Ep. 206 – 9 Costly Corporate Presentation Mistakes

Hey there, Mark Brown. You and I see a lot of presentations and we see a lot of corporate presentations. So if you're listening to this, today we're going to focus on costly corporate presentation mistakes. And if you don't pay attention, if you work for a company, if you present for a company, hey, please pass this on to someone who needs to hear it. You don't have to tell them it's you. This is why you need to hear it. But just get it in front of them, because step one is awareness. Now, these mistakes can kill brands, confuse audiences, and cost organizations more than they realize. When you're a corporate presenter, you're up in front of potential clients, you're in front of your colleagues. Like both investors, both, all three of them. Even more are different challenges, but with these mistakes, because we've seen. We've seen. I'd love to say, Mark, we've seen it all, but we've never seen it all because we're always surprised. But we've seen a lot over a couple days, decades. But I wanted to hone in on corporate presenters because I think it's a different corporate presenters. Pastors listen to our podcast, but today we're focusing on costly corporate presentation mistakes.

Anyone can give a presentation. Few deliver unforgettable presentations. What's the difference? You're about to to find out. Welcome to the unforgettable Presentations podcasts with your hosts, world champion speakers and coaches, Mark Brown.

Mark Brown, your life tells a story, and there's someone out there who needs to hear it.

And Darren Lacroix. And Darren Lacroix.

Stage time. Stage time. Stage time.

Ready for some powerful presentation, AHAs. Let's dive right in.

And if you're listening to this, it doesn't matter what kind of presenter you are. I'm going to invite you to be open to the truth. To the truth. And we're asking you to take inventory. Because I know one of the biggest challenges out there is ego, that we think we're better than we are, myself included. Still to this day, we think we're better than we are. We have to take inventory and ask yourself, am I making any of these mistakes?

And I want to be very clear about one thing. We want to be clear. We are not just pontificating or pointing fingers because everything we talk about today we have done in our careers. It has taken me 30 years to learn some of these mistakes and sometimes I still make them. So grab a pen or pencil, whatever you want to write with, you know, record this and pass it on. We really believe it'll be helpful for anyone was to deliver any kind of corporate presentation to go from good to great to unforgettable. Darren, our promo always says, let's dive right in. So I'll let you lead. Let's dive right in.

And I want to say how a lot of us are looking at Mark and me as toastmasters or NSA members speakers. But I want you to know that we work with corporate clients all the time. We just had an event on the stage last week where two of the VIPs were corporate presenters. And Mark, this is a quote that I'm super proud of coming from my very first coaching client ever. He was a founder of a company called Iprospect. And he said Darren Lacroix's presentation coaching was critical to the growth of our company. Whether one of our executives spoke at an industry event or the account managers presented to a new client they worked with, Darren first. See, he got the importance because when you're in front of an audience, you're multiplying your effect and in five minutes, I hate to say this, but in five minutes you can kill your reputation.

Less than that.

Fair enough. I was giving him a little grace. If people are watching you, they're sizing up you, your career, your company, the idea you represent, all of these things are at stake. So as our friend Ed Tate says, these are high stakes presentations, whether it's internal or external. And I love what the CEO had said because if it was somebody going to speak at an industry event, well, that affects or affects the reputation of the company, how good they are. And obviously if they're going to speak to a potential new client, that of course is critical to making the sale. So, Mark, as you said, I just wanted, I felt it was important to set that up though just that context.

So now we're diving in.

All right, now we're diving in. Now we're diving into the Diving in. All right. So Mark, I just want to go through these, give a few quick insights, but please take inventory. So number one, lack of clarity. Number one, lack of clarity. When we see people present, we always ask ahead of time, so what do you want the audience to do, think or feel? And I don't know why, but corporate presenters, I don't know if it's the training they take or not. They might have some great insights. And we are assuming you know your content, we are assuming you know your job. Well, we're just talking about, okay, here's my knowledge. Now let me get it through the ether into the brain of the audience. And we say the most important part of a presentation is the thought process in the listener's mind. So if you're not clear, that's killing your reputation, it's killing your brand, it's hurting your personal career. Who wants to give someone a raise or promotion if you can't even do this? Basic yet critical skill that a lot of people mess up.

