Carol Cox: Make sure your tech presentations keep your
audience engaged and not glazed over with my
do's and don'ts on this episode of the
Speaking Your Brand podcast.
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Hi there and welcome to the Speaking Your
Brand podcast. I'm your host,
Carol Cox. If you have a tech centric
presentation coming up,
this episode is for you.
I'm going to share with you what to do and
what not to do, to make sure that your
audience feels engaged,
that they don't feel overwhelmed and that
they know what to do next with the
information that you've shared with them.
Now, earlier in my career,
I was a software developer and a technology
strategist. I found it in ran two tech
companies, so I have presented at a lot of
technology conferences and events.
And now with AI, I'm building some AI apps
for speaking your brand. Stay tuned for that.
But I'm also starting to go to more
technology conferences to talk about that.
So I wanted to share with you the best
practices of what I've learned over the years
and what I'm doing right now,
so that your tech presentations are
successful. And this applies if you're in
technology software.
I also science, healthcare,
academia, anything where you're presenting
kind of data rich information because your
audience doesn't just want more information,
they want to understand why this matters to
them and what to do with it next.
This is how you're going to attract clients.
So if you're doing presentations for lead
generation and brand awareness,
this is how you're actually going to get
leads and clients from your presentations as
well as getting referrals for more speaking
opportunities. And I'll tell you at the end
of this episode, the one thing I never,
ever do in my technical presentations and how
I learned this lesson the hard way years ago.
Now, if you would like to work with us to
make over an existing presentation that you
have that you know is good,
but you need to take it over the line,
you need to get it so that it's actually
generating leads and clients for you or those
other speaking opportunities.
Or maybe you want to create a presentation
from scratch from beginning to end using our
proven framework.
Click on the links in the show notes or go to
speaking your Brand.com under the work with
us. Navigation menu.
Reach out. Schedule a call with us.
We always enjoy talking to podcast listeners.
Let us know what goals you have,
what speaking engagements you have coming up,
and then we can chat about how we can work
together. Now let's get on with the show.
I've sat in the audience for a lot of tech
presentations over the years,
and here's what I see is fundamentally
missing. That will take your presentation
from something where people are kind of
interested in to something that they are
raving about, and that is what's in it for
them. What's in it for the audience?
So often, especially for those of you who are
founding tech companies,
who are creating software or creating AI
apps, you love your product,
you love the app, the software that you've
created, and you can see how beneficial it
will be for your customers and your clients.
But you're a little bit too attached to the
features and the functionality of your
software or your app.
Instead of taking a step back and really
focusing the A presentation on the audience.
What are their goals related to what your
software can help them to do?
What current challenges do they have to reach
those goals? So do they not have time?
Do they not have the right skill set and not
have the right team members? Whatever your
software is going to help them fix?
And then what is the vision that you're going
to paint for them of the better world that
you imagine, not only the better world for
them, for their own selves and their team and
their company, but the better world overall.
Now, I know this sounds very pie in the sky.
You may be thinking, well, I just want to
share my software, my app.
I just want to give them a demo.
But that's not enough.
You really need to pull them in to your
journey, but then also recognize and validate
to them that you understand where they're at
in their journey.
So I'm going to share with you three quick
things you can do right now.
Just open your slide deck and do them.
And then after that I'm going to share with
you three other things to do that are going
to require a bit more thinking,
but that are going to transform your
presentations when you deliver them.
So first, the three quick things to do.
So you can go open your slide deck.
And the first thing to do is right after
you're welcome. Title slide.
So you're welcome. Title slide should have
the title of the presentation,
your name, your contact information,
a QR code to your website or LinkedIn or
wherever you want to send people.
So you have that on the title slide right
after your welcome title slide.
Put a second slide.
That's an audience question.
You want to get the audience engaged right
away. People are looking at their phones or
they're chatting with the person next to
them, or they're kind of milling about.
So when you start your presentation after
you've been introduced,
you want the audience to focus on you kind of
eyes to the front of the room.
You're getting started. So ask the audience a
question right away.
I like to ask a question that gives me a
sense of who is in the room.
So that way I can kind of tailor on the fly
what I'm sharing with them and what I'm
explaining to them.
Let me give you a couple of examples.
A few weeks ago, I delivered two
presentations related to AI,
but to two very different audiences.
The first presentation was for an higher
education conference about how I'm
integrating AI into the business and
marketing classes that I teach.
So the very first question I asked the
audience was, show of hands.
How many of you teach only online?
Okay, so those people raise their hands.
How many of you teach only on campus,
so only in your physical classroom classes.
