Lessons
Become an Engaging Presenter
1Class Introduction
01:57 2Engage Your Audience Right Away
08:13 3Why Presentations Miss the Mark
03:49 4Tips for Effective Communication
22:04 5Break Down Audience Barriers
04:16 6Stories vs. Statistics
08:44 7Build Your Presentation
05:10Lesson Info
Organize Your Information
Now I need to organize that information. Why do I do that? It's easy for me now, I kind of know the audience, but I don't know what I'm gonna talk about yet. So I start to organize the information. I want it to be logical and I usually do it in the sense of like, what's my intro, what's my critical information, how I'm gonna end this presentation? But I do it in a way for me, that I learned from designers I work with. And I use Affinity mapping, it's really simple. Affinity mapping is great. I use post-it notes, you could use a chalkboard, you could use a whiteboard. Affinity mapping is really a team exercise, but I do it with my dog, so we're kind of on a team. And what I do is I just, I also have a little bit of OCD, so you'll see that mine are really pretty, but you can slap 'em up on the board. And I literally write down all the ideas that have come into my head. Because the moment that Chris and other people said we want you to do this presentation, I start thinking about what it'...
s gonna be and visualizing it. So I start slapping up all those ideas and I put them together and I'm like this is gonna be amazing, this is gonna be my presentation. And what I do is the purple ones, it doesn't matter what color, I just happened to have these randomly, they're all post-its I borrowed, but the purple ones are post-its that I put together for all the ideas that I think are valuable to the audience that I know as the audience. So this is all the stuff that I thought, this is great, I should talk about this I should talk about that. This color is the stories or other things that I think are important. Funny stories for me, things that happened, really bad experiences, anything that comes up that I'm like maybe this will work, maybe this won't work. And the idea behind it in this Affinity mapping is there's no judgment. I don't start writing something down and be like, no that won't work. The first part of this exercise is put everything up. Do everything that comes into your mind and I time it. I usually give myself about thirty minutes. So I'm not rushing, like some ideas come in there, but I'm not like (sighs) three hours later, I need one more post-it. And then the blue ones here, because this is a specific type of presentation. These are things that I wanted to possibly add in as bonus materials for people online. So that's what I did. And that's my first run at all of my ideas. I know my who, what, why. I have my clear objectives. So I start to put the ideas down, no judgment. Some of them are not gonna make it to my presentation, and I know that. Some of them will. So the next thing I do is I start to organize them. And you'll see a different color post-it, 'cause I started to put headings together and I'm like oh yeah, this will be great. I start to move things around and go, these work together, these work together, these don't. This works together, that's a weird thing but I'm gonna leave it up there for now. And that's how I organize it and what I started to realize when I pulled things apart for this presentation on presentations, was that a lot of the information was about communication. A lot of the information had to do with connecting with an audience and being comfortable. So I thought, maybe that's gonna be the beginning of my presentation. And then I went through and it literally came out as sort of, through the information I got, I also talked to a lot of people about presentations on presentations. I was like yeah, my worst nightmare, or my greatest fantasy, like how do I wanna present that? So I have to think about it in terms of what is a presentation on presentations? And a lot of people I talked to said, you know the thing about presentations that I have trouble with is I don't feel like I know the presenter when they tell me their story or I don't feel like I get a sense that they're really interested in this topic. And then a lot of people said I don't ever really know how to put one together. I steal someone else's deck and I just put my information in. Or I just write things down and get it done. So that's how I sort of came up with my ideas and I put together a little bit of what I thought would be the right thing to do. And then I have to prioritize my message. So this is what I finalized. And what I noticed, the two areas for me that were most important were that effective communication and the other one was Q and A sessions. I had a ton of information in Q and A sessions. I knew it wasn't all gonna make it in, but I've been through and watched a ton of Q and A sessions and my body just goes (gasps) because someone isn't the leader and my brain works organization. So I thought it would be important to talk about how do you actually run a Q and A session, what's valuable, what's not? So that's how I put my information together for this presentation. I also knew the time frame for this presentation, so I made sure I knew everything that was going on. So that's how I worked it out. Really, really simple.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
NeeLee
This is my second time as an audience member for Creative Live, and I have to tell you all - I'm hooked! I decided to give it a shot because I'm genuinely interested in the subject being covered, it is a wonderful networking opportunity, and its free for audience members - so I receive the course and the bonus materials. For those of you that are nervous about the cameras like I was, let me assure you that you hardly even notice them. If you ever watched a few courses before becoming an audience member, you can tell how little the audience is even shown. Now as for Mr. Whelan - CL couldn't have picked a better presenter to present about presentations. His knowledge and experience reflects in his presentation - he's warm, personable, and if he did rehearse and prepare the way he recommends, it's not noticeable. He's natural and you can relate to every point made. I hope there are other Andrew Whelan courses in the future. I highly recommend CL - as a participant and an audience member - for their variety of course content and bonus materials that I continue to use in my day-to-day. I strongly recommend any class or workshop that includes Andrew Whelan. His advice, experience, and genuine empathetic approach to helping others become better, is invaluable. Thank you Andrew and Thank you Creative Live!
Carolyn Winslow
Thank you! You gave me some fresh ideas to share when I am presenting, and when I'm helping folks be more comfortable when they need to speak in front of others. Good examples, to the point without fluff, and even a bit entertaining. Thanks!
Jack Foxe
This was my first live audience experience, and wow was i shocked how engaged i was! Im someone who has an awful attention span so the fact that i was listening and taking everything in was fantastic. Thanks Andrew for some great tips and making me laugh and thanks to Creative Live for having me in the audience. If anyone who interacts with other people on a regular basis this class is essential!
Student Work
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