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

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  • I tried to use some descriptive language

  instead to offer relatability – “oozes.” I

  wouldn’t use that term in my industry, but I

  think it works here.

  • I mentioned that the mold stays closed for a

  certain amount of time – which is what we

  technically call “cycle time.” But I didn’t use

  that term. No need to.

  • I didn’t offer many details, such as the types

  of resin available (there are so many types of

  resins, btw). And I didn’t get into colors, etc.

  CASUAL INTRODUCTIONS

  While there is a dedicated chapter on introductions

  and different intro techniques, I’d like to talk a little

  about casual introductions here. But remember that

  this is here in this chapter as it relates to the

  importance of your audience.

  What I mean by a casual introduction is taking the

  opportunity to “break the ice” with your audience.

  It’s the verbal equivalent of shaking hands. It’s a pre-

  introduction, in other words, prior to jumping into

  your actual presentation and your actual

  introduction technique.

  Let me share with you a technique I borrowed from

  politicians on both sides of the aisle. It works more

  with audiences that you don’t know.

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  I first need to tel you two unofficial terms I came up with: “guaranteed” and “non-guaranteed”

  audiences.

  Non-guaranteed audiences are audiences that don’t

  have to be there. So you need to work hard not only

  to keep them, but to “hook” them from the start.

  Guaranteed audiences are your employees, whether

  you’re a CEO, SVP, VP, or department head of some

  type. They can also be your cohorts in a classroom

  setting, etc. Guaranteed audiences are essentially

  audiences that wil be there whether they want to or

  not, to put it simply.

  Non-guaranteed audiences are clearly harder. Here

  are some examples of where you may find non-

  guaranteed audiences:

  • Sales presentations

  • Fundraising meetings

  • Union meetings

  • Political stump speeches

  One way to capture the attention of a non-

  guaranteed audience is to tel them what you think

  they want to hear, starting with your introduction. I

  realize that doesn’t sound so good to everyone but

  let me explain with a personal anecdote.

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  About two years ago, I was asked to do a

  presentation on marketing/entrepreneurship to a

  group of veterans at an institution that I’ve been

  associated with for a very long time. It’s a program

  that offers veterans an opportunity to go into

  business for themselves. The program doesn’t have

  traditional grades or rigid attendance, and those in

  the program are not really considered students. So I

  knew that while my presentation was part of the

  overall program, the participants didn’t necessarily

  have to be there the entire time.

  I’ve done hundreds of presentations, but admittedly I

  stressed over this one beforehand, not because of

  the content I was going to share – I knew my stuff—

  but because of how I felt I needed to start. I wanted

  to acknowledge their service in the armed forces

  while at the same time not coming off as

  disingenuous.

  I finally decided to muster up enough courage and

  introduce the presentation like this:

  Before we begin, I just want to quickly thank you al

  for your service and sacrifice.

  Judging from the warm smiles that I saw across the

  room of approximately 30 veterans, I knew it was a

  big hit. It takes some nerve to do it, believe me, but this actual y works.

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  If you’re a businessperson and you’re rallying

  students around a cause that you’re a big benefactor

  to, for example, you may want to say something like

  (I’l use New York University, since that’s one of my

  alma maters):

  Isn’t it a great day to be a Violet!?

  In that case, you wait for an applause. And unless

  you’re a very controversial figure, I don’t see why

  you wouldn’t get a big one. Remember, this

  technique is about praising them.

  If you’re worried about not getting an applause, just

  ask for one (and start applauding too, off course).

  Just slightly adjust and say this:

  Isn’t it a great day to be a Violet!? Why don’t you al

  give yourselves a round of applause, you deserve it!

  I have to seriously say I think this is so much better than talking about the weather, assuming the

  weather is nice. The president of a company once

  started a presentation talking about the weather for

  an entire two minutes. It was mid-September and

  there was about two weeks of no rain and that

  slightly cooler, but stil nice September weather

  (tristate area). Seriously, two minutes is a long time

  to talk about the weather! I was honestly saying to

  myself, “Ok dude, I get it, it’s nice outside.”

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  Another thing you may want to try, before getting into the actual introduction to your presentation, is

  to compliment the audience on a basic level. Since

  I’m also an adjunct instructor, there has been times

  in my career where I spoke to incoming interns on

  behalf of the company I was working for. On those

  occasions, I used the fol owing type of casual

  introductions:

  So great to meet you al. Thanks so much for coming

  in on a Friday morning in the middle of the summer.

