:305">In the context of <strong>public speaking</strong>, <strong>confidence</strong> refers to the belief in one's ability to communicate effectively and deliver one's message with clarity and impact. It encompasses various elements, including self-belief, composure, and the ability to manage one's <strong>fear of public speaking</strong>.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:16"><strong>Key Aspects:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-12:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:108"><strong>Self-belief:</strong> A strong conviction in your knowledge, skills, and ability to connect with your audience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:95"><strong>Composure:</strong> Maintaining calmness and poise under pressure, even in challenging situations.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-9:100"><strong>Assertiveness:</strong> Expressing your ideas clearly and concisely, avoiding hesitation or self-doubt.</li> <li data-sourcepos="10:1-10:104"><strong>Positive self-talk:</strong> Countering negative thoughts with affirmations and focusing on your strengths.</li> <li data-sourcepos="11:1-12:0"><strong>Strong body language:</strong> Using gestures, posture, and eye contact that project confidence and professionalism.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="13:1-13:27"><strong>Benefits of Confidence:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="15:1-19:0"> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:99"><strong>Reduced anxiety:</strong> Feeling confident helps manage <strong>fear of public speaking</strong> and stage fright.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-16:133"><strong>Engaging delivery:</strong> Confident speakers project their voices, hold eye contact, and connect with their audience more effectively.</li> <li data-sourcepos="17:1-17:137"><strong>Increased persuasiveness:</strong> A confident presentation inspires belief and motivates your audience to listen and remember your message.</li> <li data-sourcepos="18:1-19:0"><strong>Greater impact:</strong> Confidently delivered speeches leave a lasting impression and achieve desired outcomes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="20:1-20:15"><strong>Challenges:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="22:1-26:0"> <li data-sourcepos="22:1-22:112">Overcoming <strong>fear of public speaking</strong>: Many people experience some level of anxiety when speaking publicly.</li> <li data-sourcepos="23:1-23:101"><strong>Imposter syndrome:</strong> Doubting your abilities and qualifications, even when objectively qualified.</li> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:92"><strong>Negative self-talk:</strong> Internalized criticism and limiting beliefs can hamper confidence.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-26:0"><strong>Past negative experiences:</strong> Unsuccessful presentations or negative feedback can erode confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="27:1-27:24"><strong>Building Confidence:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="29:1-36:0"> <li data-sourcepos="29:1-29:102"><strong>Practice and preparation:</strong> Thoroughly rehearse your speech to feel comfortable with the material.</li> <li data-sourcepos="30:1-30:101"><strong>Visualization:</strong> Imagine yourself delivering a successful presentation with confidence and poise.</li> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:100"><strong>Positive self-talk:</strong> Actively replace negative thoughts with affirmations about your abilities.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:106"><strong>Seek feedback:</strong> Ask trusted individuals for constructive criticism and use it to improve your skills.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:157">Consider a <strong>speaking coach</strong>: Working with a coach can provide personalized guidance and support to address specific challenges and confidence barriers.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-34:114"><strong>Start small:</strong> Gradually increase the size and complexity of your speaking engagements as you gain experience.</li> <li data-sourcepos="35:1-36:0"><strong>Focus on progress:</strong> Celebrate small successes and acknowledge your improvement over time.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="37:1-37:282"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="37:1-37:282"><strong>Confidence</strong> in public speaking is a journey, not a destination. By actively practicing, embracing feedback, and focusing on your strengths, you can overcome <strong>fear of public speaking</strong> and develop the <strong>confidence</strong> to deliver impactful and memorable presentations.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/confidence/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">confidence , and Conciseness <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:326">In the realm of <strong>public speaking</strong>, <strong>conciseness</strong> refers to the ability to express your message clearly and effectively using the fewest possible words. It's about conveying your ideas precisely, avoiding unnecessary details and rambling while maintaining your message's essence and impact.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:33"><strong>Benefits for Public Speakers:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-11:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:137"><strong>Engaged audience:</strong> A concise speech keeps your audience focused and prevents them from losing interest due to excessive information.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:117"><strong>Increased clarity:</strong> By removing unnecessary clutter, your core message becomes clearer and easier to understand.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-9:137"><strong>Enhanced credibility:</strong> Concise communication projects professionalism and efficiency, making you appear more confident and prepared.</li> <li data-sourcepos="10:1-11:0"><strong>Reduced anxiety:</strong> Knowing you have a clear and concise message can help manage <strong>public speaking anxiety</strong> by minimizing the pressure to fill time.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="12:1-12:35"><strong>Challenges for Public Speakers:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="14:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:126"><strong>Striking a balance:</strong> Knowing where to draw the line between conciseness and omitting important information can be tricky.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:115"><strong>Avoiding oversimplification:</strong> Complex topics may require elaboration to ensure clarity and understanding.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0"><strong>Overcoming natural tendencies:</strong> Some speakers naturally use more words than others, requiring a conscious effort to be concise.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:41"><strong>Strategies for Achieving Conciseness:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="20:1-25:0"> <li data-sourcepos="20:1-20:92"><strong>Identify your core message:</strong> What is your audience's main point to remember?</li> <li data-sourcepos="21:1-21:128"><strong>Prioritize and eliminate:</strong> Analyze your content and remove any information not directly supporting your core message.</li> <li data-sourcepos="22:1-22:133"><strong>Use strong verbs and active voice:</strong> This makes your sentences more impactful and avoids passive constructions that can be wordy.</li> <li data-sourcepos="23:1-23:109"><strong>Simplify your language:</strong> Avoid jargon and technical terms unless they are essential and clearly defined.</li> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-25:0"><strong>Practice and refine:</strong> Rehearse your speech aloud and identify areas where you can tighten your wording or eliminate redundancies.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="26:1-26:20"><strong>Additional Tips:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="28:1-31:0"> <li data-sourcepos="28:1-28:93"><strong>Use storytelling:</strong> Engaging narratives can convey complex ideas concisely and memorably.</li> <li data-sourcepos="29:1-29:110"><strong>Focus on the visuals:</strong> Powerful visuals can support your message without extensive explanation.</li> <li data-sourcepos="30:1-31:0"><strong>Embrace silence:</strong> Pausing deliberately can emphasize key points and give your audience time to absorb your message.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="32:1-32:404"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="32:1-32:404"><strong>Conciseness</strong> is a powerful tool for <strong>public speakers</strong>. By eliminating unnecessary words and focusing on your core message, you can create a more engaging, impactful, and memorable presentation for your audience. This can also help manage <strong>public speaking anxiety</strong> by reducing the pressure to fill time and enabling you to focus on delivering your message with clarity and confidence.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/conciseness/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">conciseness

• Get to the venue earlier

Lateness only helps to compound your nerves and leave you disorganized. Make sure you get to the venue earlier than your allocated time so you can relax for a few minutes and gather yourself. 

• Watch other presenters

You can watch presentations by other orators online to get some tips and to help you relax. If you’re a part of a group, you can watch the other presenters go before your turn. This helps to focus your nerves, and you can learn a helpful tip, so you don’t deliver your worst presentation ever.

• Get used to your environment before the presentation

Take some time and observe the environment where you will present. You can watch the people, pick up on the atmosphere, and get used to it before your time to present. If you don’t feel at home, it can make you deliver your worst presentation ever.

• Engage in self-care before your Speech <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:271">A form of communication involving spoken language, it is used to express ideas, share information, tell stories, persuade, or entertain. Public speaking is a powerful tool used in diverse contexts, ranging from casual conversations to formal presentations.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:27"><strong>Components of a Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-10:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:73"><strong>Content:</strong> The information, message, or story conveyed through words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:106"><strong>Delivery:</strong> The vocal and physical presentation, including clarity, volume, gestures, and eye contact.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-10:0"><strong>Structure:</strong> The organization of the content, typically following an introduction, body, and conclusion.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="11:1-11:21"><strong>Speech in Action:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="13:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="13:1-13:88"><strong>Informing:</strong> Sharing knowledge and facts, educating an audience on a specific topic.</li> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:119"><strong>Persuading:</strong> Advocating for a particular viewpoint, using arguments and evidence to influence thoughts or actions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:93"><strong>Motivating:</strong> Inspiring and energizing an audience, fostering action and positive change.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0"><strong>Entertaining:</strong> Engaging and delighting an audience through humor, storytelling, or creative language.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:32"><strong>Public Speaking and Anxiety:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="20:1-20:227">Many people experience <strong>public speaking anxiety</strong>, a fear of speaking in front of an audience. While it's common, effective preparation, practice, and breathing techniques can significantly reduce anxiety and improve delivery.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="22:1-22:32"><strong>Different Types of Speeches:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="24:1-28:0"> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:81"><strong>Informative speech:</strong> Focuses on conveying information clearly and concisely.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:102"><strong>Persuasive speech:</strong> Aims to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take action.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-26:99"><strong>Motivational speech:</strong> Inspires and energizes the audience, building enthusiasm and commitment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="27:1-28:0"><strong>Entertaining speech:</strong> Aim to amuse and delight the audience, often using humor, storytelling, or anecdotes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="29:1-29:33"><strong>Crafting a Compelling Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="31:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:106"><strong>Know your audience:</strong> Tailor your content and delivery to their interests, needs, and prior knowledge.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:107"><strong>Have a clear message:</strong> Identify the main point you want to convey and structure your speech around it.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:111"><strong>Engage your audience:</strong> Use varied vocal techniques, storytelling, and visual aids to keep them interested.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0"><strong>Practice, practice, practice:</strong> Rehearse your speech out loud to refine your delivery and build confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:13"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="38:1-38:281">Speech is a powerful tool for communication, connection, and influence. By understanding its elements, addressing potential anxieties, and tailoring your delivery to different contexts, you can harness the power of speech to achieve your intended goals and captivate your audience.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech

Selfcare is very important, especially before a presentation. You can practice self-care in many ways, depending on what relaxes you. Some people like reading a book, some prefer walks, and some like meditating. Find the one that suits you and relax your nerves.

