Clarity Conceives Confidence

MEET JOY

Let me tell you a true story about a phenomenal professional in her workplace. I’ll call her Joy.

Joy’s boss loves her, her teammates love her, and their vendors love her. She has been with the same company for 15 years and knows all the ins and outs. She’s an MVP. Everyone comes to Joy. It’s almost a weekly occurrence that her boss is telling her they could not function without her.

Then it happened.

Joy walked into her boss's office, and her boss asked her to present a breakout at the regional sales meeting. Joy smiled, although it was a pretty fake smile because internally, Joy was losing it. She was absolutely afraid of public speaking and now, her internal world was collapsing because she didn’t even know where to start.

Now, she was very honored that her boss thought of her, but as she has told them one million times, her role is not to be in front of people. She smiled and then graciously asked if someone else could do it.

Her boss sat back and crossed their arms, and with a puzzled face, said… No, this is your opportunity, and we need you to do this.

Joy’s level of fear went to code orange.

Her boss gave her the guidelines and told her good luck.

The meeting was in two months, and Joy was slightly relieved that she had a little bit of time to pull something together. She opened up her Google Doc and typed the words up top… I don’t know what to say.

Even though her boss had given her a topic and the parameters to follow, Joy was struggling intensely at developing this presentation. Five days passed, and then 10 days passed, and then 15, and she still had a blank document.

At this point, everyone in the company was very excited for her and would remind her as they passed by her office how much they couldn’t wait to hear her deliver her presentation.

Around day 30, Joy was a complete mess. She was stressed, anxious, and as she thought about standing in front of a room full of professionals at the regional sales meeting, she started to experience minor panic attacks. She would remind herself that she is a professional, but that didn’t help.

She wondered how  to pull all her research and content together in a way that flowed and would make a difference in her audience’s lives. She struggled with summarizing what her presentation was about. Honestly, she didn’t even know where to start.

About 20 days before the event, her boss checked in with her to see how her presentation was coming along. Joy smiled and tried to pretend like everything was going well and then when her boss didn’t believe her, she got fed up and admitted that she still had a blank page.

Her boss leaned back in their chair, crossed their arms, and with a puzzled face said… Why didn’t you tell me sooner? I just assumed that you would attack this presentation like you attack every other project around this place. I will email you a resource right now that will help you prepare and deliver this presentation.

The sweat was rolling down her back as Joy smiled and left her boss’s office. Her knees were wobbly, and like it’s been for the last month, her stomach was extremely nauseous.

All she could visualize was her standing in front of a room full of her peers and jumbling up her words. All she visualized were horrible ratings on her Presentation score. All she visualized was waking up the morning of the presentation and still having a blank page.

As Joy got back to her desk, she sat down and dove into her projects for the day. At the end of the day, she checked her email and the resource from her boss still wasn’t there. She walked by her boss's office but they were not there. So she went home, defeated, with her head down, and that night she stared at the blank screen and tried her best to get some ideas in place.

While working, she noticed her boss emailed her something called the Presentation Blueprint. She opened it and discovered it was a template that helps you prepare with incredible clarity and deliver with maximum confidence. As she started to work through the Presentation Blueprint, her energy grew more and more rapidly for this presentation. She looked over and realized that it was 4:30 in the morning and she quickly shut her computer and went to bed.

She woke up and shot out of bed, hoping that the Presentation Blueprint was just not a dream. She opened up her laptop to find her presentation. For the first time in a month and a half, she breathed easily.

That day when she walked into her boss’s office, Joy‘s whole demeanor had changed. Yes, she was still nervous about public speaking, but her boss could tell something had drastically changed.

She now was prepared.

Joy was ready to deliver her presentation and that gave her a burst of confidence and excitement. Her boss loved this new version of Joy and asked if the Presentation Blueprint helped and Joy said a resounding YES!

This is what the Presentation Blueprint can do for you.

MEET PRESENTATION BLUEPRINT

Have you ever heard a speaker dazzle a crowd, but afterward had no idea of what they’re trying to communicate? There was no consolidated point; there was no call to action. There possibly were great stories and great information, but because it wasn’t communicated with clarity, you have no idea what to do with it.

The Presentation Blueprint is a six step process that will make your talk, speech, presentation more and more focused and clear. Each step is purposeful and will help you achieve your ultimate goal of being prepared and captivating your audience as you deliver your content with confidence.

As an easy-to-use template, the Presentation Blueprint has been developed over the course of 25 years, drawing from years of success and failure at delivering talks, speeches, and presentations. This document is easy to use inside of Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or your other favorite software.

It works like a gold prospector using a pan. Have you ever seen that? They use a pan to get out all the excess material so they can find the little gold nuggets. This is what the Presentation Blueprint does! It helps you remove all the extra content and it helps you find the gold.

Here are the steps that make up the Presentation Blueprint:

Step 1: Get organized with all the event details. In this step you will capture all of the important details for your talk, speech or presentation.

Step 2: Focus on developing clarity. What are you speaking about? What problem is your audience facing? What is the overall topic? What do you want them to know? These questions will help you write your big idea statement.

Step 3: Get structured by writing your outline. You will write your introduction and think through the creative assets you will use to bring your speech alive as you continue filling in the Presentation Blueprint.

Step 4: Write your manuscript. Even if it seems like overkill, write out your presentation word for word. You won’t read it word for word when you’re delivering it, but writing it out brings another level of clarity.

Step 5: Practice delivering your talk or presentation. Do not skip this step. This step will single handedly increase your confidence to deliver your content in a captivating way.

Step 6: Evaluate. In this step you will evaluate each area of your presentation. Everything from writing it to delivering it.

These six steps will guide you to prepare and deliver with incredible clarity and command. Don’t skip any steps and you’ll be ready to crush your presentations!

Once you work through the Presentation Blueprint, something magical happens inside your inner world. You become more and more prepared and confident to deliver your content. You’ll start to feel like you’re going to explode if you don’t deliver it soon.

The day of the presentation came for Joy and she was ready. She bounced into the regional sales meeting with a new level of confidence and she felt like a volcano ready to explode. She never thought in a million years that she would feel this way about standing in front of a room full of professionals, her peers, and some of the best leaders in her region while delivering a presentation. But here she was, and just as she walked up to begin, she looked over to her right and in the front row was her boss. Smiling and ready to take notes.

Oh, in case you’re wondering how it went? In Joy’s words, “It wasn’t on Simon Sinec’s level but it went great! And I never anticipated that my leadership would grow.”

As a result of being asked, being believed in and then speaking in front of people, at 45 years old, she has a new lease on life and she has giant dreams for her leadership.

This is why the Presentation Blueprint will make you look like a pure genius. And more important than that, it will help your audience find the solutions to their problems. Yes, it is a bit of work. But in the long run, that work will pay off, and you will find gold.

By Jason Raitz - CEO, Speak with People

With over 25 years of experience, Jason has spoken from stages across the country, inspiring and motivating his audiences with stories, laughter, and practical tools to succeed. Book Jason for your next conference or workshop.