Welcome to Business Presentation Mastery, Jenna!

Thank you for signing up for Business Presentation Mastery!  This comprehensive program will take you through my full system for developing and delivering outstanding presentations, whether you are speaking to a small group in a boardroom or a big audience at a conference.

The program is divided into seven modules, with multiple video lessons in each module and worksheets for several of the lessons.  While I recommend you go through the content in the order presented, you can certainly skip around the lessons depending on what you need help with in the moment.

Important note about the videos – When you click on a video link, you will be accessing the videos through my OneDrive video player. It can be a bit slower to load than if you were accessing it via something like YouTube, but I use this system because it’s more secure.

If the sound doesn’t play right away: Try pausing and then unpausing the video, or skip ahead a few seconds in the video – doing that usually gets the video and sound to synch up, and then you can go back to the beginning of the video and watch it as normal.

Also, the video will likely initially load at a lower resolution, but you can change that! To play it at a higher resolution, just go to the “settings” gear icon in the player, and bump the resolution up to 720p or 1080p.  It may take a couple seconds to adjust, but the video will be a lot prettier.

If any of the content or links don’t work for you, please email me at Lauren@LaurenSergy.com and I’ll get to it as soon as I can.

 

Enjoy the program!

Module 1: Mindset and Strategic Thinking

Public speaking is a huge mental game – it’s a lot like the mental game aspect of sports. In this first module, we’re going to build your “mental game” toolbox and give you strategies for getting into the right frame of mind for speaking.

This is the largest module in the entire course, and is the foundation for rapidly improving your presentation skills. Working on your headspace and strengthening your mental approach to speaking right out of the gate will make all the other techniques we cover in this course more effective, so don’t skip these lessons!

The strategies and techniques we cover in this module involve both your brain and your body. This brain-body approach makes use of psychomotor connections while also teaching you how to give off a more confident impression…even when you aren’t feeling it!

Module 2- Audience Analysis and Goal-setting:

Crafting Persuasive, Compelling, Audience-Centered Presentations

 

Module 2 is all about how to dig into your audience’s heads so that you can create presentations that are targeted to their needs and wants. This module will improve a number of important aspects of your presentations: the focus of your talk, your ability to meaningfully connect with your audience, even your ability to persuade the people listening to you.

Module 3 – Developing Your Presentation

The Information Ladder Method

Now that we’ve covered managing our nerves AND getting into our audience’s heads, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get into developing your presentation.

The Information Ladder is my method for planning and drafting highly focused presentations with a clear central message and little to no superfluous or unnecessary information. It’s a way of mind-mapping and structuring the content of a presentation. Because it follows a strict structure that restricts the amount of information you can jam into your talk, it is great for preventing information overload, and helps ensure that all your content is relevant and flows logically.

A quick note on how this module works: all the lessons in this module build on one another and blend together as you draft a presentation. When you go to build your presentation, you’ll move back and forth between the strategies and techniques we cover in each lesson, using them at different times as needed.  This sometimes makes the process of building a presentation feel a bit messy, but don’t let that worry you. Creative work IS messy, and it doesn’t matter if you’re presenting spreadsheets of numbers and figures or are crafting a totally original philosophical piece, making a presentation is creative work!

Module 4 – Slide Decks:

Enhancing Your Presentation with Great Visuals

In Module 4 we tackle a tool that can make or break your presentation: your slide decks! You will learn the elements of a high-value slide deck along with where people tend to go wrong when creating visual presentations. It’s time to join the good fight against Death By PowerPoint, so let’s get started.

 

 

(No worksheets for this one – get cracking on your slides!)

Module 5 – Verbal Performance

Now that you’re drafting your presentations, getting your content proverbially down on paper, out of your head and most importantly out of your mouth, we’re going to spend the next couple of modules tackling the performance side of things.

Performance includes verbal and non-verbal communication elements, namely vocal variation and body language. Module 5 is going to focus on the vocal technique and speech elements of performance.

Module 6 – Body Language and Non-Verbal Expression

We are on the penultimate module in this course, Module 6: Body Language and Non-Verbal Expression! In the previous module we looked at the first part of great performance, Voice and Speech techniques, and in this part we’re looking towards the body and movement side of public speaking performance.

As you might imagine, there is going to be a lot of moving around in this module. If you have mobility issues of any kind, I still encourage you to go through this module, learn the principles and strategies behind body language and movement, and adapt what you need to make it work for you.

 

 

(no worksheets here either – stand up and try out the techniques!)

Module 7 – Working With Audiences:

Engagement, Management, Interaction, and Q&As

Welcome to Module 7 – the final module in this course! Throughout this whole program we’ve been working to create a presentation that really hits home with our audiences, and now it’s time to get interactive and learn some strategies for getting them engaged and involved in your talk. 

Working with your audience isn’t just about getting them engaged and maybe including a bit of participation here and there. There is also an element of audience management – crowd control, if you will – so you can handle issues like disruptions or interruptions. It’s also important to be able to deftly handle Q&A. In this module, we will cover the gamut so that you can manage your audience with the skill of an orchestral conductor.