For most people, public speaking is daunting.

Leadership development and executive coaching expert Jeff Black says a good presentation is a bit like a stage production.

"You have to have all the elements: You've got to have a great opening act, you've got to have something in the middle to pull it through and you've got to have a great curtain's finale at the end," Black says.

To make sure your presentation is compelling, make sure to avoid these five major mistakes.

Starting on a weak note

You have to quickly capture your audience's attention, and you have to do it authentically, Black says. This applies whether you're going to your boss's office to ask for a resource or you are presenting to a team of 12 on a conference call.

"If you don't get the audience's attention today in the first three to five seconds, it's very hard to pull people in because of the crazy world we live in," Black says.

Forty percent of American workers admit to doing something else — texting, checking email, surfing the internet — during other people's presentations, a recent survey shows.

To get people's attention in the beginning, Black recommends asking an interesting question, opening with surprising statistics or mentioning a compelling news item.

Reading straight off a PowerPoint

By letting PowerPoint slides be the messenger, you forfeit an emotional or personal connection to your audience.

Late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs managed to get people to treat his keynote speeches like rock concerts in part by ditching PowerPoint .

While presentation slides are still important, Black says you should avoid reading directly from them.

"What Steve Jobs did brilliantly is he just put pictures [or] a word, and it was just enough to ignite what he wanted to say," he says.

Black also emphasizes not overloading presentations with more information than an audience can take in at once.

"At the end of the week they will never remember all that data on a PowerPoint slide," he says. "But they will never forget a compelling story they heard from one of their leaders. So get back to good old-fashioned storytelling."

Hurrying to start and finish

You might do this because you are nervous and just want to get your presentation over with, Black says, but it hurts your image.

"When it's their turn to start a presentation, I see some people who — as they are walking in front of the group, whether it's in a boardroom or up on a stage — they start talking as soon as they start walking," Black says. "It looks rushed and unprepared."