Hey, I’m Grant: My clients call me The Webinar Guy. Welcome to episode 22 of “Zooming to Webinar Success!”
Just wrapped up two episodes on slide decks and proper use. And I touched on script writing and using a script when doing your webinar, zoom meeting or other virtual meetup.
For a bit of background, I’ve been on stage since I was five years old. That was my first vocal solo! Ah, the memories! (Not really, that was WELL over twenty minutes ago!) Since somewhere in my thirties, I’ve not only sung professionally, I’ve been a keynote speaker and also worked as a trainer in corporations on everything from IT to soft skills to corporate turn-around management to helping entrepreneurs with “How to start a business”.
Over thousands of presentations, I’ve come to know what works- and what doesn’t!
And not in the list above, I’ve also held seminars (Ya know-the old kind where people actually came to a hotel conference room?? In Person!!??) I’ve trained many individuals on using slide decks from the podium, speaking skills, stage craft, or stage management, how to use equipment and more. I’ve even trained National Speakers Association candidates.
Sorry for the personal commercial, but I think it’s important that if someone is spewing advice, you know if they are qualified to do so. I’ll let you judge.
So all that said, I want to revisit a few points from my last episode, twenty-one;
Writing a script will be the lead on this episode, but will rehash the why.
Why write a script? Many/most(?) experts in a field can talk about their given area of expertise at the drop of a hat (and quite frankly for too dang long!) . On TheWebinarGuy.com website, look at the “fantastic-scripts-matter” page (https:// TheWebinarGuy.com/fantastic-scripts-matter). We have a couple quotes attributed to Mark Twain and Woodrow Wilson. Both quotes have to do with preparation.
Mark Twain’s is: “I … never could make a good impromptu speech without several hours to prepare it.” I’ll let you go find the other {WINK}. In fact, this page speaks to many of the things I’ve been saying about scripts, but I’ll take it here a bit differently.
First, that preparation could be practicing your presentation many times to get the flow, check equipment and so on.
But in my mind, KNOWING what you’re going to say and practicing saying it that way is KEY to a great presentation. I’d think that the purpose of any presentation is to get your audience to engage somehow. -Buy something, volunteer, etc.
Having your sequence right, the verbiage right…ALL that to me is critical.
Here’s what I’ve done. I mentioned in the last episode that while you could write a script then the create the slides to support your talk, or switch that, creating the slides first (this happens often with highly technical subjects where certain images must be displayed in a given order to explain a subject). I do a bit of both. Once I have my deck created (PowerPoint, Prezi, Canva, etc) I then hone in my script. At every point, I want to make sure both are working together.
Here’s my secret. I practice both until no real improvements are left to make. Then I begin to use my slides as prompts for me.
By now I know what I want to say and the slides prompt me to say that. As I practice this sequence I glance less and less at the script knowing those critical points are on a slide.
By the way, a short commercial for our sponsor, which is still me, TheWebinarGuy.com; if you’d like help writing your script, or would like presentation coaching, hit our site and send us a contact form. We’d love to help YOU zoom to webinar success!!
Thanks!
Using an outline; this strategy is like using an outline to guide you through your presentation.
After practicing, you’ll notice you’re using your script less and less. And by the way, earlier I mentioned “practicing until no real improvements are left to make”- learn when to stop “improving” your presentation.
Even when writing these pod-video cast scripts I tweak a few times, but I also notice a point of going beyond tweaking and sometimes it breaks the flow of what I was trying to accomplish.
Also try to write your script in one, uninterrupted session. I find that when I start now and wait until later to finish, I’ve lost that initial energy of what I was trying to say and sometimes find myself trying to recover that.
TIME your script! As a professional presenter, you should ALWAYS KNOW how long your presentation is. If you’re doing a webinar, virtual meeting or other online meet, recording a blog, and especially when presenting publicly, you need to KNOW how long you’re going. From my experience as a keynote speaker for many conferences, I can tell you that if they give you twenty minutes, or forty-five minutes- that’s really what they mean! They may have another session or lunch planned after you and you deciding to just go over because you think you’re all that…
Respect your limits. If there’s just NO WAY you can do your content in the time slot they have asked you to fill, tell them that! If you tell people your webinar will be around twenty minutes and at the twenty-eight minute mark there’s no indication you’re closing, unless you’re just an AMAZING speaker, you’ll lose audience! As you’re writing your script, you can use this link http://www.speechinminutes.com / (that I’ll also put in comments) to test your timing. It’s not perfect, but sure beats typing out a LONG script only to realize that you’re ten minutes over!!
Being “on time” and doing your job in the time allotted, will get return audience and return engagements!
So now you know why scripts are important. One more tip. You’ll be tempted to adlib and stray from your script when running live. Resist the temptation! You’ll do enough without trying, but the moment you decide to “toss in a freebie”, you also have the opportunity to go down the wrong path and then have to recover that.
Good luck with your scripts!
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This series is for smaller organizations and solopreneurs that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.
Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!”
As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com
Thank you for watching! Would love to hear your questions and comments!
And if you’re listening to the Podcast audio, thanks for listening! Tell a friend!