Heart Comes First
When you’re planning a presentation, it’s helpful to ask yourself: What’s the heart of the matter here? What am I really trying to say? Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But it’s the hardest darn thing to actually do.
Forget the Preamble
Preamble is everything we say before we start to say what we really want to say. It’s not necessary, though it kind of eases us into our topic. But with the ever-dwindling attention spans of our audiences, you’re losing precious seconds when you don’t hook your audience right up front. Be bold and lead with your heart!
You Have To Care
about your material. Or why it’s important. Or why your audience will benefit from it. Think of this as a heart-connection with your content. Not to be glib about it, but if you don’t care, how can you expect your audience to? Even the driest data can use a little love.
Heart-Shaped Presenting
can be a great way to organize your material. Check out the shape. That little indent at the top of the heart? It’s your Key Message, your opening, and it’s got a point! It then stretches out with supporting data, ideas and anecdotes, expanding broadly before curving down to another point. That’s your conclusion.
Draw a dotted line from the top indent to the bottom of the heart. This through-line right down the middle connects your presentation from open to close.
Heart Matters
Isn’t it amazing how many ways the word contributes to our language? This organ is vital to our verbiage:
At heart = basically
By heart = memorized
Heavy heart = sadness
Lose heart = discouraged
Big heart = generous
Heart-stopping = shocking
Heart-to-heart = honest
Good-hearted = compassionate
Take Heart
The days are getting longer and spring is a-coming. We all need to do the best we can to take care of our own hearts and the hearts of those around us. We’re all in this together!
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