Lessons Archives

The Road to Delivering a Persuasive Presentation

Posted on November 24, 2014 by Rick E

As we frequently point out, the success of your presentation is measured through the impact it makes on the audience. If you can move them to action and persuade them to consider new ideas, then you’ll know that you’ve done your job right. Whether you’re pitching to investors, selling a product, or sharing your thoughts as an expert in a conference, the main goal is to convince and connect with the audience. As the presenter, you need to show them that your viewpoint is valid and worth their interest. Delivering a persuasive presentation is the quickest route toward this outcome.

So what does it take to deliver a persuasive presentation? What do you need to do to enthrall and engage an audience? Here are 3 essential things you’ll need to keep in mind:

Start with a powerful hook

A persuasive presentation should always start with something that will capture the attention of your audience. According to some experts, presenters only have 60 seconds to make a positive impression on stage. If you can’t begin to engage the audience within that time, you might lose their attention quickly. That’s why it’s important to start with a hook. Whether or not you have longer than a few seconds, it’s important to begin with something that will make people sit up with curiosity.

The best way to do that is by creating a sense of familiarity and relatability. Try to approach your presentation from the point of view of the audience. Show them that your presentation is more than just a collection of facts and data. Let them see that your presentation is actually relevant to their experience.

This is where storytelling is particularly effective. A story is a great way to appeal to emotions. You can share something from your own experience or share a scenario that emphasizes the perspective of the audience. This is especially crucial if you’re delivering a sales pitch. Try to describe a vivid story that situates your audience as the protagonist, highlighting problems that you can solve.

Give your audience something to look forward to

At the heart of it, a persuasive presentation is all about being able to sell an idea. To do that, think about your own experience as a consumer. Why do you choose certain brands over others? Why are you compelled to try out new products? For both scenarios, it’s because you’re offered something you want or need. In other words, products make certain promises that interest you.

The same should be said about your presentations. In order to “sell” your own ideas, you have to make a promise that the audience can look forward to. Consider the 2007 Apple Keynote where Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone. There, he repeatedly mentioned that their new product was going to “reinvent the phone“. Looking forward to this promise, 700,000 units were bought by consumers within the first weekend of its release.

While it’s important to make powerful statements, you should also keep them grounded with supporting facts and data. In his keynote, Steve Jobs provided quick demos, stats, and visuals to strengthen his message. The only promises you should be making are the ones you are sure you can keep. Offer the audience evidence to bolster the validity of your message. Aside from research data, you can also share some testimonials or demonstrations. Let them determine that your presentation is both powerful and reliable.

End with a call to action

When you reach the end of your presentation, it’s not enough to say thank you and quietly ask for questions. First, you’ll need to reiterate your main points, making sure that the main takeaway is clear for the audience to see. Next, you’ll need to urge them to take positive action.

Tailor a Call to Action statement that’s specific to the outcome you’re aiming for. After you’ve shared your ideas, it’s time to give the audience a particular goal or objective they can act on. What do you want to happen as a result of your presentation? Your answer to this question should be echoed to the audience in a strong and straightforward voice.

As we’ve mentioned in an earlier blog post, you need to be brief and straight to the point. Avoid using phrases that sound like you’re beating around the bush. Statements such as “if it interests you, maybe you can consider…” make it sound like you’re hedging. You need to show confidence in your presentation. If you’re confident about your presentation, the audience will surely feel the same way.
There are no shortcuts to a successful presentation, but the quickest route is through the art of persuasion. By delivering a persuasive presentation, you can move the audience to consider and affirm new ideas. Follow these 3 tips to drive your audience into action and achieve the outcome that you’re hoping for.

Featured Image: Corey Leopold via Flickr

Collaboration in Prezi: Creating a Cohesive Vision

Posted on November 20, 2014July 9, 2021 by Rick E

Technology continues to make communication and collaboration much easier. Share your ideas and collaborate with everyone in your team with a step-by-step guide in this week’s Prezi Feature.

A presentation isn’t always a lone endeavor. Maybe you’re working with collaborators on a new project. Maybe you need to ask some people in your team to corroborate the facts and data you have. Whatever the reason, there will be occasions when your work requires close collaboration with others. If you want to make sure that the core message is properly represented through visuals and content, you’ll need to take into account everybody’s input.