Avoidable mistakes people make on PowerPoint presentations

• Packing too much written text on one slide. Your slide can only take a certain amount of text before it becomes the worst PowerPoint presentation ever
• Using complicated diagrams and graphs that the audience cannot understand easily
• Using unnecessary transitions and animations. It’s a slide and not the worst PowerPoint presentation ever
• Breaking the flow of the Speech <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:271">A form of communication involving spoken language, it is used to express ideas, share information, tell stories, persuade, or entertain. Public speaking is a powerful tool used in diverse contexts, ranging from casual conversations to formal presentations.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:27"><strong>Components of a Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-10:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:73"><strong>Content:</strong> The information, message, or story conveyed through words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:106"><strong>Delivery:</strong> The vocal and physical presentation, including clarity, volume, gestures, and eye contact.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-10:0"><strong>Structure:</strong> The organization of the content, typically following an introduction, body, and conclusion.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="11:1-11:21"><strong>Speech in Action:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="13:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="13:1-13:88"><strong>Informing:</strong> Sharing knowledge and facts, educating an audience on a specific topic.</li> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:119"><strong>Persuading:</strong> Advocating for a particular viewpoint, using arguments and evidence to influence thoughts or actions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:93"><strong>Motivating:</strong> Inspiring and energizing an audience, fostering action and positive change.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0"><strong>Entertaining:</strong> Engaging and delighting an audience through humor, storytelling, or creative language.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:32"><strong>Public Speaking and Anxiety:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="20:1-20:227">Many people experience <strong>public speaking anxiety</strong>, a fear of speaking in front of an audience. While it's common, effective preparation, practice, and breathing techniques can significantly reduce anxiety and improve delivery.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="22:1-22:32"><strong>Different Types of Speeches:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="24:1-28:0"> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:81"><strong>Informative speech:</strong> Focuses on conveying information clearly and concisely.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:102"><strong>Persuasive speech:</strong> Aims to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take action.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-26:99"><strong>Motivational speech:</strong> Inspires and energizes the audience, building enthusiasm and commitment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="27:1-28:0"><strong>Entertaining speech:</strong> Aim to amuse and delight the audience, often using humor, storytelling, or anecdotes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="29:1-29:33"><strong>Crafting a Compelling Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="31:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:106"><strong>Know your audience:</strong> Tailor your content and delivery to their interests, needs, and prior knowledge.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:107"><strong>Have a clear message:</strong> Identify the main point you want to convey and structure your speech around it.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:111"><strong>Engage your audience:</strong> Use varied vocal techniques, storytelling, and visual aids to keep them interested.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0"><strong>Practice, practice, practice:</strong> Rehearse your speech out loud to refine your delivery and build confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:13"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="38:1-38:281">Speech is a powerful tool for communication, connection, and influence. By understanding its elements, addressing potential anxieties, and tailoring your delivery to different contexts, you can harness the power of speech to achieve your intended goals and captivate your audience.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech  
• Burying the significant information instead of centering it at the beginning of the presentation
• Using bad contrasts, like white text on pale colors. You need the text and background colors to contrast

Differences between a good presentation and the worst presentation ever

Things you should never say during your speech.

• ‘I don’t know.’

If you don’t know the answer to a question thrown at you during a presentation, offer to get the answer later. Saying you don’t know makes you look unprepared.

Instead, say what you want to say directly. Saying ‘I think’ before making a statement can make you sound unsure of its validity.

• Wrong statements

Every statement you make during your presentation has to be based on facts . Back them up with studies and statistics . You don’t have to state all your references, but you should have them for anyone that asks. This is a problem found in the worst presentation ever shark tank puts on TV

• Filler words

Filler words are crutches that muddle up your Speech <p data-sourcepos="3:1-3:271">A form of communication involving spoken language, it is used to express ideas, share information, tell stories, persuade, or entertain. Public speaking is a powerful tool used in diverse contexts, ranging from casual conversations to formal presentations.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="5:1-5:27"><strong>Components of a Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="7:1-10:0"> <li data-sourcepos="7:1-7:73"><strong>Content:</strong> The information, message, or story conveyed through words.</li> <li data-sourcepos="8:1-8:106"><strong>Delivery:</strong> The vocal and physical presentation, including clarity, volume, gestures, and eye contact.</li> <li data-sourcepos="9:1-10:0"><strong>Structure:</strong> The organization of the content, typically following an introduction, body, and conclusion.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="11:1-11:21"><strong>Speech in Action:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="13:1-17:0"> <li data-sourcepos="13:1-13:88"><strong>Informing:</strong> Sharing knowledge and facts, educating an audience on a specific topic.</li> <li data-sourcepos="14:1-14:119"><strong>Persuading:</strong> Advocating for a particular viewpoint, using arguments and evidence to influence thoughts or actions.</li> <li data-sourcepos="15:1-15:93"><strong>Motivating:</strong> Inspiring and energizing an audience, fostering action and positive change.</li> <li data-sourcepos="16:1-17:0"><strong>Entertaining:</strong> Engaging and delighting an audience through humor, storytelling, or creative language.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="18:1-18:32"><strong>Public Speaking and Anxiety:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="20:1-20:227">Many people experience <strong>public speaking anxiety</strong>, a fear of speaking in front of an audience. While it's common, effective preparation, practice, and breathing techniques can significantly reduce anxiety and improve delivery.</p><br /><h2 data-sourcepos="22:1-22:32"><strong>Different Types of Speeches:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="24:1-28:0"> <li data-sourcepos="24:1-24:81"><strong>Informative speech:</strong> Focuses on conveying information clearly and concisely.</li> <li data-sourcepos="25:1-25:102"><strong>Persuasive speech:</strong> Aims to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take action.</li> <li data-sourcepos="26:1-26:99"><strong>Motivational speech:</strong> Inspires and energizes the audience, building enthusiasm and commitment.</li> <li data-sourcepos="27:1-28:0"><strong>Entertaining speech:</strong> Aim to amuse and delight the audience, often using humor, storytelling, or anecdotes.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="29:1-29:33"><strong>Crafting a Compelling Speech:</strong></h2> <ul data-sourcepos="31:1-35:0"> <li data-sourcepos="31:1-31:106"><strong>Know your audience:</strong> Tailor your content and delivery to their interests, needs, and prior knowledge.</li> <li data-sourcepos="32:1-32:107"><strong>Have a clear message:</strong> Identify the main point you want to convey and structure your speech around it.</li> <li data-sourcepos="33:1-33:111"><strong>Engage your audience:</strong> Use varied vocal techniques, storytelling, and visual aids to keep them interested.</li> <li data-sourcepos="34:1-35:0"><strong>Practice, practice, practice:</strong> Rehearse your speech out loud to refine your delivery and build confidence.</li> </ul> <h2 data-sourcepos="36:1-36:13"><strong>Remember:</strong></h2> <p data-sourcepos="38:1-38:281">Speech is a powerful tool for communication, connection, and influence. By understanding its elements, addressing potential anxieties, and tailoring your delivery to different contexts, you can harness the power of speech to achieve your intended goals and captivate your audience.</p> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/speech/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">speech and make it sound broken. When you rely on filler words, you start to sound unsure and uncertain of what you’re saying. They can also* distract your audience and dilute your message .

• ‘Do you have any questions?’

It doesn’t engage your audience, and it can sound so cliché. Instead, guide them towards asking questions and let them know you will be open to taking questions after your presentation.

Do’s and don’ts of presentations

Many examples of bad presentations exist, like the worst presentation ever shark tank has brought to the TV screen. But nobody wants to be the one delivering the worst presentation ever. With the tips in this article, you can avoid that and also give the worst PowerPoint presentation ever!

Still, confused? No worries, get over your fear of Public Speaking <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Public speaking refers to any live presentation or speech. It can cover a variety of topics on various fields and careers (you can find out more about public speaking careers here: https://orai.com/blog/public-speaking-careers/.  Public speaking can inform, entertain, or educate an audience and sometimes has visual aids.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --><br /><!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Public speaking is done live, so the speakers need to consider certain factors to deliver a successful speech. No matter how good the speech is, if the audience doesn't connect with the speaker, then it may fall flat. Therefore, speakers have to use a lot more nonverbal communication techniques to deliver their message. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --><br /><!-- wp:heading --> <h2>Tips for public speaking</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --><br /><!-- wp:list --> <ul> <li>Have a sense of humor.</li> <li>Tell personal stories that relate to the speech you're giving.</li> <li>Dress appropriately for the event. Formal and business casual outfits work best.</li> <li>Project a confident and expressive voice.</li> <li>Always try to use simple language that everyone can understand.</li> <li>Stick to the time given to you.</li> <li>Maintain eye contact with members of your audience and try to connect with them.</li> </ul> <!-- /wp:list --> " href="https://orai.com/glossary/public-speaking/" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" tabindex="0" role="link">public speaking . Download Orai now and start practicing.

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6 Presentations That Are So Horrible You Might Get Nightmares

Yousef "yoyo" abu ghaidah.

• November 28, 2017
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We’ve all sat through presentations that we found, for lack of a better term, horrible. But sometimes, we encounter presentations that are so bad, so disgusting, so monumentally horrific, that we have to sit back and appreciate just how awful they are. I’m going to cover some of these of these presentations in this post, and yes, do expect a laugh or two. More importantly, these eyesores also give a strong indication of everything you should NOT do the next time you create your PowerPoint slides. So, let’s laugh and learn.

1. This Awful “Summary”

Where do I even begin with this?

The whole idea of a summary is to give a brief statement of the main points in regards to something. The key word here, obviously, is ‘brief.’ So imagine my surprise when I see a wall of text so large it would probably take the rest of my life to go through all the important points. I can’t overstate just how huge this text box is. I mean, look at it! It’s so big it goes over the illustration at the bottom left corner!

Nobody is going to sit there and read that. I wouldn’t even do it if you paid me. Presenters are better off using icons to illustrate the main points, and maybe add a few text boxes to get the message across; check out Slide Cow’s icons guide here to know how to do just that .

2. This Terrible Graph Spam

I used this picture to illustrate why technical people suck at PowerPoint . I guess the point still holds merit if people think it’s a good idea to make a slide that looks like this.

Graphs and charts are a norm in presentations. If anything, they tend to presentations sexy since people are always looking to find ways to visualize data. But trust me on this, you don’t need 100 graphs on the same slide . Yeah, I counted.

Presenters are better off using a more systematic approach to beautifully visualize data like the one I outlined in a separate post . A process like the one I described will at the very least safeguard people from making horrible PowerPoint slides like this.

Also, I can’t help but notice that the title takes up a quarter of the slide. I mean for God’s sake. Come on.

