Learn to Be Funny – Jokes to Open a Presentation

An easy and simple way to immediately add humor to your presentation is to include it in your introduction. This way you can potentially have your audience laughing even before you set foot on stage, this is not a bad thing. Now, when I say you can use jokes to open a presentation you do not necessarily have to use a street joke.

If you are not clear on the term, a street joke is a joke you get told by a friend or work colleague in a social situation. Such as the “man walks into a bar…” type jokes. More often than not these do not have an authorship.

But you do not have to use those. You can simply create your own presentation introduction jokes, but harnessing your own sense of humor. Can you think of something humorous, and relevant to your presentation which the person introducing you can read out? Quick tip; if you do make sure it is appropriate for the environment you are speaking in.

Is there a way that you can find a witty quote, or inside joke that connects well with your presentation as well as with your audience?

You can use street jokes, but I would provide two warnings if you do so. The first is if you use a street joke I would edit it so that it was in my words and I would personalise it. Secondly, be very careful if you find a street joke online or in a book. There is a very high chance that someone else may be using the same joke. If they are on the same bill as you it could be dangerous. Or if you are the only speaker, you might have someone coming up to you afterwards and telling you that they had heard the joke before.

Also, many presenters waste valuable audience connection time by having their introduction packed with biographical information. You know the type, “our next speaker as an MBA, BBC and NBC…” who cares?

Remember that your audience is always going to be thinking: “what is in it for me?” So why not tell them right off the bat? Inform your audience exactly what they will get out of listening to you. What is their take away? Will they learn a specific set of tools? Are you giving them an action plan?

By telling them what they can expect to get out of your presentation before you even begin, you can help grab their interest before you even walk out in front of them. So not only are you connecting with your audience through the power of laughter by using jokes to open a presentation, but you are also relaying the benefits they will get.

The next step is using jokes to open a presentation once you are on the speaking platform. Again, you want to make it relevant to your content. You could also find a way to make it relevant to something that is immediately noticeable, like the backdrop. Be careful with this one though, mocking the backdrop or something else that you share the platform with, might seem as though you are biting the hand that feeds you.

You can also open and immediately connect with your audience by referring back to something that got a laugh by a previous speaker. Find a way to slightly re-phrase that person’s comment. Your audience will love you for it because it shows that you are in the moment, you are paying attention and your presentation is alive and fresh just for them.

Do not spend too long being funny in your opening though, remember you have to carry on and deliver your overall message. Unless of course, your whole speech is humorous then that is a whole other ballgame as you will want to continue being humorous.

Remember, if you say that you are going to provide them with definite take-ways, actually provide them with those take-aways. Do not fail to deliver on your promise. Always strive to over-deliver on your promise.

Things To Understand About PowerPoint Presentation Training

Any professional business career is often filled with an incredible amount of presentations, whether one is sitting through one or actually giving the presentation themselves. Basically, this is something that is crucial to understand and be able to do at some point throughout any career to a wide reaching audience at some level. Naturally, there are often an incredible amount of nuances involved in this process which should be understood and worked through at all times which makes it pertinent of what to know about PowerPoint presentation training for a more effective presentation skill.

When one has to give a presentation, there are often countless difficulties and anxieties that are present which makes if pertinent to calm and work through prior to giving one. Naturally, this anxiety level is something that allows for an amazing amount of dynamic appeal and diversity which makes it crucial, at some point, to allow for a more smooth transition in speaking. Thus, this type of training truly is vital to any given level of presentation success.

When anyone is actually given a presentation, there are actually quite a few actions that are definitely detracting to an effective presentation. Basically, the training that is often provided will go through these actions and help to prevent them. Thus, knowing what they are will greatly assist the training process.

When going through PowerPoint presentation training, one of the most common and first things taught is to limit the amount of points on a slide. Basically, the message could become convoluted when this occurs. Thus, make sure you are the one presenting the data, not the slides.