Yeah. And, you know, lack of clarity can easily lead to misinterpretations, misunderstandings. Oh, I thought you meant this. Yes, I thought you meant that. And anybody who's been around stage time for a while, they'll know that. Darren and I teach clarity, clarity, clarity. I come from an IT background, kind of in the banking industry. And those in IT will know the famous cartoon that was floating around that shows a rope swing in the yard, and it tells you what the designer designed, what the requester requested, and it shows four different pictures of the same thing. It's been going on for decades. It's a funny little cartoon and it's nice, but it makes an important point. We must now ask ourselves, am I being absolutely clear in my communication? And it's funny that when we coach, even speech contestants, I tell them, you go to a group of people to test your speech, ask them what was unclear. Was anything unclear for you? You have to be crystal clear, especially when your career, your company, and a lot of dollars, Euros or any kind of denomination you want, when there's money at stake. Clarity is critical to avoid misunderstandings and to make sure no one says, but I thought you meant that. One key to doing that is to put yourself in the place of the person who is hearing your presentation. You know what you want to say, but are you clear what they're hearing? That's going to be a key as well. Yeah.

And it directly impacts. And we're talking about costly, talking about revenue, but it's also productivity. If you're not clear. If you deliver a simple, basic presentation about the new 401k plan and why we're switching companies, if we don't get that the old company was going to be a bigger problem down the road. If we're not clear on that, then we're crossing our arms, like, oh, they're just trying to save money, but it's in our clarity. And if we don't know at the end, okay, here's what you need to know. You need to fill out this form by such and such a date. Like, you've got to be that clear. Why? Because everybody's Monkey minds going all over places. They're worried about the email, the phone call. They could be missing right now. So it is critical to make sure we have clarity.

Great.

All right, number two.

Number two, Poor delivery. Oh, now, it's funny because we say poor delivery. We think, well, you're a corporate presenter. You're going to need to present. But not everyone who presents is a professional. Not everyone. And sometimes, honestly, some professionals, they're. They're bang up. Okay, they're bang up average. As presenters, we know this to be true. But your delivery can literally close people down if it's not delivered in a way that's engaging, where the audience feels you're talking to them. If you're just talking about blah, blah, blah, you don't want to sound. For North Americans, you'll get this. You don't want to sound like Charlie Brown's teacher in Peanuts. Deliver with clarity, with confidence. Be assured of your content. And sometimes poor delivery comes from poor preparation. Be aware of that, please.

And the challenge, too, is that it's on the slide. They can read it on the slide. And so poor delivery is reading your own slide. And by the way, there's way too much text on them, so they're reading it ahead of you, like the delivery. The delivery is about sincere, authentic connection, connection with your audience. And don't. You can't discount the importance of this based on what you're trying to get across. So critical, so important. Just don't take this for granted. Poor delivery. Now, you could be tired, you could have too much caffeine, and now you're jacked up. Well, that's poor delivery. Or, Mark, we've seen it before where somebody's high energy, but they're high energy the whole time.

The whole time.

And it gets boring. And that too, even though enthusiasm is present, it's too much the same pace all the time. So, as we say, and Patricia Fripp taught us, the biggest enemy is sameness, and that's connected to delivery.

And, you know, it's unfair to say this, but in my experience, humans are humans. What? And sometimes. And sometimes, if the delivery is too boring, that can be interpreted, depending on the circumstance, as, that's not somebody I want to work with. I don't believe I can be a partner to them. I. I don't. I don't get their vibe. I don't get what. And if you're thinking about your style, your delivery, or those. Too many slides, going to read the whole slide. And I've been harsh. I said, listen, if you're going to all, you're going to read your slide. Why do I need you? I know it sounds harsh, but I asked my clients that if I'm going to read your slides, why do I need you? Because they want to hear from you. And your delivery must also come from an engaging approach to every audience you face. Especially you're trying to generate money, do fundraising, or get investors to involve in what you want to do. Your delivery has to be engaged enough to keep their interest and attention. I learned this, Darren. At the highest levels, corporate officers don't have time to sift through boring. They have a 10 minute window. What you got for me in 10 minutes to make me buy? I'm being really honest here. It sounds tough, but where money is at stake, we've got to make sure our delivery is crisp, clean, tight, engaging. And giving their audience a reason to, to lean in and hear what you have to say.

Yes, delivery matters. And it also, Mark, could come across as you don't care.

Right? Yeah.

Uncaring and uncaring, which. Okay, why do I want to work with this person? Okay, that person's not going to get promoted. Okay. Why should I go out of my way to help them? They don't even care. So it affects productivity, it affects bottom line. So, Mark, I'm going to spice up our delivery. Where we go to number three, Absence of a powerful story. Listen up.