3. This Disgusting Hairball

Somebody actually thought it would be a good idea to present something like this?

When I saw this slide, I was motivated to do a little research to find out what the purpose of its existence is. Not surprisingly, I didn’t get very far. All I understood was that this slide was presented to Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal and it had something to do with some strategy (perhaps military strategy?) in Afghanistan.

Gen. McChrystal, I salute you for even having the audacity to process whatever this slide is.

Honestly, anyone is better off doing anything else that isn’t this. That includes putting a face on a keyboard and rolling it.

4. This Horrible Merry-Go-Round

What the hell even is this?

It’s so terrible I can’t even come up with a witty remark about it. Look at it! Arrows are flying everywhere like doves from a John Woo movie (oh, wait, I guess I can).

Even if I gave this slide the benefit of the doubt and put the use of arrows aside, I can’t get over the horrible use of the text; it’s just plastered everywhere! What makes it worse is that the different text boxes are rotated too.

For slides like this, stick to making easy-to-process infographics that are designed to get one’s point across. Slide Cow has tons of infographic tutorials; in fact, the last PowerPoint tutorial I covered gave an excellent example of how to make a funnel infographic that doesn’t look like crap .

Whatever you choose to do, just make sure it isn’t whatever this is.

5. These Atrocious Uses of Images

HAHAHAHAHAH.

Okay, okay I’m done.

If one wants a decent front cover, then one must learn to make one. Here’s a tutorial where I covered how to make a beautiful front cover from scratch .

Oh, you thought we were done with this part of the post? You thought wrong. Here’s another slide from the same presentation.

Come on. Is it too much to ask to get a decent title and block of text on a slide without choosing horrible effects that a 5-year-old would go for?

If presenters want to have an image as a background, then they should at least learn how to do it right. This tutorial over here is a good example of how background images can complement the text on the slide .

6. This Brutal Word Art Avalanche

This one’s my all-time favorite.

When I was a kid, I always thought that Word Art was the bee’s knees to every Microsoft Office file out there. Come to think of it, I pretty much used all the Word Art styles available on my .doc and .ppt files. But I would have never, ever, not for a second, thought that using them all on the same slide (or page) would be a good idea.

It’s as if the person who made this slide went out of his/her way to exhaust every Word Art avenue there was and make something that could make eyes bleed. If that was the intent, then mission accomplished.

Seriously though, don’t do this. Here’s a better tutorial that highlights how to add little creative flair to text the right way .

Let me show you how to be amazing

If you’re looking for a way to make fantastic PowerPoint slides in a matter of seconds, then I urge you to check out the Slide Cow Toolkit . You can’t go wrong with over 120 pre-made, editable, multipurpose PowerPoint slides, 700 editable icons and 5 hours and 40 minutes of video guide content that teach you how to make jaw-droppingly good presentation slides. The value of this one package is pretty incredible, and will, without doubt, toss the ideas of making horrible slides like the ones you just saw in the garbage.

Save the world from terrible presentations

There are two things that you need to do right now.

First, share this article with everybody and anybody that either gives presentations or uses PowerPoint regularly. Post it on your social media, email it to your colleagues at work; I don’t care. The whole idea of this post is to stop terrible slides from ever coming to the surface again.

Second, drop me a line in the comments below and tell me the single worst experience you had when it came to a horribly designed presentation. How did you feel? Were any steps taken to remedy the awfulness?

Got a project for us?

© Slide Cow. All rights reserved.

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The World’s Worst PowerPoint Presentations

The world’s worst powerpoint presentations.

Convoluted flow charts? Tacky, out-of-focus graphics? Huge blocks of text? Welcome to PowerPoint Hell.

Most of you have probably had to make a PowerPoint presentation, so you probably know the basic PowerPoint rules : Use a lot of bullet points. Don’t overdo the text. Avoid multimedia excesses. Et cetera.

It might seem like pretty basic stuff to you, oh PowerPoint Guru, but unfortunately it’s not so obvious to some other people. We took a stroll through the PowerPoint presentation-sharing site, Slideshare.net, and found a scarily large number of really bad PowerPoint presentations. Here are some of the worst (or should we say best?) ones of the bunch.

Images and Text Do Not Mix

This PowerPoint presentation on cars (we know it’s about cars because an introductory slide consists of the word “CARS” in huge, garish orange-and-blue letters) puts all of its images in the background (after applying a little tasteful fading), with paragraphs of text overlaid on them. This accomplishes the difficult feat of making the images hard to look at and the text hard to read. Perfect–a lose-lose situation!

The presenter could have consolidated the text in one part of the image, using the image’s horizontal guiding lines; but that didn’t happen, so the slide manages to look sloppy as well as unreadable. Bonus points for misspelling “carburetor.”

To Be Fair, Social Networking Is Complicated

The first rule of flow charts is that they should be intelligible. In a presentation , you do have a chance to explain what’s going on, but a good PowerPoint series makes sense on its own. The flow chart presented here is simply baffling–and the pictures don’t help much. What’s going where? Who’s getting what? What’s the difference between a one in a big black square and a one in a little red circle? What is a “follower feed”? And why are the some of the “salmon” going downstream?

Nor does this social networking slideshow rally after the incoherent flow chart: It later shows a series of e-mail screen caps that are ugly at best, and incomprehensible at worst.

A Symmetrical Rainbow of Confusion

Colors are great for attracting an audience . But stick with two or three–not six or seven–and use them consistently. The colors in this “ social business map ” don’t clarify anything. Why are “Social Web” and “Social Enterprise” in different colors but “Cloud/SaaS” and “On-Premise” in the same color? Why do blue and green diamonds populate orange and white areas as well as blue and green areas? Why does “Trend” appear as two converging white areas while “Standards” appears as a single vanishing brown area?

The whole chart looks like an alien Venn diagram, and the big labels along the bottom appear in random colors that correspond to nothing else on the chart. Why?

Flow Chart on Steroids

The left side of this PowerPoint slide on customer lifetime value in service contracts does pretty well (If you overlook the iffy capitalization, the wacky punctuation, and the inconsistent framing of the “Modeling issues”): The text is in short bullet points , colors and fonts are restrained, and the presenter used a basic slide template (when in doubt, use a template!).

But then we get to the flow chart. Presumably the red arrows are there to explain what’s going on in the maze of black arrows. The red arrows are somewhat helpful, except for the jarring overlay of red on black. As for the 10,000 black arrows, they probably make a point, or something, but really?

The Endless “Summary”

Filling an entire PowerPoint slide with text is never a great idea–especially not when the content is printed in 10-point type and is three or four times longer than the Gettysburg Address. Even worse is the idea of using an impenetrable slab of 10-point text to provide an “ executive summary ” of the ensuing presentation. It’s hard to imagine what useful thing the presenter thought this slide would accomplish–no one is going to want to read the text, and if the presenter does so, what’s left to say in the presentation ?

The most chilling part of this cautionary tale? The audience hasn’t even seen the entire “executive summary” yet–it continues on the next slide.

100 Graphs in One Little Slide

Graphs and charts are usually PowerPoint presentation gold: They’re visual, informative, and hard to screw up. So, obviously, the more graphs and charts, the better–right? Like, say, 100 graphs and charts. And to sweeten that deal, let’s put all 100 of ’em on one slide. What could go wrong?

Or rather, what couldn’t go wrong? The whole PowerPoint presentation on lung cancer surgery is pretty bad, but this slide showing 100 charts neatly stacked like coffins in a ten-by-ten array takes the cake. Not only are the graphs so small as to be unreadable, but did we mention there are 100 of them? Oh, and a slide heading that makes sense in English would’ve been nice.

Slides With Ads–Are They Clickable?

What’s worse than using generic Microsoft clip art in a PowerPoint presentation ? Using a Web banner ad as the top image across all of the slides–that’s what. The creator of this presentation about a “ snoring solution ” didn’t even bother to crop off the “Special Offer: Order Now” part of the graphic (which looks as though it were made to run on Yahoo Chat pages, circa 1999).

Hey, we’re all for blatantly touting your Website during a PowerPoint presentation (though you really should limit your self-promotion to the first or last slide–not both–or you may induce shill fatigue), but decorating a presentation with your company’s online banner ads is pretty cheesy.

The Case of the Invisible Text

PowerPoint slide transitions are best left to the fourth-grade science fair crowd. But if you insist on using them (don’t say we didn’t warn you), make sure that your text doesn’t behave like a Cheshire cat.

In a PowerPoint presentation on the future of learning technology , the slides leading up to this one (slide 18) are visually interesting and don’t overdo the text or graphs. But slide 18 contains three bullet-type points that appear and then disappear as the presenter clicks through it. The only thing worse than putting multiple paragraphs of text into a slide is putting up text that vanishes unexpectedly. It’s supposed to be a visual aid, not a magic show.

Bad Bullet Points

In a PowerPoint presentation , reducing paragraphs to bullet points helps your audience follow the presentation more easily. But “reducing paragraphs to bullet points” doesn’t mean sticking bullet-point icons in front of paragraphs.

As a rule of thumb, if you have to resize your text to 12- or 10-point type to get it to fit, you have too much text. This presentation on social media is a great example of bullet points gone bad. The text is tiny, the bullet points are longer than ten words each, and at least one of them is a full-fledged paragraph.

For more PowerPoint sins to avoid, check out “ PowerPoint Hell: Don’t Let This Happen to Your Next Presentation .”

Top 12 Most Annoying PowerPoint Presentation Mistakes

Updated: Mar 11

Using PowerPoint presentations in your life is a fine art. Back in the day, people used to simply chuck all their content onto a handful of slides, stand up in front of the audience and read it off. If you want to create an engaging meeting or presentation, you need to master the basics.

However, this doesn’t come easily, and there’s a lot of things you’ll need to learn about both on and off the screen. But, during our time using PowerPoint presentations, we’ve come to realise that most people make the same mistakes over and over again.

These common mistakes are so easily avoided and can even make the difference between a successful presentation and a failed one. So you don’t make the same mistakes, we’ve sourced out 12 of the most common mistakes made so you can head it the right direction when it comes to creating outstanding presentations every time.

1. Using Too Much Written Content

One of the biggest and most common problems that occur in PowerPoint presentations is using too much text on each slide. This is a huge problem for many reasons. The main problem is that this distracts many people from what you’re actually saying.

