033 From Dusty Files to Brilliant Talks: The 5 P's of Awesome Presenting

In this helpful episode, expert Jacqueline Stockwell shares her best ideas for leaders who want to stop worrying about giving presentations and start speaking with power.

Jacqueline explains her simple plan: The Five P's of Awesome (Planning, Preparation, Practice, Personalisation, and Performance). Use this system to feel confident and turn boring information into interesting stories. Learn how to use stories, know who you're talking to, and bring your best self to the stage.

Your time is important. Your message matters. Listen now to learn how to make a great and lasting impression!

What You'll Take Away:

• You must make your time count.
• Bad presentations are usually because of poor speaking, not bad facts.
• Stories help you connect with people easily.
• Planning is the first step before writing your talk.
• Know your audience and change your message for them.
• Practicing fixes problems with how you speak and timing.
• Be your true self when you present.
• Use your own stories to interest the audience.
• Focus on your energy when you speak.
• End well to be remembered.

Topics Covered:

• 00:00 Why Stories are Important When Speaking
• 02:35 How to Stop Being Afraid to Speak
• 05:40 What are the Five P's of Public Speaking?
• 08:11 How to Plan and Get Ready for Your Talk
• 10:47 Making Your Talk Unique (Personalization)
• 13:34 Speaking with Energy and Being Yourself

Podcast: The Journal of the Information Entrepreneur

🌱 Ready to take this further? 

If something landed for you in this episode… don’t just leave it here. 

You don’t need to figure it all out on your own — I’ve created a few simple ways to help you take your next step, at your pace. 

🟢 — Start where you are 

If you’re not quite sure how you’re showing up right now, start here: 

👉 Thinking with Jaki Scorecard — your Influence Action Plan
Use this to get clarity on how you currently show up, where you might be getting stuck, and what your next influence move is. Thinking with Jaki 

🟡 Build clarity and direction 

Once you’ve got that awareness, let’s build a clearer picture of where you are overall: 

👉 Leadership Through Data EMPOWER Scorecard
This will show you where you sit across the EMPOWER framework — your strengths, your gaps, and what to focus on next so you can move forward with confidence. The Leadership Through Data EMPOWER Scorecard 

🔵 Grow with me 

If you’re ready to go deeper and build real momentum: 

👉 Join the free EMPOWER Masterclass | Leadership Through Data
I’ll walk you through the full roadmap and help you see exactly how to step into your influence and leadership — in a way that feels like you.  The EMPOWER Masterclass | Leadership Through Data  

🚀 Want to keep building? 

If you’re ready to take action beyond this episode, here are a couple of ways we can work together: 

👉 Book Jaki to speak at your next event
Bring these conversations into your organisation or community with practical, real-world learning. Public Speaker, Write & Podcaster - Jacqueline Stockwell 

👉 Join the 21-Day EMPOWER Sprint
Build momentum, take action daily, and stop overthinking your next move.
https://leadershipthroughdata.com/empower-21/ 

💬 Final thought 

You don’t need to do everything at once.
Just take one next step. 