Nice delivery today, Darren. Nice delivery. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I like that.

We gotta take a dose of our own medicine. Yes, the absence of a powerful story. And the reason we bring this up in a corporate presentation is because most speakers and presenters know they need a good story. Most corporate presenters don't think a personal story can make a business point. And yet it can be the most transformational part of your presentation. It's the part that brings life. We forget that the suit's in front of you, the high level executives in front of you, well, guess what? They have pets, they have kids, they have issues with their spouse. So even though it may be a little different, the bottom line is they're still human. And a powerful story can bring home or set up or drive home this point in this new perspective which is the reason you're there, the thought or the idea that you're selling. Absence of a powerful story.

And very quickly, Darren, I had a client once who told me, well, I talk to C level executives, they're cio, C, F, O, C, O, O. I can't tell a personal story. And I told him, remove the Acronyms after their names, you get a human being. And here's a cool part. If in your delivery point, mistake number two, you can find a way to connect your personal story to the power of your message, then they see you not simply as someone delivering corporate data, but as a human being who understands the power of the data, the connectivity of the data, and the relevance of the data to your audience, to their clients, to their stakeholders, or the people with whom they do business. A powerful story that connects your content and context to your audience will give you an advantage. And sometimes your presentation is competitive. What makes you different? What makes you stand out? There are different scenarios here. But look, since time immemorial, we have been listening to, wanting and craving stories. Kids at night want a story. At bedtime, we find all digs in archeology. They have stories in drawings on the walls. Stories drive our lives. Stories are engaging. And a well told story in the right way, properly, properly connected and linked to your message can be the tool that makes the difference for your audience.

All right, number four, data overload. Too many facts and figures, industry lingo, out of context.

Or.

Or the person in front of you may not be from that industry or from that part of division of your company. If it's internal, if we use too much lingo that our audiences may or may not be familiar with, that is gonna check them out. As soon as they check out, they're leaning back, they're picking up their phones, checking text, checking email on their phones. We cannot afford in the corporate world, you to lose our audience even for a minute, even for seconds. As soon as they do, they're out and it's almost impossible to bring them back. I love what our friend Ed Tate says. He says our job is to take the numbers and turn them back into people.

So that's the connection between three, between three and four, the powerful story and the data. And I know, I hate to say this, but I'm aware some people who are not that powerful or presenter, they will quote, unquote, hide behind the data, the facts, the stats, the figures on their slides because they know you're safe. If I don't show the slide and they get the data, I'm off the hook, not required to be that good of a presenter. I say the nay. I offer you an alternative. Rely less upon the data. Data means something with the story link number three and number four. But also give yourself the opportunity to let your personality come through. Yes, data is important, but what is the connection of the data to the experience of Your audience and sometimes a story in that way. And mixing the data with the experience is exactly the combination that works well to win over your audience.

And Mark and I love working with corporate clients because they're not beginners. They're already confident they know their business, they know what they're trying to get across. They're just not doing. Doing it effectively. So it allows Mark and I to go deeper because they have some confidence, and wherever you're at, it's okay. But get some insights, get some coaching. And Mark, you and I always have a term that we talk about, especially in the corporate world. Don't give a case study, deliver a case story.

Yeah.

And when I was working with Iprospect, my first coaching client, this is back in 2001, I remember when I would sit there and they would hold up a slide or show a slide, and there's all these facts and figures and numbers and data on there. I would cross my arms, lean back, and say, okay, defend your slide. What is the one point this slide is making? And inevitably. Well.

I get it.

So getting into the habit of looking at each slide and saying, okay, what's the one point? You can make another slide.

Yeah.

I love when Jeffrey Gittam goes, they're free. Make another slide. But give us one at a time. One spoonful bite that we can just build on top of the other. If it's a more complex graph, show us one at a time. So we're with you. We got it. Oh, and then we reveal the big aha. But if you have too many numbers up there on the slide, some people are looking at these numbers over here. Some people looking at these numbers. Mark, we saw it at nsa, the NSA convention.

Oh, really?

When I was there a couple weeks ago. Yep. It's like, so what do you think it's like? I don't know. What do you want me to look at? Because there's so much up there. Look, we tease. We've done this ourselves. But our job is to help people bring clarity to their presentation. And data overload ain't help nobody do nothing.

