From what you can see in the video, it’s not pretty….In fact it’s pretty damn scary.

Wanna know something REAL scary? Both the competitors AND the judges are expected to take THOROUGH notes of the entire series of speeches AND for students, come up with arguments against them.

Just a simple reminder: When you speak in front of an audience, treat it like a conversation. When in doubt, go even slower.

In all cases, it’s amazing to see so many people use PowerPoint in their speeches SO DAMN HORRIBLY.

I have seen very few people actually use PowerPoint (or its Mac counterpart, Keynote) effectively. Hence why it frequently gets a bad name in the corporate/speaking sector.

It doesn’t have to be that way though. Here’s some of the mistakes you DON’T want to make when using it yourself, and if you do, how to fix them:

1. Making the PowerPoint their speech - Too many people have this mistake…well, it’s best to use a presentation to show the mistake:

Just remember: YOUR POWERPOINT IS NOT YOUR SPEECH. Use it as an outline, not as a script.

2. Baring all on the PowerPoint - I know you probsbly think it’s a smart idea to have the entire slide contents appear all at once on your screen, as the audience can see all your points. Here’s the problem though: When all the information is on a slide, your audience is busy darting around it being distracted.

Instead, you should use animation to only show the content as you need it, to help with the flow of your speech. The best thing to do is only show the content you’re currently discussing. However, be sure to not go crazy on the animation, or you’ll be guilty of the PowerPoint sin below:

3. Too much damn animation -  In one of my graduate seminars, the professor decided that everty single point on her PowerPoints should have a random effect. While dodging sin #2, we ended up having to wait up to 10 seconds for each effect to stop. In addition to this, one effect would just POP in, another would pinwheel in, another would EXPLODE onto the scene. This makes following along absolute HELL.

4. Overly distracting backgrounds – Seriously, we don’t need to see the big massive zazzle of your fireworks display, nor the one with the massive crowd or the background so colorful we’d need special glasses to see your text. This is an area where I follow Steve Jobs: A simple gradient will suffice. Minimize the craziness.

What mistakes can you think of?

Image via Wikipedia

Apple Keynotes, for the most part, are rather disappointing. However, with Tim Cook now at the help at the World’s richest company, a new direction has been taken. Hence, we take a look at the first ever presentation by the new CEO of Apple, as he unloads the iGlory upon us.

What I liked

Friendly and Approachable –  One thing that Tim really rubbed off of Jobs was his approachability. He seemed welcoming and friendly to the crowd and didn’t try to toot his own horn like some social media ignatzes do.

Sense of structure – I didn’t see structure in the keynote on the caliber of Steve Jobs, but it was still present. It wouldn’t have done Cook well to talk about the iPhone one minute, then Angry Birds the next. So it’s good to see this.

What I didn’t like

Too Casual/Apologetic – Granted it’s always great when the speaker doesn’t act like they’re the biggest thing since the iBread Slice to hit the Internets, but acting too casual can make you look unprepared. Cook himself admitted this was his first keynote since becoming CEO,

Talking to the walls – There were several times when Cook wouldn’t look at the audience. Instead, he’d stare at the wall. In particular, he would pace around (also not a good thing) and stare at the wall when he spoke.

Buzzwords aplenty – I couldn’t count how many times Cook said something Apple did was “Spectacular” or “Amazing” or “Revolutionary” or some other buzzword. Yes I know Steve was equally guilty of this, but it’s still rather annoying. The better alternative is to simply express whatever the hell it is you’ve got. We all know how revolutionary the damn thing is, STOP REMINDING US.

Other speakers got too much time – The thing about Steve Jobs was that he dominated the show. Others made appearances, but they were very minimal. With this keynote, it seemed like the entire major team had a large chunk of time on stage, which takes away from one’s ability to see what Cook himself has to offer his audience.

The Bottom line

I got to hand Tim Cook one thing: This was pretty good for his first run as the leader of Apple. And with recent current events, he’s here to stay at the helm. He can only improve, though he does need to work on his public speaking skills.

Image via Wikipedia

Practice what you preach.

It’s as simple as that. You’ve invented your brand, you can explain what it is, who it is, and what you want, and you can woo people with the awesomeness of its might. There’s just one problem. You can’t simply just present your brand and play. The way you create your brand dictates the personality and behavior your customers/audience will expect of you.