Unfortunately, this isn’t as easy as it sounds. The process of collaboration can get a bit tedious, especially when you’re building a presentation deck together. There will be plenty of back and forths between different individuals. Dozens of emails sent. Different versions of the presentation file shared. There are so many steps to go through before everyone can agree on a final “look”. In between those steps, there are a lot of room for error as well. The process will be so much easier if you can all just sit and work together at one time. But what if there’s a conflict in schedules? Or what if your collaborators live across the country from you?

We often talk about how today’s technology has significantly increased our ability to communicate, specifically in the world of business. You can save a lot of time and effort if you know which tools to use. Speed up the process and see everyone’s input instantly using Prezi’s collaboration feature.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to keep everyone’s ideas clear and cohesive:

With Prezi’s collaboration feature, you can work with up to 10 different users. While editing your presentation, click on the Share button at the right side of the top menu.

Choosing ‘Share prezi’ will prompt a pop up where you can type down the email address of your collaborators. Prezi will send emails informing them that they can edit the presentation with you.

From there, it’s as easy as working on your prezi as you usually would. Except now you’re working together with several other people, making your own edits on specific parts of the presentation.

If you want to see which part of the prezi your collaborator is working on, click on their avatar and choose ‘Zoom to position’.

You can also invite other users to join by expanding the sidebar on the right. If you want to review your prezi once everyone is done making their contributions, just click on ‘Start presentation’.

You’ll be the presenter by default, but you can allow your collaborators to take the lead by clicking on their names and choosing ‘Hand over presentation’.

Collaboration is a crucial part of any project. When it comes to preparing presentations, the old saying “two heads are better than one” is often true. Allow others to share their ideas and contribute to create a strong and cohesive vision. Creating a presentation involves a lot of creativity and innovation. With Prezi’s collaboration feature, you can combine the best ideas into a single vision.

Featured Image: Death to the Stock Photo / Prezi logo via Wikimedia Commons

Improve Your Presentations with the Power of the Metaphor

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Rick E

The success of your presentation is determined by how well you can connect with your audience. If you’re able to capture their attention and engage them with your discussion, you’re on your way to a great outcome.

So how do you capture their imagination?

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For poets, authors, and songwriters, there’s always the metaphor. They equate certain ideas or concepts with images that people are already familiar with. Since these concepts are often abstract and difficult to explain, metaphors help them reach out in ways that others can easily understand and relate to. .

A quick example can be found in William Shakespeare’s famous passage from “As You Like It:”

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;

Instead of trying to endlessly explain the nature of life, he chose an image that his audience were already familiar with. Since they were already watching a stage play, the audience can easily see what he meant with his metaphor!

Your message should be as compelling as a dangling carrot. (Image Source)

While your presentations aren’t expected to be as poetic as any of Shakespeare’s works, they can definitely improve with the use of simple metaphors. While we often associate them with artistic expression, metaphors also play out in our daily conversations. Expressions like “our hard work went down the drain” call to mind images that are familiar and relatable.

Certain metaphors can also convey a more heightened sense of emotion because they’re described in a way that people can easily call to mind. Another example was brought up by presentation expert Nancy Duarte in an article for the Harvard Business Review. She writes, “we [incorporate metaphors] naturally in conversation—for instance, ‘The news hit her like a freight train.’ By comparing the situation to something people already know or can at least imagine, we convey its intensity and urgency.”

Most presentations often end up as a dump of data and information that are too difficult to understand. If you want to keep your audience engaged, you need to capture their attention with something that stands out to them. A recitation of facts and data can easily become boring. But if you can liken your new business model to a game of soccer, your audience will remain intrigued and interested. Like Shakespeare, try to explain a complex concept with the use of a metaphor. Turn the unfamiliar into something you know they encounter in their daily lives.

Moving past cliches: How to come up with a unique metaphor

Obviously, not all metaphors are created equal. Some have been used so much that they’ve become unoriginal. How many times have you heard love likened to a red rose? Or, to be a bit closer to the corporate world, a business goal to a bull’s-eye? If you really want to capture the imagination of your audience, you’ll need to come up with a metaphor that is unique. The most effective metaphors are particular and specific to what you’re describing. It calls on something that you know everyone has experienced or can easily imagine.

