This article highlights how to incorporate visual aids into a speech or presentation so that the visual aids add value to the words you are speaking. Power Point or Google Slides are perhaps the most universally used visual aids. We’ll discuss how to create slides that are complementary to the words you are speaking vs. a distraction. We’ll also discuss when it might be helpful to use physical props, a virtual white board or physical white boards. Combinations of the aforementioned are options too!
The focus of Toastmasters Speech 8 is “Getting Comfortable with the Use of Visual Aids.” Let’s discuss what constitutes a visual aid. Typically, these include any support materials intended to visually reinforce points that you are speaking to audience members. Examples include:
- Power Point Slides with text, images and/or embedded video.
- Virtual white boards such as Miro or Mural. Virtual white boards can be helpful if you are soliciting answers or comments from the audience and want to capture feedback during the speech.
- Physical props. Maybe you are giving a speech that talks about “Essential Items Needed for a Ski Trip” and want to highlight gear that is needed to stay warm during the trip. If your audience is relatively small, you could actually bring in physical goggles, gloves, neck gators etc. to show the audience vs. displaying images on a slide. Physical props can be a fun three-dimensional complement to the words you are speaking.
- Paper flip charts to capture ideas crowdsourced from the audience. Typically, an easel is needed to support flip charts and, depending on how many pages of notes you want to capture, you’ll need to have wall space available to hang up the pages.
When the correct visual aid is used properly, they can positively complement the words you are speaking. When used incorrectly, they can serve as a distraction to both the public speaker and to the audience. Let’s dive in deeper so that you can pick the best visual aid for your Toastmasters club that will wow club members.
Content first, always
In terms of process for your Toastmasters speech projects, or any public speaking engagement, first focus on your content and the development of a well-organized speech. Supporting visual aids should be a secondary consideration. Below is an example of a proposed speech structure, in outline form. You may have more or less main ideas and supporting points based on your topic.
- Introduction: good morning; good afternoon; introduction of topic
- Ask a thought-provoking question to pique the audience’s attention
- Offer a clear takeaway
- Main Idea #1
- Supporting Point for Main Idea 1
- Supporting Point for Main Idea 1
- Main Idea #2
- Supporting Point for Main Idea 2
- Supporting Point for Main Idea 2
- Main Idea 3
- Supporting Point for Main Idea 3
- Supporting Point for Main Idea 3
- Final Statement
Once you complete the skeleton of your outline, you can then start thinking through which visual aids might support your points in a meaningful way.
Example
- Introduction: Good evening fellow Toastmasters. I am pleased to present my Speech #8 which has the specific purpose of “Getting Comfortable with the Use of Visual Aids.” My speech topic is “How to Dramatically Improve your Health and Well-being by Cooking from Scratch.”
- Ask a thought-provoking question: Did you know that approximately 60% of the American diet comes from processed foods? This is worrisome because over-consumption of processed foods that contain empty calories from added sugars or saturated fats and contain excess sodium has detrimental health effects.
- Offer a clear take takeaway: Cooking from scratch using whole food ingredients from your panty and fridge will dramatically reduce the percentage of processed foods in your diet and by end of this speech, you’ll realize cooking from scratch is a lot more attainable than you think.
- Main Idea #1: Whole foods vs. processed foods
- Supporting Point for Main Idea 1
- Supporting Point for Main Idea 1
- Main Idea #2: The basics: what to stock in your pantry and fridge
- Supporting Point for Main Idea 2
- Supporting Point for Main Idea 2
- Main Idea 3: Preparing simple meals using whole food ingredients
- Supporting Point for Main Idea 3
- Supporting Point for Main Idea 3
- Final Statement
Now that you have an outline in place, let’s start thinking about visual aids that can support each key element of your speech.
PowerPoint / Google Slides
PowerPoint or Google Slides allow you to project information which team members, club members, audience members can view while you are speaking. You always want the main attention to be on you and therefore it is important to limit the amount of text displayed on each slide. Time and time again, I see slides filled to the brim with words. This puts audience members into conflict as they must decide: “Do I read the slides or listen to the speaker?” Slides can be helpful in the following ways:
- Provide navigation as to where in the speech you are. For example, it can be helpful to have a title slide which displays the name of your speech and well as a slide for each new section / main point. It keeps the audience oriented as to where you are in the discussion.
- Display a key foundational phrase or your thought-provoking question. In the above outline, you could have your thought-provoking question on a slide and pause to let it sink in with the audience.
- Perhaps the best way to leverage slides is to display supporting images for your points. For Main Idea #1, you can display a slide of whole foods (fruits, vegetables, broth, flour) as you explain exactly what that means and another slide could have pictures of processed foods (granola bars, rice and pasta packets, cereal box). For Main Point #2, you can show examples of a whole food filled pantry and fridge. Having a laser pointer or cursor with an arrow allows you to point to the exact object on a slide when you are speaking.
- If you are going to use slides to complement your Toastmasters Club meeting presentation, you’ll want to make sure the technology is in place to support projection and that you have the right cords and adapters needed. I would ask the person in charge of your Toastmasters program to help you verify this. If you are presenting for a work or community presentation, I recommend visiting the presentation site and doing a test run so that you are 100% guaranteed to have technological success.
- Keep slides as minimal as possible and when you are speaking, resist the urge to read the slide or position your body towards the slides. Ideally you are remaining square to the audience and glancing down at your computer screen for a prompt if needed.
Physical Props
Physical props provide a way to change things up as the vast majority of presentations use slides of one kind or another. Props can add a three-dimensional element to your presentation and improve audience engagement as they focus on observing what you are showing. For our Cooking from Scratch presentation, you could easily bring in a host of processed foods and compare them to a table filled with whole food items and ingredients. If your audience is small and seated relatively close to where you are presenting, they should all be able to see the physical props. If the group is larger, you would need to walk around holding items, while speaking. A combination of physical props and slides could also work too. It is important to make sure that you are able to remain focused on your key speaking points so always keep that in mind.
Physical White Board
White boards can include flip charts of plain white paper which typically stand on an easel or dry erase board. White boards are productive if you are planning to ask the audience a question and garner answers which you in turn capture in real time. with a marker. During the part of your speech where you ask a thought-providing question, you can solicit input from the audience and jot down answers. Back to our Cooking from Scratch example, you might ask the audience to share known health risks for ultra processed foods. Once you have these written down, it will be important to reference them later in your speech to tie it all together. After you highlight the benefits of using whole food ingredients and share the process for properly stocking a pantry and fridge with healthy ingredients, you can return to the white board and highlight how the negative health benefits we discussed earlier will cease to exist.
Virtual White Boards
Virtual White Boards allow you to capture audience input, similar to a physical white board, via computer application. Miro and Mural are two subscription-based providers and there are many others that offer free trials, such as Lucid, that you can use for your speech. Virtual white boards are better suited for larger audiences as the audience can view notes you are taking on a projected screen. If all or part of your audience is joining via Zoom or Teams, a virtual white board is easy to share via screen share. Like anything technology related, you want to be sure and do a test run before your actual speech to ensure that everything runs smoothly. You don’t want to be troubleshooting during your moment to shine!
With any of the visual aids discussed above, a little can go a long way so don’t feel like you need to overdo it. Ideally you are keeping the audience engaged in the words you are speaking and the visual aids are a value add to those words.
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