BenP (00:19.394)
Hi everyone and welcome to the Tech World Human Skills Podcast. You know what? This episode, I am flying solo, which I don't ever think that I've done before on the show. And what I wanna talk about are two frameworks that are two of the most common things that I coach people on. So.
I'm sure you know I spend a lot of my time coaching people on their technical storytelling how people present to and influence stakeholders and customers more effectively so today's episode will help people be more engaging influential and memorable when they present. Now the two frameworks are Auron
and my go-to presentation structure which I need to give a cool sexy name but I haven't got around to that yet so we should just call it my go-to presentation structure. So I'm going to split the episode into two sections. The first section thinking about this Auron framework and the second section thinking about my go-to presentation structure. So let's start off with Auron.
Auron is a framework that acts as your guiding light as your north star when you are creating your presentation so it's not the structure and flow of how any presentation goes what it is is it's a template you fill out that helps you make good decisions on what content is going to go in
What is going to be left out? What visual aids you might need? What stories and anecdotes might be best? Now I tell you where this came from this came from Whenever I would help people and we'd say right Ben. I want some help I've got this big presentation coming up this big customer meeting whatever it is coming up And there would always be before I even wanted to see the slide deck before I even wanted to
BenP (02:40.129)
there was a load of stuff that I needed to understand to be able to make good decisions when I was coaching them. And so what I did was basically create a little mnemonic. So ORIEN stands for basically some key information that I need to know and that you need to think about before you get started with your presentation. So A-O-R-E-N, ORIEN.
And I've got blog articles on all of these that are linked in the show notes. So if you want to go and dig into these after, please do. So, or an A-O-R-E-N. So A, audience. O, objective. R, remembered. E, emotion. N, next steps.
So whenever I am presenting for an important presentation, an important meeting, I will grab a piece of paper, I'll grab a pen or you can type it up, whatever, and I'll write down who's gonna be in the audience, what's the objective for the session, what do I want people to remember, how do I want them to feel, and what do I want them to do next.
So what I want to just do is unpack each of those for a few minutes just to give you a bit more information on what they are. But that is simply all it is is writing down each of those things so that then when I get to the point where I'm thinking about designing some slides, when I'm getting to a point where I'm thinking about creating a demo, when I'm getting to a point where I'm thinking about what case studies, examples or anecdotes are going to bring this to life, I can choose ones.
that match my Auran template. So let's start off with A, audience. lot of people when they are giving a presentation think, right, this is my presentation. It is all about me. It's my slides, it's my demo, it's my stories, it's my agenda, it's my voice, it's all about me. I put it to you.
BenP (04:52.629)
that is exactly the wrong mindset. When you're given a presentation it is all about them it is all about the audience the listeners the people that are in the meeting the customers whoever it is. A is for audience it is all about the audience the audience is the center of the presentation
They are giving you their non-refundable time to listen to them, to listen to you. You need to give them value.
you are not the centre as the presenter they are now if the audience are the centre you need to know who's in your audience so who are you talking to? are talking to architects? you talking to marketing directors? are you talking to end users? directors of operations? now who is it that you have got in the audience? and
And then once you know who's in the audience, what do you know about the audience? What are the sorts of pain that they're suffering from? Where are they trying to get to? What are the things that are on their mind right now? Because if you know the audience, then the content that you give them, the things that you tell them, you can make relevant to them.
And if you know your audience and therefore choose relevant content to them, then you will be valuable to them. And if you're valuable to them, then you are useful and you will be successful. So knowing the audience means that you can be relevant, which means you can be valuable, which means that you'll be successful. A lot of people don't do that. They've got their standard message.
BenP (06:50.421)
I'm giving the standard message regardless of who you are. I put it to you, you need to change that. So I jot down in my notebook who's gonna be in the audience. Next thing, objective.