One of my best evaluations, very, very early on, I'm talking about late 1990, 96, 97. I was. I was presenting. I had someone come unlovingly, and I thank goodness for them. They told me wonderfully horrible slides you have, Mark. And they told me how bad they were, but they were. They. I knew them well enough that they could tell me that to my face, but I did not see what they saw. And very often, when it Comes to data, information. We love our data, our information, our research. We do all the work, we have all the information right here and boom. And what we see and comprehend with our expertise, maybe. Whoa, Mental overload for someone in your audience. And by simplifying, you aren't insulting their intelligence. You're going back to point number one, offering clarity. And you, when you present and you use data in your presentation.

Mark, I remember when marketing expert Cathy Armias looked at my slides and told me the truth. Oh, it was painful, but I had to step back and take a true hard look. And now it's so easy to see. It's like once you've been enlightened, once you've been enlightened, you can't not see it.

So here's one quick ask for you regarding your data. Ask yourself, what will my audience see when they see my slides? How will they interpret that? Are they comprehensible or do I need to change something? Even if you've done it that way for years or decades, ask the question, will my audience truly understand this? Maybe they will, but if they won't, you need to make sure your data is not overwhelming.

Costly mistake number five, lack of audience engagement. Yeah, and I see this with high level executives, especially because they think, well, because I'm this person and I have this title, that they should listen. Yes, they'll give you a little grace. And Mark, I remember when I heard an interview with Robin Williams saying because he was so famous that everyone would lean in. He said, yeah, when you're famous, you get an extra minute or two before if you're boring, they're gonna check you out. So yes, you do get that openness because of your title, or in this case, in Robin Williams case, because he was so famous. But you got like five minutes where you better get to something good or I'm checking out. So you might get a little grace. But at the same time, how can we. And Mark, we call them, ping the audience. How can you ping the audience? How can you just check in? Does that make sense? Can you see what I'm doing here and sincerely ask the audience, don't you know, does that make sense? As opposed to no, no. Does that make sense? Did you see what we're showing you here? And if you're not sincerely engaging. Now, of course, when we're talking zoom presentations or meetup presentations or Google Meets, you and I have to be more engaging because we're competing with the background insights, sounds, smells, issues in the background. So we have to be more engaging. So that's why we say about three times more slides in a virtual presentation as opposed to a live presentation. However, we still need to engage. We still need to use that you focused language to check in and engage the brain of the listener. Our job is to convince the jury and the mind of the audience of our point.

And here's one thought I want to share as well. I'd like to share. Well, I'm going to share anyway. What do you want, I get it or not? One of the ways I do that, Derek, we talk about pinging the audience is to check in with them, but review your presentation and ask this question. Are there any places in my presentation where I can change a statement into a question? For example, you could make a statement and then say, would you. Rather than saying 45% of the people in this industry are a year late in their what are they doing? You could say, would you agree that 45% of the people in our industry are late in responding to this particular need? You've taken a statement, 45% are late, and you ask, would you agree that 45% are late? It's a rhetorical question, but the audience hears a question and in their minds they begin to answer. That's one simple way to engage Selectively decide, where can I take a statement, turn it into a question, and give the audience a chance to nod their heads or respond. Because just a simple head nod at, aha. A poker neighbor is telling you your audience is engaged. And very often we have the information, we have the authority will therefore disseminate and share the information. But yes, your audience needs to engage with you as well. So think about not just delivering a presentation, but having an interaction with your audience as well.

When I was working with my client, I Prospect, which is a search engine optimization company, one of the things that we developed together was to ask them about what the search engine landscape is. So we're talking about market share because they're going to help them be found on the different search engines of that time, of this time. And so we would have them ask, you know, who's number one? Well, Google was number one. But then we trained them to ask, who is second and third? And would that give you more search results to your site than if they were found in Google? Now the audience went, hmm. So they could have just showed the market share slide, but instead we intrigued them to engage their audience to think and realize what's the importance, you know, just because you were found on number one Google, well, how much does that matter if we could be found on number 2, 3, 4 and 5. How much did they count? And obviously it's changing a little all the time, but it's their job to do that. But instead of just telling them like you're saying, we ask them to try and engage and we know the answer. But most importantly, we don't want to give up the answer. We want to get them to think. So. Number five, again, lack of audience engagement. Let's keep it moving, Mark. Number six, time management issues.

