All I Know About Presentations, I Learned From Theatre School

Whether you give presentations regularly or only have to give one every now and then, you’d know that the simplest things can make a difference between a good talk and a bad one. And even if you’re a seminar maven, there’s always room for improvement.

Here’s Darren Barefoot’s tips on how to improve your public speaking (what you say and how you say it) based on his previous life as a student of theater. For example:

Tell Stories. If you take one piece of advice from this article, it’s this. We make meaning by telling stories–to ourselves and each other. If you can construct your entire talk by embedding your points in a series of anecdotes and tall tales, do it. You’ll entertain your audience a lot more, and your message will be much stickier in your audience’s heads. Watch Seth Godin speak–he’s all about the clever anecdotes.

This would’ve been so useful a few years ago when I had to make my thesis talk somewhat interesting! Oh, well… Maybe you can learn something: Link – via 43 Folders