Naturally, people will want to read everything that’s on the screen and will zone out from the information that you’re saying. Of course, most people have different reading speeds while some may read it quickly, others won’t get to the end before you move on, causing them to feel disconnected from the presentation or to switch off completely as they don’t feel included.

As a rule of thumb, less is more when it comes to text on your slides. Try to stick to using bullets points, and any essential text should be divided between multiple slides. To stop this from happening, check with tools like Easy Word Count , trying to limit yourself to 50 words per slide.

2. Using Complex Charts

Charts are sometimes a necessity when it comes to PowerPoint presentations, and they are a great way to convey large amounts of data in an easy to read format. However, it’s easy to get carried away when designing these charts and add too much information per graph.

Hand in hand with the consideration above, try to keep your graphs simple and easy to read. Otherwise, you’ll lose the focus and attention of your audience. If you have a lot of data to convey, simply use two graphs set over two individual slides.

3. Leaving the Presentation Midway Through

During your presentation, you may find that you need to play a video, show some images or in some other way share some form of multimedia with your audience. However, this is one of the worse things that you can do since it breaks away from the flow of your presentation and opens up a huge risk for errors to take place.

You need to make sure that you embed everything you want to share within your presentation. Photos, video and even YouTube videos can all be embedded in your presentation so make sure you do.

4. Using Poor Transitions

We all know that PowerPoint comes with a tonne of built-in transitions which take you from one slide to the next. This includes fades in, fade-outs, cut-across slides and much more. However, these are simply distracting to your presentation and should be avoided at all costs. Simply use hard transitions.

5. Not Formatting Images Correctly

If you’ve ever seen a PowerPoint presentation where someone has added images, either from Google Image Search or otherwise, you’ll be aware of the fact that it’s so annoying when the presenter hasn’t removed the white background from these images.

This may be fine if you’re using a plain white background for your presentation but if you’re using a theme or a coloured background, this makes your presentation look tacky and poor and will damage your reputation and your credibility in the eyes of the audience. The best way is to create your own images for PowerPoint presentation so you can be sure that they are not abstract but absolutely perfect for the topic of your presentation.

Mike Walker, a presentation expert from Big Assignments , shares, “Making a background transparent is an easy problem to solve by either using Paint, Photoshop or simply downloading and using PNG files with transparent backgrounds.”

6. Poorly Contrasted Slides

Contrasting is one of the most important habits you need to learn for creating professional PowerPoint presentations. The worst-case scenario of this is using white text on a white background, which you’re obviously not going to do.

However, using a light text on a light background is still just as bad, especially for those sitting at the back of your presentation. If you’re using a dark background, use a light font and visa versa.

7. Hiding the Important Information

When it comes to conveying your information within the slides of the presentation, it’s essential that you highlight the important information. This means you should avoid putting the most important information at the edges of your slide, rather into the middle where it’s highlighted for all to see.

8. Using a Poor-Quality Presentation

This is a huge problem if you have checked over your presentation before presenting it. You need to make sure that your presentation is high-quality and free from errors, otherwise, you’ll be harming your own credibility as a presenter and people won’t take you seriously.

Since your slides shouldn’t have much text on them anyway, any errors, such as spelling mistakes, grammar errors and poorly used punctuation will stand out like a sore thumb. It’s essential that you check your presentation and proofread it to make sure that it’s perfect. You can use tools like ProWritingAid for checking grammar and proofreading tools like Ox Essays to guarantee this level of quality.

You’ll also want to fact check any figures or statements you include to make sure they are correct, to stop the spread of misinformation.

9. Using ClipArt

Personally, this is one of the most annoying mistakes that people implement into their presentations. ClipArt just represents a tacky presentation and shows that you’ve either rushed your presentation and couldn’t be bothered to find images or just didn’t put enough effort into your presentation.

In some cases, it may seem comical to put them into your presentation but, again, this just emits a ‘bad-quality vibe’. Avoid them at all costs. Instead, try to prefer high quality content such as icons or diagrams that will fit perfectly with your brand colors and identity.

10. No Slide Consistency

While you want your slide to be engaging, eye-catching and to hold your viewer’s attention, it’s bad practice to mix up colours, fonts and text styles in your presentations. If you’re going from slide n°1 that has black text of a certain font of a certain size to the slide n°2 that ha much larger text, a different colour and a different font, this will just get distracting and confusing.

Try to use a clear and easy to read font, such as Calibri and avoid handwritten-styled fonts at all costs. If you choose to use certain colours , choose a handful that complements each other well but don’t choose anything too contrasting. If you’re representing a business or organisation, try to fit your slides to match your brand’s image. Also, make sure you to make a smart use of PowerPoint's color themes to manage colors efficiently.

11. Reading from the Presentation

This is easily one of the most common mistakes that people make and guarantees an unsuccessful presentation. Always remember that your slideshow is there to accompany what you’re saying and shouldn’t be used as a script.

If you’re simply reading from your presentation, this is incredibly boring for your audience since they could just sit and read it themselves and there’s no real reason for you to be there. You’ll also find that you naturally spend most of your time reading the slides, rather than engaging and directing your focus at your audience.

As a guideline, you shouldn’t be using your slideshow at all, and there’s no real reason to look at it, only to make sure that you’re on the right slide. 99% of your focus should be on your audience.

12. Testing Your Presentation

Before every single presentation that you present, be sure to set aside time to test out your presentation in the room that you’re hosting it to make sure that you’re well prepared. Test out your equipment to make sure everything is compatible with the setup, and you won’t have to spend time fiddling around with wires to make sure that everything works.

You’ll also want to make sure you have a position in the room where you can stand so everybody can clearly hear what you’re saying as well as being able to see the presentation clearly. Be sure to text that even the people at the back can read your font selection so you’ll have no problems with anyone.

This is all extremely common mistakes that we see in presentations all the time and, as you can see, there are so easily avoided if you’re aware of them. Use this article as a checklist when creating your presentation to make sure they’re perfect every time.

About this author : Brenda Berg is a professional with over 15 years of experience in business management, marketing and entrepreneurship. Consultant and tutor for college students and entrepreneurs. She believes that constant learning is the only way to success. You can visit her personal blog at Letsgoandlearn.com

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Blog > Tips for good PowerPoint Presentations

Tips for good PowerPoint Presentations

08.14.21   •  #powerpoint #tips.

If you know how to do it, it's actually not that difficult to create and give a good presentation.

That's why we have some examples of good PowerPoint presentations for you and tips that are going to make your next presentation a complete success.

1. Speak freely

One of the most important points in good presentations is to speak freely. Prepare your presentation so well that you can speak freely and rarely, if ever, need to look at your notes. The goal is to connect with your audience and get them excited about your topic. If you speak freely, this is much easier than if you just read your text out. You want your audience to feel engaged in your talk. Involve them and tell your text in a vivid way.

2. Familiarize yourself with the technology

In order to be able to speak freely, it is important to prepare the text well and to engage with the topic in detail.

However, it is at least as important to familiarize yourself with the location’s technology before your presentation and to start your PowerPoint there as well. It is annoying if technical problems suddenly occur during your presentation, as this interrupts your flow of speech and distracts the audience from the topic. Avoid this by checking everything before you start your talk and eliminate any technical problems so that you can give your presentation undisturbed.

• Don't forget the charging cable for your laptop
• Find out beforehand how you can connect your laptop to the beamer. Find out which connection the beamer has and which connection your laptop has. To be on the safe side, take an adapter with you.
• Always have backups of your presentation. Save them on a USB stick and preferably also online in a cloud.
• Take a second laptop and maybe even your own small projector for emergencies. Even if it's not the latest model and the quality is not that good: better bad quality than no presentation at all.

3. Get the attention of your audience

Especially in long presentations it is often difficult to keep the attention of your audience. It is important to make your presentation interesting and to actively involve the audience. Try to make your topic as exciting as possible and captivate your audience.

Our tip: Include interactive polls or quizzes in your presentation to involve your audience and increase their attention. With the help of SlideLizard, you can ask questions in PowerPoint and your audience can easily vote on their own smartphone. Plus, you can even get anonymous feedback at the end, so you know right away what you can improve next time.

Here we have also summarized further tips for you on how to increase audience engagement.

4. Hold eye contact

You want your audience to feel engaged in your presentation, so it is very important to hold eye contact. Avoid staring only at a part of the wall or at your paper. Speak to your audience, involve them in your presentation and make it more exciting.

But also make sure you don't always look at the same two or three people, but address everyone. If the audience is large, it is often difficult to include everyone, but still try to let your eyes wander a little between your listeners and look into every corner of the room.

5. Speaking coherently

In a good presentation it is important to avoid jumping from one topic to the next and back again shortly afterwards. Otherwise your audience will not be able to follow you after a while and their thoughts will wander. To prevent this, it is important that your presentation has a good structure and that you work through one topic after the other.

Nervousness can cause even the best to mumble or talk too fast in order to get the presentation over with as quickly as possible. Try to avoid this by taking short pauses to collect yourself, to breathe and to remind yourself to speak slowly.

6. Matching colors

An attractive design of your PowerPoint is also an important point for giving good presentations. Make sure that your slides are not too colorful. A PowerPoint in which all kinds of colors are combined with each other does not look professional, but rather suitable for a children's birthday party.

Think about a rough color palette in advance, which you can then use in your presentation. Colors such as orange or neon green do not look so good in your PowerPoint. Use colors specifically to emphasize important information.

To create good PowerPoint slides it is also essential to choose colors that help the text to read well. You should have as much contrast as possible between the font and the background. Black writing on a white background is always easy to read, while yellow writing on a white background is probably hard to read.

7. Slide design should not be too minimalistic

Even though it is often said that "less is more", you should not be too minimalistic in the design of your presentation. A presentation where your slides are blank and only black text on a white background is likely to go down just as badly as if you use too many colors.

Empty presentations are boring and don't really help to capture the attention of your audience. It also looks like you are too lazy to care about the design of your presentation and that you have not put any effort into the preparation. Your PowerPoint doesn't have to be overflowing with colors, animations and images to make it look interesting. Make it simple, but also professional.

8. Write only key points on the slides

If you want to create a good presentation, it is important to remember that your slides should never be overcrowded. Write only the most important key points on your slides and never entire sentences. Your audience should not be able to read the exact text you are speaking in your PowerPoint. This is rather annoying and leads to being bored quickly. Summarize the most important things that your audience should remember and write them down in short bullet points on your presentation. Then go into the key points in more detail in your speech and explain more about them.

