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How to give a presentation with confidence

How to give a presentation with confidence

To deliver a great presentation, you need to speak with confidence. If you are hesitant and tentative, you will not be particularly convincing or credible. People might think, “What is he trying to hide?” or “If she doesn’t seem very certain in this recommendation, then why should I support it?”

The challenge, however, is that it is easier to say “Be confident!” than it is to actually feel confident.

Fear is a normal part of presenting. When research firm Gallup surveyed people about their fears, snakes topped the list. Speaking in public was a close second, well above spiders, mice, heights, and the dark. Public speaker Scott Berkun notes that humans are wired to fear standing alone, in the open, with no weapon, in front of a large crowd.It is also natural to be nervous when presenting, because the stakes are high. If you speak well, people will think you are smart and strategic. If you bollox the opportunity, people will doubt your skills and capabilities.

Being fearful or nervous does not mean you cannot be confident. Indeed, you can be nervous and confident at the same time. I have delivered many presentation where I was 100% confident in the analysis and recommendation, but I was still nervous.

The goal when presenting is to embrace both fear and confidence. You should be nervous: on-edge, excited and focused. At the same time, you should be confident: assured, believing.

Here are five ways to feel more confident.

Create a strong presentation

The most important thing you can do to present with confidence is to create a strong recommendation. If you know your presentation is tight and logical, you are more likely to stand up and deliver it with conviction.

This means you need to spend the time to make sure your presentation is optimized. Have the basics: an executive summary, agenda, and conclusion. Put a headline on each page that states the main point. Tell a story, with one headline leading to the next. Have simple pages, with just the information you need to support the headline.

It takes time to create a powerful presentation, so don’t leave it to the last minute. You want to create the presentation and then tighten it, and then tighten it again. Jim Kilts, former CEO of companies including Kraft Foods, Nabisco, and Gillette, would revise a presentation fifty or sixty times, tightening the logic and polishing layout.

Remember the altitude principle

When developing a presentation, it is useful to remember what I call the altitude principle: It is best to encounter turbulence when you have some altitude.

To understand the concept, consider an airplane flight. At the beginning, turbulence is a dangerous thing. Dropping 20 feet is a notable problem when you are just 10 feet of the ground. Turbulence is also dangerous at the end of a flight, as you come in for landing. In the middle, however, a few bumps don’t matter so much. When you are flying along at 30,000 feet, you can lose 20, 50 or 100 feet and simply carry along.

The altitude principle works when presenting, too. At the start of a presentation, you don’t want a lot of turbulence. You want smooth sailing. You want to get people smiling and nodding. This will help you settle down and feel confident. It will create a bit of momentum. In the middle of the presentation, you can manage some bumps; you can explain an analysis or deal with tough questions.

So build a presentation that reflects the altitude principal. Start with some easy material that will let you gain some altitude. If something is particular complicated or controversial, put that in the middle of the presentation. Close with an easy finish, too. You don’t want to end with controversy.

Double-check your numbers

Numbers are the most dangerous part of a presentation. Every figure in the document is a potential problem, an opportunity for disaster.

Many business executives tend to focus on the numbers. If the figures are correct, they will be confident and likely to approve a recommendation. If the numbers are wrong, there is little chance that things will move forward.

When presenting, then, it is essential to double-check the numbers. You want to be 100% certain that they are correct.

Check two things. First, is the number accurate? It is very easy to transpose a figure: 13,463 looks a lot like 13,436. And even a small mistake like that will raise questions about the accuracy of your presentation. It also will cause you to doubt yourself. You might think, “Shoot! If I got that number wrong, then maybe the other ones are off, too!” Your confidence will naturally fall.

Second, where did the number come from? For every figure, you want to know the source and the meaning. This is not as easy as it seems. Take a figure like “34% market share.” That seems pretty simple. But what does that figure mean, anyway? What time period does it cover? What geography? Is that unit share, or dollar share? Is that share of category A, or the larger category B? Does it include the 53 rd week?

If you know all of your figures, you will present with more confidence and be ready to answer questions. It is just that easy, and just that hard.

One of the keys to presenting success is pre-selling , or meeting with the key players before a meeting. This is a powerful way to build your confidence. If you’ve done your advance work, you will begin your presentation knowing precisely where you stand. Ideally, everyone has seen your presentation already and supports it. With this dynamic, you will naturally feel confident. If some people have concerns, you know what they are and can respond.

Remember: You are the expert

It is important to put yourself in the right frame of mind before a presentation. Perhaps the most important thing to remember is this: You are the expert. You know more about your topic than anyone else in the room.

In most cases, this will certainly be the case. If you are presenting an update on a new technology, you probably know more about the new technology than others in the room, because you’ve been studying it. If you are giving a business update on sales of mustard in Kenya, you probably know more about mustard sales in Kenya than anyone else present. This is certainly going to be true if your audience is made up of senior executives. They have to keep track of many different things. You just have to keep track of your mustard business.

When you embrace the idea that you are the expert, you shift your perspective. If someone asks a question, you probably know the answer. If someone has a different idea, you probably know why it isn’t ideal. You just have to explain your thinking. Trust your knowledge.

Confidence is essential to a successful presentation. The best way to build confidence is to spend the time preparing appropriately: create a strong presentation, embrace the altitude principle, double-check your numbers, and pre-sell. Then, just remind yourself that you are the expert in the room.

Tim Calkins is a clinical professor at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the author of the forthcoming book,  How To Wash A Chicken—Mastering the Business Presentation.

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  • J Adv Pract Oncol
  • v.9(5); Jul-Aug 2018

Presenting With Confidence

Wendy h. vogel.

1 Wellmont Cancer Institute, Kingsport, Tennessee;

Pamela Hallquist Viale

2 University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California

Often, advanced practitioners must give clinical presentations. Public speaking, which is a major fear for most individuals, is a developed skill. Giving an oral presentation is a good way to demonstrate work, knowledge base, and expertise. Giving an effective presentation can help obtain recognition of skills and proficiency as an advanced practitioner or expert in the field. This paper will highlight skills and techniques that can help to improve presentation style and the ability to connect with an audience.

As an advanced practitioner, it is likely that you will be asked to deliver a lecture at some point in your career. Medical presentations can range from casual in-services to professional lectures given to audiences of thousands. Since public speaking is listed as one of the top fears of individuals living in the United States, it pays to develop skills as a speaker or presenter.

Giving an oral presentation is essential to demonstrating your work, knowledge base, and expertise. Giving an effective presentation can help you obtain recognition and acknowledgement of your skills and proficiency as an advanced practitioner or expert in the field. However, many presenters lack the skills to deliver a dynamic and persuasive lecture. Inadequate speaking skills can be detrimental to your ability to deliver an important message, or worse yet, bore your audience. This article will highlight skills and techniques that can help to improve your presentation style and ability to connect with your audience.

FEAR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING

If you are afraid of public speaking, you are not alone. Marinho, de Medeiros, Gama, and Teixeira ( 2016 ) studied college students to determine the prevalence of fear of public speaking. In a group of 1,135 undergraduate students (aged 17–58), over half of those surveyed (n = 63.9%) reported a fear of public speaking. Almost the entire group surveyed (89.3%) wanted classes to improve public speaking. Specific traits associated with a fear of speaking were reported as female gender, infrequent experience, and perception of poor voice quality.

Giving a bad presentation can alienate your audience from your lecture and the message you are trying to deliver. Table 1 lists ways to give a bad presentation. But, let us assume you do not want to give a bad presentation at all. In fact, you have an important message to share with your audience and you have been invited to give an hour-long lecture on the subject. How can you deliver that message in an effective and engaging manner?

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Tips for Giving a Bad Presentation

HIGH-LEVEL TIPS

The first tip is to know your subject and know it well. In fact, should your audio-visual equipment malfunction (and if you speak often enough, this is likely to happen), you should have your presentation memorized. However, it is a good idea to make a hard copy of your slides and use them in case of equipment failure. Your audience might not be able to see a graph in detail, but you’ll be able to speak to a study and deliver the results without panicking about your lost slide deck or incompatible presentation equipment.

The second tip is to know your audience. If you are speaking to a group of nurses on a unit, your speaking style and delivery message will be more casual than when you speak to a room of 500 people. Nonetheless, you need to know who you are talking to and what they expect from your lecture. Table 2 lists some information you will want to know about your audience. Researching and knowing your audience will make your message more pertinent and personal.

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What to Know About Your Audience

Understanding who your audience is will enable you to engage your audience. Look excited and enthusiastic. If you are motivated about your topic, then they will be too. Show your interest in your subject and your excitement about sharing the data with your audience.

Another tip is to develop your stage presence. Actors rehearse their roles until they can do it in their sleep, creating their best and most polished dramatic performances. You aren’t in a Broadway musical, but you need to have a stage presence. Recording your lecture and then examining ways to improve your delivery is a great way to develop your speaking skills. Utilize who you are and capitalize on that. Practice in front of a friend or mentor for feedback on your delivery

Your audience will develop an impression of you within the first 15 seconds. Develop an impactful opening to start off right. Table 3 gives some examples of impactful openings. For example, if you wanted to demonstrate the effect that tanning booths have had on the incidence of melanoma in young women, you could open with a photo of a tanning booth, followed by the daunting statistics in melanoma and an example of a case of melanoma. This slide becomes the "hook" that captures your audience’s interest.

