Don't suck at your next presentation - "15 Easy Ways to Screw Up Your Next User Group Talk" and more...

Jerry Nixon @ Work - 15 Easy Ways to Screw Up Your Next User Group Talk. And, a little advice

In college, a millennia ago, I spent a summer serving Philadelphia’s inner city children with Bart Campolo. As a leader, he was an effervescent, tireless motivator; an excellent writer as much a speaker. As he verbalized his process he forever transformed my approach to public communication.

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I believe we all want to be excellent communicators. Recognizing excellent communication qualities creates a roadmap for us to be better. One stepping stone toward this is motivating change over mere information. Asking ourselves, “What do I want my audience to change?” Let’s look closer

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15 Easy Fails

If you want your presentation to fail, then I have assembled some easy solutions for you. You don’t have to work hard to be a loser when I’m here. Here are some of the top things I have used to ensure my talks aren’t successes.

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Finally, here are six more great, loser tips:

1. Over-generalize, there’s no other way
2. Under-enunciate, the-no-thr-wa.
3. Use logical fallacies, just like Hitler!
4. Maximize PowerPoint & laser pointers
5. Minimize demos, you get it
6. Sing?

Conclusion

This starting to make sense? There is more to be said about this. But, this is the end of this article. If you are about to present something, consider your motivation. Is this for you or for them? And if this is for them, what do you want them to change – what behavior do you want to see different? If the answer is “nothing” then you are just wasting all of our time. You can be a great speaker. Start by looking at this article, and consider the qualities of other great speakers – especially their motivations.

One day, it will be me up there, on the stage and I'll need this advice...