9. Do not overdo it with animations

Do never use too many animations. It looks messy, confusing and definitely not professional if every text and image is displayed with a different animation. Just leave out animations at all or if you really want to use them then use them only very rarely when you want to draw attention to something specific. Make sure that if you use animations, they are consistent. If you use transitions between the individual slides, these should also always be kept consistent and simple.

10. Use images

Pictures and graphics in presentations are always a good idea to illustrate something and to add some variety. They help keep your audience's attention and make it easier to remember important information. But don't overdo it with them. Too many pictures can distract from your presentation and look messy. Make sure the graphics also fit the content and, if you have used several images on one slide, ask yourself if you really need all of them.

11. Choose a suitable font

Never combine too many fonts so that your presentation does not look messy. Use at most two: one for headings and one for text. When choosing fonts, you should also make sure that they are still legible at long distances. Script, italic and decorative fonts are very slow to read, which is why they should be avoided in presentations.

It is not so easy to choose the right font. Therefore, we have summarized for you how to find the best font for your PowerPoint presentation.

12. Do not use images as background

In a good presentation it is important to be able to read the text on the slides easily and quickly. Therefore, do not use images as slide backgrounds if there is also text on them. The picture only distracts from the text and it is difficult to read it because there is not much contrast with the background. It is also harder to see the image because the text in the foreground is distracting. The whole thing looks messy and distracting rather than informative and clear.

13. Never read out the text from your slides

Never just read the exact text from your slides. Your audience can read for themselves, so they will only get bored and in the worst case it will lead to "Death by PowerPoint". You may also give them the feeling that you think they are not able to read for themselves. In addition, you should avoid whole sentences on your slides anyway. List key points that your audience can read along. Then go into more detail and explain more about them.

14. Don't turn your back

Never turn around during your presentation to look at your projected PowerPoint. Not to read from your slides, but also not to make sure the next slide is already displayed. It looks unprofessional and only distracts your audience.

In PowerPoint's Speaker View, you can always see which slide is currently being displayed and which one is coming next. Use this to make sure the order fits. You can even take notes in PowerPoint, which are then displayed during your presentation. You can read all about notes in PowerPoint here.

15. Do not forget about the time

In a good presentation, it is important to always be aware of the given time and to stick to it. It is annoying when your presentation takes much longer than actually planned and your audience is just waiting for you to stop talking or you are not able to finish your presentation at all. It is just as awkward if your presentation is too short. You have already told everything about your topic, but you should actually talk for at least another ten minutes.

Practice your presentation often enough at home. Talk through your text and time yourself as you go. Then adjust the length so that you can keep to the time given on the day of your presentation.

16. Avoid a complicated structure

The structure of a good presentation should not be complicated. Your audience should be able to follow you easily and remember the essential information by the end. When you have finished a part, briefly summarize and repeat the main points before moving on to the next topic. Mention important information more than once to make sure it really gets across to your audience.

However, if the whole thing gets too complicated, it can be easy for your audience to disengage after a while and not take away much new information from your presentation.

17. Choose appropriate clothes

On the day of your presentation, be sure to choose appropriate clothing. Your appearance should be formal, so avoid casual clothes and stick to professional dress codes. When choosing your clothes, also make sure that they are rather unobtrusive. Your audience should focus on your presentation, not on your appearance.

18. Adapt your presentation to your audience

Think about who your audience is and adapt your presentation to them. Find out how much they already know about the topic, what they want to learn about it and why they are here in the first place. If you only talk about things your audience already knows, they will get bored pretty soon, but if you throw around a lot of technical terms when your audience has hardly dealt with the topic at all, they will also have a hard time following you. So to give a successful and good presentation, it is important to adapt it to your audience.

You can also ask a few questions at the beginning of your presentation to learn more about your audience and then adapt your presentation. With SlideLizard , you can integrate polls directly into your PowerPoint and participants can then easily answer anonymously from their smartphone.

19. Mention only the most important information

Keep it short and limit yourself to the essentials. The more facts and information you present to your audience, the less they will remember.

Also be sure to leave out information that does not fit the topic or is not relevant. You will only distract from the actual topic and lose the attention of your audience. The time your audience can concentrate and listen with attention is rather short anyway, so don't waste it by telling unimportant information.

20. Talk about your topic in an exciting way

Tell compelling and exciting stories to make your presentation really good. If you speak in a monotone voice all the time, you are likely to lose the attention of your audience. Make your narration lively and exciting. Also, be careful not to speak too quietly, but not too loudly either. People should be able to understand you well throughout the whole room. Even if it is not easy for many people, try to deliver your speech with confidence. If you are enthusiastic about the topic yourself, it is much easier to get your audience excited about it.

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About the author.

Helena Reitinger

Helena supports the SlideLizard team in marketing and design. She loves to express her creativity in texts and graphics.

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Article • 9 min read

10 Common Presentation Mistakes

Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Your Presentations

By the Mind Tools Content Team

Most of us have experienced dull, irrelevant or confusing presentations. But think back to the last really great presentation you saw – one that was informative, motivating and inspiring. Wouldn't you love to be able to present like that?

This article looks at 10 of the most common mistakes that speakers make when giving presentations. By avoiding these, you'll make your presentations stand out – for all of the right reasons, and none of the wrong ones.

Mistake 1: Not Preparing Enough

Steve Jobs was a famously inspiring speaker. His speeches may have looked effortless, but, in reality, each one took days or weeks of preparation.

Careful preparation is essential. The amount of time you spend on planning depends on your situation, but it's a good idea to start early – you can never be too well-prepared.

Proper preparation also helps you to manage presentation nerves . When you know your material inside and out, you're far less likely to feel nervous. Our presentation planning checklist and Skillbook " Even Better Presentations " can help you to plan your next event properly.

Mistake 2: Not Familiarizing Yourself With the Venue and Equipment

Imagine that your presentation starts in an hour. You arrive at the venue and, to your horror, the projector won't work with your laptop. The slides you spent hours preparing are useless. This is a disaster!

You can avoid a situation like this by taking time to familiarize yourself with the venue and available equipment at least once before your presentation.

Often, the sorts of problems that can jeopardize your presentation will be situations beyond your control, but this doesn't mean that you're helpless. Conduct a risk analysis to identify potential issues, and come up with a good "Plan B" for each one.

Mistake 3: Ignoring Your Audience

Sometimes, speakers can get so wrapped up in delivering their presentations that they forget about the needs of their audience.

Start your presentation by telling your audience what to expect. Let them know what you'll cover first, whether and when you'll stop for a break, if you'll be taking questions during the presentation, and so on.

Providing these "signposts" up front will give your audience a clear idea of what to expect, so that they can relax and concentrate on your presentation.

Mistake 4: Using Inappropriate Content

The primary purpose of any presentation is to share information with others, so it's important to consider the level you'll pitch it at.

Do some research on your audience. Why are they here? How much do they already know about your topic, and what do they most want to learn from you? It's no use giving a presentation that's so full of jargon that no one understands you. But you wouldn't want to patronize people, either.

Try to put yourself in people's shoes, to get a clearer idea about their needs and motivations. You can also greet individuals as they arrive on the day, and ask questions to get a feel for their level of knowledge. This will also help you to personalize your presentation and make a connection with each person in your audience, so that they'll be more attentive to what you say.

Mistake 5: Being Too Verbose

Short, concise presentations are often more powerful than verbose ones. Try to limit yourself to a few main points. If you take too long getting to your point, you risk losing your audience's attention.

The average adult has a 15- to 20-minute attention span. So, if you want to keep your audience engaged, stick to the point! During the planning phase, make a note of the themes you want to cover and how you want to get them across. Then, when you start filling out the details, ask yourself: "Does my audience really need to know this?"

Our articles on the 7 Cs of Communication and Communications Planning have more tips for communicating in a clear, concise way.

Mistake 6: Using Ineffective Visuals

Poor slides can spoil a good presentation, so it's worth spending time getting yours right.

We've all seen slides with garish colors, unnecessary animation, or fonts that are too small to read. The most effective presentation visuals aren't flashy – they're concise and consistent.

When choosing colors, think about where the presentation will take place. A dark background with light or white text works best in dark rooms, while a white background with dark text is easier to see in a brightly lit room.

Choose your pictures carefully, too. High-quality graphics can clarify complex information and lift an otherwise plain screen, but low-quality images can make your presentation appear unprofessional. Unless an image is contributing something, embrace the negative space – less clutter means greater understanding. Use animation sparingly, too – a dancing logo or emoji will only distract your audience.

Mistake 7: Overcrowding Text

The best rule of thumb for text is to keep it simple . Don't try to cram too much information into your slides. Aim for a maximum of three to four words within each bullet point, and no more than three bullets per slide.

This doesn't mean that you should spread your content over dozens of slides. Limit yourself to 10 slides or fewer for a 30-minute presentation. Look at each slide, story or graph carefully. Ask yourself what it adds to the presentation, and remove it if it isn't important.

Mistake 8: Speaking Incoherently

Even though we spend a significant part of the day talking to one another, speaking to an audience is a surprisingly difficult skill, and it's one that we need to practice.

If nerves make you rush through a presentation, your audience could miss your most important points. Use centering or deep breathing techniques to suppress the urge to rush. If you do begin to babble, take a moment to collect yourself. Breathe deeply, and enunciate each word clearly, while you focus on speaking more slowly.

Our article on better public speaking has strategies and tips that you can use to become a more engaging speaker. One useful technique is storytelling – stories can be powerful tools for inspiring and engaging others. Our Expert Interviews with Annette Simmons and Paul Smith have tips that you can use to tell great stories.

Mistake 9: Showing a Lack of Dynamism

Another common mistake is to freeze in one spot for the duration of your presentation.

Some presenters feel most comfortable behind the podium. Try to emulate great speakers like Steve Jobs , who moved purposefully around the stage during his presentations.

As well as working the stage, he used gestures and body language to communicate his excitement and passion for his subject. Pay attention to what your hands are doing – they're important for communicating emotion. But only use gestures if they feel natural, and avoid being too flamboyant with your arms, unless you want to make your audience laugh!

See our Expert Interview, " Winning Body Language ," to learn more about body language and what it says to your audience.

