My podcast this week is from the Effective Public Speaking book. Enjoy!
The Podcast:
The Transcript:
I’m Johanna Rothman, and this is Johanna’s 60 Seconds of Writing WIP for September 27, 2024, where I read an excerpt of just a minute of some writing in progress.
This is from the Effective Public Speaking book.
Practice Ending the Presentation
The audience needs to know when you are done. That allows them to move to the next thing in their day. Your ending is especially important if you’re at a conference. That’s why I said every speaker needs to know the time they need to stop.
You also might need a cue to know when you are done so you don’t start another tangent. My last slide template tells me when I’ve reached that slide. Since I ask for questions after this last slide, I have several ways to end the presentation.
Start by acknowledging the audience with a “thank you.” That tells the audience you are done speaking and that they can leave. People have all kinds of obligations, so allow them to leave when you are done with the formal part of your presentation. They might even clap!
The “thank you” then allows me to say, “That’s the end of the formal part of the presentation. I’d like to stay in touch with you and this slide has some options. Now, who has questions?”
After I answer questions, I remind people of my newsletter, books, and more before I say my final thank you.