Wow. Yeah, yeah. Oh, man. I learned early on, respect your audience's time. Don't ramble on and on and on. It just leaves a bad taste in people's mouths. And like I said earlier, in my experience, very often corporate executives don't have a lot of time to do on the front end, on the back end for la la la la weather and prepare your presentation. If you know you've got a 10 minute window, don't bring a 17 minute presentation. We have to be respectful of the time that people are investing to spend with us, particularly on a busy day in a corporate environment, that can be. You can really damage yourself by not respecting the time of the people you're working with.

Yeah. How do you feel as an audience member if somebody was asking for 60 minutes and then at 60 minutes you could see they have two or three more points? Well, what's the thought process in your mind as the listener? Well, they didn't take the time to know their presentation. Well, there's two more points. Well, I have to go to a lunch meeting in just a couple of minutes and da da da da da, and da da da da. Just even if your content's good, their time is more critical. So we're not respecting the audience when we don't walk through the presentation several times ourselves knowing full well knowing that if there's an audience question, that's going to take more time. If we're asking them to engage, that's going to take more time. If you're training, the exercise that you have them do is going to take a lot more time. So we have to mark, in the Toastmaster world, we teach contestants it's a seven and a half minute speech. Okay. But we say write it in six. So if you're delivering a 60 minute presentation, we're saying create it so it's 50 minutes so you have time for the extra engagement or even 45. No one's going to be upset because you ended early. No one will be upset because you ended early. They'll probably be thankful and they'll probably listen all the way to the end instead of the checking out process as we approach the end of your time. And it's a respect, it's just too important. Because now, Mark, I'm guilty of this even recently of flipping through my slides a little extra quickly like, okay, so we don't have time for that. Click, click, click, click, click, click, click. Now, one of the ideas that we teach people is to have a separate slide deck, have a 45 minute slide deck, a 30 minute slide deck, and a 60 minute slide deck. Because sometimes we may have our time cut as we walk to the front of the room to deliver the presentation. So you don't have time to hide slides, delete slides in that moment. But you could, oh, okay, I'll use the 30 minute deck. I'll use a 45 minute deck.

Yes, a good point. And in terms of impact, please understand we're not trying to give anybody a hard time, but please be aware that your reputation could be at stake. I can recall a convention I attended under this very high profile guest speaker and they happened to go significantly over time. And I got it on very good authority we will never invite that speaker back. And that was many, many years ago. And that particular speaker has not attended that particular convention in my time in at least 15 years, probably more, probably 20. But it goes to your reputation as well. If someone believes, you know what, Mark Brown is great. When I found out he does not respect my time, in their minds, they easily say it's all about him and his ego. We don't need to collaborate with somebody whose ego is that big who won't respect my time. That may not be your intent at all, but it can come across that way. So be aware what happens in the other person's mind on the other side of the table. How do they respond to how we behave when we take the platform? So please don't make the mistake of not respecting the audience's time. Particularly corporate where time is money.

Yeah. And by the way, if you are speaking at a, let's say a big corporate meeting or a convention in the corporate world and you have 60 minutes and you realize you're starting late, it is our responsibility to talk to the event planner and say, okay, do you want me to still do my 60 minutes or do you need me to cut it to 45? It's their call, not yours. So even though you're brought in to do 60 minutes, guess what? If they have lunch planned, they might have a thousand people who are going to Go to another room and be served a hot meal. And these people saw on the agenda that they're going to lunch at noon. So you are up against something big. So here's what you need to do, is address it. You might talk to the event planner, but now you need to tell the audience right up front, hey, we just were a little behind time. I was asked to do my full 60 minutes, but I just want to let you know that they're going to serve lunch at 12:15 rather than noon. Now you've relaxed them. You haven't created this other issue by saying nothing but starting late. So time management issues, always a concern. All right, number seven, failure to address audience needs.

What a segue, Darren. What a segue. We need to eat at 12 o', clock, let us know what the story is. That's true. But failing to address an audience needs. It's easy for us as an expert to know what we know. Well, I'm gonna tell you what I know. You need to hear from me. But is it possible that sometimes the audience has expectations? I think probably every time they do, when they come here, you, you have a responsibility to make sure we meet their need effectively. And one thought very quickly, Darren, is if I ask, how can I best serve my audience, that mindset going into a presentation will help you to think more carefully. I have all this knowledge, all this expertise, all this information. But how do I best serve my audience in the way that I deliver this information?