Mistake 10: Avoiding Eye Contact

Have you ever been to a presentation where the speaker spent all of their time looking at their notes, the screen, the floor, or even at the ceiling? How did this make you feel?

Meeting a person's gaze establishes a personal connection, and even a quick glance can keep people engaged. If your audience is small enough, try to make eye contact with each individual at least once.

If the audience is too large for this, try looking at people's foreheads. The individual may not interpret it as eye contact, but those sitting around them will.

It takes practice and effort to deliver a good presentation. But, if you know how to avoid the pitfalls, your presentations will be great.

Common presentation mistakes include not preparing properly, delivering inappropriate content, and speaking poorly.

Time spent on careful planning always pays dividends. Check out the venue, and familiarize yourself with equipment in advance to avoid possible problems.

Keep your content clear and concise, with visual aids to match. And make sure that you pitch it at the right level for your audience's understanding, so that your presentation doesn't patronize or bewilder.

Remember, public speaking is a performance. Practice speaking clearly with a slower pace than your normal speech to avoid "rapid-fire" delivery. Use eye contact, body language and gestures that complement your message to keep your audience engaged.

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5 Top World’s Worst PowerPoint presentations

PCWorld recently published a content where people can vote what were the World’s Worst PowerPoint Presentations . Here we will summarize the top 5 worst PPT presentations and most voted ones. For this contest, the organizers got a few slides where people think that it’s okay to put 100 graphs on one single slide and the purpose of this contest is to let you learn from the presentation examples how not to make PowerPoint slides for your next big meeting or PowerPoint presentation.

The World’s Worst PowerPoint Presentation

Convoluted flow charts? Tacky, out-of-focus graphics? Huge blocks of text? Welcome to PowerPoint Hell.

The basic PowerPoint rules states that you should use a lot of bullet points but don’t overdo the text and avoid multimedia excesses. Many PowerPoint Guru may know about this but other people is still making bad PowerPoint presentations and these rules may not be obvious for other people. This persona of people include professors, teachers, buinessmen, etc.

1. Example mixing images and text in the same PowerPoint slide

This PowerPoint slide on puts all of its images in the background as a watermark image but too confusing with the text in front of the slide. The Ferrari mix with text in front and paragraphs of text overlaid on them accomplishes the difficult feat of making the images hard to look at and the text hard to read.

Instead of this, you may want to separate the image to the left, top, bottom or right of the paragraphs. For example, you can take a quick look to Formula 1 PowerPoint template  where the Ferrari was put in the right of the presentation title. Unless you explicitly need to put text inside the image, in this case you can see donate car PowerPoint template . Also, adding some bullet points and reduce the text length could also help to share the message and overall idea about this presentation slide.

2. Social Networking chart in PowerPoint – Social Business Power Map

The flow chart presented here is simply baffling accordingly to the post review, and and the pictures don’t help much to share the message about what this chart means.

3. A Symmetrical Rainbow of Confusion

Clearly there are 4 main areas like Buzz, Experimentation, Adoption and Maturity, but what’s the difference between a one in a big black square and a one in a little red circle without a legend? Also, there is a mix of colors like the salmon, green, white and blue that is not so much clear in the Social Enterprise nad Social Web areas.

Colors are great for attracting an audience but six colors or seven colors can make this very difficult to understand without a proper legend. The colors in this “social business map” don’t clarify anything accordingly to the author of this review but, for example why are “Social Web” and “Social Enterprise” in different colors but “Cloud/SaaS” and “On-Premise” in the same color? Also, the whole chart looks like an alien Venn diagram , and the big labels along the bottom appear in random colors that correspond to nothing else on the chart.

4. Flow Chart on Steroids

In this PowerPoint example the left side of the slide on customer lifetime value in service contracts does pretty well. The text is in short bullet points, colors and fonts are restrained, and the presenter used a basic slide template . The author of this review recommends to use a PowerPoint template . Also, there is a criticism about the chart in this image. Accordingly to the review, the flow chart with red arrows do not explain what is going on in the maze of black arrows. The red arrows looks helpful except for the jarring overlay of red on black.

5. Wireless PowerPoint – Executive Summary

In this wireless PowerPoint we can see a lot of text as part of the executive summary slide for this Wireless presentation. This sounds like an endless “Summary”, filling an entire PowerPoint slide with text is never a great idea

The author says that it is a bad idea to use an impenetrable slab of 10-point text to provide an executive summary of the ensuing presentation. It’s hard to imagine what useful thing the presenter thought this slide would accomplish. No one is going to want to read the text, and if the presenter does so, what’s left to say in the presentation? The most chilling part of this cautionary tale? The audience hasn’t even seen the entire “executive summary” yet–it continues on the next slide.

This was a review for the article of Worst PowerPoint presentations that was featuring in PCWorld. You can read the full article in The World’s Worst PowerPoint presentations .

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10 Good PowerPoint Presentation Examples

Engaging presentations are the secret sauce of effective communication. They bring life to ideas and transform information into inspiration. They are the heartbeat of any memorable message, connecting with your audience. With the power to captivate, educate, and motivate your audience, the best PowerPoint presentations can turn complex ideas into easy-to-understand visuals. Hence, we will discuss good PowerPoint presentation examples.  

An engaging PowerPoint presentation perfectly blends content, design, and to-the-point information. A presentation’s visual appeal can significantly shape perceptions of credibility, commitment to a project, and relatability. Therefore, we have curated a list of good PowerPoint presentation examples for you to take inspiration from and make your next presentation stand out. 

What Makes A Good PowerPoint Presentation?

To create the best PowerPoint presentations, we can go overboard with numerous designs and template options in PowerPoint. Having a variety of choices, like colors, formats, visuals, and fonts, is a creative opportunity. However, being selective is vital because not all design choices lead to success and make for PowerPoint presentation examples. 

There’s no one correct way to design your next PowerPoint presentation. Still, some good and bad presentation example designs are more effective than others. While a bad presentation can give off an unprofessional look, a good one can visually establish your brand and leave a lasting impression on your audience. 

Let’s look at some of the excellent PowerPoint presentation examples that will help you up your presentation game:

• Limited text
• Less or minimal transitions and animations
• Cohesive color pallet
• Keeping contextual graphics
• Customized illustrations
• Use no font size smaller than 18 point
• Logical flow of content
• Effective use of bullet points
• Proper symmetry between different paragraphs and pointers
• Having an engaging summary with a clear Call to Action

Limited Text

Limited text in a PowerPoint presentation works wonders, transforming it into an engaging and crystal-clear presentation. Less is more when it comes to text on slides. Keeping your content concise allows your audience to focus on your message instead of squinting at paragraphs of information.

A slide with a striking image or impactful phrase instantly grabs attention and conveys your point. Using this approach makes your presentation look great. It also helps your audience remember key takeaways, making it one of the best PowerPoint presentation examples

PRO TIP: The golden rule of holding the audience’s attention is using 30 words per slide or a minimum of 6-8 lines on each slide to help create a seamless flow where graphics complement your spoken words.

Best PowerPoint Presentation Examples With Limited Text:

Less or Minimal Transitions And Animations

Too many animations and transitions may not be your presentation’s best buddies. They can steal the spotlight from the core of your message. Best PowerPoint presentations shine by keeping animations and transitions in check. Use it in moderation to emphasize a point or draw attention to specific elements in your visuals.

One of the best PowerPoint presentation examples in terms of transitions and animations is using a “fade-in” animation for bullet points or critical pieces of information. Instead of displaying all the text at once, you can set it to appear one at a time as you discuss each one. This gradual reveal creates curiosity and keeps your audience engaged and focused on the current topic. 

READ MORE: How to add animation in PowerPoint?  

Best PowerPoint Presentation Examples with Minimal Transitions:

Cohesive color pallet.

Another PowerPoint presentation examples includes a cohesive color palette throughout the presentation. We are not saying you must brush up on the color theory game before making your presentation, but knowing what colors to use can make a real difference. A well-thought-out color palette combination that complements and harmonizes can effectively direct your audience’s focus. It highlights what matters and downplays less critical information when needed.

Now, picking the right colors might seem like a puzzle. The golden rule is to use colors that work well together and provide a clear contrast without straining the eyes. If you’re short on time or inspiration, Microsoft Office’s ready-made color schemes can be a lifesaver.

PowerPoint Presentation Examples with cohesive color pallet:

Keeping Contextual Graphics 

A picture really can say a thousand words. Good PowerPoint presentation examples incorporate graphs, photos, and illustrations that enhance your points and keep your audience engaged. But remember, it’s crucial to put these visuals in context. Having contextual graphics or illustrations and explaining why they’re there verbally will help the audience connect the dots and understand the material. It looks great and ensures your message is crystal clear and memorable.

Best PowerPoint Presentations with Contextual Graphics:

Customized Illustrations 

Adding customized illustrations to your PowerPoint slides is one of the best PowerPoint slide examples. It’s like giving your presentation a unique personality and a touch of authenticity. It’s a game-changer that can take your slides from ordinary to outstanding. Generic stock images or clip art can feel impersonal and overused. On the other hand, customized illustrations are tailored to your message and brand, making your content exclusive. They allow you to convey your ideas in a way that is distinctively “you,” establishing a stronger connection with your audience.

PowerPoint Presentation Examples with Illustrations:

Use no Font Size Smaller Than 18 point

Maintaining a minimum font size of 18 points in your best PowerPoint presentations is like giving your audience the gift of clarity and readability. It’s a simple yet impactful way to ensure your message shines through and your presentation looks professional. No one wants to squint or strain their eyes to read a tiny text on a slide. 

When you use an 18-point font or larger, your content becomes instantly more accessible. Your audience can comfortably read what’s on the screen, allowing them to stay focused on your message rather than struggling to make out the words. An easily readable font is not only a good PowerPoint example, but it also helps your audience digest your content and perceive your presentation as professional and user-friendly.

PowerPoint Presentation Examples with Font Sized 18:

READ MORE: Best Presentation Fonts

Logical Flow of Content 

Good PowerPoint presentation examples had a logical flow of content. You should maintain a logical flow of the content in your PowerPoint presentation. It is like crafting a smooth, well-executed experience for your audience. The roadmap keeps them engaged, helps them follow your story, and ensures your message hits the mark. 