For Nancy Duarte, the best way to do that is through a brainstorming session.

brainstormfresh2 — Brainstorming is the most effective way to come up with the perfect metaphor. (Image Source)

The perfect metaphor won’t come to you immediately. As Nancy has written, the first things we often come up with are the cliches. Since these are associations we often see and make, they’re the ones that are usually top of mind. To push past them, you’ll need to allot some time for brainstorming.

Sit down away from your computer and start listing down everything that comes to mind. Start with the cliches and try to move to more original ideas. If you’re feeling stuck, just try to think of any word that you think is connected with the previous one you listed down. The important thing here is to keep writing. Don’t stop to edit yourself until you’ve written down everything you can. If you feel conscious about what you come up with, you can turn it into a little game. Set a timer for 9 minutes and don’t stop until your time runs out. You can also give these other brainstorming techniques a try.

Once you’re happy with the list you’ve come up with, it’s time to start pruning it down. Choose the images that are more unusual since these are the ones that will surely stand out to your audience. Above, you can see the example that Nancy came up with. Instead of going for the cliched image of a “handshake in front of a globe” for partnership, she opted for a reef ecosystem and the dance partners Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. If you want to use a metaphor that references pop culture, make sure it’s something that is appropriate for your audience’s demographics. The Astaire/Rogers metaphor won’t make sense to millennials, but perhaps a reference to the Avengers will. Always consider the point of view of your audience when choosing the perfect metaphor.

With your metaphor planned, it’s time to incorporate them with your visuals. It’s one thing to hear you liken your new security plan to a terrifying guard dog, but it’s a different experience to see it right in front of their eyes. If you really want to engage your audience, your metaphor is a great way to enhance the slide decks you present. Instead of using stock images and cliched graphics, you can perfectly illustrate your points with a powerful visual metaphor.

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To connect with an audience, you need to urge them to embrace your core message. The best way to do that is by tapping into their imagination. Commonly used in artistic expression, the power of the metaphor can also improve your presentations. Give your audience an opportunity to see a unique presentation by translating your ideas into something that they can relate to.

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READ MORE:

Finding the Right Metaphor for Your Presentation – Harvard Business Review
Expert Advice: Finding the Right Visual Metaphor for Your Prezi – Prezi Blog

Featured Image: Death to the Stock Photo

Presentation Science: 5 Thought-Provoking Presentation Resources You Need to See

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Rick E

A lot of presentations fall short because of insufficient preparation. Plenty of presenters have faced an audience thinking they can just “wing” the whole thing. While this technique may work for some, it’s not exactly a fool proof plan. When the stakes are high, we can’t just leave the outcome of our presentations to chance. That’s why it’s important to plan and prepare for presentations. Part of that process is to look out for new presentation resources that will help you improve your skills.

A successful presentation involves careful consideration. To communicate your message effectively, you need to take note of several different factors. Do your slides highlight your main points? Is your content memorable and easy to understand? Are the numbers and data well-represented with visuals? Is your presence on stage distracting the audience? Will your nervousness get the better of you once in front of everybody?

We’ve compiled 5 presentation resources that can help answer some of your important questions:

Reel your audience in with the power of curiosity

Curiosity: It Helps Us Learn, But Why? – NPR.org

While this article is mostly focused on the role of curiosity in the classroom, it also highlights information that is crucial for any presenter. The author cites a study that observed how our brain’s react to curiosity. According to the research, our brain’s chemistry changes when our curiosity is piqued, leading to better learning and information retention.

More reason to integrate storytelling in your presentations

Elemental Storytelling – NPR.org

Here, the author analyzes several pieces of art to learn why some things are more compelling than others. According to his assessment, the secret is in the “grab”. Like the best stories, your presentation should have an element that proves irresistible to the audience. This article also shows how you can use the same technique to improve your slide decks and visuals.

Handle tricky situations during the Q&A

The best way to win an argument – BBC.com

Knowing that the Q&A is often the most dreaded part of presentations, this article might be useful for overcoming some difficult scenarios. When faced with dissenting opinions from the audience, our natural response is to be defensive and list the same reasons we’ve already mentioned during the main presentation. According to a phenomenon called “the illusion of explanatory depth,” this will only fuel your disagreement. Instead of arguing your point, it might be better if you take the time to explain how it works. According to a study cited in the article, those who explained how the policy they were advocating for would work had better success at changing the minds of others.

