Can you smell the pumpkin in the air? Thanks Giving is coming! Now the events on the other hand… are a bit weak this week lol

Hey! Andres here,

Welcome to another week of the networking desk! I don’t know about you, but I am ready for some good food and giving thanks for such great opportunities, like meeting lots of you at events!

Just like the events next week, I am also taking a break from my little series on how to host an event, which you can go back and catch up here.

This week I will tell you about what I have learned about presentations as some of you might be presenting some day at an event (if you are let me know, I’d love to go.)

Here’s what we got this week:

• Approaches to presenting

• Next week events

• Cool Rock Climbing Gym!

Alright, let’s do this.

“Lean forward moment” of the week - 👨‍🏫 Dos & Don'ts of Event Presentations

I have now probably been to dozens of presentations, and something I really like doing is taking notes on how people present, and structure their content.

Some of these presentations had good results where people are eager to talk / meet the presenter to learn more or see if they can work together, and others where the presenter stand there alone after the talk.

I witness the ladder recently.

Let me tell you the first, don’t right away:

❌ Do not Immediately start selling to people in the crowd. This is easy to spot by the excessive use of the pronoun “you” specially if it comes in the form of “you want to…”. They do not want the presenter to decide what they want.

✅ Instead, allow people to realize themselves they need the service by providing real value: Explaining the process or service in simple terms, showing examples of what people can achieve, showing consequences of what can happen, etc.

This leads into my second point; value:

❌ Do not say you will be giving information for free, that is highly valuable, if it’s not present (yes I have seen this) or is not going to show up until the end of the presentation.

Think of a YouTube video, if the title does not match the content within the first 15 seconds, what do you do? You leave. In a presentation, the public might just check out mentally (probably start watching their phones) and now no information is being processed.

✅ How can you do better? Give Give Give from the get-go. People love to be given the answers to the test, and what is even better than that? If you can do the test for them.

In a presentation your job is to do such a good job telling them the answers that they will want you to do the test for them (aka paying you) People pay for implementation not information.

Finally, this one actually works in both situations, selling and presenting:

❌ Do not get too technical - if your presentation is hard to understand, people might think you are smart, but will make them confused, and confused people do not buy.

Use a language grading tool like this one to check the script and see how difficult is the presentation to understand, the lower you can make it the better, speak like yourself! Try to aim for 3–5 reading level on the website, this makes it simple for everyone to stay engaged.

✅ Do share analogies and stories, shows you understand the topic and makes it relatable. Have one ready for each main topic you will talk about during the presentation, people remember stories really well, so use that to your advantage.

🖥️ Convert more website users into clients

🗓️ Now, the events…

⭐️ = My picks of the week

Local shop of the week - Adrenaline Climbing

Not an ad – just a cool spot you can visit

A friend of mine introduced me to this place, it was my first time climbing, and it was awesome, although I am still sore! Haha

I actually recommend having a meeting here. Try changing the norm a bit, connecting over something more fun is always a great way to create lasting relations.

Thank you for reading! Quick thing before I go:

1. If you are new or would like to read older posts, check out this page. There is a backlog of previous weeks of “The Networking Desk”

2. Know someone who would benefit from this newsletter? Be sure to share it with them! 📩 (just copy the link or forward this email) I will keep putting out great newsletters for them and for you. That’s a promise.

See you next week.

- Andres Inciarte