I've in some presentations where I don't think it was very clear the speaker knew what their objective was. It was like slinging mud at a wall. They knew stuff, but they just gave a lot of information and none of it really stuck. I've been in some better presentations, right? Where there was a clear objective. This is what the presenter wanted to say and it was clear what they wanted to say. That's good. But I tell you the better thing.
is if you think about two objectives. First objective, yep, what you want to get out from this meeting. I want to get approval from this person to move to the next stage of the product, the project, whatever it might be that your objective is. The second bit is, what is the objective of the person that's listening to you or the audience that is listening to you? What do they want to get out of this?
when they're coming in to that presentation of their meeting and they go, I can't wait to get into this meeting with Ben. I can't wait until Ben speaks about.
thing, what is that thing? So if you can empathise with them, if you can take their perspective and think about what their objective for being here is, that's gonna really help you. Because if you've jotted down what you wanna achieve and you've jotted down what, in your best estimation, they want to achieve, then all the content that you choose for them and create for them,
BenP (08:44.576)
is gonna be relevant and help you fulfil both of your objectives. Think win-win. So, I jot down in my book audience, who's gonna be in the audience, what sort of personas gonna be in there, what people if I know the people, and then I'm gonna jot down what's my objective and what's their objective. Next thing, AOR, audience objective, remembered. So remembered,
is what is the key message that I want the audience to remember?
And then, what are the key themes that support it?
It's not 11 things. It's not 175 million things. It's not 28 things. It is your key message in a sentence. If you were going to summarise in a sentence the purpose and the point that you wanted to make, what is it? And then what are the three, four, five, ideally three, three is the magic number, ideally three sub-themes that support that.
message that give that key message substance. Two, three, four, five things, something like that. Three is ideal. And I jot them down. Now, you might not know those right at the beginning. That might come after you've brainstormed. You know, right, I want to do this topic on this new solution that I want somebody to deploy. Okay, what are all the things? So I love a mind map, so I'd be jotting down what are all of those things.
BenP (10:29.058)
Then I'd go through, I'd be grouping them and then hopefully I'd identify what those key themes were and then I'd be brutal and I'd cull them down to three or four key themes and that's how I would get to that point. And so I would then have a sentence which is what my presentation, the essence of my presentation, a point of it, the elevator pitch if you will, and then the three things that I really want people to remember.
and I would jot them down. Now we're gonna come back to this later in the next structure, really important, get clarity on what it is that you want them to remember. Jot that down.
A O R E. Audience Objective Remembered in Motion. Now, I pop a motion in there.
Because presentations can't be entirely logical and rational only. They need emotional connection as well as logical reasoning. Let me give you a great quote. Some of you might have heard me talk about this before. This is a brilliant quote. People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget.
you made them feel.
BenP (11:57.945)
brilliant quote from Maya Angelou and I think it really applies in the presentation setting particularly when we're talking about complex technical things right how do we want people to feel bored overwhelmed just wanted to get out of there right now and the reason I call it out specifically is I don't think a lot of people in the tech world when they are
preparing for a presentation are thinking about how they want people to feel.
BenP (12:34.414)
But that's really important because emotional connection helps people get on board with things, helps people engage with things, helps people take action on things. You can't just index on rationale and logic, which is why I call that out. And so again, in my notepad when I'm prepping, I'll jot down, right, how am gonna emotionally connect with people here?
Now that could be some great stories, some great anecdotes, that could be some shocking facts, that could be there's all kinds of ways where we can get an emotional reaction from people and I'm going to think what they might be. Maybe some disaster stories of where you know similar situations that we're talking about have gone wrong. Maybe some hero stories where similar situations have gone very well but some things that really bring the topic to life. So that's emotion.
So you've got audience, objective, remembered, emotion, and then next steps. Next steps is talking about the fact that the presentation's never the end, right? The meeting's never the end. The end is when the thing you're trying to achieve, let's say the solution is deployed, users are using it, they're getting value, the business is getting value, the thing is done, right? That's when things are done.
The presentation is normally steps to help get to that point. So therefore, if we've been in a room, we've connected with people, we've energised them, we've educated them, they're feeling, yeah, you know, I get this, I'm on board with this. How do we now capitalise on that energy and on that momentum? The answer isn't to say at the end, when you've run out of time, oh, I'll send you the slide deck.
I'll send you a link to a 70 megabyte PowerPoint file that's got some pictures in it. No, you want to be really intentional on what your audience should do next. So think that through and again jot it down. Do you want them to approve this thing? Do you want them to join this community? Do you want them to go and read this article? What is it that you want them to do next? And again, jot down so that you've got clarity so you can build that into your content.
BenP (14:54.476)
So that is Auron and that is where I start. So I've done a few bits of coaching over the last couple of weeks. And if I think about these very different scenarios, I was talking to a head of data about how he talks to his leadership team about what they're doing with AI-Agentic. I talked to somebody that was giving a presentation on a new business process where their budgets had been slashed and it was gonna be a difficult conversation.
