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A presentation is memorable when the audience can picture it. Speak in visual terms by pausing after a data point, saying for example, and telling a short story with characters, dialogue and something that actually happened. People remember what they can see in their heads.
Did you remember?
One of the most important parts of giving presentations, speeches, and communicating with people at all, is that they remember what you said. That is what lets them act on it. That is what lets them pass it on to somebody else so something can actually happen.
So the real question is not whether you were clear. It is this: are you being memorable when you speak?
Speak in visual terms
How do you get memorable? You speak in a visual manner. You tell stories. You paint a picture with your words.
And there is a phrase that gets you there almost every time.
For example. Two words. Say them after a data point and the whole room changes what it is doing, from processing information to picturing a scene.
How to use it
If you are giving data points and information, pause. Say for example. Then tell a short story. Give a case study. Take us somewhere and make us feel something.
Have dialogue in it. Have characters. Share something that actually happened involving the people who lived through it, and connect it to whatever the data point was there to prove.
When we can see it, and we experience it in our heads, it becomes memorable.
That is the whole mechanism. Memory is closer to replay than to storage, and people can only replay what they can picture.
A story I know works, and the trap inside it
Some of you who went through my program may remember a story I told about a specific public speaking situation I was in. It was stand up comedy, and somebody was about to throw something at my face.
When I bring that up at companies, years later, people sometimes yell out the detail: it was a green Heineken bottle.
That is a good demonstration of how well a story sticks. It is also the warning attached to it. Ideally what people remember is the main idea of the talk, which was about being a better presenter, about changing depending on the audience, about style and substance, and about all the other pieces that go into being a more effective presenter.
A story people remember while forgetting the point is a failure that feels like a success. So land every example back on the idea it was there to prove, and say that idea again afterwards, so the two things travel together.
The working checklist
- Name the one idea you want repeated a week from now. If you cannot say it in a sentence, neither can they.
- Pause after the number. The pause is the signal that something is about to be explained rather than piled on.
- Say for example and mean it. Then go somewhere specific.
- Put people in it. Characters, dialogue, something that really happened.
- Come back to the point. Every time.
Always make sure you are giving content that is memorable. It is the difference between a presentation that was understood and a presentation that was used.
For the craft of building those stories, read how to use storytelling in presentations. If you want your team's talks rebuilt around examples people can repeat, get a quick quote.