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Examples of Impactful Openings

When giving a medical presentation, advanced practitioners have a wonderful chance to share a patient story or vignette that will demonstrate the medical problem and its impact on practice ( Moffett, Berezowski, Spencer, & Lanning, 2014 ). You can do this easily by showing a patient radiological study or lab values, or a picture of a particularly challenging side effect. The net result is that your audience will be intrigued and relate to your story, especially if they take care of that patient population. Tell the story of the patient and describe the significance of the side effect or disease state. Clinical presentations often benefit from case studies that your audience may recognize from their own practices. Some of the most successful presentations use case studies followed by examples of right or wrong approaches to a patient problem, asking the audience to decide best practice and thereby engaging the audience fully. Tell your audience why this topic is important and why they need to know about it ( Moffett et al., 2014 ). Then, share the data supporting the importance of your story and how your audience can use the information to affect or change practice. You want to capture the attention of your audience at the very beginning of your presentation and then hold it. Humor may also be used for openings, but care must be taken with this and should be directed at yourself and not anyone else. Keep the attention of the audience by developing your delivery skills. Lastly, and perhaps the most important advice, is to "practice, practice, practice."

DEVELOPING SLIDES

Most medical speakers use PowerPoint to illustrate their talk and data. Using your slides effectively can make an important difference in your presentation and how your audience will respond. Develop your presentation and topic first, then create your slides. The 5/5/5 rule calls for no more than five words per line of text, five lines of text per slide, or five text or data-heavy slides in a row ( LearnFree.org, 2017 ). See Table 4 for tips for using PowerPoint.

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PowerPoint Tips

Adding images to your slides can create visual interest. Pictures of patients with side effects or complications can immediately show the audience what you are trying to communicate. As with data slides, appropriate referencing of images must be added to each of your slides. If you are using clip art to add interest or humor to your presentation, be mindful of possible distractions to your main message. Use these kinds of imagery sparingly.

Using slides during your presentation can enhance the message you are giving, but it is vital that you use the slide and not let it use you. Know your slides well enough that you do not have to read them. The title of the slide should give the key message of that slide. You do not have to tell your audience everything on the slide; instead, give them an overview of what they are looking at. Never read a slide to an audience. Do not present to the slide; present to your audience.

KEEPING THE AUDIENCE’S INTEREST

If your presentation is longer than 20 minutes, you may have a "mid-talk slump." This is a great time to check in with your audience: Do they understand your message thus far? Pause for a moment and engage your audience with a question or anecdote, or perhaps a patient story. Ask your audience if they have something to share regarding the topic. Change the pace and change the inflection of your voice.

Taking questions from your audience can be daunting. Table 5 gives some tips on how to answer questions. Determining when to take questions will depend upon your audience size and makeup, and the setting of your presentation. The most important tip is to listen carefully to the question and be honest if you do not know the answer.

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Handling Questions From Your Audience

Your delivery skills can determine how the audience perceives you and your message. Eye contact, voice, pace, inflection, gestures, and posture are all important aspects of your delivery. Eye contact establishes rapport and a feeling of being genuine. Although you shouldn’t stare someone down, making eye contact while making a statement, then moving to your next audience member and giving another statement fosters engagement. Scanning, which is running your eyes over the audience and not focusing on any one person, should be avoided.

Your voice should be loud and animated. Generally, however loud you think you should be, be louder. Convey your enthusiasm, and vary your pace and inflection.

Gestures can enhance or take away from your talk. Be natural with an open-body approach. Keep your hands at your sides if you’re not using them. Avoid pointing; instead, use open-handed gestures. Your posture should be good, with your shoulders back and weight equally balanced on both feet. When you move, move with purpose; do not sway, rock, or pace ( Butterfield, 2015 ).

It is very normal to feel anxious or nervous. But let that feeling work for you, not against you. When you are faced with a challenging situation, cortisol and adrenaline are released, causing dry mouth, difficulty getting words out, shallow breaths, tremors, sweating, and nervous behaviors like laughter or fidgeting. To combat this, take some deep breaths, which reduces adrenaline output. Slow down and look around. Take a moment, take a sip of water, and smile. Look confident even if you do not feel it. Utilize every resource you can find to further your skills (see Table 6 for further reading).

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Resources for Presenters

Advanced practitioners have many opportunities to give medical presentations, both as part of their job and as a way to advance in their professional practice. The tools provided in this article can help you develop a presentation that will be meaningful and impactful to your audience. It is a great feeling when audience members come to you after your presentation to share with you how much they enjoyed and learned from your talk. With practice, your presentations can make a difference. And remember—your audience wants you to succeed.

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Presenting with Confidence: 3 Ways to Overcome the Spotlight Effect

DISCLOSURE: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning when you click the links and make a purchase, we receive a commission.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO COURSE: PRESENTATION SKILLS: GIVE MORE POWERFUL, MEMORABLE TALKS

give presentations with confidence

Presenting with Confidence : What is the Spotlight Effect?

I want you to imagine you’re about to give a presentation and you can’t stop thinking about your bad haircut.

Everybody in the audience notices your bad haircut.

Your boss is sitting there. He or she is probably saying to themselves, “That is a really terrible haircut. What was that person thinking?”

And then at the end of the presentation, it turns out everybody had a good time. Everybody found your presentation informative.

Nobody mentions the bad haircut.

For you, the bad haircut was a major problem. It was weighing on your mind the entire time you were up there, but nobody else seemed to notice.

So what was going on there?

Well, what was happening is something called the spotlight effect .

The spotlight effect is the phenomenon in which people tend to believe they’re being noticed more than they really are .

According to Wikipedia, “Being that one is constantly in the center of one’s own world, an accurate evaluation of how much one is noticed by others is uncommon.”

The psychological quirk makes presenting with confidence especially hard.

When presenting or public speaking, you assume that certain shortcomings, flaws, or mistakes are way more noticeable to the audience than they actually are.

Let’s look at some examples of the spotlight effect in action.

presenting with confidence

Example #1: Being Too Harsh on Yourself for Saying Filler Words

This is something I see all the time with clients and students.

For some reason, the myth of filler words has become a really huge issue.

Of course, too many filler words is distracting.

But for the most part, audiences don’t notice a few filler words here and there.

But being harsh on yourself for saying even a few filler words during your presentation is a classic example of the spotlight effect.

You are assuming that the audience is noticing something that for you is a huge issue, but in reality, they’re not even picking up on it.

Example #2: Over-Analyzing Word Choice

Another example is second-guessing your word choice, on specific phrases that just don’t make any significant difference in the meaning.

You could say “we developed and rolled out a new product,” or you could say “we built and launched a new product.”

Those two phrases mean basically the same thing.

Is one better than the other? No. It’s just a question of which style of communication is more common within your organizational culture or your team.

Being hyper-focused on minor word choice issues like that is not significant.

It’s not meaningful and it’s not a good use of your time or energy as you’re preparing your presentation.

Example #3: Assuming the Audience Notices Things They Don’t Care About

Another example is assuming that the audience is noticing certain things that they just don’t care about.

Like the color of your shirt. Or the fact that you took one step forward instead of one step back.

Nobody really notices those kinds of minor things unless, again, it becomes excessive or extreme.

Where the Spotlight Effect Comes From in Public Speaking

The basic issue with the spotlight effect is ignorance .

You don’t know what you don’t know. You don’t know what audiences really care about and what they don’t.

That ignorance is why we develop these self-limiting narratives and stories in our head.

As a result, we lose sight of what really matters and what audiences are actually focusing on.

3 Ways to Improve Your Awareness and Start Presenting with Confidence

1. observe yourself on camera.

Record yourself and watch yourself presenting or speaking on camera.

Usually it’s very jarring and uncomfortable for most people at the beginning, but eventually you get used to it.

See what stands out to you as you’re watching. If something stands out to you, it’s probably going to stand out to an audience as well.

If it doesn’t stand out to you as you’re watching, then it’s probably not going to impact the audience either.

A good example of this was a coaching client that I worked with.

He was a very successful businessman, but he had a lot of stage fright and nervousness around public speaking.

We recorded him speaking at an event where he was presenting to about 50 people.

He watched the video back afterwards and he noticed he was swaying , constantly, back and forth.

Everything else was great. His delivery was great. His word choice, and his presentation structure, were great.

But that swaying motion was extremely distracting. That’s what jumped out to him.

He was completely unaware of it before he saw it on camera.

So that’s why recording yourself and watching yourself is so powerful.

2. Get Feedback from Friends and Colleagues, or from a Coach

You need a reality check. If you’re in isolation, developing your presentation or your speech, you don’t have a clear sense of what is important.

You need to wrap your head around how other people are perceiving you.

So get feedback from people, do some dry runs, do some practice and rehearsals in front of other people and see what they say.

They should be people that you trust to give you constructive criticism.

They should not be people that are just going to praise you no matter what, but people that want to help you improve.

3. Listen to the Feedback From Real Audiences

Don’t just get up in front of a group of people, give a presentation, sit down and never think about it again.

Actually ask people in real-life presentation situations (whether in-person or remote) how you did.

Ask questions like:

  • Was there anything in my presentation that stood out to you?
  • Is there anything that I could have done better?
  • Is there anything that you really enjoyed or appreciated in my presentation?

All of that information will help you grow your awareness and your understanding of how you’re actually communicating.

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Presenting with Confidence

How Great Leaders Craft and Design Persuasive Presentations That Sell Ideas, Inspire Teams, and Build Brands

Four online sessions with an additional one-on-one coaching session. Also offered on-campus .

Ideas are the currency of the 21st century. The ability to communicate your ideas persuasively is the single greatest skill you can learn to succeed in a globally competitive world. Through stories, videos and case examples, this program offers an actionable, step-by-step method anyone can adopt to create and deliver inspiring in-person or virtual presentations that are engaging, persuasive and memorable.

Key topics include: applying storytelling methods, creating presentation headlines, utilizing the rule of three, building multisensory experiences, making statistics instantly memorable, delivering authentic presentations with confidence, creating a message map around your story; learning practice methods for seamless delivery in-person or virtually. This online course includes a scheduled private one-on-one consultation via phone or remote video with the instructors following the program dates.