I've talked to people that are pitching and selling into government officials in developing countries. All of these things, I start when I'm coaching them on that Aurum because this helps us calibrate and make good decisions as we start thinking about the content that we're going to build and that we're going to create. It helps make sure that that is the best it could be, you know, the best it could very be. So that's Aurum.
not the structure of the presentation but a framework to choose the content. Now another thing then people are really keen to ask me and I help them out with is then well how do I structure that then? So brilliant I've got I know he's in the audience I know what I'm trying to achieve I know what I want him to remember but now how do I structure this for maximum impact and so what I'm going to give you now is my go-to presentation structure.
Now, I have used this structure so many times. I've used it on stage at big events, like Tech Show London or Big Data London. I've used it at events like that. I've used it in high value meetings, high value presentations, you where there's just a couple of us in a physical room together. It's a great way. So it's a great way to structure content. I'm not saying it's the only way.
I'm not saying there aren't better ways in different scenarios, but this is where I start. And if I choose to change my structure, that's fine, but I will always ask myself, why is that structure, that other structure I wanna do better than this one that I've got in front of me? So that's what we're gonna think about. So the high level flow that I use for a presentation, our eye break.
BenP (17:21.556)
into into five areas and we're going to unpick each of those in a bit more detail the five areas are the beginning the opening right that that that section key theme one key theme two key theme three and then the ending
So beginning, key theme one, key theme two, key theme three, the ending. Well, it's pretty straightforward, really, isn't it, right? There's a special beginning. You go through three things, three key things, and then you end. It's not rocket science. Tell them what you're tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them. It's that kind of thing. But what I wanna do is just dig in the next layer of each of those and think about, okay, so what goes in the beginning?
how do we structure each of those key themes and what goes in the ending? Now, there's an important reason that I've structured it like this. Let's see if I can do a little experiment with you.
Think about something that I said, let me think about something that I said earlier on. Here we go. Right, I said to you earlier, I gave you a quote. That quote was, will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Do you remember who that quote was from?
Now some of you might have lucked out on this experiment and remembered that it was Maya Angelou. I promise you many people will have forgotten that. I've done this experiment live with people many times and people don't remember. And so there's part of me that could go well why? I said it to you, I paused, I quoted it, it was important, it was valuable. How do you not remember? And the answer is because
BenP (19:21.426)
What people transmit is not what is received. People are zoned out. People don't have eidetic memories. All kinds of reasons why people don't always remember things. So, if I've identified in my auron what is really important that I want you to remember, there's some techniques I can use to overcome this, what I transmit is not received.
to still make you remember those things. And one of those key things is repetition. And another key thing is structuring my entire talk to get you to remember those things. So the flow again, we've got the beginning, key theme one, key theme two, key theme three, the ending. In the beginning, I'm gonna tell you the important stuff and we'll dig into that in a minute. Key theme one, that's the first thing from remembered, right? I've identified this, this is the key thing.
and now I'm gonna go into that in more detail and unpack it. Then I'm gonna get to key theme two. That's the second thing that I want you to remember. And I'm gonna go into more detail and I'm gonna unpack that. Then there's key three and three. That's the third thing I wrote down in my Auron template. And I'm gonna unpack that and put some substance in there. So I've designed the entire thing to help you remember what's going on. And remember my key themes.
So what want to do is just think about digging into to the beginning each of the key themes and the ending and just going into that next level of detail The beginning and the ending they're kind of what I call moments that matter they are two really really important times and So let's dig into each of those. Let's start with the beginning So the beginning
I think is really hard time. It's a hard time because you haven't got into your flow, you haven't got into your momentum, you might be feeling a bit nervous and at that same time people are judging you, right? They're going, is this person credible? Are they interesting? Do I want to listen to them? Can I zone out now for the next bit of time whilst they're presenting?