And then how many of you are hybrid? You
teach both. Okay, so that just kind of gave
me a little bit of a sense of who was in the
room and where they're teaching,
because that's going to impact them. The
examples that I share related to how to
integrate AI. If everyone in the room raised
their hand that they all teach only on
campus, that is going to be very different
than people who also teach online.
So that gave me a sense of who's in the room,
but kind of also let everyone know that the
presentation was starting.
Now, another presentation that I gave
recently was at an AI meetup.
So this was for people who are entrepreneurs,
software developers, people who are curious
about AI. So a broad range of people in the
audience. So the first question I asked them
was show of hands, how do you feel about
ChatGPT? So the first one was,
okay, so I love ChatGPT.
Please do not take it away from me.
I've come to rely on it.
I use it every day like I do not want to give
it up. So how many people in the audience
feel that way? And then the second one was
how many of you are like, well, I use it, but
I can kind of take it or leave it. Okay, show
of hands. And then how many people were like,
I don't really care about AI.
If it went away tomorrow, I could care less.
Okay, show of hands. So I had actually a mix
of all three of those groups when people
raised their hands.
So that kind of gave me a sense,
again, of the broad range of people who were
in the audience.
And then I also then I asked a follow up
question a few minutes later,
which was, if you could automate one thing in
your life or your work,
what would it be? And this was something that
people could answer out loud.
So I would call on people.
If you could automate one thing in your life
or business, what would it be? So people kind
of answer different, different ways.
And that also gave me a sense of who was in
the room. So that's the very first thing
quickly to do. Put a second slide right after
your title slide to ask the audience a
question. The second quick thing to do is
move your about me or about your company.
Slide to slide number three,
4 or 5. It should not be the second slide,
because that's not where the audience
question is. So often when I go to any type
of presentation, whether it's tech focused or
not, the second slide is usually all about
the speaker. There are all their logos or
their credentials, and that is fine.
You want to have those credibility markers,
but you want to move it down a few slides
from the beginning, because you first need to
show to your audience that you understand
where they're at, what they want,
and what's getting in their way.
You need to validate and empathize with them.
You need to build that sense of trust and
connection first, and then they're going to
be more interested in who you are and how you
can help them. So how I tend to do this again
around those slides, three and four is then
I'll either share with them kind of what I
think their goals are,
or even I could ask them questions about
their goals like that.
If you could automate one thing question,
it's similar to that. Or I could ask them
what challenges they're facing related to
whatever their goals happen to be.
So again, I'm kind of getting a sense of
where the audience is at,
and I'm validating that I understand where
they're at. Sometimes I'll also include a
story of my own to to share that.
So then after I do that,
then I'll have my credibility slide with
logos clients I've worked with like fortune
500 companies, credentials,
whatever happens to be appropriate for that
presentation. So that's quick thing number
two move your about me slide to slide number
three 4 or 5. Five.
The third quick thing to do in your slide
deck is at the end of your presentation,
a slide or two before your thank you slide.
So your thank you slide should pretty much be
a duplicate of your title slide.
So you have again your contact information
that QR code, etc..
But then before that you want to add a slide
with next steps.
So something the audience can do.
That's a quick win to help them to build
momentum based on what they just learned from
your presentation.
A lot of times when we're presenting,
we give the audience a whole bunch of
information, but then we leave them to kind
of make sense of what to do next.
Instead, give them 1 or 2 next steps that
they can take, things that maybe only take 15
minutes. Again, you want it to be something
they can do relatively quickly,
because you also want them to keep what you
just shared with them front of mind and keep
working on it.
So give them something that's a quick win.
For an example for me towards the end of my
presentation, I invited the audience to pick
something to automate based on what they just
learned from all these different automation
scenarios that I had shared with them.
I said, pick something to automate and then
go write down the steps like the 5 or 10
steps that would take to automate that thing
that you do all of the time,
and then go start building that in one of
those automation workflow softwares that I
shared with them. So that's an example of a
quick win. Give your audience the next thing
to do. Now let's get into three other things
to do that require a bit more thinking.
But again, are going to take your
presentation from oh okay.
Well that was an interesting piece of
software to wow, I can really see the vision
of this presenter and their company and where
they want to go.
And I'm excited to be a part of it because
that's what you want. You want that energy
and excitement because that's not only going
to get you the leads and the clients,
it's also going to get people talking about
your presentation on social media and getting
you referrals for other speaking engagements.
So the first thing to do here is to make sure
that you're sharing in your presentation your
unique perspective on the topic.
What do you see as possible?
So yes, your audience wants to learn.
So they want to learn about your software or
whatever technology, or if it's in science
and healthcare, they want to learn what
you're sharing. But even more so,
they want to feel like they're a part of
something bigger.
