To sell your new idea, your innovation, your bright new concept to others, you'll almost certainly be making some presentations, formal or informal. Here are some tips to help you do your best ...
Tips for preparing material ...
1. Think in smaller units – viewers and listeners of podcasts expect short segments, so we will divide your podcast into brief segments (between 2 – 8 minutes, or so). If possible, try to divide your material into discrete time segments (again, 2-8 minutes in duration, or so).
2. If appropriate, begin with an engaging hook (anecdote that drives the topic, statistic, quotation, question); if not appropriate for engaging hook, at least provide a basic overview of general topics of session.
3. If appropriate, discuss your personal reason for delivering the topics. Controlled and targeted personal anecdotes are helpful to drive the lesson home.
4. Early in your talk, provide a list of outcomes you want students to receive – address what they will get out of it.
5. Try to provide details for key points rather than stay on a surface level, with application and examples, as appropriate.
6. Mistakes and failures are interesting, so if appropriate discuss problems, mistakes, solutions, and lessons learned.
7. As you end, provide a summary of information, with review of lessons learned and possible resources: books, people, organizations.
8. As you end, if possible, return to your opening with insight based on the topics presented.
Strategies for video filming ...
1. If possible, wear neat, classic clothes in darker shades. More classic attire will ensure that the clip does not date as quickly, and darker shades will give more of a sense of authority. Generally, it is best to avoid wearing red or white, which tend not to show up as well on video. If possible, try to avoid clothes with intricate patterns or tightly placed stripes. These are UA podcasts, so the UA blue and red is not a bad choice.
2. Avoid making extraneous noise -- dangly jewelry that jingles, coins in pockets, cellphones not turned off, that sort of thing.
3. You’ll be wearing a microphone, so be prepared to have a mic clipped to lapel or shirt collar.
4. Speak to the classroom audience and don’t worry about looking at the camera.
5. Don’t feel the need to hurry or talk fast – take your time.
6. Remember that theatrical pauses and thinking pauses add an element of power to the following utterance.
7. Please repeat questions before answering them.
8. Speak in personal, anecdotal terms. Use analogies to illustrate your point. Don’t be afraid to tell stories that drive home the lesson.
9. Be energetic
10. Smile
Strategies for spoken word, both audio and video ...
1. For clarity’s sake, use lists (3 lessons, 5 items of importance, 4 key elements, etc).
2. Use marking words and numbered bullets (first, next, third, most important, another key point is, etc).
3. Ask rhetorical questions and invoke third person “you.”
4. Be repetitive – repeat words, use synonyms, repeat sentence same structure.
5. Consider developing a written script for rehearsal purposes.
6. For audio podcast, reading from a written script is most beneficial.
7. For video podcast, it’s best not to memorize – if possible, extemporaneous speaking is most relaxed and video-friendly.
8. Practice reading the script out loud – time each segment (generally, one single spaced typed page is approximately three minutes of recorded audio).
9. Remember that microphones are sensitive – we can edit later, but the mic will pick up all utterances and sounds.
Tips for slides ...
1. Appropriate colors (dark writing on light background, or light on dark)
2. Clean fonts -- sans serif type of fonts are easiest on the eye (Calibri, Arial, Verdana)
3. Few words on each slides
4. Images to carry the idea
5. First and last name of speaker, with professional affiliation
6. Clear charts and graphs
7. Branded with logo of your choice (if possible)
8. Topic tracker (if possible)
[Thank you, Randy Accetta]
Topics
Accounting
Advertising
Advisor
Analysis
Balance Sheet
Barriers to Entry
Beachhead
Benefits
Better
Books
Brainstorming
Brainwriting
Budget
Business Flow
Business Model
Cash Flow
Commercialization
Communications
Competition
Competitive Advantage
Consultant
Corporate Entrepreneurship
Creativity
Critical Success Factor
Culture
Customer
Decisions
Deploy
Design
Develop
Differentiation
DXpedition
Earn
Education
Effectiveness
Elevator Pitch
Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship
Environment
Evolution
Executive Summary
Exercise
Expertise
Failure
Finance
Financial Objectives
Flowchart
Focus
Funding
GizmoGadget
Glossary
Habits
Healthy Venture
Hiring
Hypothesis
Ideas
Ideation
Income Statement
Industry
Industry Research
Innovation
Innovator
Intellectual Property
Intrapreneurship
Invention
Inventory
Investor
Iteration
Knowledge
Launch
Leadership
Lean Startup
Learning
Legal
Luck
Machines
Management
Manpower
Market Research
Marketing
Marketing Brochure
Material
Media
Mentor
Methods
Mindset
Mission
Mistakes
Money
Motivation
Myths
Name
Niche Market
OLLI Venture
Operating Agreement
Operations
Opportunity
Passion
Patents
People
Planning
Positioning
Presentations
Price
Problems
Process Flow
Product Development
Profit
Progress
Promotion
Prototype
Refine
Research
Resources
Resume
Return on Investment
Roadmap
Sales
SCAMPER
SCORE
Scorecard
Skills
Slides
Solution Development
Solutions
SPLUCK
Start-up
Stimulation
Strategy
Structure
Success
SWOTT
Target Market
Team
Teamwork
Technology Readiness Levels
Terminology
Thinking
Tools
Transformation
TRL
Validation
Value
Venture
Venture Capital
Venture Creation
Venture Plan
Vision
Work
Worth
Writing