Any presentation using PowerPoint should be interesting and engaging to the audience. Basically, this is often accomplished by being able to incorporate graphs, charts, and pictures whenever possible in order to ensure that people are as engaged as possible. Thus, try not to just rely on words and data points throughout the process.

Perhaps everyone has been through a presentation where there were an incredible amount of slides that were all filled with an amazing amount of data. When this occurs, people often become lost and zone out and miss much of the information that is being presented. Try to keep the number of slides down and simply present data from memory in order to keep people focused on the content as opposed to how many slides there are in total.

When moving from slide to slide, try not to read what is on the slides as this is something the audience should be able to do on their own. Ultimately, anyone that is presenting should be able to deliver a message without having to read the slides. Thus, ensure that there is merely a glance without have to turn your back on the audience at any given time to read the slides.

PowerPoint presentation training will actually include the fact of not passing slides out at any given time. Remember, you are the one giving the presentation, not the slides. Thus, keep things on the slides as opposed to in the hands of the audience.

Deadlocks Are A Small Negotiator’s Best Friend

When you enter into a negotiation, often times things don’t seem fair. Specifically, sometimes you view yourself as being “the little guy”. When this happens, it’s often easy to believe that you don’t stand a chance – no matter what negotiation styles or negotiating techniques you use the other side is going to get what they want and that’s all there is to it. However, it turns out that you have a secret weapon that you can use – the deadlock.

Why Just Starting A Negotiation Works In Your Favor

When you find yourself in a negotiation going up against an opponent who is either much larger than you or, in your opinion, in a much stronger negotiating position than you are, it can be all too easy to just feel like giving up. It is very easy to convince yourself that the other side of the table has all of the advantages in a negotiation.

The key point for you to realize is that more often than not, they don’t. What you need to do is to take a step back and give the situation some thought. In order for the other side to even be at the table negotiating with you, a great number of things must have already occurred.

At a large company, in order to get permission to negotiate with you the other side of the table had to get a number of different levels of approval. That means that a lot of time and effort on their side has already gone into the negotiation before they even sit down to start talking with you.

This works to your advantage. The effort that the other side has gone to be allowed to participate in the negotiations meaning that they already have momentum. Once a big company starts to travel in a given direction, it can be almost impossible to get them to either stop or even change direction. All of this can work in your favor.

Why The Big Guys Fear A Deadlock

Once a negotiation with a big company has started, the one thing that the other side of the table does not want to happen is for a deadlock to occur. This is something that they are going to want to avoid at almost any cost.

The reason that a deadlock is something that a big company wants to avoid is because of what the other side of the table would have to do if a deadlock occurred. If a deadlock occurs, then the deal that the company’s senior management had given their approval for the other side of the table to enter into will have stalled.

This means that the people who work for the big company will have to once again reassemble all of the people who were involved in initially approving the negotiations and ask for their guidance as to what the next steps should be. People are now being prevented from doing other work and the deal is not moving forward.

Once you understand that this is the situation that the other side of the table is facing, you can use it to your advantage. Once you know that they will do almost anything to prevent the negotiations from grinding to a halt in deadlock, you can allow the negotiations to get close to deadlock and then ask for more concessions in order to keep things moving. In your next negotiation, give it a try and you just might be surprised at how much you can get from the other side!

What All Of This Means For You

Both sides are not equal in most negotiations. All too often we can find ourselves in a principled negotiation where the other side seems to be the bigger side and we’re “the little guy”. The good news is that we have a secret weapon that we can use when this happens.

A deadlock is a big deal in most negotiations and when you are negotiating with a larger more powerful party, it can be an even bigger deal. A deadlock is an inconvenience for you, but it can be a disaster for the other side of the table. You need to use the threat of a deadlock to motivate the other side to provide you with the concessions that you can’t get any other way.

Sometimes it pays to be the smaller, weaker party in a negotiation. Since you don’t fear reaching a deadlock as much as the other side does, you have more negotiating tools that can be used. Use this knowledge to turn the tables the next time that you find yourself in a negotiation with a “big guy”!