In-House Counsel

How To End A Presentation Vividly And Memorably

Actively engage with your listeners. Appeal to their emotions. Compel them to act.

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While captivating your audience in the beginning is important, the end of your talk is another opportunity to engage, inform, and inspire. So, how do you end? Here are the three ways to make a vivid and is memorable talk ending.

  1.   A Quote

Use a short quote to the point — a provocative quote that will remain with your listeners long after the talk. Quotes that are funny, vivid, and captivating are more likely to be remembered and repeated well after your talk. The goal is to enhance the emotional appeal of your presentation to make it more memorable and impactful on the listener. Also, try to pick a quote that is not commonly known to increase the likelihood of novelty and originality of your ending.

  1.   A Call to Action

Whether we sell, inform, or advocate, most speakers aim to influence actions to their listeners. So, utilize the last couple of minutes to make suggestions to take the action. Do you want your listeners to “join our fight”? Is your goal to “start a journey”? Do you want them to “enhance the process”? Do you want them to give their money, time, or expertise? Do you want them to vote a certain way? Should they focus their research or efforts? Do you want them to share your message with others? Asking your listeners to take specific actions toward a certain goal will reinforce your main message and help your listeners to feel more invested and connected to your product or information.

  1.   A Compelling Story

End the presentation with a compelling and memorable story — particularly a personal one or one which outlines how the presented material matter or influences others. While case studies are great, consider turning them into a story — yours or someone else. How will the proposed work impact the lives of others? Have you had a colorful personal experience that you could share? If you can’t think of a personal story, you can tell a story that happened to someone else.

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Tapping the emotional side of your audience helps to make a story more vivid and memorable. So, be sure to highlight funny, tragic, and ironic moments. After all, these emotional stories are more likely to be remembered. They are also more likely to help the listener to imagine that the series of these events could have happened to him or her. These kind of stories always tend to remain in minds for a long time.

The last few minutes of your talk are precious. Don’t waste them with clichés, making many appraisals, or with a long list of acknowledgements! Use them to actively engage with your listeners. Appeal to their emotions. Share something that they haven’t heard before. Compel them to act.

Olga V. Mack is an award-winning general counsel, operations professional, startup advisor, public speaker, adjunct professor at Berkeley Law, and entrepreneur. Olga founded the Women Serve on Boards movement that advocates for women to serve on corporate boards of Fortune 500 companies. Olga also co-founded SunLaw to prepare women in-house attorneys become general counsel and legal leaders and WISE to help women law firm partners become rainmakers. She embraces the current disruption to the legal profession. Olga loves this change and is dedicated to improving and shaping the future of law. She is convinced that the legal profession will emerge even stronger, more resilient, and inclusive than before. You can email Olga at olga@olgamack.com or follow her on Twitter @olgavmack.

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