Always turn your data into great visuals

The beauty of data visualization – TED.com

In this TED Talk, a data journalist talks about his work turning information into comprehensible visuals. According to him, the wealth of information around us can change the way we look at the world once they’re turned into graphics that are compelling and attractive.

The science behind your presentation anxiety

The Fear of Public Speaking – Psychology Today

We’ve written a lot about presentation anxiety and methods to beat it, but we have yet to get to the bottom of it. In this blog post, a psychologist explains why the fear of public speaking is so prevalent. She shares the process researchers use to figure out what causes presentation-related stress, and provides some insights on how knowledge of this process might help soothe your anxiety.

Before facing an audience, take some time to consider how you can improve the communication experience. Read these thought-provoking presentation resources to learn useful information that can improve the quality of your message.

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Featured Image: Death to the Stock Photo

Prezi Tips: How to Create Your Own Designs in No Time

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Rick E

For this week’s Prezi feature, we’re going to help you work on a tight schedule. Presentations can take a lot of effort, but you can still come up with original designs by following these 3 time-saving Prezi tips.

Living in a fast-moving environment, we often have a long list of tasks to finish by the end of the day. Those that require more attention become a lot harder to accomplish. As much as you’d want to focus most of your time preparing for a big presentation, there are plenty of other things you have to do. Sometimes, it’s just not realistic to aim for a perfect prezi.

Sure, great presentation design will take a lot of effort. But if you know how to play your cards right, you can create an amazing prezi in no time at all. The first thing you have to do is to decide on a concept for your design. It may sound like additional effort, but you will be able to work much faster once you know which direction to take your prezi. With a concept planned, the only thing left to worry about is arranging all the pieces together. You can do that easily with these time-saving Prezi tips:

Tip #1: Recycle old content

You don’t always have to start from scratch. One of the easiest ways to save time is to recycle your old content and design elements. Prezi allows you to build a library of frames and other items that you might want to use in future presentations. You can easily reuse your favorite content from prezis you’ve made in the past by taking advantage of the My Content feature.

Save your content for future use by selecting it and clicking on ‘Favorite’. You can also right-click on the content you want to save and choose ‘Add to Favorites’.

To access the stuff you’ve saved, just click on ‘Insert’ from the top menu and select ‘My Content’. From there, you can drag your content from the right sidebar and drop it right onto your canvas.

Another thing you can do is use slides from an old PowerPoint presentation. Import your PowerPoint into Prezi through the Insert menu. Select ‘PowerPoint’ and choose the slide deck you want to use. Drag and drop the slides individually or hold shift and double click to insert several slides at a time. On your canvas, these slides will work as frames.

If you want to separate elements within a frame, just click the options button and select ‘Remove Frame’ from the transformation tool.

Tip #2: Make use of templates and layouts

Another way you can save time is by taking advantage of templates and pre-set layouts. Prezi has a huge selection of templates that’s constantly updated, so you always have new visuals to choose from. You can always change up the theme and customize as you’d like. Add your own background or choose a different color palette to make it completely your own.

If you’d rather work on your own design, use layouts to skip worrying about arranging your frames and content. From the top menu, click ‘Insert’ and select ‘Layouts’. From the sidebar, you can choose from different single and multi-frame layouts.

Tip#3: Enable keyboard shortcuts

You can skip a few steps by using keyboard shortcuts as you work on your prezi. Click on the cog wheel icon in the top menu and enable shortcuts from there.

Refer to this list for a full guide on different editing and presenting shortcuts. Here are just a few that you might find useful:

F – Draw frame, press again to change frame type (bracket, circle, rectangle or hidden)
L – Load a file on your canvas (image, pdf, video, swf)
S – Draw a shape, press again to change shape type (arrow, line, rectangle, circle, triangle)
P – Go to Path mode
1 – Zoom in
2 – Zoom out
CTRL + SHIFT + C – Opens the Prezi CSS editor
CTRL + SHIFT + D – Duplicates and flips your content, creating a mirrored version of your content (works for images and arrows but not text)
Esc (Escape key) – Finish current action or close open dialog
Space – Enters Present mode
Space then 0 – Enters Present Mode in fullscreen

Preparing for a presentation can really be stressful, but you can make it work if you take advantage of Prezi’s many helpful features. Come up with your own amazing designs in no time with these Prezi tips.

