5 Easy Tips for Presenting In Real Life

Our workplaces are opening back up and in-person meetings are following suit.

Presenting in real life will likely feel strange at first. Even those who thrive on in-person meetings are finding that “normal does not quite feel like normal.”

After delivering their first presentations in real life, some of our clients felt overwhelmed and exhausted. They hadn’t prepared … and it showed.

Here are 5 easy tips to help you become real life ready:

  1. Practice. Use your old friend Zoom to record a practice run of your presentation. Watch the recording and course correct as needed. Then make your first audience a friendly one. Assemble a few family members or friends and ask for feedback about how you appear and sound while presenting.
  2. Do less. In the excitement of returning to in-person presenting, the tendency is to deliver too much content. Audiences disconnect when overloaded. Leave them wanting more.
  3. Be mindful of your vocal pacing. In your enthusiasm to present in front of an in-person audience, you may find yourself speaking warp speed fast. If this happens, simply pause, take a breath while glancing up or down, then restart at a slower pace.
  4. Avoid awkward moments by deciding in advance how you are going to relate to others before and after the presentation. For example, will you shake hands, bump elbows, or just nod?
  5. Understand the audience is making an adjustment, too. Acknowledge the elephant in the room. One idea is to open with a quip: ask everyone to mute themselves and turn their video cameras on. Then smile.

Bonus tip:

After 14 months of virtual presenting, make certain you pay attention to what you wear below the waist!

Is This Our Time?

is_this_our_time_alan_parisse

It feels premature to say it, but this may just be Our Time!

This may be Our Time – not despite the enormous challenges facing our personal well-being and our healthcare, economic, and political systems – but because of those challenges. History shows that great accomplishments require something to push against and we suddenly have more than our share.

Of course, it doesn’t feel like Our Time. This is tough! Reactions thus far have ranged from head-in-the-sand denial to hoarding toilet paper and hiding. It’s understandable. We’re human.

Perhaps the best thing we can do right now is stay as active and connected as possible as we shelter in place. Alright, but then what?

Do we keep hiding? Do we attack each other? Or do we accept the challenge, support our companions, colleagues & clients, and move forward together?

The choice is ours. Let’s hope we choose well.

 

1 Essential Tip for Presenting in the Twitterverse

Alan Parisse Presenting in the TwitterverseAudiences are more distracted and impatient than ever. They expect much more in a lot less time. How do you make sure your message is remembered in the age of the Twitterverse?

1 Essential Tip

Eliminate the filler!

Imagine two key audience members arrive late for your presentation – just as the rest of your audience is leaving. The late-comers ask “What did the speaker say?” What do you want the answer to be?

The audience will replay your talk in their heads and sum it up in a sentence or two. Think about the replay as a tweet-able moment. Review your script, asking the question: “Would anyone tweet that?” Then start editing out most if not all of the filler.

3 Filler Examples:

1. “It’s great to be here in (city name).” – Does anyone really care where you are? Delete this verbiage and move on to your Twitter-worthy content.

2. “What we are going to talk about today is …” – Audiences are wired for roadmaps, but would you actually tweet one? Break from the norm; move away from the expected and cut to the chase.

3. “I’m going to tell you a story.” – Eliminate the set up and dive right into the telling of the story.

Learn more about presenting in the Twitterverse at The Speaking Intensive. Register for the next small group session on February 28 & March 1 before it’s sold out!

7 Ways to Present in a 5-Minute Huddle

Alan Parisse 5 Minute Meetings

5-minute “huddles” are the new meeting trend. As Sue Shellenbarger reported in The Wall Street Journal (11/08/2017), “Long-winded monologues and Power Points are out. There is no room for small talk.” … Meetings are all about “distilling … ideas and requests to … the equivalent of an elevator pitch.”

Stories generate ideas, buy-in and support. They create connection, curate relationships and bring about action. Yet short meetings squelch them.

In a 5-minute huddle, traditionally well presented stories take too long. If only there was a way to tell stories in a fraction of the time and make them more powerful in the process. There is!

Here are 7 ways to present in a 5-minute huddle:

  1. Cut set up: Don’t waste words on throw away set ups like “Let me tell you a story”. Instead, jump right in and tell the story.
  2. Follow the comedy writers rule of thumb: Tell them everything they need to know to get the punch line – in this case, the essence of your story – and nothing more.
  3. Re-Engineer Your Message℠: Borrow a technique from our advanced coaching program. Record yourself rehearsing and have the story transcribed. Then cut 20 to 50%.
  4. Leave blanks: Leave out some details and let your listeners fill in the blanks. This has the added benefit of making them participants in your story rather than mere spectators. Participants are engaged; spectators aren’t.
  5. Tell purposeful stories: Find stories that make a substantive point.
  6. Think Super Bowl ad: If you’d paid for 30 seconds of airtime during the Super Bowl, what would you say?
  7. Don’t bury the potent parts: Understand the difference between an incident and a story.

That last one needs explaining.

Incidents are “units of experience” – the human reactions that contain the essence of a story. While a story’s details tend to be unique, incidents have a near universal appeal. They are the parts of your story to which listeners are most likely to connect to their own life and remember.

For example, the specifics of your car accident are yours alone. However, the emotions that flowed the instant you realized an accident was unavoidable … that “oh blank” moment … is something to which almost everyone can relate to some kind of event in their life.

When an audience identifies with your incidents, your stories become their stories, too. So don’t bury your incidents in too much detail.

Here’s the best part: stories tend to be long winded. Incidents are sound bites.

If you’ve been to The Speaking Intensive℠, not only do you know the difference between and “incident” and a “story,” the concept is so familiar that you can jump right into an incident blindfolded!

There’s a lot to be said for shortening meetings. When you become a more efficient storyteller, you will do a lot when presenting in a 5-minute huddle.

Join the legions of people who already know how to differentiate between an incident and a story by participating in The Speaking Intensive℠. Register for the next small group session on February 8 & 9 before the early registration discount ends on January 5.

Already graduated from The Speaking Intensive℠ and want to participate again? Email us for your special repeater rate.

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