SEP Episode #93: 6 Ways Mastering a Presentation Makes You a Better Entrepreneur

Show Notes:

• [00:51] We are going to talk about 6 ways that mastering a presentation makes you a better entrepreneur.
• [01:58] You’ll learn how the words you are using in your head are influencing your actions and choices.  It is like becoming a copywriter for your life.  
• [02:43] Most of us believe we have to become something more than we are to start speaking. 
• [03:02] Over the last few years I have used presentations as a strategy to grow my business and get more customers. 
• [03:39] The process of creating a great presentation is therapeutic.  
• [04:36] The key to creating a good human connection is through sharing vulnerability in our stories.   
• [05:35] You’ll gain confidence and clarity in your thought.  
• [06:53] Through the process of creating a great presentation it hones in on the specific ideas that you need to share and puts them together in a framework that is easier.  
• [07:33] Your sales or enrollment calls will become more successful.  
• [08:58] It makes it easier to create content.  Your presentation is the foundation of your content.  
• [10:11] There is no limit to how much you can create or teach in your content.  
• [10:58] You’ll grow from immediate feedback.  
• [12:45] You’ll practice facing your fears.  
• [13:39] Fear doesn’t go away.  As you get better you will have bigger opportunities.
• [14:33] Presentations are a challenging thing and you don’t want to do it alone.  
• [16:43] There is a lot that goes into mastering a presentation and becoming a world-class presenter.  There is a lot more that you can gain from this process. 
• [17:07] You will never be ready.  You have to start imperfectly at first and allow the process to refine you into the world-class presenter you want to be.  Enjoy the growth along the way.  

Connect with Kyle:

• Kyle’s Book – Selling with Story 
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• 30 Minute Call with Kyle

Note from Kyle: This is the first article I’ve published on the site in a long time, far too long. It felt great to get back into the creative flow and focus on my writing. I will repurpose this article into a podcast in the coming weeks, but for now I hope you enjoy the written word. Let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see me write about in the comments.

Over the last few months, I have been going through a coaching certification to help myself better understand the “inner game” of storytelling. It’s like copywriting, but instead of using words to persuade others to take action, you learn how the words you’re using in your head are influencing your actions and choices. It’s like becoming a copywriter for your life — exciting stuff that I’m going to be integrating with the clients I work with over the year.

During one of the training sessions, the instructor, Mark England, shared a thought that shifted my paradigm on presentations: “You don’t become a thought leader and then start speaking… Instead, through the process of speaking, you become a thought leader.”

Many of us think there’s some kind of gap between where we are now, and where we imagine ourselves speaking on stages or in webinars — that we have to become something more than we are in order to start presenting. It’s because of this (and a general fear of speaking itself) that many people don’t even consider it an option.

Over the last few years, I’ve used presentations as a strategy to grow my business and get more customers, and have coached hundreds of other entrepreneurs and influencers how to do the same.

Looking back on that experience, I see how true Mark’s words are. The process of presenting makes you a better entrepreneur, coach or influencer. In this article, I will outline some of the unexpected benefits of presenting.

1. The Process Of Creating A Great Presentation Is Therapeutic

I regularly help facilitate workshops in which a group of 20 or so people will gather for 2 days to develop a talk. One thing that always surprises the attendees is how tired they are by the end of the workshop. We’ve been sitting in a hotel for most of the 2 days. The process of digging into your past and transforming it into useful stories for your business takes a lot of mental and emotional energy.

It’s not just about having the best bonuses in your offer or the most impressive resume or ideas. It’s not about having the best-designed slides or having the best hair. Without a good human connection, all of these things fall flat (except for the hair). The key to creating human connection is through sharing vulnerability in our stories.

Getting vulnerable can be dangerous — you can’t just share any vulnerable fact from the stage and expect a good response. Sharing vulnerability means sharing pain, and if it’s not something you’ve fully healed from, talking about it onstage can be disastrous.

The good news is that, when you follow the right framework, you can transform those stories that once haunted you into some of the most valuable tools for your business. This can totally shift your perspective on your past and replace pain or regret with gratitude. This is the foundation for creating the right kind of human connection and trust –the deeper connection with yourself is an added side bonus.

2.  You Gain Confidence And Clarity In Your Thoughts

Mastering a presentation requires you to really dig deep into your knowledge and sort out the key details and pieces of information that will get results: the customer’s thoughts, the perspectives that differentiate you, the true value in what you deliver.

It gets out of the expert blindspots.  of features and benefits and all the details that go into the work you do.

This clarity in how to present your ideas in a way that gets results stretches far beyond your confidence on a stage.