Featured Image: Death to the Stock Photo / Prezi logo via Wikimedia Commons

Fine-tuning Your Presentation’s Core Message

Posted on November 12, 2014 by Rick E

As a presenter, your main goal is to make sure that the audience remembers the vital parts of your discussion. It’s not a particularly easy task, especially if you’re tackling several different points throughout an hour-long presentation. That’s why crafting a fine-tuned core message is important. You should have a clear and effective way to deliver the “big idea” behind your presentation. You should have something short and straight to the point that the audience can repeat and memorize.

The core message is the anchor that keeps your presentation from floating off. In other words, it keeps your presentation set on a single premise. Everything you present—from the data you share to the slides you show—should contribute in driving home this key idea. When you first sit down to prepare your presentation, it should be the first thing you have in mind. What do you want the audience to take away from your discussion? What’s the outcome you’re aiming for? The answer to these 2 questions is the first step towards an effective core message. After that, you’ll need to fine-tune your message to make sure it’s easy to repeat, recognize, and remember.

Spend some time scribbling down your ideas. Keep revising your core message to meet the following criteria:

1. Is it specific and straight to the point?

As we’ve already mentioned, the core message will be the center of your presentation. If you want to keep the discussion on the right track, your core message needs to focus on the particulars of your message. The topic of your presentation gives the audience an overview of what you might talk about, but the core message is specific and straight to the point. Determine the purpose of your presentation and make sure it’s evident in your message.

2. Is it short and conversational?

If you want the audience to remember your message, you have to make sure that it stands out. Try to write your core message in a more conversational style. As you know, there are distinct differences between the way we write and speak. Craft your presentation as you would a conversation. If you want your message to stick, keep it short and cut back on jargon and industry talk.

3. Is it relevant to your audience?

Maintain the audience’s interest by placing them at the center of your presentation. Make sure your message is relevant to their interest by keeping in mind their point of view. Do this by addressing your message directly to them. Try to answer these four questions to learn more about your audience.

Featured Image: Horia Varlan via Flickr

Why Your Presentations Need Better Slide Headlines

Posted on November 4, 2014 by Rick E

Presentation expert Nancy Duarte suggested a quick way to diagnose bad slides. To check your own work, step back and ask yourself, “will the audience get my point with just a quick glance?”

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Nancy’s “glance test” likens PowerPoint slides to billboard ads. Unless you want to hold up traffic, you can’t stop your car to examine every detail of the ad looming over you. A billboard should catch your attention and tell its story in seconds. Your slides should get to the point just as quickly.

An easy way to do that is to keep your designs simple.

Nancy offers many great design tips to make sure your slides pass the glance test. But apart from manipulating visuals, there’s another way to ensure that your slides immediately get to the point.

Just like a news article or a viral blog post, your slides need descriptive headlines.

The usual slide headlines

Instead of descriptive titles, most slides are headlined by a single word or a quick phrase. At first glance, the first thing an audience sees are words like “Objectives or “Goals and Accomplishments”. If you do the same thing for a blog posts or press release, do you think you’ll get as much readers?

bad-headline-example-chronicle — (Image Source)

These headlines can only share a small part about a particular slide. PowerPoint expert Gavin McMahon more accurately calls them “labels.”

Instead of urging the audience to think, “I want to know more about this,” they see text that they’ve likely seen before from other presentations. By changing labels to descriptive headlines, you can convey a complete and interesting idea. You can inadvertently tell the audience to listen closely to what you have to say.

Writing better headlines

In a study published by the Society for Technical Communication, a group of researchers examined how effective descriptive slide headlines are. The researchers presented two different versions of the same slide deck to several sections of 200 students. The first version had slides headlined with the usual short phrases. The other one made use of short descriptive sentences. Even if the study is focused on education, the results show how important it is to write better slide headlines.

When asked to recall the main assertions of slides, the students in the sections taught with the sentence-headline slides had significantly higher recall… For the 15 questions in the study, the average score for the students viewing the sentence-headline slides was 79% correct, while the average for the students viewing the traditional slides was only 69% correct.

