The Authority Guide to Presenting and Public Speaking

How to deliver engaging and effective business presentations

Steve Bustin

• Publisher: The Authority Guides
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781909116764
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Communication
• Index: Business

Are you required to present, pitch or speak to an audience? Whether it's your first presentation or you're an experienced speaker, this Authority Guide will give you the tools, tips and confidence to deliver engaging, creative and effective presentations. Steve Bustin, an award-winning business speaker (named UK Speaker of the Year 2015 by the Professional Speaking Association), an executive-level speech coach and corporate presentation skills trainer, will teach you simple but effective techniques to keep your audience engaged.

Appendix 1 Don’t just take my word for it

Throughout this book I’ve made various assertions about what audiences do and don’t like during presentations, especially around use of slides. Don’t just take my word for it, however. While writing this book I undertook a piece of informal, totally unscientific research into the most common mistakes people see during business presentations (Figure 15). Having read this book, the results shouldn’t come as any great surprise.

Figure 15 Common presentation mistakes: survey results

And for the sake of completeness, Figure 16 lists the ‘other’ mistakes.

Figure 16 ‘Other’ presentation mistakes

Have you fallen into any of these traps? Do you need to make sure you’re not one of the presenters making these common mistakes? Keep this book to hand when you start preparing your next presentation.

'Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel'.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Appendix 2 Resources for becoming a better presenter

Books

Obviously you bought the best possible book about becoming a better presenter(!), but here are a few others I’d recommend checking out.

Atkinson, M. (2004) Lend Me Your Ears, Vermilion.

This book has been around for a few years and for good reason. The chapter on using rhetoric in speeches is brilliant and something I refer back to regularly.

Gallo, C. (2009) The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be insanely great in front of any audience, McGraw-Hill Education.

Dissects Jobs’ Apple keynotes and contains lessons we can all learn on how to present. The chapter on delivering a ‘holy shit moment’ is particularly good.

Gibbins-Klein, M. and Schweikert, F. (eds) (2013) The Business of Professional Speaking: Expert advice from top speakers to build your speaking career, Panoma Press.

If you’re interested in making speaking your profession and getting paid for it, this book of 14 essays by top speakers is a great resource for learning how to do so.

Jackson, L. (2013) PowerPoint Surgery, Engaging Books.

A very practical and business oriented look at producing great slides. Accessible and full of great tips. Recommended.

McCandless, D. (2012) Information is Beautiful, Collins.

Not actually about presentations, but about how to present data in beautiful and engaging ways.

Reynolds, G. (2011) Presentation Zen, New Riders.

Takes a design-led look at producing beautiful slides. Garr also has a terrific blog about presenting at www.presentationzen.com

Stevens, A. and du Toit, P. (2013) The Exceptional Speaker, Congruence Publishing.

The book you’ve just read has given you the basic and intermediate tools. This book, by two highly accomplished speakers, will help you become a more advanced speaker.

Groups and organisations

Toastmasters (www.toastmasters.org.uk)

A very well-established international organisation that has chapters and groups around the world running regular meetings specifically to help people become better speakers, whether you’re delivering a business presentation or a best man’s speech. Total disclosure: I’ve never been to one of their meetings, but I know dozens of people who rave about them, although there is definitely a Toastmasters ‘house style’ of speaking, which you can spot a mile off.

Professional Speaking Association (PSA) (www.thepsa.co.uk)

The ‘trade body’ for professional speakers and those who earn their living from speaking, including trainers, coaches, compères and many others. Runs regional meetings across the UK with the aim of helping members to ‘Speak More, Speak Better’. If Toastmasters teaches you how to be a better speaker, the PSA teaches you how to get paid for it. They run an annual ‘Speaker Factor’ competition for new and upcoming speakers. I’m a Fellow of the PSA and was lucky enough to be named their UK Speaker of the Year in 2015. This organisation changed my business and my career for the better.

'No one ever complains about a speech being too short!'

Ira Hayes

About the author

Steve Bustin is an award-winning keynote speaker, executive speech coach, presentation skills trainer and business communications consultant.

As a speaker, Steve delivers keynote speeches and breakout sessions on a range of communication and media topics including: presenting, PR and the media, social media and engaging communications. He speaks regularly at business conferences, mastermind groups and networking events in the UK and internationally.

Steve was named UK Speaker of the Year 2015 by the PSA and also won their London ‘Speaker Factor’ competition in 2013. He is a Fellow of the PSA and sits on the Board of the Association.

As a coach and mentor Steve works with business leaders to hone their speaking and presenting skills and position them as a go-to expert and speaker in their sector. He also trains teams in presentation skills, whether they’re pitching to clients and prospects or speaking at internal meetings.

He ran PR consultancy Vada Media for 11 years, specialising in the health, medical and aesthetics sectors. He is the author of The Authority Guide to PR for Small Business, due Spring 2017.

Steve started his career as a Broadcast Journalist for BBC News and now writes for national magazines and newspapers, primarily on lifestyle, arts and gardening. He also regularly provides media interview training and coaching for those appearing in the media.

Steve lives in Brighton wi...

Table of contents

• Credits, acknowledgements and thanks
• Contents
• Introduction
• The anatomy of a good presentation
• Setting objectives for your presentation
• Creating your content
• Why structuring your content is vital
• Open with a bang, not a whimper
• Structuring that tricky bit in the middle
• Close on a high note
• Using slides during your presentation
• Embracing a world without slides
• Presenting figures, numbers and data
• Presenting like a professional
• Putting it all into practice
• Appendix 1 Don’t just take my word for it
• Appendix 2 Resources for becoming a better presenter
• About the author
• Also by Authority Guides