BenP (21:43.702)
So when you are at your most vulnerable, people are at their most judgmental. And you know what they say, how important first impressions are. So nailing the beginning is one of the most important things you can do. So this is, I love a framework for everything. And again, I'll send you in the show notes, there's a blog article so you can go in and get this. This is my go-to flow for a beginning.
breathe helps out the nerves smile even if you're feeling hyper nervous fake it till you make it give them a smile thanks thanks so much for coming to listen to me give me some of your time bit of humility introduction particularly if you don't know the people right if this is first time you might be meeting to them to just build a little bit of credibility not war and peace so an introduction
Hi, I'm Ben Pearce, I'm the founder of Elevated U. I coach people to be better presenters, communicators, and run the technical storytelling course, know, something like that, quick and short. Then a hook. Then I wanna engage them in. What's gonna get, pique their interest? What's gonna make them sit up? What's gonna make them emotionally connect to this? Then some benefit.
Why is this session of benefit to people? It's gonna save them money, make them money, reduce their risk, whatever it might be, whatever the benefits are to them. And then, I'm gonna hit them with the key messages. So this is back from Oran again. What's the remembered section? I want you to remember key message, key theme one, key theme two, key theme three. Bosh. So that is my opening two or three or four minutes, depending on the size of the hook.
So let me run through that again. So every time I am thinking how to structure my opening, I'm gonna start with a breathe. I'm gonna smile, say thank you. Gonna introduce myself briefly for credibility if appropriate. I'm gonna hook them in with a little story, a little factoid. Something that's gonna surprise them or make them laugh or interest them or hook them in. Then I'm gonna give them a.
BenP (24:07.693)
right between the ice and benefit. This is why it's worth your time listening to me. And then I'm gonna give them the key points that I want them to remember. Bosh. Now, why do I put all of that in the beginning? First thing is repetition. They've heard in the first few minutes, everything. Now some people say to me, but Ben, I know I like the punchline approach. What I do is I build up.
So I set the scene, I tell them what the challenge is and then I hit them with a punchline, it's a twist. it's brilliant. I'll put it to you, that doesn't work very well. I'll tell you why it doesn't work very well. Because often the sponsors, the stakeholders, the people that you care about have either had to leave the meeting, have zoned out or been called away, whatever it is, before you get to that.
can't tell you how many meetings I've been in where the key person that you wanted to hear the thing doesn't hear the thing or they're a senior leader and they've wrestled the presentation away from you. We're now on their agenda and you've lost it. So if you've done everything in that first couple of minutes, bosh, they have heard it. They've heard it at least once and hopefully they're gonna hear it more.
So that's the beginning. I think a really important moment that matters. Let's think about the ending. The ending is another really important moment that matters. Think about this. You're in a really boring presentation. You've zoned out. You might be on your mobile phone. You might just be daydreaming. But then you hear these words. So in conclusion,
Now there's something in your brain that goes, yes thank goodness it's about to finish and I bet often you then zone back in you're like right that's reset me right it's about to end. That's something that happens all the time so this is my framework therefore for an ending. Announce it's the end, summarise your key message, share your next steps
BenP (26:27.394)
finish with thanks okay so we announce it's the end we reset our audience let's get refocused and listening again right Bosch is the end summarize your key message so I just want you to remember these things and of course these are from your Aurum what are the three things that you want them to remember I want you to remember key theme one key theme two key theme three
So what do we do next? I'd love you, pop me an email with your approval. I'd love you to jump on this next call with the next sponsor. I'd love you to join the community, download this white paper, whatever the thing might be that you want them to do next, let's do that. And let's make that as easy as possible. Landing page, maybe QR code, something that makes it really easy for them. And then finish with thanks. Thank you so much for giving me your time. It's been an absolute pleasure to spend the hour with you.
So that's my ending framework. And that's it's the end. Summarise your key message, share the next steps and finish with thanks. So, let's go back to our flow at a high level. We've got our beginning, we've got our key theme one, key theme two, key theme three and an end. We've unpacked the beginning, we've unpacked the ending. What about those key themes? How would I structure those key themes?
So what I would do is for each of those key themes, what I'd do is I'd introduce the theme, so I'd say, right, so let's talk about the security of our product, because this product is more secure, or this solution is more secure than anything else. Right, so I'd introduce, this is what I want you to remember, that this is the most secure solution there is, okay. Now what I do is another mini hook.
So you remember how I talked about emotional engagement and this is where I'm getting these from the all and again, what are the sorts of emotional, some stories or hooks or things I've got. So I'd want a bit of a mini hook, a little story there. Why? It injects some energy. It helps people connect to the content. A story about security going wrong. A fascinating fact about...
