Design Presentation Folders for the Long Term

Professionally designed presentation folders offer a unique advantage over many other forms of advertisement because, often, customers or clients keep them and use them over and over again, which keeps your company name out there, reaching farther and wider audiences than you initially planned for.

Choose Quality Presentation folders

For most forms of print advertising, such as business cards, postcards, brochures, and the like, you can shop around and often, get by with the most affordable price and no one will know the difference. However, presentation folders need to be not only attractive, but strong and sturdy as well, even if you don’t put much in them. Let me illustrate: Recently, a friend of mine began house hunting. She initially looked at a mobile home park but then changed her mind and decided to stick with traditional housing. Everywhere she goes, she takes the presentation folder from the first place she looked – the mobile home park. Just the other day, over lunch, she was showing me listings she had printed from the Internet and had organized in her presentation folder. Even though the mobile home park did not get her business, they have no idea how much free advertising they’re gaining because of my friend.

I’ve done it myself. I’ve used presentation folders that I’ve received from job training sessions for years afterwards to keep papers organized. There are countless uses for these little gems and if your logo and business name is affixed prominently on the outside, your advertising budget may not take quite as big a punch when you consider the long-term effects of the folders.

Design With the Eco Conscious in Mind

There’s a growing segment of the population that will reuse almost anything until there’s nothing left of it simply to prevent as much trash as possible from ending up in the landfills. This group reuses aluminum foil, envelopes, and makes scratch pads out of used calendar pages. People used to laugh at them but as more of the country and more products become environmentally friendly, fewer people laugh. That means more people are reusing presentation folders instead of throwing them away. That means more people will see your company name and while it may not cause a rush of business, it will serve as another avenue to keep your name in the minds of the public.

Keep this in mind next time you order presentation folders for a team meeting or to present to clients. Chances are, many more people will see them than you originally thought.

Your voice is a key part of your presentation delivery. And having a tired, hoarse voice can negatively impact your presentation.

I’ve conducted many training programs where I’ve had to present for five or six hours a day for five days in a row. And I’ve also sung in choirs and as a soloist. So I understand how important it is to take care of my voice so I can rely on it being ready when I need it.

Here are my five tips for keeping your voice healthy:

1. Hydrate
   Drink plenty of water, and not just during your presentation, but also before your presentation so you can stay hydrated. Room temperature or warm water works best for me. I also drink warm tea without caffeine. I find that cold water, particularly ice water, actually constricts my vocal cords, and makes me feel hoarse, making it much harder for me to project my voice. Gargling with warm water and salt also helps (and the salt is natural disinfectant). Find something that works to keep your voice well lubricated.
2. Control the room environment
   Sometimes you’re in a room that is too hot, too cold or dry and that can quickly give you a sore throat. Check out the room before you present and decide if you need to open a window, lower the heat or increase the air conditioning.
3. Rest
   Rest is crucial. You need adequate sleep the night before a presentation so your voice sounds rested (and you are alert and focused). And you should rest your voice, so no screaming at a sporting event the night before. You can’t fake rest – if your voice is tired, people will hear it. If you’re going to do several presentations over a few days or conduct multi-day training programs, you have to accept the fact that you will tire your voice and will need extra rest. It’s like working out – if you do bicep curls with weights, you expect that your muscles will be sore the next day. As you gradually build up strength, you’ll be able to lift more weights without feeling as sore. The same is true with your voice.
4. Breathe
   Breathing properly keeps your voice supported. Take full deep breaths from your diaphragm and core that will support your voice to the end of the sentence, rather than taking shallow breaths from the top of your chest that cause you to run out of air. If you do yoga or Pilates, or you swim or sing, use that same kind of breathing.
5. Warm up your voice
   In preparation for your presentation, do some vocal warm-ups, much the same way as you would do flexibility stretches with your body. Vocalize from high to low – just open your mouth wide and say “ah,” making a continuous sound with a pitch that goes from high to low. Pronounce consonants and vowels and really move your lips. Repeat the “t” sound and the “k” sound, for example.

Screw up your face and then relax it. You may feel silly doing these exercises but they will help you loosen up and open up your voice.

If you follow these five tips and take care of your voice before, during and after your presentation, you can keep your voice sounding energized, full, supported and healthy.

In my line of work I do whole lot of presentations and speeches. I speak frequently at press conferences, and sales presentations. Back when I started I used to just fly by the seat of my pants. Generally, I was organised by would most often just figure it out as I went along. This worked out fairly well for me at the start, especially when I was talking to audiences of less than 50 people. But it started being less effective when I was talking to groups of people of four or 500 people at a time.

The pressure of talking to large groups of people makes a little harder to think on your feet. If such an important thing to do is to be done, then it should be done well and to the best of your ability. Often when you’re a presenting too much larger groups of people, it’s important to remember that there is often a lot more riding on the result of a presentation too.

it’s a recommendation of mind that you rehearse your presentation. But I feel quite nervous when I rehearsed my presentation in a room by myself in front of the mirror. So I didn’t do it. But then one day I had a very important presentation to do, and most decided that this is the time and the place amid a start rehearsing my skills before I present them in real life. Something strange happened that day. I started to discover holes in my presentation, where there had been done before. Well, in fact, there were holes in my presentation before, I just didn’t see them.

I went through my presentation. At least 10 times before, I felt comfortable with it. I fixed up the bits that needed fixing and put together a killer presentation that if executed would move my career forward in ways that I had only imagined. I went on to perform at presentation in front of approximately 1000 people, and it was amazing experience. I was contacted after the presentation by some of my peers and asked to speak within their companies and organisations. I realise that if I want to become the best at what I do I need to practise what I do often. I now apply this technique toward anything that I intend to become good at. I believe that if you rehearse anything you become good at it dramatically. Get a few friends together, let them know what your intention is, and have them point out areas where you can improve. Before you know it they will be consuming toward your success, and you will be contributing toward theirs.