  Don’t worry, I won’t talk too long and get in the way

  of your weekend plans.

  If you’re concerned, no, this isn’t an example of not being confident or being concerned with taking up

  their time. This is simply being a little political (in a

  good way) and starting the process of connecting

  with them. It also shows that, once again, you are

  self-aware. It works a little better than just

  rhetorically asking “How are you?” I’m sure the

  incoming interns are excited about working in your

  company in the Fall, but they are most likely 18-21-

  year-olds, and YES, in the middle of the summer on a

  Friday they probably have the beach or weekend

  plans on their minds!

  Remember that whether you are a CEO, a student, or

  anything in between, when you’re giving a

  presentation, you’re working for the audience.

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  DON’T (NECESSARILY) ASSUME

  I’l keep this short and sweet. Let’s say you’re doing

  a presentation on an individual. Don’t necessarily

  assume that everyone in the room knows your

  subject. If you can safely assume and you definitively

  know that they know, fine. But even with famous

  people, don’t assume. I think it’s hard to find anyone

  above the age of, say, 15 or so, that doesn’t know

  who Socrates was. But you should make a quick

  reference of some
kind, especially if you’re not

  certain that everyone knows your subject. Also, if

  you have a photo of Socrates on a slide, you should

  provide some reference to him. Most people don’t

  know what Socrates looked like as a man.

  Remembering your audience means the Who, What,

  and Why, and they’re intermingled.

  THE WHO

  For example, if you’re a heart surgeon and doing a

  presentation on the latest techniques in heart

  transplant surgery, you’l adjust depending on

  whether you’re speaking to a room of your peers

  such as other heart surgeons at a conference or

  speaking to a room of medical students.

  If it’s to a group of medical students, you may need

  to provide some base info that you wouldn’t need to

  provide to a group of heart surgeons.

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  CONNECT THE DOTS

  Caution here…don’t fall into a classic trap! As in the

  above scenario, there wil be times when you’ll need

  to provide some base info, not because the audience

  may not know it—they may— but because they may

  need to be presented with it in order to connect one

  thing to another. The heart surgeons already know

  how to connect things without you explicitly saying

  it. In this case, providing the base information to the

  medical students serves as reinforcement or a

  reminder rather than “teaching” it to them.

  THE WHAT

  Let’s say you’re an investment whiz and have made

  mil ions trading in the market. It’s important to you

  to help the layperson learn some of the techniques

  that made you successful.

  If you’re doing a presentation to a group of middle-

  class, first-time investors, you’l want to not only

  simplify the information, but also tone down your

  rhetoric. Rhetoric doesn’t always have to be a bad

  thing. But if you’re an investment whiz, let’s face it,

  you’ve probably gained a wealth of experience and

  with that comes a level of confidence and an “air” of

  being pretty sure of yourself. That style might be

  completely fine with your peers, but won’t work all

  that wel with first-time investors. They have no use

  for the “bravado;” they need the building blocks.

  Also, you want to ensure you’re not intimidating

  them.

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  THE WHY

  Your objective may not be as obvious to your

  audience as you may think. When Steve Jobs

  introduced the iPad in 2010 during one of his famous

  Apple keynotes, the audience had a good idea of

  what he was going to share. For months there had

  been news and rumors in the tech world about Apple

  introducing a tablet.

  What Jobs decided to do was to start off by

  discussing the iPhone and Mac. You may think that

  was irrelevant for introducing a new tablet, but he

  chose to walk us through what the phone and the

  laptop did and didn’t do as wel , so he could set the

  stage for a third-category device that would be

  better for certain tasks. Jobs keenly understood that

  his work on the iPad wasn’t complete; he stil needed

  to communicate the value proposition to the skeptics

  and walk us through why we should carry around a

  third device.

  Hindsight is always 20/20. In retrospect, that was a

  smart move in his presentation technique. If he

  started with the iPad and its functions, some

  members of the audience stil wouldn’t know why

  we needed it. The take away here is just because

  your audience may know the what, you stil need to

  tel them the why. That’s your job, not theirs.