What to Expect

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Certificate of completion

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1on1 coaching

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Open office hours

This transformative program will set you apart from your peers and competitors, in a wide variety of professions. If you’re a designer or architect, this program will help you present to clients. If you’re a city planner, you’ll keep on message with poise at your next town hall meeting. If you’re a real estate developer, you’ll be able to pitch deals better. If you’re an entrepreneur, this program will improve your skills at courting investors and customers. If you’re a civic leader, you’ll be able to present more persuasively to constituents. The ability to craft and deliver world-class presentations is useful in every line of work, and this skill is becoming ever-more essential. Within the next few years, you will not thrive as a leader if you are not an excellent presenter, in person or to a virtual audience.

According to IDC, “oral and written communication” is, by far, the number one skill employers look for in “high-opportunity occupations.” Yet, very few of the 350 PowerPoint presentations that are given every second around the world are clear, compelling and inspiring. Public speaking through presentations will raise your value in the workplace by 50 percent, according to Warren Buffett. In this course, you build this valuable skill with case examples from men and women who lead today’s most influential companies such as Google, Microsoft, Virgin, Nike, Berkshire Hathaway, Apple, and many others. You will learn the specific tactics mastered by famous entrepreneurs, leaders and TED speakers who deliver presentations that capture the world’s attention.

Through stories, case examples, videos, and practical exercises, backed by the latest neuroscience research on storytelling, communication and persuasion, this program will teach you specific techniques that you can use immediately to dramatically improve your next pitch, presentation, or mission-critical communication for in person or virtual audiences. You will learn the art and science of storytelling to build your brand, promote a shared vision, engage teams, inspire customers, and grow your career, startup or company.

  • Learn the unbreakable laws of communication that will make your next presentation engaging, attractive, and actionable.
  • Develop a 3-act story structure that communicates your brand’s values.
  • Identify the most effective types of stories to connect with your audience.
  • Learn body language and vocal delivery techniques that will help you present authentically and confidently in front of any type of audience.
  • Build a message map to pitch your idea in as little as 15 seconds (elevator pitch), or create the outline for a longer, well-crafted presentation.
  • Explore methods for how to make data instantly memorable.

Any professional who needs to present or pitch ideas to obtain funding, support, or other calls to action, including entrepreneurs, real estate developers, engineers, scientists, architects, designers, educators, managers, business owners, students, marketing and communication professionals, non-profit leaders, civic leaders, etc.

Instructors

Headshot of Carmine Gallo

Carmine Gallo

Bestselling author and communication advisor for the world’s most admired brands

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Vanessa Gallo

Executive Communication Coach, Gallo Communications Group

Carmine Introduces the Program

Carmine on how to Communicate Simply and Clearly

Participant Stories

Headshot of Maria Teresa Camodeca

Maria Teresa Camodeca

Innovation Project Manager

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Peter Joseph

Sales Executive

Registration is currently closed

October 25, 27, 30, & November 1, 2023

Online Tuition:  $1,750 CEUs: 7 AIA LUs, 7 AICP/CM, 7 LA/CES AMDP Elective Units: 1

Please sign up above if you would like to be notified when the next session is announced.

Please email us at [email protected]  with any questions and to ask about group signup.

Registration Deadline:  3 hours before the start of the program.

Full Discount and Cancellation Policies

Presenting With Confidence (In-Person Course)

Learn the unbreakable laws of communication that will make your next presentation engaging, attractive, and actionable.

presentation in-person

Associated Schools

Harvard Graduate School of Design

Harvard Graduate School of Design

What you'll learn.

Identify the most effective types of stories to connect with your audience.

Learn body language and vocal delivery techniques that will help you present authentically and confidently in front of any type of audience.

Build a message map to pitch your idea in as little as 15 seconds (elevator pitch), or create the outline for a longer, well-crafted presentation.

Explore methods for how to make data instantly memorable.

Explore tactics proven to make communication more persuasive and memorable.

Course description

Ideas are the currency of the 21st century. The ability to communicate your ideas persuasively is the single greatest skill you can learn to succeed in a globally competitive world. Through stories, videos and case examples, this program offers an actionable, step-by-step method anyone can adopt to create and deliver inspiring presentations that are engaging, persuasive and memorable. Key topics include: applying storytelling methods, creating presentation headlines, utilizing the rule of three, building multisensory experiences, making statistics instantly memorable, delivering authentic presentations with confidence, creating a message map around your story; learning practice methods for seamless delivery. 

This transformative program will set you apart from your peers and competitors, in a wide variety of professions. If you’re a designer or architect, this program will help you present to clients. If you’re a city planner, you’ll keep on message with poise at your next town hall meeting. If you’re a real estate developer, you’ll be able to pitch deals better. If you’re an entrepreneur, this program will improve your skills at courting investors and customers. If you’re a civic leader, you’ll be able to present more persuasively to constituents. The ability to craft and deliver world-class presentations is useful in every line of work, and this skill is becoming ever-more essential. Within the next few years, you will not thrive as a leader if you are not an excellent presenter, in person or to a virtual audience.

Instructors

Carmine Gallo

Carmine Gallo

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6 Ways to Look More Confident During a Presentation

  • Kasia Wezowski

give presentations with confidence

Here’s what the best leaders do.

Several years ago, colleagues and I were invited to predict the results of a start-up pitch contest in Vienna, where 2,500 tech entrepreneurs were competing to win thousands of euros in funds. We observed the presentations, but rather than paying attention to the ideas the entrepreneurs were pitching, we were watching the body language and microexpressions of the judges as they listened.

  • Kasia Wezowski is the founder of the Center for Body Language , the author of four books on the subject, and the producer and director of Leap , a documentary about the coaching profession.

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give presentations with confidence

PRESENTATIONS WITH POWER: HOW TO BUILD CONFIDENCE WHEN GIVING PRESENTATIONS

From sales pitches to trying to get senior management on board with a new process to enhance productivity, there comes a time when most of us will be asked to put a presentation together.

Although you might be a whiz at PowerPoint and have a real enthusiasm for the topic you’ll be discussing, many people struggle with confidence when it comes to getting up in front of a group . It can feel daunting to persuade others to take the action you’re hoping for, even if you certain that what you are proposing will change things for the better.

With many of us not being accustomed to public speaking in our day-to-day roles, it shouldn’t be a surprise that most of us simply dread making a presentation. A lack of confidence can really show through and severely limit the impact that the presentation makes on the audience. Luckily, however, there are ways that you can combat any anxieties and deliver a presentation with real power.

Here are our four top tips for overcoming pre-presentation nerves so that you can deliver a winning presentation like a pro.

1. Channel your nervousness

give presentations with confidence

Nerves can be powerful, and if left unchecked, they may be at their most debilitating at exactly the time you need to get up and strut your stuff in the boardroom.

A nervous presenter can do little to inspire confidence in the audience, so learning how to channel this energy into a positive force is essential if you want to get the right outcome following your presentation.

Breathing is key when it comes to taking control of your nerves , so take your time when opening with your presentation. Before you start, take some deep belly breaths to calm down your body. Then, when starting, depending on the audience, you might choose to break the ice with a joke. Take a moment to assess the room and feel your feet on the floor. This will help to center and ground you. Take heart from the knowledge that you will probably become more settled as you start to get into the swing of things.

Try and avoid feeding your nervousness by staying in one spot. Also, watch out for pacing, fiddling with cue cards, or fidgeting with whatever you have in your pockets . Instead, concentrate on your breathing, take your time delivering each piece of your presentation, and don’t forget to smile!

Breathing is key when it comes to taking control of your nerves Click to tweet

2. develop your presentation.

give presentations with confidence

One of the best ways of creating a powerful presentation is in the preparation . If you’ve spent enough time creating a solid structure, stating your objective clearly and communicating the strongest points of your pitch or argument, then you’ll feel far more confident in your abilities when it’s time to make that all-important delivery.

A good way of really getting your point across is to view your presentation from the perspective of your intended audience.

  • Are you being too technical and using terms they may not understand?
  • Could you simplify your language to be better understood?
  • Are you using too many filler words and overly complicated descriptions that create a barrier between you and your audience?
  • Do you have compelling visuals and is everything easy to read?

Many excellent presentations deliver complicated concepts via the use of visual aids such as infographics, charts and diagrams, so don’t be afraid to reach out to a colleague with a flair for this kind of thing for a little help. These formats not only make key messages easier to get across, but they can also give you a much-needed pause during the presentation to breathe and center yourself.

3. Practice makes perfect

give presentations with confidence

It’s an old saying, but it remains true to this day – practice really does make perfect   (or at least, much better) when it comes to building confidence in presentations.

Although you’ll probably only get the opportunity to practice your presentation skills a limited number of times on the run-up to the big day, how you practice and who you choose to practice your presentation on are equally important.

As the first port of call, it’s a good idea to video yourself doing the presentation from start to finish without anyone else present. This gives you a good idea of areas you might need to work on. Using an iPad or similar device for recording, use the recording to identify where you might be rushing through the key messages you want to deliver and observe how your body language is impacting the overall power of your presentation. Also pay attention to any areas you appear to struggle with, how loud your voice is and whether you’re projecting confidence.

Once you’ve done this and fine-tuned any areas with which you aren’t 100% happy, it’s time to try out your presentation in front of a live audience. You might choose to ask a close friend or colleague to sit in on your presentation practice run, but just make sure that you choose someone who is likely to give you honest and constructive feedback. While it’s nice to get encouragement (and you should make sure that they point out positives in your presentation), if you really want to improve, make sure that they give you helpful critiques as well.

After the presentation, you can also ask them to discuss the takeaway messages they gained from the presentation. This can really help to build your confidence and is invaluable when it comes to making last-minute adjustments.

 4. Don’t be too hard on yourself

give presentations with confidence

Even the best public speakers in the world had to start somewhere, so don’t beat yourself up if you make a mistake during your presentation.

Everyone understands that making a presentation can be a nerve-wracking experience, so if you do find that you’ve missed something out or have gotten into a bit of a muddle with your cue cards, simply breathe and make light of the situation rather than rushing to the end of your script so you can get out of there and retreat to the safety of your own office.

