Giving a great presentation is an excellent way to level up in your career, get noticed by your higher-ups and move towards a promotion or other career goals.

The acronym “PRESENT” provides a step-by-step game plan on how to improve your next presentation:

This is how you show up when you speak. Your presence on stage (or in the boardroom, classroom, etc.) will be different from how you show up at a casual coffee meeting.

Presence has two parts:

Developing your stage presence starts with self-awareness, bringing to your own attention how you respond and how you are functioning in your relationship to those around you relative to your career objectives.
Self-awareness is an important part of the pursuit of what is truly important to you because it guides your perceptions, intentions and responses to your own behavior.

We often are so concerned with the audience and how other people are perceiving us. This concern directs thinking towards things that are completely outside of control, which is disempowering. The pursuit of this is futile.

Instead, knowing what is truly your highest priority and filling your days with inspired actions will enhance your confidence, resilience and your ability to exude executive presence.

Your greatest asset while on stage are the people in the room. This is not just a solo presentation to yourself, but you are speaking to a group of people who want to hear from you. You are presenting for a reason—you have something to say!

The moment you reveal something to your audience in accordance with what is highest on their values, they will listen to you, engage with you, and remember you.

Energy can be hard to define because it’s not tangible. It’s a mood and feeling that you possess and can transfer to the people in the room as you communicate with them.

Here are a few types of energy you want to bring in the room:

Focus on what your audience is going to get out of your presentation. It’s not about you and your expertise or image, but it’s about your audience.

Instead of focusing on yourself, be in service to others and focus on giving your audience what they need. Go into your presentation with the mindset that this is for the benefit of your audience, not for your own personal benefit.

No one learns when they are bored. We’ve all sat through boring presentations and know this to be true! So, don’t make it just a one-way presentation, but invite participation from the audience.

The best way to invite participation is to ask them questions. Questions are your answers, which can tell you important information about their values and what revelation they need to get to the “yes”.

This makes it engaging for your audience and increases the likelihood that they will remember what you’ve taught them.

Engaging presentations also feed into the “buying energy.” Your audience is more likely to follow through with the action steps you need if they are engaged.

The definition of novelty is something “new.” This plays off of the last point—to engage your audience, you need to bring them something novel. There are two ways to do this:

By giving novel and interesting information, you will capture your audience’s attention. It also shows respect for their expertise and intelligence, as you are not wasting their time on something they already know.

To effectively serve your audience, you need to ground yourself in the truth. We live in a society where it’s challenging to know who is being truthful and authentic. Build trust between you and your audience by speaking the truth consistently.

The truth is game-changing. It allows you to make a real impact on your audience and in your work. It allows you to go deeper into an issue, topic, or idea and builds trust.

When you focus on speaking the truth, there’s no performance to make since the truth is authentic and it doesn’t require a consensus. The authenticity of speaking the truth will be more impactful than a carefully constructed performance that’s based on an ambiguous goal to “say the right thing”.

Implementing these steps will not necessarily eliminate all your fear around giving a presentation. But what they can do is provide a step-by-step guide to follow. You can give a great presentation despite your fear. And as you continue to give successful presentations, your confidence and ability will continue to grow.

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With gratitude from your #1 fan,
Grace