Not just hearing facts and information,
but being invited into a bigger vision.
So invite the audience in.
Show them how smart they are,
not just how smart you are.
And you do that by asking a lot of show of
hands questions along the way,
or by asking short questions that they can
participate in.
You also want to share with them at the
beginning of your presentation,
and then mention it throughout, and then wrap
it up at the end. Is that vision of what you
see as possible. So in that presentation that
I delivered at an AI meetup,
I talked about how AI agents in particular
are going to fundamentally change the nature
of work, the nature of the kind of work that
most of us do.
So I kind of shared this picture of what is
possible, of letting the robots I call AI the
robots, letting the robots do the computer
work so we can do the human work so we can
get back to the human work and let the robots
take care of, like, all the software and all
the data entry and all that kind of stuff.
Yes, it is going to be a big transition,
but again, that vision of what is possible.
So even though I showed specific AI agent
workflows that I'm creating and using and
speaking your brand, but it was still tied to
this bigger perspective,
this angle I have about the fundamental
change that we're seeing in the nature of
work and what that's going to mean.
So that's number one.
What is your unique perspective on the topic?
What do you see as possible?
What's that bigger vision?
The second thing is storytelling.
And if you've been listening to this podcast,
you're not surprised that, of course, that I
would mention storytelling.
Even if you're doing a tech demo,
when you're showing software screenings or
you're showing your app,
or if you're in science and healthcare and
you're showing graphs and data and
statistics, put a human face on it,
your audience is not going to remember all of
those bullet points and those data points,
but they will remember a story that made them
feel something and made them relate it to
something in their own lives.
Stories work so well because they create an
emotional connection.
They make abstract concepts concrete,
and they help people retain and retell your
message. Now, when you're sharing your
stories, you want to be specific.
So use names, places, let people know where
were you? What was going on?
Were you talking to someone else in
particular? Who was that person?
What was at stake? So what was the what were
the emotions going on?
And then what was the lesson or the
transformation from that particular story?
Let me give you an example.
In the healthcare space,
one of our recent Thought Leader Academy
graduates works for a healthcare hospital
system, and when we worked with her on her
signature talk, she wanted to talk about how
the hospital is expanding to to provide more
labor and delivery rooms and NICU beds in
particular. So she shared this really
powerful personal story about her niece,
her niece having been born premature and
needing to be in NICU.
But the only hospital that had NICU available
was like an hour away from from where the
family lived.
She shared that story of what it was like for
her family to have to travel so far when the
little baby was in the NICU,
but now her niece is a teenager in high
school and thriving.
So now I remember that story.
Do I remember any specific graph that she
showed? No. But now I recognize how important
the work that her hospital was doing,
especially around labor and delivery and
NICU. And so now I can relate that story to
you all, which I wouldn't have been able to
to if it hadn't been for her story.
So that's number two is make sure that you're
sharing a story in your presentation.
If you're doing something related to a tech
demo for your software or your app,
talk about what sparked the idea in the first
place to create this, or did you have a
moment in the process of creating it,
where you and your team were kind of like
struggling with something in particular,
and there was that one day,
or that one moment that a lightbulb went off,
or you, you realize a solution for it.
So tell that very specific story of what
happened one moment, one day.
The third thing to do is to Identify your
through line for your presentation and
maintain it the entire way through.
Because I know the temptation is I want to
show this other thing. I got this other chart
to show, and I want to show this part of the
app, and I want to include this little bit of
information. But more isn't always better.
Your job is to guide your audience,
to curate what's the most important things
for them to know, not to kind of like give
them an information dump of everything that's
in your head and try to share it with them in
30 or 45 minutes.
So think about it this way.
Your through line of your presentation is
like a palm tree.
So if you think about a palm tree,
it has one trunk.
So one stable trunk.
And then kind of like leaves at the top.
Your through line is that trunk.
And then and then the branches at the top are
the different things that you're going to
include in your presentation.
If whatever you're including in your
presentation does not directly relate to that
through line, then it needs to go.
Just put it into a parking lot.
Save it for another presentation.
The contrast is an oak tree.
If you think about an oak tree, an oak tree
has several.
An oak tree oftentimes has several trunks.
So sometimes it will have one main trunk
that's growing, but also several other ones
that are rather large.
It has branches upon branches upon branches
and leaves upon leaves.
There's a lot going on with the oak tree,
and that's what you don't want your
presentation to be because it's not focused.
It's not curated.
You want that trunk of a palm tree.
Stay focused on your through line.