Remember, audiences relate much better to someone who comes across as a human being and doesn’t seem like a robot just reading from a set script. Laugh any minor mistakes off and engage with your audience a little to diffuse any tension in the room and better engage the group.

give presentations with confidence

About the Author

Dr. Patricia Thompson is a Corporate Psychologist and Management Consultant who is passionate about helping her clients flourish by making well-informed hiring decisions, cultivating talent, and developing a positive organizational culture. Read more...

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How to Be Confident During a Presentation

Last Updated: January 1, 2024 Approved

This article was co-authored by Gale McCreary . Gale McCreary is the Founder and Chief Coordinator of SpeechStory, a nonprofit organization focused on improving communication skills in youth. She was previously a Silicon Valley CEO and President of a Toastmasters International chapter. She has been recognized as Santa Barbara Entrepreneurial Woman of the Year and received Congressional recognition for providing a Family-Friendly work environment. She has a BS in Biology from Stanford University. There are 13 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 87% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 84,000 times.

Giving a presentation and speaking in front of a room full of peers can be a stressful experience, but there are ways to project confidence and authority even when you are nervous. It is normal to get tense before a presentation, but you do not want to project that tension to your audience. If you use confident, secure body language, project your voice, and prepare for your presentation in advance, you will feel like a confident, expert speaker.

Using Confident Body Language

Step 1 Practice good posture.

  • Good posture conveys to the audience that you are confident, credible, and sure of your subject. Speaking with proper posture also allows you to project your voice, making your speech clear and assertive. [2] X Research source

Step 2 Move around the space.

  • Don’t stand too close to the audience, and don’t move beyond the first row of seats.
  • As you move toward the audience, think about staying there for a period of 30 seconds. When you step in another direction, spend about another 30 seconds there. [5] X Research source Think about trying to reach everyone in your audience, and try to make eye contact with several audience members as you move from section to section.

Step 4 Use hand gestures while giving a presentation.

  • Don’t cross your arms during a presentation. While this may be a comfortable position, you may be projecting negative cues to your audience. This closed-off position may make you seem inexperienced, uninterested, or nervous.

Step 5 Smile.

  • While giving a presentation, maintain eye contact with an individual for periods of 3 to 5 seconds. [9] X Research source Eye contact will demonstrate that you are trustworthy and passionate about the topic, and it will help keep your audience’s attention. [10] X Research source

Speaking with Confidence

Step 1 Project your voice.

  • Lie down on your back, and keep your abdominals and stomach relaxed. Keep one hand on your abdomen, and think about moving it up and down as you breathe in and out.
  • Find out in advance if you will be using a microphone for your presentation. This can help you plan ahead and adjust the volume of your voice accordingly.

Step 2 Vary the speed, pitch, and volume of your voice.

  • Try to incorporate these variations in speech while giving your presentation, and pretend as though you are having a conversation with a friend or a colleague.
  • Practice these variations by reading a poem, a play, or another piece of literature aloud. [11] X Research source

Step 3 Pace yourself.

  • Stretch out your vowels to slow your speech. Pretend that the vowels are italicized and focus on speaking each one clearly. Practice this technique to ensure that it sounds natural.
  • Break your presentation up into sections. Plan to pause for a moment or two when you reach the end of each section. Allow for one second to pause before moving on to the next point. [13] X Research source

Practicing Your Presentation

Step 1 Study your material.

How Should You End a Presentation? . By using this service, some information may be shared with YouTube.

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  • ↑ http://www.mayfieldclinic.com/PE-POSTURE.htm
  • ↑ https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/247737
  • ↑ http://blog.ted.com/a-ted-speaker-coach-shares-11-tips-for-right-before-you-go-on-stage/
  • ↑ http://www.presentationprep.com/body-language-body/
  • ↑ http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/connect-with-your-audience-move-closer/
  • ↑ https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/famelab-whats-science-behind-smile
  • ↑ http://liveboldandbloom.com/10/self-confidence/body-language-tips
  • ↑ http://www.inc.com/sims-wyeth/10-reasons-why-eye-contact-can-change-peoples-perception-of-you.html
  • ↑ http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324809804578511290822228174
  • ↑ http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/14466/1/How-to-Look-Approachable.html
  • ↑ http://www.presentationprep.com/body-language-voice/
  • ↑ https://ethos3.com/how-to-slow-down-nervous-speedy-speech/
  • ↑ http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/vocal-variety-speech-breathing/

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How to Deliver Presentations with Ease and Confidence

Overcome your fear and nervousness and make powerful presentations.

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Expert Interviews • 12 min read

Presenting With Confidence

With cordelia ditton.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

give presentations with confidence

Whether you need to give a presentation or chair an important meeting, nerves can often prevent you from performing at your best. In this engaging interview, we hear from Cordelia Ditton, a trained actor turned public speaking coach, about the strategies you can use to control nerves and speak with confidence.

About Cordelia Ditton

Cordelia (known as Dilly) trained and worked as an actor for many years. She has also directed theatre productions and written a number of plays. Fourteen years ago she founded a communication training consultancy, voicebusiness . This combines all the skills Dilly gained in the theatre, together with creative thinking techniques and her experience as a certified General Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP).

Interview overview

In this interview (running time 12 minutes) you can hear about:

  • why presentation and communication skills are important competencies in business today
  • advice on how to prepare effectively for a presentation and overcome nerves
  • the factors that help to make a presentation memorable for the audience
  • how to engage an audience with a dry subject matter
  • what to do if things go wrong during a presentation
  • the importance of body language in giving a presentation or chairing a meeting
  • tips on creating a positive first impression at a networking event

Female interviewer: Whether you need to give a presentation, chair an important meeting or participate in a group discussion, nerves can sometimes be an issue.

In this interview we hear from Cordelia Ditton, a trained actor and director of the Voice Business Consultancy, about some of the strategies you can use to overcome nerves and speak with confidence.

Cordelia begins by explaining why effective presentation and communication skills are so important in business today.

Cordelia Ditton: Well, who doesn’t need to present nowadays? I mean, people are either having to make formal presentations or speak in public or if not, they are often having to present ideas in meetings and they have to think about the kind of personal impact they make. So the kind of training I do really encompasses all of those things. You might look at it in a formal context but then think of all the other contexts in which you can also use it.

Female interviewer: And when it comes to perhaps speaking in an important meeting or giving a presentation as you say, nerves can sometimes be an issue for some people. What kind of tips would you give to help someone prepare when they have got to give an important presentation?

Cordelia Ditton: Well, the first thing to do is to understand that nerves are completely natural. They are an animal reaction to what your body and your mind are perceiving to be a threat. And a threat is anything that takes you outside your comfort zone as that animal. So if you think of animals being either pack animals or loners, think of cats and dogs, we are much like the dogs, we work in a pack.

As soon as we take ourselves, remove ourselves slightly from the pack, and that’s if you imagine you are standing in front of an audience or even standing up perhaps in a meeting or having those eyes looking on you, your instincts, your animal instincts are saying, ‘Oh, this is dangerous, get out of here.’ And so therefore there are reactions that are happening in your body to counter the threat. In other words, your body is looking after you. And those reactions; we have all heard of fight and flight haven’t we? Fight and flight and freeze being the other one. Now, flight is when your body is telling you to get out of there, so that’s kind of making you move around a bit perhaps, and freeze is making you sort of shut down and fight is when you are getting bits of the body ready to fight, your centre of gravity is lowering, stomach muscles tightening, your hackles are rising, your body is producing adrenaline to rush round and make you faster and tougher and so on.

Now all these things are fine if you were that animal getting away from the potential threat; your body doesn’t distinguish between a wild tribe about to attack you and an audience. So it’s just preparing you for this. Now, the very fact of your knowing this is happening helps you prepare to counter it and really what we are talking about is relaxing physically, a few physical exercises or going for a walk round the building, something like that, and breathing properly and that really is important. And when we are feeling nervous, concentrating on breathing out, when we get a shock we breathe in and hold it and when we relax from the shock we breathe out, so when you are feeling nervous breathing out.

And the other thing to do is really it is all about preparation; I am talking there about preparing you, and it is also of course about preparing your content. We feel much less nervous when we know what we are doing. So rehearsing out loud, having a clear structure and most importantly, remember and rehearse your first and last line. Make your first line intriguing. It’s what is going to get people’s imagination going. So really rehearse that. Make sure you know exactly what you are saying. And your last line is what you leave people with so make sure again that that’s a strong line and possibly even link it to your first one. So learn your first and last lines and make sure then that that helps you sound very confident and it makes your presentation sound complete.

Female interviewer: And Cordelia, in your view, what do you think makes the difference between a presentation or a speech which is really quite memorable and one which really isn’t?

Cordelia Ditton: Well, the short answer would be I suppose one you remember and one you don’t. So what, why do we remember something? Now, if you have ever been in that situation where someone is trying to tell you a great deal of facts without really linking them that well, if you think about children, they respond very well to stories and it is not just children, it is all of us. We respond to stories. Why? Because it is a logical sequence, one thought builds upon another, and also they are using descriptions, they are using metaphors, sensory descriptions, so in other words, talking about something in a more concrete way rather than abstract. We find it hard to remember abstract. So often I think what we have done is lost the narrative.

If you look at bullet points, for example, people put bullet points up on the screen. It is very hard for anyone else to really relate to those, I think. It is fine for the person who has created them because they can see the narrative, but the rest of us don’t. So the key is really getting people to use their imagination and helping them do so. So anecdotes and so on are very, very useful.

Now the other thing I think is really important is thinking, what do you want your listeners to feel when they listen to you? Because if you think about it, do we remember all, think of a presentation you felt, you thought was fantastic, do you remember absolutely everything the presenter said? No, you don’t. You might remember the gist of it or some few things that really stood out for you; what you will remember is how you felt about it. So it is thinking about ‘What do I want my audience to feel?’ and thinking also about this key thing, what’s in it for them? What is it that is particularly going to reach that audience? Because we only really remember things that are important to us or that strike a chord with us in some way. So it’s really about thinking much more about narrative rather than lots of facts. Don’t try and give people all the facts, get them interested in a few key points so that they will want to find out more for themselves.

