Who Are You Talking To Anyway?

This one sounds simple enough. Before you get up to speak have your materials prepared. When you are introduced, get organized before you start speaking. Don’t start speaking while you are setting up. It is rude and no one will be paying attention to what you are saying. They will be distracted by what you are doing.

Often, our presentations are timed to fit within a specific schedule. Time may be limited to five or ten minutes. Set up ahead of time or tell your audience that you will need a minute or two to set up or pass out materials. They’ll understand.

When you are ready, focus on the audience, thank them for their patience, and use the remaining time you have to reward them with a performance that they will never forget. A shorter, more focused presentation will be more effective than a longer one that confuses the audience.

Don’t let the room or the
equipment control you.
Eliminate the “worries” by
being prepared.

Know where you are going to present. Know the equipment you are going to use and how to use it.

Get into the room ahead of time whenever possible. If it is too big, make it smaller by seating people close together. If it is too small and can’t be changed, eliminate as much non-essential equipment, furniture, and even team members as possible. Let the audience know that you are aware of the problem and will do everything you can to work around it. But don’t be too apologetic. Keep the focus on the presentation and not on the problem.

Practice with the equipment before you get in front of the audience. It is very distracting and greatly detracts from your effort when you are fumbling with the switch on an overhead projector or, trying to figure out how to turn on the computer, while you should be focusing on the audience. If problems develop, don’t panic. Ask for some time to get back on track. If the problem can’t be fixed, be prepared to work without the equipment. The show must go on!

Perform, don’t read!

If you have this one down, half the battle is won!

If you know the content of your presentation you don’t need to worry about what you will say and can concentrate on how you will say it. I believe that we are all little children who got older. The child in each of us still loves to hear stories. We are still fascinated when someone captures our imagination. Just about everyone still enjoys good “storytelling”. Put life and energy into your delivery.

Perform the material. Put all your energy into making sure that the audience “gets it”. You can’t do that if you are “reading” rather than communicating with your audience. If you must read from a text of any kind, trust your mind. Look down at the material, “grab” a sentence, then look up at the audience and deliver it. Your mind is a wonderful and powerful mechanism. It will allow you to retain the thought that you just read long enough for you to deliver it to the audience. Trust yourself. Organize your thoughts using key words to remind you of the thought you are trying to convey. Write the words in big, bold type so you can see them easily. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse! It doesn’t take long and it pays big dividends.

Who are they?
What do they need?
What do I need to do
to reach them?

The audience rules!

Worrying about who is in the audience can create as much stress as worrying about what the audience thinks of you.
Learn as much as you can about the people in the audience before you get into the room. Can you be funny? Should you tell a joke? Should the tone be formal or informal? Who is the power in the room? Who does that person look to for advice? I tell all my presenters not to avoid anyone in the room because you never know who will influence the buying decision.

Learn what the audience expects from you and then exceed their expectations. Audiences need a great deal of attention and nurturing to keep them focused. Why? Because human nature dictates that they are going to be more focused on themselves than on you. You can only learn how to “feel” the mood of an audience by paying close attention to, and caring about, their wants and desires. Believe me, they will tell you how they feel and what they are thinking as soon as you focus on them rather than on yourself.

Finally, try to envision the audience as a group of people you know and are comfortable with. Use your imagination. Speak to people you like and you will be much more relaxed.

You only get one chance to make a first impression.

Remember, the audience is not thinking about you; they are thinking about themselves. Therefore, THE PRESENTATION IS NOT ABOUT YOU, IT IS ABOUT THE AUDIENCE. Get over yourself. Just before the meeting, look at yourself in a mirror and remind yourself there is nothing you can change other than to straighten your clothing and comb your hair, so stop worrying about yourself and focus on the audience.

Physical appearance is important, but don’t drive yourself crazy worrying about things you can’t do anything about.

If you can learn to feel good about yourself, you won’t be worrying about how you look. Have your clothes pressed and get those ties and scarves straight. Dress for success and dress for the occasion. This means that, whenever possible, you will be more “dressed up” than the audience. For example, if the dress code is “dress casual”, you should be dressed just a little bit better than “casual”. It is important to look and feel like the person in charge.