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So if you want to make sure the audience remembers your message, you’ll need to start writing better headlines. Here are a few tips to help you out:

Highlight the main takeaway. Make sure the key takeaway is clear in your headline. Always ask yourself what you want the audience to remember from each slide you make.
Be specific. Try to be as specific as possible. While your headline doesn’t have to be long, it should accurately describe what’s tackled in your slide.
Feed their curiosity. Write headlines that say enough to urge the audience to ask, “what happens next?”

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Featured Image: Lena Vasiljeva via Flickr

Visual Storytelling: How Stories are Told in Pictures

Posted on October 28, 2014 by Rick E

Are pictures really worth a thousand words? Let’s take a look at some facts.

According to a whitepaper published by NewCred and Getty Images, the following statistics are proof:

40% of people will respond better to information presented visually
83% of human learning is visual
44% of users are more likely to engage with brands on social platforms if they post pictures
Articles and blog posts that contain images get 94% more views than those without

Aside from all that, there’s also proof in the way our mind works. The human brain can process visuals 60,000 times faster than information presented through text. In fact, we’re all highly attuned to our sense of sight. According to Dr. John Medina, vision trumps all of our other senses.

With these facts laid out, it’s easy to see why images are important to presentations and marketing materials. Through visual storytelling, you can use pictures to create stronger emotional impact. Pictures can tell a story that immediately allows your audience to connect with the message you’re sharing.

So whether you’re delivering a presentation or revamping your social media profiles, visual storytelling is the best way to go. When selecting pictures to use, try to keep in mind the four key characteristics of visual storytelling:

Authentic

The best stories come from candid moments. It’s why photo sharing has become so prevalent in the age of social media. Replacing the super-polished stock photos are snapshots that allow others to see the world through a more personal perspective. Take, for example, Dove’s Real Beauty campaign. Instead of featuring models that are photoshopped to perfection, Dove featured everyday women and challenged today’s absurd beauty standards.

To find images that are more authentic to your story, focus on what your brand stands for. Look for images that convey your identity and experiences as a brand. Next, look for something that will resonate with your audience. Think about the people you’re addressing and what might be authentic for them.

Relevant

Visual storytelling should also take into account what’s happening in the world. After all, your message doesn’t exist in a bubble. It’s contextualized in a milieu—a world where billions of individuals are discovering new things every single day. Make sure your visual stories are relatable and relevant to the audience you want to target. Consider what Oreo did to make the most out of a blackout that interrupted the Super Bowl. For your own visual story, choose images that evoke a sense of time and culture.

Sensory

The only thing better than a picture is the real thing. But since you can’t have real situations on a PowerPoint slide, you’re going to have to settle for the next best thing. Visual storytelling thrives on imagery that can heighten emotions and senses.

Close-up and macro shots are great for showing textures that audiences can almost touch. On the other hand, a long shot can also take your audience into a particular scene, allowing them to experience it through a wider perspective.

Archetypal

Lastly, the best of visual storytelling alludes to narratives that are practically as old as time. If you think about it, you’ll notice that all your favorite stories are tied together by recurring themes and archetypes. These are universal symbols—called such because they can be found across many different countries and cultures. For your visual stories to be a success, you need to take these symbols and turn it into your own.

Find an archetype that relates to your brand and make it your own. Get to know your own new character and find images that correspond to this new version of a well-loved symbol.
Visual storytelling is great technique to use in presentations and marketing efforts. By weaving imagery together, you can create a story that speaks volumes about your core message.

READ MORE: The Power of Visual Storytelling – NewsCred + Getty Images (Whitepaper)

Featured Image: Ravinder M A via Flickr

Body Language: Signify Intent with Movement

Posted on October 21, 2014 by Rick E

Nonverbal cues are just as important as the slides you’re presenting. The way you stand and move across the stage can have significant impact on the message you’re delivering. Improve your presentations and increase your influence by learning more about the art of body language.

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Body language is a powerful weapon

In a previous blog post, we discussed how body language plays an important role in forming positive impressions. Your first few seconds on stage is particularly crucial. In that short span of time, the audience can gather enough information to form their own opinions about you. As Mark Bowden, author of Winning Body Language, points out,

“In the first few seconds of meeting someone, they will determine whether you are friend or predator, and the rest of the time their brains will be gathering information to support that.”

A recent study conducted by Dr. Alex Pentland takes this one step further. As quoted by Susanne Garguilo of CNN, research concludes that “body language can predict the outcome of interactions such as job interviews, dating, negotiations, etc., with an average accuracy of 80%.”