Female interviewer: And what advice would you give to help keep an audience interested and engaged in quite a dry subject matter?

Cordelia Ditton: Well, I would say really the difficulty with dry subject matter is, do you need to make a presentation about it at all to begin with. I think sometimes people make presentations at the drop of a hat because it’s what they are used to doing and it’s how other people share material. Now, you have to find a way to make it accessible and as I have said before, just pick out two or three points of interest and explore those, get people interested in the key concept, create a mystery is rather nice. You create a mystery at the very beginning, say, how does X = Y, well, over the course of this presentation I am going to show you how. And that can work very well. So there is a way of presenting what you might call dry material, but don’t let material be dry. You know, if it is so dry and difficult, don’t make a presentation about it, write something about it and then give, get people excited about two or three key points. It might be you are talking about the benefit of whatever it is you are talking about rather than going through the entire process for example. So it’s find a way to make it accessible really is the key answer.

Female interviewer: I want to move on to ask you about what someone can do on the day of a presentation itself and what practical strategies or techniques you would perhaps recommend to help them calm any pre-presentation nerves that they might have?

Cordelia Ditton: Well, first of all, I think, arm yourself with knowledge. Find out about the venue, where you are speaking, and if you can go into the space itself and try out the beginning of your presentation.

You might want to ask them if they can hear you, whether you perhaps need a microphone, for example, if you are talking at a big event. And it is about focusing on that event in hand. Do not let yourself get distracted. Don’t work up to the wire and then walk in and expect to make a good presentation. Give yourself time. Give yourself time to physically relax, get rid of tension, build your energy, work on your breathing. And concentrate really on what you are doing and don’t get distracted. And if you can, on the day, just rehearse it through once out loud, that’s very important.

Of course, in business presentations people often don’t have a great deal of time, but if you want to be really effective, you have got to put the work in. It’s like most things in life, give it a little bit extra work and I think you will find the benefit of that.

Female interviewer: Now, sometimes, it has happened to the best of us during a presentation or speech, things don’t always go according to how you plan them. For example, your technology can die on its feet or stage fright can really take hold. What would you say to someone to help them recover from a difficult situation such as this during a presentation?

Cordelia Litton Now, in the training I do, I always get people very balanced, it’s the first thing I do with them. And by that I mean that literally the body is balancing. If you think, you put your feet parallel, slightly closer together than your hips and just stand imagining a line going from your ears, balancing over your shoulders, over your hips, over your knees, over your feet, and just get balanced in that position. When we are balanced everything works well, your voice and your body are going to work well; you are going to be tension free as much as possible.

Now if things go wrong, the body starts tightening up, the voice starts tightening up and of course we have all got radar. We can tell when someone’s not looking terribly comfortable. So it’s a question of getting yourself back into that position and again it is calming and focusing. And once you do that, then the mind is not scrabbling and trying to think of ways around what it is you are doing. You are actually slowing the brain down a bit. And going back to also breathing well. So it is breathing, position of balance, you can focus, back to there. The interesting thing is that if mistakes or things happen and things go wrong and you deal with it, audiences love you all the more.

I think the difficulty often comes for people when they are using things like slides because of course that kind of slide technology does go wrong. And I think people tend to use slides by default and I don’t think you necessarily have to. Think about other ways of presenting where you are not having to rely on technology. I think if you can get away from that and just be very clear on the structure that you are using. Using odd notes, using mind maps, anything like that that helps you to see the picture as a whole.

Now that’s true in fact, whether you are just speaking to audiences or whether you are using slides. And in my view, too many people, by default, use technology when they don’t need it, when they would actually be better off speaking to people. So that’s one thing to think of. Do you need the slides? And then thinking about the kind of anchor position, ways of getting your focus back so that you can calmly deal with whatever is going on.

Female interviewer: Cordelia, I would like to ask you about body language now because people often underestimate the importance of good body language to a successful presentation and I wondered if you might be able to highlight for me some of the pitfalls to be aware of and really how body language can be used in a more positive way?

Cordelia Ditton: Well, I think what people respond to is when the presenter looks comfortable. So sometimes people say to me, ‘Well, should I move around or should I keep still?’ and I go, ‘Well I don’t know, what makes you feel the most comfortable?’ because as long as you feel comfortable, I’m likely to feel comfortable. So, in other words, I don’t think there is a hard and fast rule here.

I mean I talked a moment ago about the position of balance, of getting anchored, of getting a kind of square one or default position that you can come back to if you feel that you want to just be very sure that you are feeling sort of calm and secure. So stillness can be very, very effective. You don’t have to use your hands; you don’t have to move around unless you want to. On the other hand, if you are someone who enjoys moving, then move as long as it is not something too repetitive, that’s the issue I think, if it is repetitive and distracting. Lots of pacing about can be a bit annoying, but then on the other hand, if you have got something startlingly wonderful to say, people are not going to notice that.

There are certain little things like, for men in particular, change jingling in your pocket. So you are absentmindedly jingling that change, is very off-putting to audiences. So avoid that, take the change out of your pocket. I think looking at screens and looking at laptops, again if you are using slides, be careful of that because that can be very irritating to audiences because they don’t feel that you are necessarily relating to them.

So, it is really, it is being comfortable, start from the position of stillness and balance and see where it goes and always come back to there when you want to.

Female interviewer: Thank you for listening to this audio interview. For more information on how to overcome presentation nerves and deliver a successful presentation, why not run a search on presentations in your toolkit?

Find out more

You can find out more about Dilly and her voicebusiness consultancy at www.voicebusinesstraining.co.uk . Dilly’s blog, ‘Talk About Speaking’ can be found at www.talkaboutspeaking.com .

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We’ve all come across that person who seems born to speak in public. He or she is totally unfazed by the size of the audience and speaks clearly and persuasively, using language to its best advantage. Then there’s you: more than two pairs of eyes pointed in your direction and you feel yourself falling to bits; your voice cracks with nerves, and you lose the thread every time you look up from your script, which now feels boring and uninspired. Help!

How you use your voice and employ public speaking skills, such as rhetoric (we’ll get to that later), has a huge influence on how your audience receives your presentation.   Get it wrong, and you can bore or irritate people.

Get it right, and you can feel them becoming increasingly engaged, hanging on your every word, sympathetic to your message and interested in what you have to say. We’re here to show you how to get it right every time – up your speaking skills game and ace your presentations with confidence and control.

What are speaking skills? What is rhetoric? And how can they add value to your presentations?

The term “rhetoric” is derived from the ancient Greek and translates as oratory or eloquence. In its best form, it is the art of persuasion – using speaking skills to make the flow of speech as appealing as possible to inspire listeners.

rhetoric speaking skills

Anyone who delivers business presentations should know how to use rhetoric. It’s been around forever and has lost none of its importance today. As a presenter, you have a fundamental responsibility: to convince your audience and, in the best case, to inspire them; because even the best content won’t persuade an audience if it isn’t presented effectively.

Politicians and PR professionals are masters of the art of rhetoric (even if they give it a bad name from time to time by using it in bad faith). There are a few rules which make it easier for you , and we’ll go through those below. Following them can make a huge difference in how your presentation is received.

If you don’t know about these rules, it’s sadly easy to get things wrong when presenting; it happens every day and you may have experienced it yourself. PowerPoint presentations can be overloaded with graphics and short on interest or drag on like chewing gum on the sole of your shoe because the speaker’s voice is so monotonous.

We’ve all found ourselves on the verge of nodding off because a presentation was boring – even though we were there because we found the topic interesting.

So how do you avoid doing the same?  Well, the proper use of rhetoric can really help. Apply these proven techniques, tips and tricks and you’ll be able to present your content in a lively and interesting way and keep your audience engaged and entertained.

Such techniques include pauses in speech, body language and the volume and tone of your voice. We’re here to help with some proven techniques, tips and tricks to help you master rhetoric and become a better public speaker than you ever dreamed of.

How do you improve your speaking skills, then?

The simple answer to this is: practice makes perfect. These aren’t completely alien concepts: in a way, we all use speaking skills every day. There are many situations in life where you’ll have needed to communicate freely, confidently and with aplomb, whether in public or in private. So, chances are good that you already have a basic grasp of the speaking skills you need.

Here’s your chance to gain a massive advantage over the competition by learning and practicing this art of persuasion , maximizing the power of your content and engaging your audiences to the full.

Communication: It’s not just what you say, but how you say it

Communication expert Paul Watzlawick states “ You cannot not communicate “. Even if you’re not actually saying a word, something is being expressed. Just standing silently is a form of communication, and it also conveys an intention.

An audience unconsciously interprets and evaluates not just the language you use, but also your body language and behavior. You can gain a lot by learning about and improving your own non-verbal communication. This article aims to cover many valuable aspects of your speaking skills, and how you say what you say.

Know your audience

Rhetoric helps you get your key messages across as clearly as possible. Remember to always keep your audience in mind. Both your language and the way you use rhetoric should be tailored to your audience’s particular characteristics, such as age, level of knowledge and professional situation.

Your first step is to get to know your audience. If you use rhetorical devices such as metaphors (like “nailing it” – getting a project or task done) your audience has to be able to understand them.

It’s not just about the content, though. You are important, too. If you get anxious about having to speak in public, you can start by trying to change your own mindset. Sounds too simple but repeating a mantra like “I’ve got this!” over and over again before the presentation really works. The more positive you are, the more confidence you will have in your presentation. Try it!

speaking skills rhetoric

There are courses which can teach you rhetoric; if you can find one, why not give it a try? You’ll learn just how important it is to get your public speaking skills up to scratch. But it’s perfectly possible to do it yourself. Everyone can master these skills with a bit of practice so keep reading – we’ve got your back!

