I caught a glimpse of Ed Miliband, the UK’s Labour leader speaking at a conference.  What interested me was not the political message but the fact that he stood away from the podium as he spoke.

Why did he do that?  Well, it’s pretty simple…

1     Standing tall, composed and grounded on a stage can have a powerful presence when it’s done with ease and confidence.   

2     Standing alone, facing your audience in full profile fully (as opposed to side profile) sends a message of confidence and the audience will connect much more with you and your message. 

3    So many people use a podium as a crutch to hide behind or something to hold on to (think of the white knuckle grip to the edge of the podium! A podium is to hold your notes not you – yet so many people use it to hold themselves up! Or simply to hide behind. 

4    Allowing the audience to see you entirely is a very vulnerable place to be, there is nowhere to hide.

5     A podium can confine you and it certainly has the potential to take the focus away from you – which is not what you want by the way.

6    Standing away from the podium can reduce the formality and put an audience at ease.  It says “I’m not going to hide behind formality,       I’m going to talk to you, I am one of you.

I am of the school of thought that says “step away from stuff”!  podiums, chairs, tables – laptops, clutter!  Trust yourself to “own the space” and “own the moment”.

It takes actors years to acquire this skill!  With me you’ll learn the skill a little quicker!

PowerPoint is always lurking in the background and I have to say I have seen some terrible PowerPoint in my time!

 I don’t claim to be an expert in this area – there plenty of "design experts" at hand to help in that respect - but here are my thoughts on the murky world of power point:

(images used throughout this posting are merely used to highlight my own pet hates!) 

1   Ask yourself “Do I really need that slide?” Why not trust yourself to communicate the message,  maybe you don’t need a slide.  If you carefully structure your message and deliver it with vocal presence then you don’t really need a slide. Remember, it is YOU that will engage, educate, motivate – not a slide deck.

2   Always remember why visual aids are used Visual aids are there to help make your presentation memorable – they are not the presentation, they are merely an aid. Don't use your slide as a crutch and remember you are the best visual in the presentation.  So always ask yourself is this slide aiding my presentation? is it helping to make me memorable?

3   Get rid of that terrible “Agenda slide” They bore, they lack imagination and they are lazy. Your audience are most certainly listening at the beginning of your presentation, this is the time to make an impact and engage, so think about that “agenda slide” do you really need it to tell the audience what you are going to talk about?  If you think you definitely need it, do some homework and get a good design.

4   Get rid of bullets They really are not clever or nice to look at, they are certainly not memorable.  Bullets are not nice items anyway – so come on stop shooting your audience!

5   Stop using your slide as dumping ground I see it all the time – people putting all their thoughts on the slide, and before you know it you’ve a slide so full of text that it is no longer a visual aid, it is a novel!  It confuses, bewilders and annoys.

6   Stop using ClipArt  It’s not memorable, it doesn’t visually engage, in my humble opinion it looks a little amateurish.  There are plenty of free resources out there to get good visual images.  Start with Google Images or Flickr.  Of course, there are any number of sites where you can buy amazing images.  I love istock.com.

7   Do a little 'Home Work' Find out what's best practice, references I like Garr Reynoards, Presentation Zen Ang Tian Teck, Sticky Presentations: A different approach in presentation design and delivery

What have Sterco MCs got to do with my world? well you'd be surprised  This song popped into my head today!  

You know you remember it, we all sang along to it!  Is it wrong to say I saw them preform recently?!  

So why did it pop into my head?

Well as you know, I work with people wishing to develop their presentation and vocal  skills.  They usually want to work on engaging and connecting with their audience.

So here’s what happens, first –  I ask two simple questions:

“What do you feel about your message?”

“What do you want the audience to feel?”

People are often left perplexed – “what kind of a question is that, I’m just giving a presentation.”

Often it’s a struggle for people to articulate how they feel, never mind how they want the audience to feel.

Here’s the thing, if you don’t know how you would like the audience to feel about your message – you can never convey that in your vocal delivery – as a result you are disconnected from your message resulting in an audience simply not listening anymore.

If you wish to connect with your audience, (which we all do) you need to think carefully about how you feel about your message and you need to convey this in your language, in your body, and in your voice.  