Most people, but especially entrepreneurs, live their days with a sort of background noise in their heads. All their knowledge and skills and experience are buzzing around. When a potential customer comes into view, all the ideas start buzzing and swarming louder. You don’t have time to share everything, so you need to pick, but for every 1 idea you share, there’s 5 you didn’t. Was that the right move? Was there a better thing to say right there? This constant sifting through your thoughts takes a slow toll on your energy and confidence.

The process of creating a great presentation homes in on those specific ideas you need and puts them together in a framework that’s easy.

3. Your Sales Calls Become More Successful

Being able to present from a stage or a webinar successfully will make your one-on-one sales calls better as well.

A great presentation helps you share stories about customer success, overcoming the big objections your audience faces and talking about your programs and services, and you can use these same techniques on an enrollment call.

There’s an art to sharing these stories in a way that gets people to lean in, instead of tuning out because they sense a pitch coming.

Obviously you can’t just regurgitate the same teaching stories you give on a webinar to someone (especially if they’ve recently heard you speak), but understanding the same frameworks and techniques for presenting allows you to customize your stories to each individual call as it unfolds. You spend the first part of your call getting information from your potential customer’s needs, doubts and desires, and then you can share the types of stories they need to hear.

4. It Makes It Easier To Create Content

Fighting the blank page — it’s one of the most difficult and perennial challenges of a creator.

If you see your presentation as the foundation for your content, everything you create should be made with the intention of getting more people to see this presentation. There’s often the temptation when creating a presentation to teach as much as possible and share all the depth of your expertise. There’s a natural inclination to want to work all of those ideas into your presentation and really show the audience how brilliant you are.

Unfortunately, your presentation also has a time limit, and your listeners have limits to their attention spans. Many of the clients I work with get frustrated when we need to cut out all the amazing stuff they teach to distill a 30-minute teaching point down to a 5-minute one.

It can hurt to cut things out, but just because an idea in your presentation gets cut does not make it a bad idea, it just needs a new home. This is how your presentation becomes your content strategy.

The good news is that there’s no limit to how much you can create and teach in your content. The content you create can give you the freedom to fully express those thoughts outside of your presentation so anyone who hears you and wants a deeper dive can find it.

This also gives new context to your content. Don’t just see it as a way to get awareness and traffic to your presentation — see it as a laboratory for improving and enhancing your presentation.

Have a new idea? Try it in a solo podcast, article or video and see how your target customers respond. If it does well, try adding it to your presentation.

5. You Grow From Immediate Feedback

Whether you’re presenting on stage or on a webinar, there’s no better place to get immediate feedback.

The questions you get after your talk about your product or service can give you data on the big objections and needs of your audience. If you see a pattern in these questions, it could influence what you teach in your presentation (and the rest of your messaging).

You’ll also have the opportunity to test your message in front of different audiences. A story or an offer that falls flat for some might be a hit with a slightly different audience. As you start to get more of a pulse on who responds best to what, you can start proactively seeking the opportunities where your best audiences gather.

In-person events have some particular and unique advantages. You get feedback on your stories based on who approaches you and mentions them to you.

Best of all of these, if you have the opportunity to film the audience while you’re speaking, you can review the subtle body language responses people have to your content as you’re teaching. If you know what to look for, you can tell when people are most engaged, and when you’ve lost them. If you have specific leads in the audience or someone who’s on your Dream 100 list, watch for how they respond if you can.

6. You Practice Facing Your Fears

Very few people have the natural ability to be comfortable in front of a large group of people, and fewer still can be in front of a crowd and explain their thoughts and ideas clearly and effectively without practice and coaching. This means everyone who is getting on stages or presenting on webinars has had to confront fears.

There’s a very real fear of rejection that happens when presenting. Facing this fear is one of the most fruitful abilities any entrepreneur can develop. The more comfortable you are with rejection, the more free you are to operate from your areas of genius, to offer your help without fear and to take risks in order to grow.

It’s not something that goes away after the first few presentations, either — as you get better, you’ll have bigger opportunities and audiences, more on the line and new ideas to test. For me, the experience is a lot like a roller coaster. The nervousness and anticipation of that first slow climb up starts about 10 minutes before I begin, and the downhill rush takes over as I begin to speak. As I get moving and the anticipation goes down, I can enjoy the ride and rely on my practice to keep me on track.

Conclusion

There’s a lot that goes into mastering a presentation and becoming a world-class presenter. There’s also a lot more that you gain in this process outside of an effective tool to grow your business.

Like many things in entrepreneurship, presenting is not something you can “wait until you’re ready” to start doing — you’ll never get there with that strategy. You have to start imperfectly at first, and allow the process to refine you into the world-class presenter you want to be, remembering to enjoy the growth along the way.