Give your problems away to the audience! If you have spilled coffee on your shirt or lost a button at the last minute, get it off of your mind or you won’t be able to concentrate on anything else. I suggest using humor. I would tell the audience that I spilled coffee and make a joke about it. By acknowledging the problem (or giving it away) I eliminate it from my mind. I no longer worry whether or not the audience notices the problem because I have told them about it. Remember, human nature dictates that the audience is going to be thinking about themselves, not about you. You are the only person in the room worrying about you. Get over yourself for a few minutes and you will be able to focus all your energy and attention on the audience and the information you are presenting.

If you are not nervous, you should be.

Phil Halstein, a wonderful teacher of presentation skills, once told me “everyone gets butterflies in their stomachs when faced with the prospect of presenting to a group of people, regardless of the size of that group. Successful presenters simply get their butterflies flying in formation.”

If you can learn to focus that nervous energy on what you are doing, you won’t have time to worry about your nervousness. Think about the audience and forget about yourself. Remember, your nervousness is a source of power when properly harnessed and controlled.

You should focus all your energy on performing better and eliminate anything else that might take your mind away from the task at hand. The next few pages list things that you can do to get rid of those butterflies.

The audience will “re-act”.

It is impossible to be as excited and energetic as we are supposed to be every day of our business lives.

Let’s face it; no one can be “up” every day. We can’t always care as much as we should about our business or our client’s problems. But we can certainly learn to act like we care. When you let the audience know that you are as interested in them and their problems as you can possibly be, they will react to you in a very positive way. Audiences know more than we think they know. Just as we read their moods, so do they read ours when we are making a presentation. Common sense dictates that you cannot expect an audience to be interested in you unless you are interesting.
I always told my employees that ATTITUDES ARE CONTAGIOUS. IS YOURS WORTH CATCHING TODAY? A very corny old adage, but very true. You cannot get the prospect to care about what you are saying until you show them that you care about them. You can create a powerful bond with the audience through your attitude and your performance.

Involve Your Audience

The dictionary defines the word “communication” as “the exchange of ideas, information or opinions between two or more people”. You cannot communicate effectively unless you realize that you should be receiving messages as well as sending them. You cannot receive or send messages if your back is turned, or if your head is down. Look at the audience when you speak.

The most effective presenters know how to have a dialogue with an audience while they are presenting to them. Great presenters are also good “listeners”. Audiences communicate with body language, facial language and attitude. You can’t be aware of these things unless you learn to “listen” while you present. Watch the audience. Speak with your audience, not at them.

If you turn your back on the audience, you give them permission to disengage from you. Good communicators are always focused on the audience.

The Best That You Can Be.

You can’t do better than the best that you can do.

You also can’t be anyone but you. The object here is to find out how far you can progress. What is your best? You will be very pleasantly surprised to learn that you can perform at a very high level if you just “let go of yourself” and become a performer.

Do you dare to try to be the best that you can be? I think that most people have it in them to make a story come to life when they let their guard down and act like themselves. You know how relaxed and uninhibited you are when telling a story to friends and family. That is the way you need to “act” when presenting in a business setting. Your guard is down because you are focusing on the audience’s reaction to your story, rather than being focused on yourself.

You will find that you have what it takes to be a much more interesting and memorable speaker. You just have to be willing to let that talent emerge in front of a business audience. Interesting people have interested audiences.

People Only Listen When Their Minds Have Been “Captured”.

Take No Prisoners!

We have all been in the audience when a powerful speaker totally controls the room because he or she “captured” the audience.

Think of the success you can enjoy when you learn to get over your self-consciousness and become that speaker. Almost everyone can remember some speaker who captured his/her attention. Someone easily remembered because of how well they spoke. It might have been a teacher or someone we heard at a meeting. We remember them because they captured our minds for a few minutes through the power of their performance. They were able to control their nerves long enough to focus on their audience and “capture” them. You too have the ability to be that kind of speaker. You only need to let it out. Dare to do it just once and you will never want to hide your talent again.