BenP (28:40.43)
The topic that you're talking about a surprising shocking statistic summit like that that injects some energy Maybe some an interactive session asking them some questions getting a poll whatever it might be something Then outline we know what the key point is and now go into your substance So this is a chance then to say well, why is this so secure? It's so secure because of thing one thing two thing three Here's some architectural diagrams to give some substance
Here's a demo that brings it to life, but it's all there to make key theme one come to life. Bosch. Then I'd finish key theme one and I'd begin key theme two. Go, we thought about key theme one. Let's now think about why this is so much more cost effective. Let's say that's key theme two. This is so much more cost effective. Now, another mini hook.
another emotionally engaging point add some energy again a story an interactive bit a shocking factoid something fun whatever it is and now i'd expand on key theme 2 finish that up into key theme 3 key theme 3 we've thought about key theme 1 we've thought about key theme 2 here's key theme 3 the performance is far better than any other solution that we've ever deployed
Okay, story, mini hook. Is that gonna be a story again? Is that gonna be statistics? Is that gonna be something interactive? Then the substance, my diagrams, my demos, visual aids, whatever brings it to life. Done, bosh, and now I'm into the ending. Announce it's the end. So we've talked about key theme one, security, key theme two, cost, key theme three, price. Next steps, finish with thanks. Now.
that can apply whether you're an internal engineer talking to senior leaders to take a project to the next steps that can apply if you're talking to customers and you're in pre-sales if you're a consultant there's all manner of presentations that this exact flow works perfectly for so i really do appreciate that this might be a little bit tricky
BenP (31:04.077)
without a diagram yes particularly if people are visual learners so as I said there's some blogs that are in the show links where you can see this in a diagrammatic form but what I want to do is I just want to recap each of those two themes each of those two frameworks that we've talked about so the first framework was Auron. Auron allows you to create a North Star a guiding light for
all of the content choices that you're going to make what slides you want what demos you want what stories you want what your themes are going to be so a is for audience o is objective both the audiences and yours r is remembered what do want people to remember e is emotion what stories how you're to connect with them emotionally and n is next step so you do that first you jot that down
Then, this is still before we're gonna do any slides, we get into our structure. How are we going to structure our presentation? The beginning, the key themes, those three themes that are from our remembered in Auron, and then our ending in the structures that I talked about. This is before we've done any slides. So now we're getting that structure, and then we can then start to think about, okay, so how do I take those apart?
and how might I amplify those with slides and vigilates? I might not need to. How might I use demos? I might not need to. How might I use diagrams? I might not need to. And we can then start to think about that. And it's at that point then that we can start to build out those assets and build out that content that we're gonna need. So let's think about that go-to structure. So it's beginning, that's a moment that matters. Then.
Key theme one, key theme two, key theme three. What are your key themes? We're gonna use those as a foundation for each of those sections. And then the ending. So let me just remind you of the beginning. What's my go-to framework for a beginning? Breathe, relax, smile, say thank you, introduce yourself to give a bit of credibility, hook people in.
BenP (33:27.117)
with a great story or a great factoid or something, hit them between the eyes with the benefits, what's in it for me, and then give them those key messages. And then the ending, announce this the end, summarise your key messages, share the next steps, and then finish with thanks.
There we go. That is everything I wanted to cover. And from when I talk to people, these are two of the frameworks that people find most useful. So I wanted to share them with you and get them out there on the podcast. So, couple of things, if you found this interesting. First thing is in the show notes are the blogs for articles that I've got on each of these topics.
so you can take these away, look at them, look at some pictures with them and read them, help them go in your brain, use them as reference for the next times that you're creating a presentation. So they're all there for you in the show notes. And then the second thing, ping me a DM on LinkedIn if you want to chat about technical storytelling in more depth. So I've given you two parts there, but I spent all of my time working with leaders and their teams.
on how they get better at this and how they do this in the context of their world and we go into this in a lot more depth with a lot more practical exercises and get people up on their feet trying it and doing it and getting it wrong and getting better at it. So if you're interested in this sort of stuff, just pop me a DM. Well, that's it. We've come to the end of the episode. I hope it was okay flying solo for once. It'd be good to hear your thoughts on this.
Thank you so much for tuning in as ever. Have a brilliant rest of your day and I'll see you in the next episode.