I was doing some coaching recently.  The presenter delivered her message with a big smile and happy energy.  But when I asked her how she wanted the audience to feel, she thought for a while and said “ I want them to be very concerned at the startling statistic and act immediately”  So, mixed messages, leading to confusion and disconnection.

So,

1. Get your mind working
2. Think carefully about how you wish the audience to feel
3. Convey that emotion in your vocal delivery

if you don’t, your message may fall on deaf ears.  Get yourself connected.

All together now! 

“If you make sure you're connected,

the writing's on the wall

But if your mind's neglected,

stumble you might fall”

lol

Described as 'Battle of the First Daughters' by the Daily Mail…both Chelsea and Jenna are currently pursuing television careers.

Where as Jenna has so far be warmly received for her reporting on the 'Today Show'  Chelsea appears to be struggling to make it with her segments on NBC…

See which style you think works…

Two common beliefs that are simply incorrect when it comes to public speaking.

“If I attend training, that’s enough to make me a confident presenter”.  

 “I could never be good at speaking in public – it’s a skill people are either born with or without”.

Both Incorrect!

Excuses I hear too often 

“I didn’t have time to prepare properly, that’s why I wasn’t good”

“I would have been much better if I had time”

“I only had time to put some slides together”

“I thought it was in my head, if i had more time I’d……”

Here’s the thing,

if you really want to be good at presenting you have got to give it time and you’ve got to prioritize its importance. 

You’ve got to give yourself:

1.  Time to build the skill
   
2.  Time to structure a clear, memorable  message 
   
3.  Time to rehearse until you sound and feel confident
   

Recently, I was having dinner with some friends (my brother –in-law included).  I was lamenting the fact that I didn’t have time for reading.  

He made the casual point that “if something is important enough, you’ll make the time”.  Even though I didn’t like to hear it at the time he was completely right.  If I really did want to read a good novel, I could easily make the time – I just didn’t prioritize it.    

so thank you Ronan

If you want to do something, you’ve got to give it time and priority – it’s as simple as that.

Enough of the Excuse Syndrome!

Start thinking about your poor audience – they are busy too! and they've given up their time to listen to you!  This is what they need:

1    A reason to listen to you

An audience will not listen to you unless they know why they should – it’s as simple as that! So, you need to make it very clear from the start why your presentation is important to them.   What’s the benefit? consequence? etc.  They need to know “what’s in it for them” (W.I.I.F.M.) – otherwise you don’t have an audience.

2   Life made really easy for them

Structure you message simply and clearly. If you’re inexperienced find out about basic structuring for a presentation.  I always this it’s useful to think of “the audience” as friends.

3   Simple and user friendly language

Stop using jargon and complex language immediately.  It doesn’t make you sound more intelligent it just bores, alienates and frustrates your listener.    Make life easy for the listener and use a conversational style with matching language.  It’s no less professional believe me.

4   A relevant and understandable message

I suggest every point you make ask yourself “why would this be remotely relevant to the listener ?” and if you think it should be relevant to them ask yourself this “how am I making this relevant and understandable to them.  Every point you make needs to be in “audience context”.

5   A memorable message 

If they feel they are being talked to, as opposed to talked at, they are more likely to remember your message.   Use “I” “we” and “our” involves the audience as if they are on the journey also.  Using personal experiences, personal stories and memorable examples is a good start – there are plenty more approaches.  But please don’t make up stuff – it can be obvious and can sound false to the audience.

6   To feel you really believe your message

If your voice lacks energy and emotion – your audience will tune out.  Ask yourself, what emotion do you want your audience to feel (interest? excitement? curiosity).  You then need to convey this emotion in your voice.

It sounds like an obvious presentation skill, but just thinking about what you are saying and how you would like the audience to feel it very powerful.  So many presenters just present like they are “going through the motions”, and an audience needs and expects more.

7   To stay listening and connected from the start to finish

There is no point having a great, memorable first 45 seconds and then you revert to a complex, irrelevant message for the remainder of your presentation.   A great colleague of mine, uses the analogy of a travalator (those flat moving stairs you see in airports) when giving a presentation. The audience needs to step on the travelator at the beginning with you and move with you through your presentation and gets off the end with you.

