It’s Called Presenting, Not Talking Out Loud Read online

  presentation (the details, to whatever extent

  those may be).

  • In the end, we have our conclusion – where we

  tie everything together (and sometimes also

  summarize, depending on the nature of the

  presentation). And there are chapters

  throughout this book that are dedicated to each.

  So come up with a plan. I’l help you organize this

  and share some examples but before we do so,

  here’s a quick snapshot of how you should look at

  this:

  Let’s break this out into further detail and I’l help

  you organize what goes into each of these three key

  areas:

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  If you really think about it, while there is probably only one objective to each presentation, there are

  several ways (strategy) to do it. And once you’ve

  come up with at least more than one strategy, the

  ways you can execute also increase.

  One further thing (which I have a chapter devoted

  to), your audience wil most likely also play a role in

  your decision-making.

  Think of having to clean a home, top-to-bottom.

  Let’s say this is a single-family house, 3-4 bedrooms,

  2 baths, living room, dining room, kitchen, and a

  basement.

  If you need to clean the house because you’re selling

  it, perhaps you’l want to hire a professional crew. If

  you’re cleaning just for the sake of cleaning, perhaps

  you’ll do it yourself.

  Here’s an example:

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  Now let’s translate this into what it means for a

  presentation.

  Let’s say that you’l be making a presentation on the

  difference between alternating current (AC) and

  direct current (DC) to a general audience (non-

  technical people).

  Here are some ways in which you may organize your

  overall presentation:

  Option 1:

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  Option 2:

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  Option 3:

  Let’s say we now want to build out a presentation

  (with slides) and we’ve landed on a strategy that

  doesn’t focus on technical attributes – since again,

  we are presenting to a general audience. And since

  Options 2 and 3 both don’t focus on the technicals,

  we’l use a combination of both to execute.

  So let’s construct this with a sample presentation,

  coming from Options 2 and 3. Of course, since

  presenting is both ART as wel as some science, there

  are so many ways to creatively execute your

  presentation. This is one of many examples. And this

  is not meant to even be “that” good, but sometimes

  basic better il ustrates the pedagogy:

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  Introduction Slide 1 (BEGINNING): I start with the

  “IMAGINE” introduction technique (Chapter 10):

  Imagine…(PAUSE)…Imagine living in a world where

  there was no electricity, and al you had when the

  sun went down was candle power?

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  Introduction Slide 2 (BEGINNING):

  Think of how different your life would be without the

  light bulb. But this isn’t about the light bulb, per se,

  – it’s more about imagining your life without

  electricity.

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  Slide 3 (BEGINNING):

  More specificaly, AC/DC – alternating vs direct

  current.

  Alternating Current

  vs.

  Direct Current

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  Slide 4 (TRANSITION TO MIDDLE):

  But to tel you about AC vs. DC, I first need to tel you

  about two interesting people. Pioneers of their time.

  Thomas Edison and Nikolai Tesla. They were like the

  Steve Jobs and Bil Gates of their time. Their stories

  are quite fascinating. The saga of AC/DC was riddled

  with passion, partnership, politics, scandal, and

  eventual loathing for each other. I think the only

  thing missing from this tale was sex.

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  Slide 5 (MIDDLE):

  The difference between AC and DC, for al of us non-

  technical people (myself included), think of it like

  these il ustrations. DC, or direct current, flows in a

  straight line. AC, or alternating current, has an ebb

  and flow pattern.

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  Slide 6 (MIDDLE):

  In DC, you’re carrying electricity, essential y in a

  straight line, with generators, to the destination. In

  AC, you’re doing something similar, but you’l notice

  with the areas circled, there are transformers.

  Smal er amounts of electricity are needed from the

  source – and can be passed through, and then

  converted. In both cases, the total electrical power is

  the same.

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  Slide 7 (MIDDLE):

  But as mentioned, the story of AC and DC is like a

  classic soap-opera. Edison took every opportunity he

  could, to try and undermine Tesla’s AC model.

  Wanting to demonstrate how AC was far more

  unsafe to DC, Edison went so far and took advantage

  of the electrocution of Topsy the Elephant, claiming

  that the suffering of this popular circus elephant was

  due to AC.

