Name: Presentation Advantage
Rating: 4.6 (305 reviews)
Author: Kory Kogon, Breck England and Julie Schmidt

What’s in it for me? Discover how to change someone’s mind in eight seconds.

You can easily find plenty of books, webinars, and online courses that will teach you the mechanics of putting together a formal presentation. But this Blink to The Presentation Advantage gives you that and more. It focuses on the main steps, sure – but also on the importance of making a powerful connection with your audience, so you can capture their attention, change their minds, and spur them to take action.

Psychology studies show that the average attention span has shrunk to a mere eight seconds. In eight seconds, not only do you have to make a stellar first impression – you also have to offer something intriguing enough for your audience to put aside their phones and actively listen to what’s coming next. In the moments that follow, you have to keep their attention, offer knowledge in a form that is both informative and interesting, and transform them from passive listeners into active partners.

It’s not easy, but it is possible. And this Blink will show you how – even if you’re introverted, nervous, or otherwise averse to public speaking.

See things differently

If you’re not making presentations, you’re not living. Presentation is the act of sharing information in order to inform or persuade. That’s a broad definition that encompasses a lot of interactions both formal and informal, in-person and online, one-to-one and one-to-many.

When you’re standing in front of a boardroom trying to get funding for a project, you need the presentation advantage. When you’re standing in front of a friend trying to win an argument over where to eat dinner, you need the presentation advantage.

We’re talking about more than just how many bullets to put on a slide or how to project your voice – although, yes, we will discuss those things as well. But the central emphasis of the presentation advantage is on communication and connection.

Throughout this Blink, you’re going to hear about a whole alphabet of tips and principles. We’ll start with the letter “C.”

Your first goal in presenting is to get your listeners to change their minds or see something differently. This is called a paradigm shift. If you can’t get someone to experience a paradigm shift, you won’t be able to get them to take a desired action. To lead your audience to a paradigm shift, you need the three C’s of connection.

The first C is connecting with your message. Ask yourself what strategic goal this presentation will help you accomplish. Maybe your goal is to retain and attract employees. You know that childcare is a big issue for people, and that you’ve lost employees because of it. So you want to convince your board to fund an in-office day care. Connecting with your message means knowing why that day care matters in the bigger strategic goal of employee hiring and retention.

The second C is connecting with yourself. This is about integrity and authenticity. While there are behaviors you should shape in yourself, such as posture and gestures, you don’t want to be phony. Your audience will spot fakeness in a heartbeat, and you’ll fail to make the necessary connection. Avoid spin in the form of double-speak or euphemisms. Be straightforward, honest, and passionate about your message. Most of all, listen to your feelings. If anything about your presentation feels uncomfortable, awkward, or fake, listen to those feelings – and make some changes.

The third C is connecting with your audience. Nobody wants to be lectured at, and nobody has time to waste. So make your presentation a conversation with your audience. Engage them, and involve them in the presentation. Ultimately, you want them to buy into your idea and take action to bring it to life, so it makes sense that they would get to be a part of the initial conversation.

Now that we’ve shared the secret sauce of making connections, let’s move on to the three D’s of presentation: develop, design, and deliver.

The first D – Develop a story

Good stories don’t start with pie charts or data dumps. Good stories start with a bang. Remember, you’re trying to shift a paradigm. To connect with your audience and grab their attention, the very first thing you need to do is disrupt the status quo.

Keep in mind that your listeners have already decided they’re going to be bored, and they’ve got their phones at the ready to distract themselves. So right out of the gate, you want to show your audience something that will shake – or even shatter – their current paradigm. The idea is to throw them off balance and awaken them to an urgent concern. You want them to put down their phones and lean forward.

The Second D – Design purposeful visuals

You don’t have to be a designer or artist to create impactful visuals. You just have to think through what you want your visuals to achieve.

Here’s an example: A man prepared for his presentation by providing gifts for some of his audience. There were ten executives present. Seven of them got personalized ski gloves. One of them got a crushed box with gloves that didn’t fit, and two of them got nothing at all.

The third D – Deliver with confidence

Now it’s time to get up and present. This is not your opportunity to channel your inner used car salesman – unless you are a used car salesman, in which case, go for it. You don’t have to be slick. You don’t have to show a lot of teeth and laugh at your own jokes.

You do have to be aligned with your message to be authentic, which is the only way to connect with your audience. You have 39 milliseconds to make a first impression, and you need to make sure you maximize each one of them by following these tips.

Key ideas in Presentation Advantage

About the Author

Coauthors Kory Kogan, Breck England, and Julie Schmidt have made a difference for hundreds of organizations through their work at the coaching company FranklinCovey. Cofounded by Stephen Covey, the author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, FranklinCovey helps businesses big and small develop better leaders and stronger teams.