A presentation with a chaotic sequence of ideas or topics can leave your audience puzzled and disconnected. A logical flow, on the other hand, guides your audience seamlessly from one point to the next, making it easy for them to grasp the bigger picture. When your content unfolds in a logical order, it forms a narrative that’s easier for the human brain to digest and remember. You can also create great slideshow presentation examples with good logical flow.

Best PowerPoint Presentation Examples with FlowChart:

EXPLORE: Flowchart PowerPoint Templates

Effective Use of Bullet Points

To create the best PowerPoint presentations you need to Effectively use bullet points in your PowerPoint presentation is like serving bite-sized portions of information to your audience. It is an excellent way of keeping them engaged and ensuring your message is digestible and memorable. Bullet points break down complex ideas into concise, easy-to-follow chunks. They act as signposts, guiding your audience through your content with a clear roadmap.

Limiting the number of bullet points to 8-10 per slide prevents information overload and gives each point the attention it deserves. People have a limited attention span, so bullet points are your allies in delivering information efficiently. They allow your audience to absorb key takeaways without feeling overwhelmed. Plus, bullet points serve as excellent prompts for your verbal delivery, keeping you on track and ensuring you don’t forget essential details. 

Best PowerPoint Presentation Examples with Bullet Points:

Proper Symmetry Between Different Paragraphs and Pointers

Ensuring proper symmetry between different paragraphs and pointers in your presentation is similar to creating a smooth flow that captivates your audience. It’s all about balance, and when done right, it can significantly enhance the appeal and effectiveness of your slides. Just as a well-balanced meal is more appetizing, slides with balanced content are more visually appealing. 

When you maintain a consistent and symmetrical structure, it creates a sense of order and professionalism. Symmetrical layouts help your audience anticipate what’s coming next. When they see a pattern, like consistent bullet point structure or paragraph formatting, it becomes easier for them to follow your narrative. This predictability allows your audience to focus, not jumble. 

Best PowerPoint Presentation Examples with Symmetry:

Having an Engaging Summary With a Clear Call to Action

Last on this list of best PowerPoint presentations is an engaging summary with a clear call to action. Think of the summary as the highlight of your presentation. It recaps the essential takeaways, ensuring your audience fully grasps the key messages you want to convey. This reinforcement is critical because it’s what your audience will most likely remember long after your presentation. 

A clear CTA is like extending a helping hand to your audience, guiding them on what steps to take next. Whether it’s encouraging them to explore further resources, make a decision, or get in touch with you. Adding an engaging summary with a clear CTA to your slides is the grand finale that ties your presentation together.

Best PowerPoint Presentation Examples with Clear Call to Action:

EXPLORE: Call to Action PowerPoint Templates  

Best PowerPoint Presentation Examples

Now you know the essential things to include to make better presentations. As a busy professional, it might be time-consuming and hectic for you to create presentations from scratch. Therefore, we have created templates for multiple purposes for you to use. You can directly download them and customize them as per your requirements. We have mentioned the examples of PowerPoint presentations below:

Project Kick-Off PowerPoint Presentation Examples

Use this template to share your project initiation plans with your teams and stakeholders. It helps you start a project and aligns your audience with your vision. These slides examples give your audience a complete overview of your project, including your project goals and objectives, timeline, team members, plans, etc. Use this to ensure that your team members and stakeholders know all the initial project details.

This template has multiple slides dedicated to different purposes, such as meeting agendas, project charters, approaches and methodologies, timelines, team mapping, roles and responsibilities, etc. Its consistent theme makes it professional and attractive. Download and customize it according to your needs.

Business Review Presentation PowerPoint Template

Business professionals can use this template to assess and review various stages of their business. The purpose is to help your team members, investors, and stakeholders understand the business’s overall performance. You can also use this to outline strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities for effective business planning.

It includes multiple MS PowerPoint slide examples on topics such as market analysis, sales review, people’s review, strategies, etc. You can also include market trends, customer feedback, and updates on new product launches. Just download the template and edit it to suit your company guidelines.

Project Status Review Deck PowerPoint Presentation Examples

Use this template to review your business’s current state. It helps you outline your project progress, challenges, risks, and milestones. It is an excellent tool for project managers to help them inform and align their team members, customers, and stakeholders about the project. It transparently conveys key information and builds trust with the audience.

It includes multiple slides dedicated to different purposes, such as a Project progress summary, milestones, project work plan, Budget Summary, Risk analysis, and metrics to track performance. It allows better collaboration among team members and facilitates an efficient process. Different types of graph elements, like charts and graphs, enhance the visual appeal of this presentation.

SWOT Analysis 

You can use this template to assess internal and external factors affecting your business. It stands for Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It helps you in strategic planning by outlining the strong areas, limitations, upcoming opportunities, and external threats that may stop you from achieving your goals.

This template uses multiple graphic elements and an attractive theme, making it appealing to the audience. It is fully editable, and you can also add elements to it. Add your company theme or colors to match your brand identity.

Business Roadmap PowerPoint Presentation Examples

This template acts as a visual communication tool to convey the steps you need to achieve a business objective. It outlines the goals, timelines, and milestones of your business projects. It’s easier for teams to work together on a common objective when all the tasks and steps are clear, along with deadlines. Roadmap templates exactly do that for you.

It has a highway road visual with destinations, which visualizes the objectives to reach in chronological order. The audience will immediately understand the topic and tasks. Download this template and use it to enhance your team’s performance.

Marketing Plan Deck

This marketing plan deck helps you outline all your marketing plans. It lets you visually communicate your strategy, goals, target persona, and work action plans to your team members and stakeholders. It includes multiple slides for Brand Planning, Brand implementation, and Brand tracking, which give your audience a detailed overview of all your marketing efforts.  

The consistent blue theme for all the slides makes it easy for the audience to follow. It also includes multiple graphical elements. You can add background images along with colors to personalize the presentation according to your brand identity. Just download it and start using it to create outstanding presentations.

Business Pitch Deck PowerPoint Presentation Examples

Do you have a new product or idea and want to create it in reality? However, a lack of funds limits your ability to pursue this. Then, you need to present your ideas to investors or stakeholders to get their funding and support. It would be best if you made them trust you by inspiring them with the potential of your idea or product. This business pitch template will help you with that.

It consists of multiple slides showcasing your purpose, problem statement, and solution. It also includes the current market size, competitor analysis, and business model. It’s better to add teams to this presentation, as it boosts investors’ confidence if there is a solid team to achieve the desired results. Download this template and create excellent presentations to get your investors on board.

SMART Goals PowerPoint Presentation Examples

This template assists you in making structured goals. Smart goals stand for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. It means your goals should be specific and easy to measure. The goal should be achievable and relevant and have a deadline. 

Let’s consider an example:

A typical goal will be: Increase traffic on our website.

Its Smart Goals version will be: Increase monthly website traffic by 20% compared to the previous month by implementing SEO optimization, content marketing, and social media promotion strategies within the next six months.

There are 5 sections in which you can fill in your goals. It’s fully editable, and you can customize it as per your needs. Add colors, images, icons, etc. This Smart goals presentation will help you achieve your goals effectively.

Important PowerPoint Presentation Tips

While building a PowerPoint presentation’s design, content, and flow shall be tailored to hit its target audience. Making your presentation eye-catching is essential to steer clear of Call to Action goals. However, taking your PowerPoint presentations to the next level can be time-consuming. So, getting yourself help from professional PowerPoint examples as provided like SlideUpLift can be a game-changer you’ll want to know about.

PRO TIP: It’s important that you follow the Who, What, and Where tips to up your presentation game.

SlideUpLift provides expert guidance on presentation best practices and helps you customize your slides as per your requirements. Our extensive library covers a wide range of industries and topics. But that’s not all. SlideUpLift also offers a collection of beautifully designed templates, graphics, and icons and provides professional PowerPoint Templates for your needs. 

What makes a PowerPoint presentation "good"?

A good PowerPoint presentation effectively communicates its message, engages the audience, and utilizes clear, visually appealing slides with well-structured content.

Where Can I Find Examples Well-Designed PowerPoint Presentation examples For Inspiration?

You can find good PowerPoint presentation examples of well-designed presentations on websites and platforms that offer presentation templates like SlideUpLift.

What are some key examples of good presentation?

Successful PowerPoint presentations often include: 

• concise content
• engaging visuals
• a logical flow
• limited use of text, and 
• a clear call to action

How can I ensure my PowerPoint presentation aligns with the best practices?

To ensure your presentation follows best practices, focus on storytelling, maintain visual consistency, limit bullet points, use high-quality visuals, and practice your delivery.

Are there any tools or resources to help me improve my PowerPoint presentations?

Yes, SlideUpLift provides various tools and resources, including PowerPoint add-ins, design templates, and online tutorials that help you enhance your presentation skills and create compelling slides.

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20 Great Examples of PowerPoint Presentation Design [+ Templates]

Published: January 17, 2024

When it comes to PowerPoint presentation design, there's no shortage of avenues you can take.

While all that choice — colors, formats, visuals, fonts — can feel liberating, it‘s important that you’re careful in your selection as not all design combinations add up to success.

In this blog post, I’m sharing some of my favorite PowerPoint tips and templates to help you nail your next presentation.

Table of Contents

What makes a good PowerPoint presentation?

Powerpoint design ideas, best powerpoint presentation slides, good examples of powerpoint presentation design.

In my opinion, a great PowerPoint presentation gets the point across succinctly while using a design that doesn't detract from it.

Here are some of the elements I like to keep in mind when I’m building my own.

1. Minimal Animations and Transitions

Believe it or not, animations and transitions can take away from your PowerPoint presentation. Why? Well, they distract from the content you worked so hard on.

A good PowerPoint presentation keeps the focus on your argument by keeping animations and transitions to a minimum. I suggest using them tastefully and sparingly to emphasize a point or bring attention to a certain part of an image.

2. Cohesive Color Palette

I like to refresh my memory on color theory when creating a new PowerPoint presentation.

A cohesive color palette uses complementary and analogous colors to draw the audience’s attention and help emphasize certain aspects at the right time.

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It‘s impossible for me to tell you the specific design ideas you should go after in your next PowerPoint, because, well, I don’t know what the goal of your presentation is.

Luckily, new versions of PowerPoint actually suggest ideas for you based on the content you're presenting. This can help you keep up with the latest trends in presentation design .