As such, we can’t possibly ignore the power body language has to significantly improve presentation delivery. If you want to connect with the audience, you need to show them that you’re trustworthy and reliable. You need to form a presence that commands their attention.

How body language adds to your presentation

Contrary to popular belief, body language isn’t similar to the way we express ourselves through speech. A certain movement doesn’t necessarily correspond to a specific word or feeling. There’s no such thing as a body language handbook or dictionary that will help you crack the hidden meaning behind particular gestures. As Forbes contributor Nick Morgan writes,

“Gestures are ambiguous. They can mean many things. If I cross my arms, I may be signaling my defensiveness, but I may also be cold, or simply tired and propping myself up with my arms – or just getting comfortable. And I could be signaling all those things at once. It’s possible to be simultaneously cold, tired, defensive, and desirous of comfort.”

When we’re unconscious of our movements, body language is pretty good at signifying our emotional intent.

“…research shows that whatever we’re feeling first shows up in our body, and only later (nanoseconds later) in our conscious minds. So, if we’re hungry, or impatient, or angry, or happy, our bodies know first, and they will pretty reliably signal those feelings. Learning to read body language, then, is a matter of learning to understand other people’s intents, not their specific conscious thoughts.”

If this is the case, how does body language add to presentation delivery? It works by highlighting the points and arguments you’re making. In other words, conscious adjustment of your posture, gestures, and expression will emphasize and underscore whatever your saying.

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In this way, body language allows you to add an emotional dimension to your presentations. Even if your good posture doesn’t necessarily correspond to a specific meaning, it nonetheless shows the audience something positive and welcoming.

Allow body language to add intent and dimension to your presentation by reading more tips:

Power Your Presentations with These Body Language Tips
7 Surprising Truths about Body Language – Forbes
Strike a pose: How the way you stand can make you more successful – CNN Business
The Surprising Power of Body Language – Psychology Today

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Featured Image: -5m via Flickr

Themes: Customizing a Prezi That’s Unique to Your Presentation

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Rick E

We often emphasize the importance of design in delivering presentations. For this week’s Prezi Feature, learn how to create a Prezi that’s unique to your presentation. By customizing your Prezi themes, you can create visuals that perfectly match your message.

By now, audiences are used to seeing the same presentation decks over and over again. If you really want to leave a lasting impression, you need to think outside the box and get creative. Prezi is a flexible tool that allows you to do just that. With Prezi, you can take control of your narrative and focus on every detail of your presentation. Best of all, you can easily create unique designs that will surely enhance the audience’s visual experience.

Customizing Your Deck

Customize Prezi themes quickly and without much hassle. Beginners will find it easy to come up with their own designs. With just a few clicks, you can add your own background image and change font types. Advanced users also have the option to take their designs even further.

Place your content on the Prezi canvas. Once you’re happy with how everything looks, you can start customizing your theme. Click on Customize from the top menu to access the customization sidebar.

Choose a predefined theme that suits your design concept. To make sure that your prezi theme is one of a kind, scroll down and click the “Advanced” option to open the Theme Wizard. Here are a few tips to create Prezi themes that are unique to your presentation:

Change colors using RGB codes

You can customize colors by using RGB codes. You can use this site to learn the code that corresponds to a certain color. Copy the code from the site and then paste it to the RGB fields in the Prezi Theme Wizard.

Use the CSS editor to define more details

If you’re familiar with HTML, you can open the Prezi CSS Editor to add more details. Use CSS to adjust different things on your prezi theme. You can edit each element in your prezi canvas, like customizing the frames and changing the look of particular shapes. You can also use the CSS editor to define more font types and further enhance your color palette. You can take a look at this CSS crash course to learn more.

Add a background image

A background image can also add another dimension to your Prezi themes. Simply choose an image from your computer and upload it to Prezi. If the file size is too big, Prezi will automatically resize the image for you.

Save your theme for future use

After achieving your desired theme, don’t forget to save it for future use. This will be helpful for occasions when you don’t have much time to prepare for your next presentation.

Give your audience a unique visual experience. Take the extra step to customize your Prezi themes and create a design that perfectly matches your content.

Featured Image: Featured Image: Death to the Stock Photo / Prezi logo via Wikimedia Commons

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