EMS Glossary

Here’s a laundry list of terms that we use in EMS training programs, along with our own interpretations of their definitions.

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Questions
If you’re having trouble planning your content, try thinking of questions that your audience might ask. Use those answers as your talking points.

SELL It, Don’t TELL It
Owning your message is always preferable to simply giving out information. Deliver your presentation with passion and conviction. Instead of your audience saying “thanks,” they’ll walk away saying “WOW.” (more)

Snap Snap
We use this technique to help eliminate non-words by snapping when our clients use them. (It’s less invasive, and more legal, than our previous method: electroshock therapy!)

Smile
A big, authentic smile is a great way to connect with any live audience. Business doesn’t always have to be serious. (see Lighten Up, Francis).

Speaking Pace (see The Fundamentals)
Should you speak quickly or slowly? Both, if you want to hold your audience’s attention for your entire presentation. Speed helps convey passion and excitement, while slowing down helps people focus on main points and big ideas. Just not TOO quickly or slowly!

Summary
Always wrap-up by restating your main points, making the last thing you say the most memorable. That way, you’ll have a lasting impact on your audience.

Trust Yourself to Be Yourself
It’s liberating to be yourself, rather than the conservative business professional you think you need to be. Your audience will appreciate seeing the real YOU (unless, of course, you’re really a jerk, in which case...be someone ELSE).

Using the Room
No one says you have to stay behind a lectern. Walking purposefully from side to side, making broad gestures, and moving towards individual audience members has a powerful impact on a presentation. (see Movement, Energy)

Variety
When presenting, take every opportunity to vary your volume and speaking pace, change facial expressions, move to a different part of the room, or to add a gesture. Variety helps connect presenter to listener, and keeps everyone more engaged throughout.

Visual Aids
Often interpreted as slides that should contain the text of a presentation. But they can be quite distracting. Less is always more: if it doesn’t help the speaker engage the audience, it isn’t a visual aid.

Volume
Use this technique carefully and purposefully, turning it both up and down to keep your audience engaged.

Winston Churchill
His famous recipe for a successful speech still works today: 1) Tell them what you’re going to tell them, 2) Tell them, and 3) Tell them what you told them.

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