And if this episode helped you, I’d love you to share it with someone who needs to hear it too 💛 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hello and welcome to today's show. I'm Jacqueline Stockwell, CEO and founder at Leadership Through Data. I inspire and motivate information leaders across the world. Welcome to today's show. Now today I'm on my own. I'm going to be talking about the five P's of awesome presenting. Now I'm going to take you from my dusty files to absolutely brilliant presentations. I'm all about inspiring, motivating, and educating information leaders across the world to focus on your messaging and your storytelling. And it's so important that we're starting to change the way we present information. And how we do that is through public speaking, through engagement, but also how we present ourselves through a branding. And there's a few more podcasts coming up around that. First of all, I want to talk about storytelling. So storytelling is how we connect people. We've been telling stories for thousands of years before we could read and write. Stories connect to an emotional aspect of a human being. They're a really, really useful and powerful way to get your point across and picture things in people's minds. So why are presentation skills so important? So I want to tell you a little story about why I care so much about this stuff. And it's my story. So I'm sitting in this dark, damp, smelly records library wondering what I'm going to do with myself. See, before I used to work for the National Health Service. I was in an information management role. It was dynamic, it was fun, it was creative, and I had lots of seniority. And then I left to have my baby girl. And when I came back, things were a little bit different. The job had changed, I'd lost my old position, and I was stuck in this dark, dusty, musty records library, wondering what to do. The thoughts that were going through my head is that I could have stayed, it was a really nice job, and I would have had a great pension. But for me, being true to myself, being authentic, and really making a difference in the world really mattered to me. So I wondered what I was going to do. And then I realized the training sessions that I'd been to were boring. People just weren't learning. Rather, I'll wait for the next coffee break. And I wanted to do something that was different. I wanted to offer a training course that people apply their knowledge straight away and actually use it rather than giving you something and saying, read this, good luck, best, get on your way. And that's why I started Leadership Through Data. And we're all about making learning fun, useful, and making every minute that you spend in training, presentations really matter because your time is so important. So let's not let's not forget that. Your time is important, your time costs money. So why would you want to sit through something and not have the value of the time? So my goal is to make sure that you remember what you learn and you can use it in your own life. Now, one of the big things that I've seen throughout my time is really bad presentations and the power of our mindset. So let's face it, we've all sat through presentations that absolutely put us to sleep. We're kind of shuffling around thinking, oh my god, when's this going to be over? Or we're on our phones, or we're thinking, oh yeah, let's just get the laptop out and I'll check a few emails. Maybe there were tiny words on the slide that you couldn't read and you're sort of struggling to read to get my very focals out there. Or the speaker's voice was like super flat and really dull-toned, and it just became boring and it just wasted your time. But here's the thing: the biggest problem isn't always the content, it's how it's presented and the nerves and how you think about presenting. There's even a saying that people are more scared of public speaking than dying, and I like to relate that to sharks because I love sharks, they come with fear and they come with danger, but you can take quite a lot of lessons from uh the shark breed and how they're presence, and that's linked to public speaking. And I've got a really good story on that in my book. But instead of you know running away from our fear, why can't we use something that we're fearful about and let us use it to overcome that? And that's where I pulled the link from sharks to public speaking. One of the fun tricks that I do in my classes, and it's also in my book and presentations, is that you should move your arms as far as you can. Now, this is a real um thing, and if you're driving, listen to this podcast, it's gonna be a bit of a challenge for you. And I will put the video for the Tony Robbins video in the show notes. But this is about belief, and I've utilized this technique a few times, and so I would encourage you to go and play the video from Tony Tony Robbins and just see how far you can move your arms. Are you in the 25% or are you in the 50% of the belief in the mindset? Now it's super important for you to try this because it shows and demonstrates the super powerfulness of your mind and the belief you have in yourself. And if you can believe you'll do something, you will next time. And that video is just insanely good to present what to back up what I'm saying. So next time you want to do a talk, don't just practice your words, you need to imagine the whole thing, you need to picture it, you need to put in yourself presence on stage, find out um what your environment looks like, you know, are there round tables, are they in rows, is there a stage? You know, so you can really start to build that picture up into your mind. One of the other things you also need to do is start to picture your audience, a happy audience, an engaged audience, and something that you're actually making sure that your messages are landing where you want them to land. Have you got a joke? Have you got a pause? Are you doing them in the right frame at the right time? And the really, really important things when it comes to public speaking, certainly from your pace and your tone and your execution as well. Talk more about that in my book and later on. So the five P's of public speaking. So the first one is planning. So you need to make sure you plan, you need to prepare, is the second P. You need to practice. Practice is a huge thing, there's no more winging in it anymore. You need to think about your personal aspects. So, what are you gonna wear? What shoes? And the fifth P is your performance. You need to keep these in mind for any presentations that you give. So let's go into a bit more detail around that. So you want to plan. So before you even open your PowerPoint, you need to take time to plan your talk. You need to consider using a mind map with colourful sticky notes, one for your main point, other for stories, and the third one for ways to involve your audience. So I have a yellow, a blue, and a pink, and I throw everything up on the wall and just get my my crazy ideas out, and then I start to go back over them and start to pull things down. So I can really start to refine that presentation. Um, and this really helps with reorganizing your thoughts and your mindset and really starts to shape that presentation. And