Tuesday 11 June 2013

Giving Presentations and Teaching Your Therapy



Teaching massage is to me joyous work that not only gives your participants wonderful skills that they can use on friends and family, it develops and enhances you as a therapist and acts as a ...great marketing tool. When I first started Essentials for Health I taught many massage workshops all over London and got a lot of faithful massage clients as a result.

I am also a huge advocate for giving presentations about your work and believe them to be one of your best marketing tools. In a previous article I spoke about how giving the service of a massage is intangible - it can’t be sampled in the same way a car can be test driven or a perfume smelled. By going out and speaking to your public, you will build rapport and gain their confidence. If people like you and feel comfortable why wouldn’t they book with you?

It is often quoted that people would rather die than talk to a group of people. This reaction seems a little extreme particularly when to my knowledge no one has actually died from speaking in public!!

In actual fact, public speaking can believe it or not be an enjoyable experience especially once we realise that we can make friends with those terrible nerves that cause our hands to shake, voice to wobble and those butterflies to feel more like Kamikaze pilots!!

So this article will cover some guidelines for both teaching and presenting.

Over time I have come to love speaking in public, when it finally dawned on me that the only way to give presentations was my way.
To be me, with a few golden rules thrown in for good measure.


So, what are the “golden rules” of presenting?

KISS - keep it short and simple
Ensure there is a beginning, middle and end, and make sure the beginning and ending have impact. Command attention at the beginning and go out with a big bang
Know your subject
Know how to use props and visual aids
Have simple, clear messages
Wherever possible, give examples and anecdotes
Get to know the audience
Organise the presentation logically and time it
Use prompt cards
Rehearse and practice
Learn to laugh at yourself, you'll need to!
Use humour, particularly when you make a mistake!
Be enthusiastic
Smile
Involve the audience
Keep jargon out
Act and look confident, even if you're not
Scan the room and include everyone, even if they look like they're asleep!
Breathe!
Be prepared for the emergency; no flip chart paper, no powerpoint, only a few in the audience
Be visual, summon up any acting skills
Enjoy!
 
Gill Tree, Managing Director

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