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  Slide 8 (MIDDLE):

  But AC is not less safe than DC, and in many cases

  safer than DC, since it’s not direct current at the

  required voltage. While landlines are going away as

  time goes on, the reason why you don’t get

  electrocuted when picking up a landline telephone

  during lightning and an electrical storm, is due to AC.

  And I think we’d al agree, this is a good thing.

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  Slide 9 (MIDDLE):

  However, DC makes a lot of sense for a variety of

  applications when you don’t need electricity traveling

  for long distances. Battery chargers are just one of

  many examples.

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  Slide 10 (TRANSITION TO END):

  These two men, once friends and partners and

  eventual y bitter foes, were both bril iant for their

  contributions and wound up sharing the Nobel Prize.

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  Slide 11 (END):

  Truth be told, while al passionate people, driven to

  success by personal ambition and a desire to change

  the world may have conflicting world views, the

  world would not be the same if it were NOT for the

  important contributions of both Edison and Tesla.

  And AC and DC power, as we know it, may not have

  existed.

  So as I mentioned, there are many ways to put a

  presentation together and this is just one, small

  example, this should give you an indication of how to

  generally organize and structure your presentation.

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  CHAPTER THREE | LEARNING

  FROM COMEDIANS

  I use comedians as a tool when I teach business

  communications. Specifically, I use stand-up

  comedians because I believe we stand to learn a lot

  about audiences by observing successful comedians.

  When you think about your favorite comedian, you

/>   probably like them more for their style rather than

  their jokes. In other words, the content — the joke

  — is usually secondary. It’s the delivery of the joke that makes you laugh.

  Ever hear a really great friend of yours who you

  really like and care about but isn’t funny ruin a

  completely great joke? The joke is a great one. But

  the “wrong” person is tel ing the joke. So, the

  content is secondary. The delivery is what gives it a

  great punch line.

  Aside from understanding your content when

  delivering a presentation, you also have to

  determine how to connect with your audience.

  Comedians have an instinctual understanding of

  their audiences. They need to. It’s a survival skil ; it’s

  how they eat! George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Chris

  Rock, Dave Chappel e, etc. Your favorite comedian,

  whomever they are, living or not, were once starving

  artists – literally and figuratively.

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  Stand-up comedians have an ability – and

  opportunity and necessity, in some cases— that even

  the most famous actors don’t. Since comedians have

  to be so in-tuned with their audience, it’s one of the

  only, if not the only, theatrical art form where the

  comedian (presenter) has the opportunity to adjust

  their style, pitch, tone, etc. in real time, as needed,

  based on their read of the audience. That’s pretty

  amazing.

  In preparing for your next presentation, watch your

  favorite comedian on YouTube and see what it is, as

  far as a “total package,” makes you laugh. I’m ready

  to bet that most of it rests on the delivery. If you

  don’t have a favorite, can I make a suggestion?

  Watch George Carlin.

  When you watch Carlin on stage, observe what he’s

  doing. Observe his body language, and how he

  masters the skil of connecting with his audience

  while remembering his lines. He was a true artist.

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  CHAPTER FOUR | AUDIENCE

  AND SELF-AWARENESS

  Two of the key issues regarding effective

  presentations include the ability to understand your

  audience and self-awareness.

  Before I go into detail, the biggest piece of practical

  advice I can give you here is to make sure you never

  alienate your audience. Always remember that

  within the context of a presentation, you are not the

  focus; they are. You work for them, in that moment.

  You really do. The extent of your knowledge is not

  relevant. If you’re successful, you’l get the credit

  you deserve. What you can give your audience

  matters, and that wil make all the difference.

  This can be tricky, because even if you’re a polished

  speaker and you forget your audience, you’l fail. I

  guarantee this.

  For instance:

  • What is the purpose of being an expert on

  something if your audience doesn’t absorb the

  info you want them to?

  • What is the point of trying to give advice to a

  room ful of people that won’t be able to use it?

  • What is the purpose of being a marketing maven

  if you wind up making your presentation pretty

  much all about yourself and no one in the

  audience takes away anything from your

  message?