depends how big the wall is, it depends how long you want to make it. From there, you need to also make a couple of key things is you need to work out who your audience is. So you wouldn't do a wedding speech to your senior leadership team. So make sure you know who your audience is and what messages you want to land. Do you also want to inspire, motivate, educate? Do you want to sell a product? What is the outcome and what is the feeling that you want your audience to feel at the end of it? The majority of my sessions, I want to make sure that they're inspired and they're motivated and they're leaving, they're going, yeah, that was awesome. That's the feeling that I always want to achieve. So let's look at two preparation. This is how you can shape your talk and how you're going to decide to deliver it. And one of the big things is stories. So stories are magic, as I said before, and there is an entire podcast on stories coming up in the next session. And they're help, they're there to help you connect and remember. For example, right at the start of this podcast, I shared my time in my records library to get your attention. But when are utilizing stories, were and I was describing that story to you. Did you picture in your mind that you were in that dark, damp, dusty records library? Were you in a small space? Could you fell that musty? If you can, great, because that's an excellent representation of how you can create stories in other people's minds. You can also use sensory information as well, which is why I talk about dark, damp, and dusty. So I can really get that sensory information across and that story story really implanted into your mind. You need to make sure you have a story. So key things is three to four stories, but you also need to practice your story in a way that feels natural, so it's not robotic, it's not you know straight off the tongue, it's not in a dull tone. You need to check your voice. Are you loud enough? Are you lively enough? Do you want to make sure that you've got the energy? That is how you keep people's interest. If I was doing a podcast today, a 20-minute podcast with you, which I am, and I kept my tone like this, you would have probably turned it off by now. Number three, you need to practice. You need to rehearse your presentation until you are comfortable, but don't overdo it. Please, you don't want to sound too robotic. You want to have those natural pauses and breaks in your session so it becomes more natural and you can bring the audience in with you. Practicing helps you smooth out anything, any time issues. Um, it's very good when you practice to make sure that you can keep your timings on track and you can work out when you need to pause, when you need to break, when you've got an audience interaction, and when you go back to content. So, for example, if you were delivering a 90-minute presentation, you only want content for 60 minutes of those. And of those 60 minutes, you want to make sure that you can practice those and time it as well. When you practice, you can record it yourself and watch it back. My only caveat with that would be is to make sure you're kind to yourself, you're looking at the presentation and your delivery rather than what you look like or anything else you might find uh flaws within yourself. So make sure it's you review that in a really positive light. You can also do it in front of your friends, your family, and really get that feedback of where you can improve. Number four, you want to bring your um your personal aspects into it. So bring your authentic self to the stage. I'm now known for all my colourful attire when I come on stage, but I'm also known for my movement entries and closures. So you can always have some fun, and that's bringing my authentic self into my presentations. You want to make sure you share personal stories, and coming with personal stories will make it real for you. So that confidence of you delivering a presentation will come naturally, and then people will connect with you. Make sure you use simple languages, avoid acronyms and examples that resonate with your audience, and let your passion for your job shine through. Number five, let's look at performance. So, when it's time to deliver, you want to focus on your performance, you want to use your body language, you want to use eye contact with the audience, you want to move and engage with them. You need to make sure that your messages are clear and memorable, and remember your voice, energy, and presence can turn a good presentation into an amazing one. So if you put that energy in, it's called I call it performance because it's a performance. An actor acts on stage. You need to make sure you bring your best self to the stage every single time. Make sure when you um look into wrap up, you plan your messages, you prepare your story, and you practice your delivery. You need to make it personable and bring you to it. We're people are coming to see you, not somebody else that you've copied or done something from somebody else. They're coming to see you. Use your ideas, put yourself out of your comfort zone and end strong. I really want to inspire people and you if the listeners, you need to connect with their hearts and their minds. So, here's a tip for your next talk. Start with your sticky notes for your planning, focus on your key ideas that you want people to remember. One takeaway message only, guys, not six. If you're doing a 20-minute presentation, loads of content in there. What's the one thing you want them to remember at the end? Think about your personal stories that will connect with the audience. In my book, I talk about a wide range of personal stories from my fear of pigeons to retention and wine to top gun, and then you need to make sure you rehearse and perform with energy and enthusiasm. Don't just stand on stage and say, I'm here, I'm Jacqueline Stockwell, and I'm here to talk to you about information management. You want to be saying, I am Jacqueline Stockwell, and I'm here today to talk to you about information management. And this is going to be the best presentation that you've been to. I really hope you've enjoyed the show today, guys. Thanks so much for listening. I hope these tips will help you from getting out those dark records library to absolutely rocking the stage with me. And remember, your voice matters. For more tips, check out the Leadership Through Data website. Follow me on LinkedIn to keep inspired and motivated and keep leading with information. See you later. Bye. Thank you for listening to the journals of the information entrepreneur with me, Jacqueline Stockwell. I hope you found this episode inspiring and helpful and have some takeaway tips that can be useful to you. If you liked this episode, please like, review, and share it with your friends. Your support helps us reach more information leaders to stay inspired and listen to great content. Want to test out your strengths and weaknesses and measure it against our empowered framework? Please complete the scorecard. It's a great way to improve and evaluate your skills. You can find the scorecard at the end of the description of this podcast. Stay tuned for a new podcast every Thursday and remember to be bold, be brave, and be beautiful.