Yeah, we may know our content, but it's our responsibility to connect to their world. So each time we've got to say, okay, what does this audience need? So it's a group of managers. Well, it's actually my superiors, our supervisors. Okay, what do they need? Supervisors need things different from managers. What is. And if it's a mixed group. Okay, look, so what I'm saying, if you're a manager, if you're a C suite executive, so we need to acknowledge and deliver what they need based on your content. And that can be more challenging sometimes. But it's our responsibility to meet their needs and address their needs.

And funny enough, Darren, I would remember doing a corporate presentation was for a particular industry and the organization. I was dealing with the CEO of the company president and I didn't hear from him before the. For the event. I was going to get there in two days, didn't hear from him. I arrived at the event and I met my contact and they told me, oh, by the way, the CEO was let go two days ago. Oh, yeah, it's happened to me. So now I'm here at this corporate event to be the inspirational motivational speaker to address a topic the CEO and I had agreed to talk about. I had to invest some time, really, to figure out now what is the best way to navigate the situation, to be aware of what they're feeling, what they're going through as an organization, and how my content can best serve them. It's easy for us as presenters to come with what we know. We may call it the back pocket speech. We prepared, we planned, and we're ready. But something happens within the organization that may require us to make adjustments almost on the fly at times. But if I come with my blinders on, I brought this, I'm going to deliver this and show no sign of any sensitivity to what the audience needs. That's a huge mistake on my part. So we have to be aware. What does the audience need that I have to offer? Not what I offer first, but what do they need first. And make sure I meet that need not only with my presentation, but by bringing who I am to that presentation, so they get to know me, my heart, my message. And that could really build a strong relationship.

That's why it's important to sit in on the previous presenters, the preceding presenters, excuse me, who present before you, because if you listen to them, what they say may tie into your message, but it also might help you have awareness of what. What else they need. I was just speaking to a property management company and the presenter before me was talking about yes and. And the ability to improvise. Well, I saw that and I saw the need and I remembered what the buyer wanted from me. The person who brought me in, he really wanted interaction. So I took what was set up by the previous presenter and tied it in and adjusted one of my exercises, brought it up closer to the front and then delivered that to get them to actually not just know what yes and meant, which is an improv technique, but have them experience it. So I had them get in groups of two or three and then they planned a party together and to feel how it went when people said no and negated everything you said, and then when they said yes and how, it really felt different in the collaboration part. Now, side note, he was on zoom and they had a laptop in front of the room because he couldn't be there. So when they were interacting, that's what he told me they wanted and needed. I held it up because it was a motivational speech, but it was also meant to be team building infused. They didn't call it team building, but they wanted me to infuse it. So I held up the laptop and after he sent me a personal, personal, private email saying, hey, thanks for letting me see the interaction. And so I knew that was a need and we've got to make sure. And as mark your example, it may need to be adjusted as we walk up on stage.

Yeah. Susan, Danny, look, you won't get CEOs getting fired, you know, two days before an event. Two days before an event on a regular basis. But I also want to touch on one more thing regarding the corporate side. Sometimes we have to give internal presentations within an organization, and your boss says, yep, you're going to talk to that particular team about this. You know, I used to be in the IT world where you had different departments. Production Control and Programming and System Testing and all this. And it was important to communicate clearly each with the other, because you could invest literally two weeks of your time preparing something, you deliver it, and you find out that's not what we needed. It may sound ridiculous, but think about the human hours, the human days that can be expended if we don't realize we have to know exactly what that particular department needs. And I don't have a ton of corporate experience, but I do know that there are times within corporations, departments don't always communicate effectively. And when that breaks down, production can stop and the impact is clear. And I really believe, if we make sure, do we know what they want? Does my presentation meet their needs? Does my talk answer the question they will ask even before I ask it? So side note here is, particularly within internal presentations, it's wise to find out and determine what questions might my presentation raise and what questions do they have now that I need to address in my presentation. And that's part of the internal communication piece that I've seen go well and I've seen it go poorly. And I would encourage you be very clear, what does that particular team, that group, that partner, that department, that division, need from us? And how can I communicate that clearly, Articulate that clearly communicate with them clearly, so make sure their needs are being met.

We've got to ask ahead of time the person bringing us in, okay, who will be in the audience? What do they need? What do they need? What do they need and what do they need? And we've got to address them all in some manner or other. All right, Number eight, lack of call to action.

Great sound effects today, Darren. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

The cta, the call to action.

