This blog explore the development of group presentation skills, as delivering interesting talks and fascinating demonstrations are an essential tool in the effective promotion of hypnotherapy services. If you would like to become a hypnotherapist, or perhaps refresh or upskill your existing qualifications, you can find out more about training with HypnoTC and our hypnotherapy diploma course; the ideal training for you to become a professional hypnotherapist.
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Delivering a group presentation; talk and hypnosis demonstration
As a hypnotherapist (and in many other lines of work), group presentations are an important element of your marketing strategy. It’s important to be able to confidently and effectively talk to groups of people, small and not-so-small. Not everybody is a naturally confident and competent group speaker, but these 5 tips will help you to deliver more effective, even brilliant, memorable group presentations, with engaging talks and attention-getting demonstrations.
Tip 1: Prepare for the event and prepare yourself
Preparation is key for great public speakers, even experienced public speakers will have their own preparation strategy. Perhaps you don’t yet think of yourself as a “public speaker”, but if you’re speaking to people, whether you know them or not, in order to promote your business and essentially, sell your services, then for all intents and purposes, you are a public speaker.
Mindset
So what is involved in good prep’ for a group presentation? Put yourself first and prepare your stuff. What do you need for the presentation? Do you need to do some work on your confidence? By working on your confidence before you even plan your group presentation you will find that when you plan your talk and any demo’s you will do so from a more positive, ‘can do’, mindset.
Clothing
Do you need to work out what to wear? Ripped jeans and a 3 day old t-shirt may not be ideal for a corporate group presentation. So how do you know what clothes to wear? Dress to your expected audience. Wear clothes that you feel confident in. That you look good in. And, that enable you to move enough to deliver your talk. No good wearing super-tight trousers that you cannot sit down in, if you need to be seated during your talk or demo.
Speaker notes
How do you like your presentation notes? Are you the type of person who needs notes or flash cards? Or do you do better with a few key bullet points? Why no script? If you were to write your group presentation out word-for-word, it just won’t be as real. You need to be able to make and keep a connection with your audience, rather than looking at a script most or all of the time.
Props
How about props? People like things to look at. You could certainly use items to highlight key aspects of your talk. Just make sure it is of a good size for people in the audience to see. For example, a hypno spiral that is 10cm isn’t going to be easily seem at the back of a room with 100 people in the audience. You might want one 1 metre in size instead.
Resources
Handouts and leaflets can be important, and can help people to better understand the key messages of your group presentation. When preparing for your talk, it is a smart idea to create the talk and plan any activities or demonstrations and then create the handouts or other resources.
Sound, light and recording
Talking of resources, if you’re speaking to a large group then AV equipment may be required, who’s sorting that out? Do you need control of the lighting? If it is super bright and you want to do a group hypnotherapy demonstration, it may be helpful to turn it down a little. Also, are you recording the event for future re-purposing? These are all things that you may like to consider before your talk.
Travel
How are you getting there? What route are you taking? Do you have a plan B in case of challenges or obstacles on the day? After all, you don’t want to be late to your own speaking engagement. Are you taking someone with you? Get the logistics of your event down, and that’s one thing less to need to focus on.
Tip 2: Practice
Prepare to practice
Some people think they will be great at “winging it”… making stuff up “off the cuff” and absolutely nailing it, first time. Yet often, if something happens outside of their expectation, they can struggle to adapt in the moment. Preparing your talk is a process. You may find it helpful to write down your talk in long-hand, and then transition it into bullet points. Then you can practice delivering your talk and demo using those notes.
Perhaps practice reading it a couple of times first, just to get a feel for it, and then stepping up your practice. Maybe practice reading it in front of a mirror, so you can see how you look while you’re talking because a big part of effective delivery is you. You might even practice in front of an imaginary audience (e.g., a row of your child’s teddy bears), or a few friends or family. You might even video it.
Practice and practice
The key thing to remember is that people will be watching you, so you need to be a part of your own narrative, rather than robotically repeating a script that you’ve memorised. Once you’ve practiced, then practice some more. Practice in your car, the park, anywhere you can. Remember, you can also practice in your head; mental rehearsal is a brilliant way to put in solid practice time and to really get to grips with your task. Make sure you stay connected to the process, and don’t drift off into some pointless daydream or scenario where “something has gone wrong”.
Practice effectively and positively. In addition, once you are confident with your talk and demo plan, then take it up a level and practice how you will cope with any foreseeable challenges. What would you do if people were late? If there was no volunteer for a demo? If the speaker before you over-runs? If the venue is really noisy? Having a plan helps build your confidence.
Tip 3: Know your stuff and be prepared for questions
Know your stuff!
