10 Steps to Improve And Master Your Presentation Skills

The fact that you are reading this means that you perhaps aren’t very confident about your presentation skills.

The good thing is that you have come to the right place. Although I cannot guarantee that you will improve for sure.

However, you can hone the skills that you already have or learn new things from here.

If you cannot find some presentation skills workshop, you can learn from this as well.

Follow these 10 steps to improve your presentation skills:

1. Understand the topic and internalize:

How many times have you made a presentation where you know that you haven’t prepared enough?

There maybe a lot of reasons why you couldn’t prepare. However, there is no use trying to make someone else understand things that you have not internalized yourself.

So, make sure you have mastered these things before you make any presentations in the future:

1. Show genuine emotions and internalized concepts. You cannot properly present things that you don’t believe yourself.
2. The audience needs to take something home so make sure you convey your message properly.
3. Don’t you dare read out the slides. Honestly, it’s rather better if you don’t give the presentation at all if you are planning to do this. 

2. Research about Your Audience:

As much as you research about the topic, it is necessary that you give same importance to the audience.

There is a huge difference in the way you should present for different demographic.

Unless you are presenting in a class or some place that you are already familiar with, make sure you make notes of the audience.

It is important because in order to understand what they actually want to learn from the topic is important.

For instance: the way you present about important of diet to a kid is completely different from the way you present to an adult.

3. Design your presentation:

So, after you have a clear picture about your topic and the audience, you need to start designing the content.

There is a lot of flexibility on how you want to do it. This step involves the following points:

1. Drawing summaries from research and making a note.
2. Conceptualizing the presentation and decide on what you want to add or not in the presentation.
3. Make it interactive by using visual aids. You can always use videos, creative pictures, memes and music in your presentations to make it interesting. 
4. Good presentations skills lies in making your presentation interactive. Make use of stories to capture the interest of the audiences.

4. Practice makes anyone perfect:

You might not perfect your presentation skills in one day.

But if you continuously put effort for something, you know that the results will be better than when you don’t.

Everything takes time to shape and it is similar in this case. Even the presentation skills workshops take a lot of time.

You can do these things to improve your public speaking if you need some boost of confidence:

1. Join toastmasters. This will make your public speaking fluent. Perhaps if you get nervous, you can start with a smaller crowd and then move forward.
2. Take online courses on body language, hand movements and public speaking. You can even enroll for presentation skills workshops.
3. Accept constructive feedback from whoever gives it to you. It is important to learn from your mistakes. When someone is taking a risk to share it to you, be thankful and improve on it. 

5. Respect the time:

When I talk about time, I don’t just mean your own time management.

It is equally important that you properly utilize your audiences time.

This is one of the most important presentation skill.

In this busy world, if someone is making an effort to listen to you, you should respect it. For this you can do:

1. Reach the venue way before your presentation starts. 
2. Make sure you use a timer while you practice.
3. Don’t go overboard with your stories that you forget the track of time. 

6. Add a little humor:

Unless it is a topic that is very very serious, you should always try to add a little bit of humor to your presentation.

When the audience is hooked on to your words, it is easier to make them understand things.

Small appropriate jokes do really help the audience open up as well.

Not only them, but it also gives you a chance to breathe while they laugh.

Compare two presentations which does and doesn’t have joke and decide for yourself which is better.

7. Nerves:

Okay, read the following lines and think if it has happened to you: Your palms start to get sweaty but your mouth runs dry.

As you stumble for words, you look at the audience in despair only to feel embarrassed.

So, you decide to read out the slides and run away as soon as possible.

If the answer is yes, remember everybody feels nervous.

The symptoms might not be the same for everyone but as Shawn Mendes said” Nervous means your care”.

Which is very true. Even the people with extremely good presentation skill feels nervous.

So, how to not be drowned under this suffocating situation? Do these:

1. Smile as soon as you enter the hall and start the presentation. This will help you feel a bit calmer.
2. Listen to your favorite music and sing it loud (if possible) before you start the presentation. Find an empty place and give yourself a confidence boost through your favorite music.
3. Breathe deeply before the presentation even starts. Don’t wait for the presentation to start. Practice deep breathing. This will keep your heart in check. Also it will help you supply oxygen to your brain.
4. Take small sips of water. This also helps release oxygen to your brain cells. It will also help if your mouth runs dry. However, avoid drinking large amount of water at once. 

8. Body Language:

When you are presenting, you are the center of attraction.

Body language is another most important criteria of a good presentation skill.

Most of the presentation skill workshops also make you practice proper body language tricks to make your presentation good.

You can follow these three specific tips:

1. Move around, nobody likes when you are too stiff. Take liberty of the space you have.
2. Eye contact is very important if you want to engage your audience.
3. Learn how to move your hands, this can dramatically impact the effectiveness of your presentation.

9. Engage Your audience:

Even if you give the best presentation of your life but if your audience is not engaged, this is not a sign of a good presentation skill.

People learn more when they are being interactive.

If your presentations are just a one way lecture, your audience will probably fall asleep after a few minutes.

So, do these to engage your audience:

1. Use graphics,
2. Body language,
3. Games,
4. Modulate your voice tone and
5. Ask questions

10. Don’t Forget to Summarize:

Finally, when you reach the end of your presentation don’t just leave.

Try to give a brief overview of whatever you presented in the day.

This will help paint a picture in the mind of the audience.

This way the learning is enhanced as well.