Speaking skills: the basics

These 13 simple tips will give you a solid foundation for using language and your own body to give the best presentations ever.  It has to be said that it really, really pays to practice before you get anywhere near the audience!

1. Stay hydrated . To keep your vocal cords and mouth from drying up, Up your liquid intake (e.g., water or tea) well in advance of your presentation.

2. Get enough vocal rest. If you spend the night before your presentation shouting at a football match or in a loud bar, you’re putting unnecessary strain on your voice for the next day.

3. S tand up straight , with your weight evenly distributed on both feet. Make sure your chest is relaxed and open; if you let it cave in, you can’t make the most of your voice, and you may come across as insecure.

4. Breathe in and out calmly and deeply , feeling your breath fill your chest down to your diaphragm. Practice exhaling for a long time and taking a deep breath before each long sentence, and definitely before starting your presentation. This means you can speak freely, without having to catch your breath in the middle of a sentence.

5. Maintain a natural and relaxed pitch to your voice. Avoid letting your voice get higher when you speak louder or when you’re nervous. Lower pitches are often more comfortable to hear.

6. Record your presentation when you rehearse (yes this is terrifying, but it does pay off!) and listen to the tone of your voice and how you express yourself. Are you speaking too loudly or too softly? Where can you improve? What comes across as confident? Are there any places where you sound unconvincing?

7. Don’t rush your ideas ! Take a deep breath after each sentence and make good use of the short pause (see below). This will keep you focused and calm.

8. W atch your speaking speed. Speaking too quickly means your audience won’t catch what you’re saying. The entire point is to be heard and understood. Your message is the focus, and it’s a real shame if your speech obscures that.

9. Speak clearly. Sounds obvious, but it’s easy to mumble or slur your words when nervous. A fun exercise is to practice tongue twisters every now and then, pronouncing them as clearly as possible.

10. Use short sentences . The shorter the sentence, the easier it is to understand. Our brains are designed to focus on one core concept when listening, and longer sentences can decrease that focus. Put the most important statements directly at the beginning of a sentence and emphasize them (e.g., “We generated 3.5 million euros this year. 3.5 million!”).

11. Try not to use too man y foreign words : they can seem sophisticated when you write your speech, but quickly lead to many listeners switching off. The average attention span is only 20 minutes, so calibrating the length of your presentation is important.

12. Hum! You can practice finding your own optimal speech volume and voice tone by humming a few times and then going straight to speaking a sentence. This will help you use the most pleasant and persuasive pitch of your voice.

13. Find your groove. Keep your presentation feeling as free and easy as possible.

Try to practice all these tips when you rehearse your presentation. You’ll soon see how much more confident you come across. You’ve started mastering great speaking skills already!

speaking skills rhetoric

Using rhetoric confidently

You’ve covered the basics. Now it’s time to focus on polishing the content of your presentation. You really need to get your audience on board right at the start. Beginning awkwardly makes a bad impression, and that’s difficult to salvage. There are a few things you can use here to create the perfect introduction to captivate your audience and continue with confidence. They include:

S urprise !! Starting off with a surprise will grab your audience from the get-go. Everyone expects the usual phrases (“Thank you for coming today”), so if you do something completely unexpected, your audience will sit up and listen. It can help to involve your audience by asking an unexpected or funny question, such as, “So, what’s it going to take to get you all to pay attention throughout my presentation?”

Storytelling: The human brain is wired to pay attention to storytelling. It creates a direct connection with the audience. Personal anecdotes add variety and are a great way to start a presentation. Mixing these with humor or self-deprecation can really grab your audience (“You won’t believe what just happened to me…”).

This presentation technique makes you appear approachable and likeable, on a level with the audience.  A few anecdotes throughout the presentation will keep this feeling going.

Questions, questions, questions! As we mentioned above, starting with a question can be really effective. Questions can also be useful during the rest of the presentation. They make your audience feel much more connected with you and your content.

Try including different types of questions in your presentation, such as a leading question (“Aren’t you tired of…?”) or an opinion poll (“So who prefers…?”). Try bookending your presentation with a question at the beginning and again at the end, listening closely to how your audience answers.

Exaggeration: Starting with your key message is a given. But if you just drop it in and move on, it can get lost.  One interesting tactic is to exaggerate it to the extreme (“If you don’t network, you won’t get project orders.”).

This can polarize your audience, but it ensures maximum interest, meaning your audience is now curious about where you’re going, and you have both their attention and a great space for a discussion.

Use rhetoric: Rhetorical devices (we cover these below) can be fantastic right at the beginning of a presentation! Comparisons, similes and metaphors all stimulate your audience to think (e.g., “bull and bear”: rising or falling stock prices).

Your audience starts by being presented with vivid mental images and has to think how you’re applying them. Working this out gives people a sense of achievement, which gives you a positive start to your presentation.

You can find more helpful tips and tricks for the perfect start to your presentation here .

Speaking skills: Rhetoric can give you a huge advantage

Our final point above shows that using rhetoric can captivate your audience from the start, meaning your presentation is far more likely to be a success. But it’s not just the intro which can benefit; peppering your presentation with the occasional rhetorical device adds spice and interest throughout. They can also help to turn a complicated concept into something simpler and easier for your audience to understand.

Don’t go overboard, though; using too much rhetoric in your presentation can make you come across as pompous and unapproachable.

There are many elements of rhetoric to consider. Here are some of the best:

Alliteration: This is using two or more words that start with the same sound. It’s a great way to grab people’s attention (e.g., “Potential PowerPoint plusses . . .”).

Anaphora: Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive sentences, phrases or clauses.  This emphasizes your point while adding an enjoyable rhythm to your speech. A good example of this is Winston Churchill’s speech beginning with, “We shall fight them on the beaches”. He repeated “We shall” and “We shall fight” to great effect.

Antithesis: This is a figure of speech which juxtaposes two contrasting or opposing ideas. It’s an effective technique for stimulating discussion (e.g., “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” – Neil Armstrong).

Hyperbole: This involves generating attention by exaggerating (e.g., “If you don’t network, you won’t work.”)

Climax: a figure of speech in which successive words, phrases, clauses or sentences are arranged in ascending order of importance (e.g., “What started as a glitch evolved into a product that turned out to be a bestseller.”).

Metaphor: this a figure of speech that is used to make a comparison between two things that aren’t alike but do have something in common. They create strong images, which can leave a lasting impression (e.g., “Creating PowerPoint presentations is a breeze!”) Further information and examples of metaphors can be found here.

Neologism: This basically means making up a new word, which can amuse and interest your audience! An example might be, “PowerPointers” for tips on how to best use this Microsoft application.  Make sure they’re not too abstract; your new word still needs to make sense.

Par allelism: this means balancing two or more ideas or arguments that are equally important (e.g., “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for life.”). It makes your speech more vivid and therefore more memorable.

Your voice: An important element of your presentation

speking skills rhetoric

Your voice is a hugely important part of your speaking skills. Studies show that the sound of a person’s voice is up to three times more important than what that person is actually saying! Getting to know how to use your voice to its best will really add to your speaking skills and massively increase the impact of your presentations.

Voice use covers various aspects, such as pitch, tone, volume and stamina. Working on all of these can give you a huge advantage when presenting.  Again, there are courses you can take to improve your vocal speaking skills, but it’s perfectly possible to work on them on your own – here are a few tips:

Vary the rhythm of your voice. One of the worst mistakes you can make is to speak in a monotonous tone and rhythm. Your audience will soon fall asleep (or wish they could). Varying the speed of your words to complement what you’re saying, keeps interest in your content alive. You can use this to draw attention to particularly important concepts.

Don’t babble. Most people tend to speak too quickly when they’re nervous, meaning the audience catches maybe half of what was said. A deep breath before you speak and being conscious of the tempo of your voice, should solve this.

Pay attention to pitch. Our voices have a natural speaking pitch (e.g., how high or low we speak). This is determined by our individual physiology. We are naturally at our most persuasive, and perceived as most honest, when we find it. Societal pressures, and the nerves we can feel when speaking in public, often force our pitch higher, giving us an inauthentic, and uneasy sounding voice.

It helps to be aware of this and find a more natural voice pitch. This has a pleasant effect and radiates competence. By taking deeper breaths and speaking more slowly and consciously, you can avoid pitching your voice too high. Listening back to a recording can really help here, too.

Emphasis. People often only emphasize nouns when delivering presentations. Why not try emphasizing verbs more often? They naturally stimulate the brain and make your speech more interesting to listen to.

B reathing. Excitement, or nerves, can cause you to gasp for air. The solution is to breathe deeply into your belly, allowing yourself time to do so. If you notice that you’re running out of breath, take a short break, breathe deeply and then carry on.

The power of the pause

soeaking skills rhetoric

Pauses are a simple but extremely effective tool for building tension and keeping presentations lively and interesting. Get them wrong, however, and you can come across as unsure of yourself or nervous. Here are a few ways to use pauses properly:

Pause for emphasis. Taking a pause after a key statement or fact emphasizes the importance of what you’ve just said, allowing your audience to focus and remember your key points. It’s important not to interrupt the flow of speech for too long, as this ends up being very distracting and uncomfortable for your audience.

This sort of pause should be used sparingly (three to four times at most per presentation), otherwise it loses its effect.

Pause for confidence. If you feel at any point that your confidence is flagging, or that your presentation is not going so well, take a short break to regain your composure. This gives you an opportunity to regroup your thoughts and continue with renewed vigor.

Such pauses should be kept short so as not to unsettle the audience or show your own uncertainty. But remember that time feels different when you’re presenting; timing your pauses in rehearsal and listening to the playback is invaluable.