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  CHAPTER FIVE | OBJECTIVE

  As mentioned earlier, you wil want to establish what

  your overall objective is when preparing your

  presentation. In simple terms, always ask yourself

  what is it that you’re trying to achieve. While this may seem a bit obvious, it’s sometimes taken for

  granted.

  Are you trying to share some information with an

  audience? If so, it is probably more than an FYI. If it

  is just a simple FYI, and you’d rather discuss it rather than sending an email, then we probably don’t even

  need to call those situations “presentations.”

  If you’re sharing information, such as an update, are

  you also trying to persuade? You may not be sel ing

  them, per se, but are you trying to influence some

  type of behavior i.e. offering an alternative

  insurance plan or unveiling a new business strategy

  that requires employees to embrace a new mindset?

  Alternatively, are you doing a highly interactive type

  of presentation that requires high audience

  involvement?

  SHOW AND TELL

  Remember when you were a kid and had “show and

  tel ” in school? Those were exciting – and also

  simpler – times, for sure. And I’m assuming that

  your kindergarten or first-grade teacher didn’t gril

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  you on your objective when you came to show and tel , right?

  But if you really think about it, even the simple,

  innocent activity of show and tel can begin to teach

  us how we should think of presentations, as adults.

  I’m sure you either brought something into class to

  discuss? Maybe it was a new dol that you were

  excited about. Maybe you didn’t have a toy to bring

  but you brought pictures from a family vacation and

  you told all of your cute, little classmates about it?

  Maybe you got a new puppy and while you couldn’t

  bring Fido to school, you decided to tel the students

  why you got a dog instead of a cat, because of your

  allergies, etc.

  Anyway, the innocence of kids, coupled with show

  and tel and all of its unassuming objectives can give

  us a pretty good starting point to think about your

  presentation.

  THE FOUR OBJECTIVES

  There are generally four main objectives of a

  presentation (many authors wil use different

  names), but they essentially boil down to the same

  four. And they are not always fixed-point. In other

  words, sometimes you can do a presentation that

  has a bit of a blend of two or more.

  For example, if you’re a coach giving your players a

  locker room pep talk on what they need to do to win,

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  don’t necessarily assume this is a tel /sel situation just because you’re the coach and the players are

  your subordinates. This could be both tel /sel and

  consult/join, since a good coach knows that he needs

  the support from the players (the audience) in order

  to carry out the mission. Lecturing players simply

  isn’t going to cut it. I use Al Pacino’s “locker room”

  speech from Any Given Sunday to il ustrate this (see

  appendix B).

  Borrowing a page from Mary Munter and Lynn

  Hamilton, the objective of a presentation can be

  thought of as one of the fol owing:

  • Tell/Sell – used primarily when y
ou want the

  audience to learn from you.

  • Consult/Join – used primarily when you want to

  learn from the audience, or need buy-in.

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  You can categorize them in many ways, such as:

  Let’s map this out a little more specifically so you can

  get a better appreciation of what skil s and attributes

  go with these, and hopeful y you’l get a better

  handle on how to prepare your presentation.

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  Skills

  Attributes

  Tell

  Present

  Clarity

  Simplify

  Precision

  Summarize

  Discipline

  Interpret

  Confidence

  Tenacity

  Connect

  Listen

  Openness

  Question

  Candor

  Discuss

  Patience

  Probe

  Curiosity

  Debate

  Humility

  Provide/Receive

  Accessibility

  Feedback

  Share

  Engage

  Respect

  Col aborate

  Trust

  Facilitate

  Empathy

  Navigate

  Self-awareness

  Influence Propose

  Transparency

  Persuade

  Authenticity/Passion

  Lead

  Decisiveness

  Another important issue when forming your

  objective is to ensure your presentation isn’t too

  broad. We’l discuss agendas in another chapter but,

  as you begin to structure your presentation based on

  what you hope to achieve, make sure the various

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  components are not so general that they become

  separate presentations in of themselves.

  In other words, try not to do too much and be overly

  ambitious. Presentations and speeches can land you

  a promotion, a new job, a new account. Heck, a solid

  presentation/speech sometimes changes the world

  in some way (see Nelson Mandela). However, they

  are specific in terms of their objective. People who

  understand strategy know that by staying focused,

  they stay relevant.

  PLAN, BUT WITH A LITTLE FLEXIBILITY

  If you plan too “wel” in advance, you may come

  across as too scripted and inauthentic, so avoid