PowerPoint is filled with interesting boilerplate designs you can start with. To find these suggestions, open PowerPoint and click the “Design” tab in your top navigation bar. Then, on the far right side, you'll see the following choices:

This simplistic presentation example employs several different colors and font weights, but instead of coming off as disconnected, the varied colors work with one another to create contrast and call out specific concepts.

What I like: The big, bold numbers help set the reader's expectations, as they clearly signify how far along the viewer is in the list of tips.

10. “Pixar's 22 Rules to Phenomenal Storytelling,” Gavin McMahon

This presentation by Gavin McMahon features color in all the right places. While each of the background images boasts a bright, spotlight-like design, all the characters are intentionally blacked out.

What I like: This helps keep the focus on the tips, while still incorporating visuals. Not to mention, it's still easy for me to identify each character without the details. (I found you on slide eight, Nemo.)

11. “Facebook Engagement and Activity Report,” We Are Social

Here's another great example of data visualization in the wild.

What I like: Rather than displaying numbers and statistics straight up, this presentation calls upon interesting, colorful graphs, and charts to present the information in a way that just makes sense.

12. “The GaryVee Content Model,” Gary Vaynerchuk

This wouldn‘t be a true Gary Vaynerchuk presentation if it wasn’t a little loud, am I right?

What I like: Aside from the fact that I love the eye-catching, bright yellow background, Vaynerchuk does a great job of incorporating screenshots on each slide to create a visual tutorial that coincides with the tips. He also does a great job including a visual table of contents that shows your progress as you go .

13. “20 Tweetable Quotes to Inspire Marketing & Design Creative Genius,” IMPACT Branding & Design

We‘ve all seen our fair share of quote-chronicling presentations but that isn’t to say they were all done well. Often the background images are poor quality, the text is too small, or there isn't enough contrast.

Well, this professional presentation from IMPACT Branding & Design suffers from none of said challenges.

What I like: The colorful filters over each background image create just enough contrast for the quotes to stand out.

14. “The Great State of Design,” Stacy Kvernmo

This presentation offers up a lot of information in a way that doesn't feel overwhelming.

What I like: The contrasting colors create visual interest and “pop,” and the comic images (slides 6 through 12) are used to make the information seem less buttoned-up and overwhelming.

15. “Clickbait: A Guide To Writing Un-Ignorable Headlines,” Ethos3

Not going to lie, it was the title that convinced me to click through to this presentation but the awesome design kept me there once I arrived.

What I like: This simple design adheres to a consistent color pattern and leverages bullet points and varied fonts to break up the text nicely.

16. “Digital Transformation in 50 Soundbites,” Julie Dodd

This design highlights a great alternative to the “text-over-image” display we've grown used to seeing.

What I like: By leveraging a split-screen approach to each presentation slide, Julie Dodd was able to serve up a clean, legible quote without sacrificing the power of a strong visual.

17. “Fix Your Really Bad PowerPoint,” Slide Comet

When you‘re creating a PowerPoint about how everyone’s PowerPoints stink, yours had better be terrific. The one above, based on the ebook by Seth Godin, keeps it simple without boring its audience.

What I like: Its clever combinations of fonts, together with consistent color across each slide, ensure you're neither overwhelmed nor unengaged.

18. “How Google Works,” Eric Schmidt

Simple, clever doodles tell the story of Google in a fun and creative way. This presentation reads almost like a storybook, making it easy to move from one slide to the next.

What I like: This uncluttered approach provides viewers with an easy-to-understand explanation of a complicated topic.

19. “What Really Differentiates the Best Content Marketers From The Rest,” Ross Simmonds

Let‘s be honest: These graphics are hard not to love. I especially appreciate the author’s cartoonified self-portrait that closes out the presentation. Well played, Ross Simmonds.

What I like: Rather than employing the same old stock photos, this unique design serves as a refreshing way to present information that's both valuable and fun.

20. “Be A Great Product Leader,” Adam Nash

This presentation by Adam Nash immediately draws attention by putting the company's logo first — a great move if your company is well known.

What I like: He uses popular images, such as ones of Megatron and Pinocchio, to drive his points home. In the same way, you can take advantage of popular images and media to keep your audience engaged.

PowerPoint Presentation Examples for the Best Slide Presentation

Mastering a PowerPoint presentation begins with the design itself.

Get inspired by my ideas above to create a presentation that engages your audience, builds upon your point, and helps you generate leads for your brand.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in March 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. This article was written by a human, but our team uses AI in our editorial process. Check out our full disclosure to learn more about how we use AI.

Don't forget to share this post!

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20 Really Good PowerPoint Examples to Inspire Your Next Presentation

By Sandra Boicheva

2 years ago

You may also like Show related articles Hide

You might have the most amazing idea that you wish to share with the world, but you might not get the results you want if the delivery isn’t good. Although as a tool, PowerPoint is pretty easy to use and intuitive, creating a good PowerPoint presentation is not a simple task. There is a lot of things to consider when designing your slides from the words you use, to the copy structure, data visualization, and overall design. This is why today we gathered 20 really good PowerPoint examples of presentations that flawlessly deliver their messages. These creative ideas will surely inspire you to make your next presentation your best one, as they all share good design and engaging storytelling.

“If you don’t know what you want to achieve in your presentation your audience never will.” – Harvey Diamond

1. Idea to Identify: The Design of Brand

This is a long one. Here we have a 242 slides presentation that exposes the myriad facets of design and how they impact the brand identity. The presentation has a lot of data to show and spreads it throughout more than 200 slides to make it easy to read and follow. In all, this is the best way to present a lot of information: instead of overwhelming the viewers with text walls, the presenter simply adds more slides.

• Author:   Sudio Sudarsan

2. Jeunesse Opportunity Presentation 2021

This is a great example of brand presentation with company profile, product system, plan, and reward. It gives a similar experience to browsing a website.

• Author:   DASH2 – Jeunesse Global

3. Accenture Tech Vision 2020

A short and sweet presentation about how companies prepare for data regulation and how this impacts the customer experience. 

• Author:   Accenture

4. APIs as Digital Factories’ New Machines

A comparison presentation of how companies capture most of the market value. It explains well how to view the economy from a different perspective and adopt customer-centric thinking. The presentation has a lot of value, it’s well structured and it’s a good read in only 28 slides.

• Author:  Apidays

5. 24 Books You’ve Never Heard Of – But Will Change Your Life

This is a great example of how repeating slides design for the same type of content isn’t a synonym for being unimaginative. It’s pretty straightforward: it promises 24 titles, an inspirational introduction, and a slide for each book that will change your life.

• Author:   Ryan Holiday

6. 10 Memorable David Bowie Quotes

Not always presentations must have a specific educational or conventional goal. Sometimes, it could be a cool personal project meant to inspire your audience. And let’s be honest, who doesn’t love David Bowie? A presentation with 10 memorable quotes by him is worth watching. 

• Author: Stinson

7. Creative Mornings San Diego 

• Author:   Anne McColl

8. Digital 2020 Global Digital Overview

A report heavy-data presentation about everything you need to know about mobile, internet, social media, and e-commerce use around the world in 2020. It’s a long read but comprehensive and well-illustrated with data visualization.

• Author:   DataReportal

9. Blitzscaling: Book Trailer

One of the most well-made presentations about informative topics such as startup’s life-cycle and where the most value is created. It’s designed as a book, consistent, with lesser text as possible, and imitates animation by adding new content on copies of the same slide. 

• Author:  Reid Hoffman

10. Poor Self-Esteem: Just Beat It!

A very valuable presentation that takes on the reasons for low self-esteem and how to overcome it. The design is very simple and comprehensive and even suitable for social media carousel posts.

• Author:   SlideShop.com

11. You Suck At PowerPoint!

This presentation is more than a decade old and still checks out. After all, you could expect great presentation design from someone who talks about design mistakes and how to overcome them.  61 slides of a fun experience and a great read.

• Author:  Jesse Desjardins

12. Pixar’s 22 Rules to Phenomenal Storytelling

Pixar’s 22 Rules to Phenomenal Storytelling, originally tweeted by Emma Coats, in a 24-slides presentation with a custom design. 

• Author:   Gavin McMahon

13. A Complete Guide To The Best Times To Post On Social Media

A fun little presentation with great value. It takes on the most effective times to post on social media, send an email, or publish a blog.

• Author:   TrackMaven

14. Fix Your Really Bad PowerPoint

The next presentation honors Seth Godin and his wisdom. It uses his book’s insights to visualize all the tips in 45 engaging slides.

• Author:   HighSpark

15. 10 Lessons from the World’s Most Captivating Presenters

This presentation is for presenters who wish to become better. And what better way than getting inspired by the world’s greatest presenters and accessing some of their secrets. 

• Author:   HubSpot

16. Crap. The Content Marketing Deluge

For starters, this presentation has a very captivating title and opening. Winning the attention from the very start, it continues with consistent clean design and great content. It delivers exactly what it promised. 

• Author: Velocity Partners

17. Displaying Data

More insightful advice and tips from professional presenters that check out to this very day. It’s a great presentation about visualizing your data in the best way possible and it also delivers it with design.

• Author:   Bipul Deb Nath

18. 5 Storytelling Lessons From Superhero Stories

Custom-made presentation with illustrations made specifically for the occasion, and brilliant execution. It shows it’s definitely worth it to spend time making your presentation more personal and from scratch. 

19. 10 Things your Audience Hates About your Presentation

Another custom presentation with icons-style illustrations about how to avoid cringe when making presentations. 

• Author:   Stinson

20. The Designer’s Guide to Startup Weekend

You will work hard all weekend long but you will also find new friends, mentors, and the chance to promote yourself. A pretty wholesome presentation with a custom design where the presenter shares her own experience in the world of startups.

• Author:  Iryna Nezhynska

That’s It!

These 20 presentations prove that PowerPoint is never out of date and it’s a great tool to deliver your message across. We hope you got inspired for your next presentation and make your audience fall in love with your concepts.

In the meantime, why not take a look at the related articles to get some more inspiration or grab a couple of freebies:

• [Freebies] 17 Really Good Sources For Free Vector Images For Commercial Use
• [Inspiration] 85 Really Good T-Shirt Design Ideas to Inspire You for Your Next Project
• [Insights] The 5 Top Online Tools for Custom YouTube Banners (and YouTube Thumbnails)

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