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  SELF-AWARENESS

  Being self-aware means that you have a strong sense

  of your surroundings, what you can reasonably

  understand about your audience, and most

  importantly – what you can reasonably assume they

  know about you.

  To focus on the last point, your title isn’t as

  important as you think when you’re addressing an

  audience. Whether you’re a CEO, Director, head

  coach, politician, teacher, etc., your credibility is only

  as good as what people think of you. As you know,

  perception is reality.

  If you have good credibility, great. If you don’t have

  good credibility but also aren’t self-aware of your

  situation, you’l most likely have a presentation or

  speech that fails.

  If you’re suffering from low credibility (for whatever)

  reason, you can stil deliver a great presentation.

  Just be honest about things. You know the phrase

  “the elephant in the room,” so address the elephant.

  I find that if you’re candid about what you think the

  audience thinks (about you or a situation), your

  credibility immediately shoots up. You’ve addressed

  the audience’s concern, and they can now relax a

  little bit – and actually listen to what you have to say.

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  Believe me when I tel you that I’ve seen the

  following so many times at the professional and

  industry level.

  A few years ago, I was excited to go to a presentation

  by a very wel -known and respected person in my

  industry. Of course, I won’t share her name but

  know that she’s a leader in the beauty industry. The

  presentation was meant to be about how she started

  her business empire, and the event was marketed as

  an entrepreneurship/innovation talk.

  I hate to tel you how disappointed I was. Al she did

  was talk about herself. Ninety-five percent of her

  presentation was an autobiography in disguise. I got

  nothing out of the evening. I didn’t learn. I wasn’t

  inspired. I wasn’t entertained. Nothing. Oh wait,

  there was free pizza. Correction, I got a slice of pizza.

  My apologies.

  In most, if not all cases, when you do a presentation,

  make it about them (the audience), not you. Ask

  yourself this simple question: What can my audience

  get out of this? People not only love to talk about

  themselves but also love to hear about themselves.

  We love attention.

  At one point I worked for a prominent company, one

  that I stil have great admiration for. I remember

  attending a presentation by a division president who

  came from the outside with a bit of cache behind his

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  name. He started the presentation by saying “I’m going to talk about my favorite topic…me.” I don’t

  think he was joking; he was being serious. How do

  you think the audience reacted? Stoned faces and

  silence. He then got a little awkward, but he

  probably deserved it.

  So make it about the audience, not you!

  Let me share a basic example of how you can tailor

  things to an audience, to give you a sense:

  Let’s say you’re doing a presentation on how injected

  plastic products are manufactured.

  If you’re sharing info to a specific audience, such as a

  class of technical students, you may say something

  like this (from Wikipedia):

  Injection molding is a manufacturing process for

  producing parts by injecting molten material into

  a mold. Injection molding can be performed with a

  host of materials, often polymers. Material for the

  part is fed into a heated barrel, mixed (using a h
elical

  shaped screw), and injected (forced) into a mold

  cavity, where it cools and hardens to the

  configuration of the cavity.

  Now let’s say you’re doing a presentation to a

  general audience about the same thing. You may

  want to try something like this (I have a background

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  in injection molding so this is my own

  interpretation):

  So, ever wonder how the plastic parts that you use

  every day are made? Anything from a typical pen, to

  your remote control, the dashboard in a car, etc.,

  etc.?

  Plastic starts its life as resin pelets; smal little round bal s. This resin is poured into a hopper where it gets

  very hot and semi-melted. From there, it oozes into

  what’s cal ed a mold, which is the shape of the actual

  product – in two mirror-image parts. As the hot resin

  squeezes into the mold, the mold closes with an

  intense amount of pressure – remains closed from

  anywhere from 5 seconds to a few minutes

  (depending on the size and shape of the product) and

  then releases. The product then immediately begins

  to cool and fal s into an exit chute. And voila!

  There’s the outer casing for your remote control.

  I think this is suitable for a general audience, as an

  intro. And I think it makes the point in an easier way,

  and you get more out of it this way.

  • I provided some context to bring it to life with

  some product examples that most of us are

  familiar with.

  • I tried to simplify the process without using

  too much jargon.