Pause to let information sink in. When presenting, you may notice that your audience tunes out from time to time. This doesn’t mean they aren’t interested in what you have to say. Sometimes, if you’ve presented them with a lot of information, your audience needs a moment of silence to process all the new facts or ideas.

Taking a short break allows your audience the chance to mentally sort out what you’ve just said and refocus on your presentation.

How to avoid filler words

There are those who can speak fluently and eloquently in public, seemingly carefree, able to improvise and adapt effortlessly. That’s not most of us, though! One thing most of us do is to stick in useless, “filler” words – the um’s , the ah’s , the sooooo’s . 

They can occasionally help to cover a moment when you’re thinking what to say but use them too often, and you come across as nervous and insecure.   A professional, well-thought-out speech doesn’t need filler words.

speaking skills rhetoric

How do you avoid them? Preparation is the key. Rehearse your speech, warm up your voice beforehand and breathe consciously, slowly and deeply. More great tips for avoiding filler words and giving a fluent, confident presentation can be found here and here .

Use your speaking skills right to the very end

With the help of the above points, you’ll start your presentation strongly and deliver its content to great effect. But don’t drop the ball at the finish! Speaking skills can help you bring your presentation to a successful conclusion; your audience will remember it for a long time to come.

If you opened with a question, revisit it at the end. You can either answer it yourself or better yet, let your audience answer. This direct engagement with your content creates a strong connection with your key messages. You could also try using the rhetorical devices above to bring your presentation to a surprising and refreshing conclusion .

More helpful tips for ending a presentation effectively can be found here .

The bottom line: utilize great speaking skills to present confidently and effectively!

When giving a presentation, the right speaking skills are invaluable. However impactful and sophisticated your PowerPoint slides might be, they will fall flat without the right delivery.

Use our tips to hone your speaking skills, get your key messages across every time and make your presentations livelier and more effective.   Consider using some of the rhetorical devices we’ve covered to make your presentations more subtly persuasive. Find your natural speaking voice with our helpful suggestions. And remember: the more practice you put in before your presentation, the better these tips will work. Time spent preparing is never wasted and will serve you well in future presentations.

If you have any questions about specific speaking skills or anything to do with PowerPoint, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at [email protected] . We’re always happy to help!

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Don't start your work presentations by simply saying 'hello.' Here's how to be more engaging in the conference room.

  • I'm a public-speaking expert, and I've trained many executives and senior teams.
  • I tell all of them to stop starting work presentations with a salutation or a "hello."
  • Instead, you should engage your audience by telling a story or asking a question.

Insider Today

I'm sure you've sat through plenty of presentations where the presenter starts with a polite salutation like, "Hello, thank you for having me here today," or, "I am so glad to be here" — often followed by their name and professional résumé . Sometimes, if it's an internal meeting, you get the same salutations followed by an agenda slide with bullet points and the presenter narrating it.

As a public-speaking coach who has worked with many executives and senior teams, I know how to make work presentations more engaging. Here's how you should change your approach.

If you stick to your old ways, you aren't leaving a memorable first impression

Your audience is thinking three things when you walk into that conference room or onto that stage: Who is this person, why should I care, and how are they going to solve my problem?

Let's face it: Most people are more interested in how you will solve their problem than in you and your professional résumé. So let's flip the script a bit. Start with the solution to their problem, briefly talk about yourself for credibility, and then give them a reason to care.

Instead, try to capture their attention

Begin your presentation with a hook or a story — something that grabs their attention right from the start. For instance, your hook might be, "Did you know this?" or "What if that?" It could also be a short story that humanizes your services or products.

Most presentations are predictable; wouldn't it be better for both your time and your audience if you could introduce an element of surprise?

Some might feel it rude not to thank the organizer or greet the audience, so I suggest finding another place in your presentation for this. Here's a good structure:

Intro: "What if you could be a more confident and credible presenter? What if you could engage with your audience so they remember your products or services?"

Credibility: "My name is Meridith, and I've been coaching entrepreneurs and executives on how to speak with spark for over a decade, and I am really excited to be here. I want to thank [insert name] for inviting me to share the afternoon with you."

Solution: "Today, I will give you three ways to make your audience remember your products and services, helping you stand out in a competitive market. Let's get this party started!"

You could also try to form a personal connection

Often, presentations lack a personal touch. Try sharing a relevant personal anecdote or experience that relates to your topic. This not only makes your work presentation more relatable but also helps to establish a deeper connection with your audience.

For example, you could say: "When I was younger, I often hid in the back of the classroom, hoping the teacher wouldn't call on me because I didn't want to sound stupid or have the wrong answer. Later in life, I discovered acting and improv comedy . It was through the practice of these two art forms that I developed my confidence and learned how to engage more courageously with others. Today, I will give you solutions for how you can also better engage your audience with spark."

Try to encourage interaction

At the very least, you should try to engage your audience from the beginning — whether in person or on virtual calls. You can ask a thought-provoking question or propose a challenge that involves them directly. This approach shifts the dynamic to more interactive and engaging sessions.

If you implement any of these suggestions, you can make your presentation memorable and impactful immediately. And you'll most likely get a larger return on your investment of time and energy.

In today's fast-paced world, where attention spans are increasingly shorter than ever, it's crucial to grab and hold your audience's attention from the very beginning. By doing so, you set the stage for a more engaging and productive interaction. So challenge yourself to break free from presentation norms and embrace a style that resonates deeply with your audience and leaves a lasting impression.

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Watch: A public speaking champion reveals 3 keys to nailing your business presentation

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SocialWorker.com

A Matter of Speaking: For Social Workers, How To Give a Presentation With Confidence, Humor, and Impact

by Jennifer Luna

Public Speaking

Public Speaking

by Jennifer Luna, MSSW

     Regardless of what type of social work you practice, professional presentation skills are a must. Yet, 75% of people are afraid of public speaking. For most people, public speaking is an acquired skill, not an innate gift. Developing your presentation skills can increase opportunities for you to share your expertise, enhance your leadership ability, and increase the positive influence you can have on others. The following tips will help you prepare for a great presentation and give you more confidence in the process.  

    First, define the objectives of the presentation. This could be to teach a practice skill, present a theory, or describe a research finding. If you are presenting a workshop for CEU credit, make sure that your objectives align with those of the continuing education provider. Once you have defined the objective, assess your audience and tailor your presentation to the audience’s specific needs. Often, you can ask for the participant list before your presentation, to gain more information about your audience.

    Next, you will want to set up an outline for your presentation. This outline will include your introduction, a brief summary of the points you will touch on, housekeeping items (such as turning off cell phones, location of bathrooms, times of breaks), and the conclusion of your presentation (identifying take-aways, or an evaluation of the presentation).

    After you have finished your outline, review each item and determine how much time each section will take. This will allow you to anticipate breaks, allot sufficient time for questions, and ensure you have enough time for an effective ending to the workshop.

    If you are presenting a training workshop, include activities in which participants can brainstorm, practice a skill, or work on a team building activity that produces useful information to share with the entire group. If you are facilitating an activity for the first time, practice it with colleagues to get a good estimate of the time needed.  Always explain the activity thoroughly to the participants, and be clear about the amount of time allowed for the activity.  It is also wise to provide handouts to your audience, so they have a visual of the information you want to convey. This allows them to listen to you rather than scurrying to write down all of your words.  

     Use visual aids to help maintain interest in your material or explain the concepts you are presenting more coherently.  Most adult learners have an attention span of 10-15 minutes.  With this in mind, visual aids such as charts, pictures, or short video clips are necessary to make the information interesting and add variety to your presentation. If you are integrating technology into your presentation, it is critical that you check your presentation ahead of time. You risk losing your audience’s attention if the technology is slow or doesn’t work.  It also helps to have a backup plan for malfunctioning technology, just in case!

     Practicing your presentation involves more than just rehearsing in front of a crowd. Although rehearsal is important, choosing your rehearsal audience carefully will ensure that you receive valuable and pertinent feedback. Choose a group of colleagues whose opinions you value.  As you practice your presentation, note their facial expressions. Take notes when you notice a mistake or a piece of information that may need a visual example or more time to explain. Don’t hesitate to make changes based on the feedback you receive—this is why you are practicing in the first place! If you feel that your words sound awkward or uninteresting, experiment with different words, a funny story, or a joke or two. Humor is an excellent tool to break the ice and settle your nerves.  To further engage the audience, you might ask questions that all participants can relate to.

    If you really want to put yourself in the audience’s shoes, record yourself. By seeing and hearing yourself speak, you will be able to judge the inflection, speed, and enunciation of your voice. And remember, timing is everything! Make sure you time your rehearsal and make adjustments to your delivery speed or length of your presentation when necessary.  

    On the day of your presentation, always arrive early to your venue , so you can familiarize yourself with the room or stage where you will be speaking. You should also use this time to test your technology by checking every slide and any other visual aids you are using. Set the room up in a style (organize tables and chairs) that will lend itself to the activities you will be facilitating. Place any necessary handouts in a spot that will not be distracting if participants arrive late. As a bonus, arriving early allows you more time to relax and greet the participants as they walk in, which helps you to establish a great rapport with your audience before you even begin speaking.

     Start strong. The best way to do this is to begin with a bold statement, such as, “Many people are more afraid of public speaking than dying!” Another attention-getting option is to contradict their expectations about the topic you are going to speak about. An example of this might be, “No one here really cares about how much social workers earn, right?” These techniques will stimulate the audience’s curiosity.

    Storytelling is also an excellent tool for captivating an audience.  Choose impactful stories from your own experience or the lived experiences of others. Select stories that the audience can identify with, or a story that connects to a common interest or concern. This is another reason to know your audience before you construct your presentation. Practice telling your stories to many different people beforehand, to check for clarity and conciseness. Remember, authenticity is key, and the story must relate clearly to the point you are trying to make.