They need to walk away from your presentation knowing what they should do, think and feel as a result of listening to your entire presentation.
 

so imagine this,

You've just arrived at a a musical concert.   You wait to be entertained by the musician.  The pianist  arrives on stage and starts to play.  But he starts playing by using only two notes – C D!  you wonder what's going on, you're definitely disappointed and you then tune out  - frustrated!

 If you want to engage an audience when you speak the same principle applies – you need to think of your voice as an instrument and you need to use your range of notes (pitch range) to connect with your audience.

If you don't, you will simply bore the pants off our listener!

Using pitch range is necessary to get the audience to sit up and listen.

So firstly, how do we hear the pitch range (notes) in our voice?

Simply, start at your lowest note and just like a scale of a piano, hum gently and slowly up your vocal scale – the notes should be getting higher and higher! give it a go.   This is easier to explain by doing than writing!

How do you use your pitch range – how do you make your voice an instrument?

I always think it's useful to firstly think about the meaning of your message.   What do you want the audience to think about and feel?

Once you decide on this, the emotion in your voice (be it interest, positivity etc.) will follow.  Pitch variety will follow once you are really thinking about, and connected to your message. 

If you are still struggling with this here are some ways to vary pitch

1. Going from low pitch to high pitch when stating contrasts.

2. Build up your pitch in steps to build momentum.

Remember through

A sustained period of high pitch can sometimes put people on edge or it can motivate them.  It can also indicate sarcasm or light heartedness.

A sustained period of lower pitch can soothe, indicate seriousness or bore!

Saturday’s Vocal Presence Workshop, which was held in the very attractive surroundings of The Guinness Storehouse was another resounding success.

A great bunch of people, great energy and so supportive – good fun along the way, as everyone learnt new skills.

The workshop ended with a well deserved pint in the Gravity Bar, a good way to end a hard day!

These vocal presence workshops provide intensive training to small groups of people.  The workshop provides plenty of professional and constructive feedback in the area of vocal delivery and physical presence.  

There is also plenty of video recording and analysis – difficult but very worthwhile.

The very practical training itself is delivered using theater techniques, adjusted to meet the needs of the business professional.  The work is also grounded in a knowledge of anatomy and physiology.

But in the end, the workshop is about encouraging everyone to go back to basics and trust yourself to engage, inspire and motivate your listener as opposed to using technology and jarjon!

It’s about breathing life back into business communication.

Next workshop May 26th – check it out

http://www.confidentspeak.com/home/up_coming_workshops/

By using the drug Beta Blocker “the force and rate of the heartbeat is reduced” (patient.co.uk)"

You should  feel calm, cool (literally) and collected with the pop of one pill – so surely it provides an answer or does it?  

I am posing this question because I was recently asked by a fearful presenter if the drug is indeed the cure?  If it calms the presenter down and makes them feel relaxed what could be better?

The honest answer is this – I don’t know, I’ve never popped one!  But what I would ask is this:

“What was the experience like for your audience?"

Just because you feel great, means absolutely nothing in terms of how successful you were as a presenter .

The best indicator of your success is the reaction you get from your audience – How did they feel?  

Sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but how you (the presenter) feels is irrelevant!

How about thinking about these questions instead: 

• Did you have energy and passion when you spoke?
• Did you have a positive, grounded physical presence?
• Did you engage with a strong vocal delivery?
• Did your facial expression and eye contact connect with people? 
• Did you talk “to people” or “at people”?
• Were you connected emotionally to what you were saying?
• Did you “own your stage”?
• Did you feel energised after your presentation?

- If you’re not sure – then there’s your answer.

It should also be noted that the following are but a few of Beta Blockers side affects   "Some initial side effects (patient.co.uk)"

• Sometimes the heart rate can go too slowly. This can make you dizzy or feel faint.
• Some people develop cool hands and feet.
• Tiredness, depression, impotence (you cannot get a proper erection)
• vivid dreams, nightmares and other sleeping problems may occur.

So loads of scary side effects  http://www.patient.co.uk/health/Beta-Blockers.htm

I say, trust you natural skills, prepare, rehearse and as my mother very recently said; 

 “Face the fear and do it anyway”

You may just be very glad you did!