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How to leave a lasting impression during your presentation

After learning to have the courage to look we continue with step two: working on the actual speaking impression.

But how can you speak in such a way that your audience will form their own images?

Imagine it!

You can do this by imagining what you are saying. Are you talking about a train? Imagine the compartment with people and describe this. Are you talking about a walk in the forest? Imagine the forest path surrounded by trees and let others enjoy what you are seeing.

For example, ‘I was walking on a forest path’, will become: ‘I was walking through a beautiful forest. Along the path I was walking on, I saw thick trees with branches full of leaves that reached the ground. I have never seen so many different shades of green in one place…’

Turn your eyes

Is this hard? Then you should sometimes turn your eyes to look up to the left or the right. The images will come automatically. When you start paying attention to it, you will see that people who can tell a story expressively, subconsciously turn their eyes to look up every once in a while. You can also do this consciously.

Anyway, you will probably already use visual speaking regularly. For example, when you are enthusiastically telling your friends and colleagues about your last holiday. At moments like this, it happens automatically. Are you imagining that beautiful beach, the setting sun, the streets you strolled through, and the buildings you looked at while you are talking about it? From now on, make a habit of doing that during every speaking moment.

Pitfall

Don’t confuse visual speaking with the literal use of images, for example, by making use of PowerPoint or Prezi. It seems like a fine way to keep the attention of your audience and to make your story have more impact, but in many cases it isn’t.

As soon as you speak visually, your audience will make their own ideal images and your message will come across best. As soon as present an image via PowerPoint or Prezi, you leave nothing to the imagination of your audience and risk disturbing the movie in their head.

Attention

Obviously, there are moments when it is necessary to use PowerPoint or Prezi. For example, when an architect presents his design. However, as soon as it is not necessary to use literal images, always use visual speaking. You will keep the attention of the audience, the story comes alive, and most important: it will sink in.