     End stronger! Find a way to leave your audience inspired. Try not to end with a question and answer session. If you do get questions at the end, try to follow the final question with concluding key points, a quote, a call to action, or perhaps a vision for the audience to leave with. Often, inexperienced presenters will simply stop their presentation rather than ending it properly. A strong finish will make a lasting impression on your audience.   

    Remember, most audiences want you to succeed! They are there to see and hear you and to learn from you, and they are sympathetic. Relax!

Jennifer Luna, MSSW, is a social worker, career coach, and trainer. She serves as Director of the DiNitto Center for Career Services at the University of Texas at Austin, Steve Hicks School of Social Work. Jennifer utilizes a collaborative yet strategic coaching approach to assist social workers in identifying their strongest skills, areas of knowledge, key strengths, and leadership characteristics.

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Trump trials give MAGA a false sense of confidence

Trumpers are all smiles after thursday, by brian karem.

Just before Donald Trump stepped into a New York courtroom Thursday, he stopped and spoke with reporters. He ranted. He raved. He didn’t make much sense. He called all the court actions taken against him “election interference run by Joe Biden.” He then said it is a terrible time for our country, “a real dark period,” to which a reporter remarked on a live-mic “Jesus Christ.”

Jesus has nothing to do with Donald Trump, still, Trump thinks he is being crucified . Meanwhile, Manhattan came to a standstill as Trump’s motorcade brought him to court. Dean Obeidallah, a SiriusXM host noted, “The NYPD is closing roads by me in NYC during rush hour to allow Trump to get to the courthouse in lower Manhattan.” The networks covered it as if it were a coronation, and Trump soaked up the attention.

"Some Trump supporters are happy Trump could go to prison and defeat the Democrats while at the same time believe he never will because he’s smarter than the so-called Deep State."

At about the same time, Tucker Carlson, still on the Putin bandwagon, told us Russians have it much better than Americans (after shopping in a Moscow grocery store). And if that wasn’t circus enough for you, Fulton County District Attorney Fanni Willis jumped into the Trump-related drama by running into court and defending herself against charges that she abused her power and shouldn’t be allowed to prosecute Trump on some very serious state criminal charges in Georgia. She was seen on Thursday talking about cruises, trips to Aruba and who paid for what dinner while she dodged haters, moved out of her house, took care of her father, used private security and dated lead prosecutor Nathan Wade who is overseeing the Donald Trump case in Fulton County, Georgia.

What does all of this testimony have to do with Donald Trump? Absolutely nothing. But Trump and a co-defendant in Georgia want to delay the start of the only trial Trump can’t control should he be re-elected. Or, he wants to try and kill the charges outright because of the alleged inappropriate use of public funds. The allegation is Wade used money he got paid as a prosecutor to go on a cruise and some road trips with Willis. Even a few members of the Trump team that still talk with me have said, “who gives a shit?” Though they also like that it muddies the water “for the boss.” And they cackled with glee watching the drama in Georgia.

“Don’t get cute with me,” Willis said at one point under direction questioning. My grandfather and uncle, who were both circuit court judges often said, “Lawyers make the worst witnesses. They don’t know when to shut up.” Willis tried to guess what the line of questioning was about, cut it off, and spit it back at her accusers while the judge sat by trying to guide her into calmer waters. 

"I'm not on trial no matter how much want to put me on trial," Willis stated defiantly . 

And, if that’s not drama enough for the day, in speaking with several members of the Republican Party, many of them said they are embarrassed by Donald Trump, “though most (of the GOP) are loyal to him,” but some are seeing Trump’s drama coming to an end in court soon and want to find a seat before the music stops. It is worth saying that the number of people doing this is very low.

Yes, we’ve all heard this before. Donald Trump is trouble. Donald Trump is going down and who will be left to pick up the pieces? Trump found out today that his first test in criminal court will be in Manhattan in what many believe is the weakest case he faces; the payment of hush money to Stormy Daniels. Michael Cohen, his former fixer, and David Pecker (no pun intended) the former CEO of American Media figure prominently in the case. Cohen, Trump tells us, is a liar, a cheat and a bum. What Cohen routinely calls Trump can’t be said in front of small children. But, despite Trump’s insults at Cohen’s expense, Cohen has, so far, proved to be the spear in Trump’s side he cannot ignore. He might just be the witness that helps put Trump in prison. “He deserves it,” Cohen said. 

Will that make a difference to what remains of the Republican Party? Probably not. One GOP stalwart told me, “We may have to find another candidate, but we probably won’t even if Trump goes to prison – which a lot of us think won’t ever happen. But come on, you have to admit that Trump beating Biden while in prison would be delicious irony.” I would call it something else, but there is no denying that some in Trump’s camp would secretly relish that outcome – though others openly admit it could destroy what’s left of the “United” in the “United States.”

Many Trump supporters have also told me that this year’s Super Bowl already accomplished that goal . One Q-Anon (remember Q-Anon? Turns out this is a story about Q-Anon) supporter proudly believes the Deep State engineered the Kansas City victory in the Super Bowl to promote LGBTQ “weirdoes who want men to play women’s basketball.” I can’t make this stuff up and wouldn’t try. 

This source was happy about Willis’s testimony in Georgia. “She was great for us,” he said. “You couldn’t ask for a better outcome.” According to Trump supporters, Willis showed her backside and tainted the case against Trump. “They’ll have to throw it out.” And Cohen, “A known liar” according to the same source said, “won’t be able to lay gloves on Trump.”

So, some Trump supporters are happy Trump could go to prison and defeat the Democrats while at the same time believe he never will because he’s smarter than the so-called Deep State.

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That only leaves the Mar-A-Lago classified documents case to consider. Trump supporters say it “will never be heard. It will be delayed until after the election that Trump will win.” These same supporters say, “Trump only got one good judge and it was in Florida.” And in the D.C. federal case, many of Trump’s cronies believe the Supreme Court, three members of which were handpicked by Trump, will “make sure justice is done and Trump will be granted unlimited immunity.”

I suppose if that’s the case it will just be a matter of time before either Trump or Biden use Seal Team 6 to take out their rivals. “I’m betting on Trump. The military loves him and so do the leaders of all the other countries. Even Putin,” I was told.

Well, especially Putin. Different story.

Meanwhile, Lara Trump is being considered as a co-chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and recently vowed that every cent raised by the RNC will be spent on Donald Trump. Mind you, that still probably wouldn’t pay off Trump’s massive legal bills.  Technically those funds should not be used for that purpose, but we are talking about Trump who makes his own rules. Using “every cent” for Trump could bankrupt the Republican Party , and would be problematic for down ballot Republican candidates – who usually count on RNC funding to mount a competitive race in purple states. Not helping out other MAGA candidates (okay I’ve given up calling them Republicans, because they aren’t) is inspired lunacy. Since Lara Trump said this, some of Trump’s other folks have walked it back a bit and said that the RNC will spend money on voter “integrity,” which to the Democrats sounds like voter suppression. That is also a different story.

Michael Cohen said months ago he thought Lara Trump was an idiot, and folks, he ain’t wrong. Left to her devices, she would commit political suicide for the entire MAGA party.

Democrats are cheering. They believe they are watching the demise of a national party in real time, and while MAGA supporters don’t see it, the fact that they have painted themselves into a corner with Trump is confirmation enough for outsiders to agree with that sentiment. 

If Donald Trump is whacked with a large fine in the New York civil business case, and if he should face prison time, MAGA supporters say they’ll back him no matter what. They’ve already ex-communicated everyone in the former Republican Party who has opposed Trump. Sen. Lindsey Graham once famously said that if the GOP embraced Trump it would be the demise of the party, and he has proven himself correct, though he never took his own advice.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter , Crash Course.

Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney are the two most infamous ex-Republicans. There are many others, and while former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele said he would be like “Motel 6” and keep the light on for legitimate conservatives and not the MAGA cult, he has been unsuccessful in stemming the tide of racism and corruption that has swept the MAGA cult into power.

The stench is so overpowering, the wailing of the Trump banshees so loud, the rending of hair and gnashing of teeth so complete that Thursday afternoon the White House briefing room was an afterthought in the news cycle – even though Biden and his administration are dealing with a potential threat of nuclear weapons launched from space-based Russian satellites .

If it all sounds like theater, and in Donald’s case it always is. The question remains, who – if anyone – can pick up the pieces if Donald isn’t around?

Trump staffers see their glorious leader riding high and reclaiming the promised land of the presidency this fall so he can then cage migrants, become a dictator for a day and, as Rep. Jamie Raskin so aptly put it, “rule over the ruin and rubble.”

Still, the same Trump staffers who privately said Trump is vulnerable also think that Nikki Haley could, indeed, be the nominee if something were to happen to Trump. “The beauty of that,” I was told, “is that it would kill the Democrats. If the Republicans (his word not mine) elected the first female president – and a minority at that – it would destroy the Democrats and then I wouldn’t be happier.”

With the MAGA party, it is always about victory at all costs. Democrats and most Republicans think Haley could never get the nomination because she defied Trump and continues to attack him, and stubbornly stays in the presidential race. She’s a woman and that doesn’t sit well with the aging white rednecks of MAGA.

But, they love to win – and they’ll probably close their eyes and hold their noses as the vote for Haley if they must – after all they’ve already swallowed Donald Trump. They’ve proven they’ll swallow anything.

Then, after the loss, they’ll scream that the fix was in – like Donald did before, and continue ranting and raving like the lunatics that they are.

Get ready for a fun Spring, Summer and Fall.

about this topic

  • Republicans are sticking to Trump — they're about to reap the whirlwind
  • There is no horse race — it’s time to see that the stakes are too high this time
  • Why MAGA is right (sort of)
  • Hiding Joe Biden won’t help him

Brian Karem is the former senior White House correspondent for Playboy. He has covered every presidential administration since Ronald Reagan, sued Donald Trump three times successfully to keep his press pass, spent time in jail to protect a confidential source, covered wars in the Middle East and is the author of seven books. His latest is " Free the Press ."

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