So when I was at that I meet up presentation,
my through line was sharing with the audience
how I am creating automation workflows using
AI and AI agents to power my business,
and how I want them to think about how they
can do that for themselves.
So that was my through line. Now I could have
pulled in a bunch of other stuff,
maybe related to AI or related to
productivity improvements in your business,
but that would have just made it way too
confusing. I had to stay focused on here's
how to think about how to use AI,
automation and agents in your business.
Now, maintaining your through line is
probably the hardest thing to do because you
are so close to your own content and you
naturally think all of it is important.
And yes, it is.
But you have to remember,
if you only have 20 minutes or 30 minutes or
45 minutes, what is what is the most useful
information that you can share with your
audience and with a clear beginning,
middle and end? This is why our presentation
makeover package is so popular,
because then we get our eyes on your slide
deck or your outline, and we can see things
that you can't see because we sit in the seat
of the audience. So we're thinking, okay, do
I understand where this is going?
Does this feel like a tangent can.
Can this be left out because it's kind of
muddying the waters.
And now I'm getting confused about what I
just learned. Or maybe there's something that
needs to be added that's not there right now
to make things clear.
So that's why it's really helpful to have
someone else's eyes on your presentation
before you deliver it.
Now here's the bonus.
As promised in the intro,
I said that I was going to share the one
thing I never, ever do in my technical
presentations, and I learned this lesson the
hard way years ago.
And for those of you listening who do tech
demos, you're probably going to relate to
this. I never, ever do now.
Live demos ever.
So live demos, meaning where you're going to
your software app or someone else's software
app, so you're opening the app on your
computer, or you're going to the website on
your browser, and then you want to show in
real time how it works.
So you click here and then you fill this in
and then this goes here,
and then this works.
And what inevitably happens almost every
time, if you've been sitting in the audience
at tech presentations, you've probably seen
this. The demo does not work.
Something happens either the Wi-Fi connection
is not strong enough. So like the page just
spins and spins and it's not working.
Or that software, if it's not your software,
you definitely can't control it. It's down.
It's not working for some reason,
or you can't log in.
Or if it's your own software app,
just something always tends to happen.
It's like the tech gremlins decide that
they're going to have fun, and they're going
to make it so that the live demo does not
work. This happened to me years ago,
early in my career at a Microsoft conference.
We were sharing an app that we had created,
and I was doing a live demo and it just
didn't wasn't working. I think it was
probably the internet connection at the time,
just wasn't strong enough in the conference
room and it just wasn't connecting then.
Of course, I was kind of stuck having just to
explain it instead of showing it.
So here's what I do now is I record the demo
on my computer first.
So using a screen capturing software,
I record the demo. So I'll go through the
different parts, you know, kind of and
oftentimes I'll also speed it up because you
don't want to just like watch something and
sit there and watch it go for 30s while it's
crunching away. So then I'll speed it up,
and then I'll add the video to the slide,
and I'll play the demo at the presentation,
and I narrate over it while I'm presenting.
So I don't, don't record any narration.
What I initially record the demo,
I'll just it's just silent and then I'll
narrate over it live at the presentation to
explain what's going on.
This relieves so much anxiety and nerves
about whether or not something's going to
work. Because I know I have the video,
it is fine. It's also better for the
audience. They're not kind of waiting around
for you to log into something or something's
not connecting. So record the demos,
add those videos to your slide.
Now, if you're doing a workshop or a training
where you are walking the audience through
how to do things in a software,
whether it's your software or someone else's
software, then of course you're going to want
to do it live. But I would still have a
recording of a demo showing it successfully
done so that you can show what it looks like
and then walk through the steps with the
audience. So here's a quick recap.
Add those slides I recommended to the
beginning and end of your deck.
Make sure that you're integrating thought
leadership so your perspective and vision
into your presentation.
Include stories and identify and maintain
your through line.
Think of that palm tree,
not an oak tree.
Think of that palm tree and make sure
everything that you talk about is related to
that. As I mentioned, it can be hard to do
this for yourself. You're too close to your
own material or everything seems important to
you, or it all seems too basic.
Like, doesn't everyone already know this? So
again, we sit in the seat of the audience and
we have worked with hundreds of clients over
the years on every single topic you can
imagine, from nuclear engineering and nuclear
physics to healthcare and science to
leadership, coaching, technology,
finance, pretty much every topic you can
think of. We like to say that we know enough
about pretty much every topic to ask you
intelligent questions,
but we're not so close to your topic or
industry that we can't see the forest for the
trees. If you would like to learn more about
how we can work together,
click on the links in the show notes or go to
Speaking Your Brand.com.
Reach out. Schedule a call with us so we can
chat. Until next time,
thanks for listening.