Yeah, it's Part of the process. It's part of what we teach in our book. Deliver unforgettable presentations. It is critical. Okay, what do you. What do you want them to do? What is that one next step they have to take 401k. You need to go to this link and fill out this form by this date. Got it. But we need to say it two or three times. Saying it or mentioning it. And, Mark, you and I did a podcast. Your one main thing.

Your one thing.

What's your one thing? Okay, so whatever your one thing is, in this case, your call to action, we need to emphasize it in our delivery. Goes back to poor delivery, you know? So what you need to do is go to that link that, you know, Barbara told you about and fill out the form by next Tuesday. Okay? That's delivery. That does not get me to emphasize the importance of what I need to do when I need to do it. So people can be mentally checking out if your delivery doesn't emphasize the importance of it. And then if you have an accompanying slide as well, does that emphasize the importance of doing this by when in this way, whatever that might be.

Yeah. The thing is that I got to tell you, a call to action has to be also very clear. You know, what do you want me to do with what you just told me? How do I apply that? And hopefully, how do I apply that today? You know, and certainly when it comes to corporate, it's about taking action. What needs to be done, what will be the result, what kind of revenue can we generate? How can we make our product or service serve our clients better? There's so much involved in having a clear call to action, because the last thing you want is for someone to say, oh, that was nice, but what I do with it. And the worst thing is there's an hour of my life I can't get back. Hopefully no one ever says anymore anything that you say in your presentation, but they need to walk away saying, I could use that. There's one nugget they can walk away with. A pearl of wisdom and aha. But make sure you leave your audience with an action they need to take for whatever it may be. Improve their lives, build their company, strengthen their team. Give them a call to action. Use verbs.

Use.

Verbs.

That's clarity. Mark right there. That's clarity. Got a call to action. Use verbs. All right, number nine. Inadequate preparation.

Darren, I know my stuff, okay? I've done it for a long time. I know my stuff. I'll just go in there. I can wing it. I'll hit with a few slides. I got this. Or do I got this. What do you think?

Yeah, it's just. It goes back to all the other eight. Like, do you not only know your content, but are you getting it across? Clearly? David Brooks taught me, let no one out, prepare you. Let no one out, prepare you. But understand this, that those 5, 10, 15 hours you put into preparation, if you divide it by the number of people you're presenting to, is not that much time. Here's a cool part. If you deliver it well, that is multiplied by the number of people who are in your audience. Look it, yes, it's time. Yes, you have other things to do, but yes, you have these free few moments, whether it's 30 minutes, 20 minutes, 18 minutes, 60 minutes, you have that specified amount of time you've got to put in the energy and effort. Because this isn't just that one presentation. This is whether you get a promotion, whether you get a raise, whether the company lands the deal. There is so much in on it. Just because you can without a lot of preparation does not mean you should.

Yeah. And we cannot stress this enough, your knowledge and expertise in your head is wonderful. But if you are unable or ill equipped to transmit that information, to articulate that well, to engage the audience, to. To get them to buy into your message, what it is you're selling them, or to using your influence effectively, if you don't plan and prepare and rehearse that, it could be significant difference between where you are, where you want to be. It could be significant difference in a financial basis, it could be a significant difference on who decides to work with you as part of your staff or who will collaborate with you. Because how well you prepare will determine how well you deliver. And how well you deliver will determine the response your audience has. And the response your audience has, well, you fill in the blank.

Yeah, don't look at this as fluff. This is important stuff.

He rhymed. Oh, wow.

Nine costly presentation mistakes. And what's your call to action? Look, if you work at a company, if you deliver corporate presentations, find that coach, find that class, and look, a masterclass is great. We do that. Find one. But be a sponge and not only know how to overcompensate these basic mistakes, but know how to truly be unforgettable. Go to getaspeakingcoach.com if again you work for a corporation, invite Mark and me in to deliver one of our modules for Unforgettable Communications, one of our four modules, and we will make it a game changer. At your company in your corporation. Mark Brown, take us home.

My friends, let's avoid these nine costly corporate mistakes. We want you. We our desire for you is to become not only good, not only great, but to become unforgettable. Check us out. Check out our Stage Time programs. We want you to be unforgettable and we trust that when you next deliver a presentation you will use the tools, tips and techniques that we share and you will deliver an unforgettable presentation. We will see you next week.

Check out deliverunforgettablepresentations.com for our book which is a game changer or our corporate training. See you next week.

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