Generally when you’re talking about something, whatever the topic of your group presentation, it’s a good idea to know enough about the something you’re talking about. Not just at the level of your talk, but beyond it! If you have gaps in your knowledge then it could be a good idea to fill those gaps with suitable information and skills before your talk. If you are delivering an engaging presentation, people may well have questions for you, and if you can’t answer those questions, how do you think that will reflect on all the stuff you just said? It may not give the best impression.
With the vast amount of information available on the internet, people can ‘Google’ for information on their phones and ask truly informed questions. Saying that though, not all the information on the internet is accurate, so be prepared to dispel some myths and misconceptions too.
Succinct and relevant
If there are questions that you could answer, but you’re not 100% sure, or the question needs a lengthy or highly-technical response, which could bore all the other people listening, then you can tactfully side-step the question and offer to discuss the answer with them after the group presentation.
Alternatively, you could have the person contact you at a later time, or offer to email more information to anybody with an interest. This, of course, also gives you a chance to go home and gather your thoughts on the issue. Ultimately, be prepared for as much as you can, because people think in different ways, and they often throw a curve ball when you’re least expecting it!
Tip 4: Be yourself
Authenticity
You may really admire the style of a respected orator, politician, lecturer, or other public person. You might even study how they do what they do and model your approach on that. However, do always remember how important it is to be your authentic self all the way through your group presentation. If you are naturally softly-spoken or quiet energy, someone shouty and high-energy could seem fake.
Audiences will pick up on incongruence, and if you are speaking or conducting yourself in a way that is not true to who you really are, the people you are presenting to will, on some level, whether conscious or subconscious, pick up on that. When that happens, you will certainly lose rapport with your audience.
Integrating development
Self-development and professional development are fabulous at helping you become awesome at delivering great group presentations. By all means work on improving yourself, and work on adding specific techniques, patterns, mannerisms, and so forth to your own repertoire. Do then ensure that you do it fully and completely, so that these changes become a natural part of who you are; how you act, react and interact. Your audience, whether large or small, is there to listen to you. The least you can do for them is be you.
Tip 5: Reflect on your “performance” afterwards
Can you improve?
Whether you’re a novice, or a seasoned public speaker there is always room for insight and development. A group presentation is a performance! I know comedy (stage) hypnotists who have performed hundreds, even thousands of shows. They constantly search for ways to fine tune and tweak their performances, changing a word here, a phrase there, a gesture somewhere else.
As you progress with your public speaking, there will be less things that need to be changed. However, this is not a time to get complacent. As you grow and develop as a hypnotherapist (or other profession), so your presentation style can grow and develop; there is always room for improvement.
How to reflect
Immediately after your group presentation, think about your talk and hypnosis demonstrations. What went well? What could have been done differently? What difference would that have made? How you do this is up to you. You could play back the event in your head, like a mental replay of the movie of your presentation. Alternatively, you might make an audio recording (turn on the voice recorder on your phone before you begin) and review that.
You could even video your presentation for the purpose of playing it back. This is a fabulous way of noticing any curious body language or gestures that could be adjusted for future group presentations.
In addition, you can have your friends or even colleagues watch the recording so you are able to get different, objective perspectives. If you do so, then you might like to ask for constructive information, rather than merely being critical.
By really paying attention to reflecting on your performance, you will naturally become better at talking, presenting and feeling more and more confident as the focus of attention in front of a group of people, whether large or small.
Are you a hypnotist or hypnotherapist who wants to learn more about presenting?
We have a 2-day masterclass just for you! HypnoDemo™ is a system used to create effective, engaging hypnosis presentations, using highly interactive group workshops (or individual coaching if you can’t make the workshop) to develop knowledge and skills.
Whether you are planning a presentation for a local interest group, running your own stand at a local fair, or even speaking at an International conference, the HypnoDemo™ system will show you how to become an expert presenter, as opposed to just another hypnotherapist, “having a go” at presenting.
This workshop complements Dr Kate’s popular book, ‘Powerful Hypnosis Presentations: The HypnoDemo Approach‘
For more information or to book your place on the next course CLICK HERE
Our hypnotherapy course
If you would like to help others make positive enhancements to their lives and become a professional hypnotherapist, we recommend you check our awesome Professional Hypnotherapy Diploma course.
Finally, if you would like to find out more about the awesome Professional Hypnotherapy Diploma that HypnoTC , do please visit our Diploma page and have a browse through the information about our world-class, award-winning training.
Find out more about our Hypnotherapy Diploma course
– written by Dr Kate Beaven-Marks and the HypnoTC team
(HypnoTC Director)
