Never underestimate the importance of the first few sentences of your presentation.

You have only about 30 seconds to “hook” an audience. Within those 30 seconds you must send what Dorothy Sarnoff, the famous actress and speech coach, calls “vibes” … that is,  messages of competence, enthusiasm, and sincerity.  This is a lot to pack into 30 seconds, but it can be done.

Your “delivery” actually begins the moment you enter the building or the room where you will be delivering your presentation. Emit an attitude of, “Hello, you lucky people!” Your facial expressions and posture speak worlds about your eagerness to share information.  Give a positive impression by:

• Putting on an active, energetic, confident face.  Say “MONEY” to get those cheekbones up.
• Striding confidently to your speaking position.
• Grounding yourself (feeling a solid and secure speaking posture).
• Making eye contact with at least one member of the audience, pausing, and then confidently beginning your well-planned and well-prepared introduction.

You have now set the stage for TRUST.  Soon your audience will relax and listen because they connect with you, and they trust your competence.  You are obviously in charge.

Next topic:  icebreakers.  They’ll relax you AND your audience.

We’re ready for the fun part of preparing your presentation!  We’ve talked about the first eight steps of my 12-step “formula” for putting together a presentation.   We’ve addressed coming up with ideas and formulating the  content of your presentations.  Now, let’s talk about the fun stuff:  preparing your visuals, rehearsing your questions and answers, and practicing your delivery.  The final four steps are:

(9)    Prepare your visuals
Plan and create your visuals and integrate them into your presentation. Like the development of your introduction and conclusion, notice how late in the process this step is taken.

(10)    Brainstorm questions and answers
Brainstorm potential questions that may arise in your question and answer session.  Think of every possible question (and prepare every possible answer).   Plan your responses, and speak them out loud.

(11)    Practice and rehearse your delivery
Sit and read through your presentation.  Then sit and speak through your presentation.  Listen for glitches (pronunciation stumbles, “mouthy” sentences/phrases, etc.) and change your presentation accordingly for speaker/listener ease.  Reduce your speech outline to phrases, words, and visual images. Stand and practice, with heavy reliance on notes. Tape further reduced notes on wall, then practice gestures and posture. Turn to your living room/office and then practice eye contact. Practice with your “speaking voice” (practice inflection, pauses, pace, and volume).

Get into the real space in which you will be making your presentation (or one similar). Practice all of the above, plus “staging” (movement as visual punctuation to content, walking to visuals, standing next to visuals, etc.).   Actors and directors call this “blocking.”  Videotape yourself. Bring in someone with objectivity and good coaching skills to give you feedback (friend, peer, or presentation consultant – depending on the stakes).

(12)    Practice the question and answer session
Rehearse the possible questions and answers one more time!

Next:
We’ll talk about hooking your audience in 30 seconds.  In my next blog musing, we’ll address how you can send messages of competence, enthusiasm, and sincerity…in 30 seconds.

When you give a presentation, you don’t have a big window of opportunity in which to impress your audience.  The rule of thumb is: if you don’t engage your audience physically, emotionally, or intellectually within the first 30 seconds of your presentation, you will lose your audience.   They’ll use an internal remote control to turn you off.   So, you really need to be organized.

I use a 12-step formula, and it works every time!  In my last blog, I talked about the first four steps:  (1) Determining your purpose (2) Brainstorming ideas and strategies, (3) Writing down – but not judging—lots of ideas, and (4) Clumping your ideas and material into manageable groups.

The next four steps in my formula are:

(5)    Determine a theme
Circle key words/phrases in idea clumps.   Compare these key words with the purpose you identified in the first step. Create a simple, clear, emphatic, memorable phrase or sentence that encompasses your purpose/audience/main ideas (e.g. “Chart your course while in safe harbors.”).  Weave this theme throughout text, visuals, your introduction and conclusion, and your question and answer period.

(6)    Spice up your organized material
Use analogies, stories, acronyms, music, visuals, audience interaction, and otherwise surprising, unusual, colorful, and unforgettable content elements.

(7)     Create your introduction and conclusion
Write your introduction and conclusion to match, support, and fuse your purpose, points, theme, and memorable moments. Repeat your purpose and theme in the introduction and again in the conclusion. (Notice how late in the process you create your introduction and conclusion.)

(8)    Create transitions among the “parts” of your presentation
Put your transitions in places where your audience needs organizational guidance. Vary your transitions:  use rhetorical questions, summary sentences, etc.  (By the way, this is typically the most neglected step in professional presentations.)

I’ll go through the last four steps in my next blog.  Next time, we’ll talk more about visuals, questions-and-answers, and practicing both your delivery and the question-and-answer portion of your presentation.

Believe it or not, being a persuasive, fearless presenter is really quite simple:

• Know who you are
• Know what you believe
• Say what you really mean (Speak the truth)
• Speak from your heart
• Respect yourself and your audience
• Prepare and practice your presentation

I typically use a 12-step formula for putting together a presentation.   Today, I’ll talk about the first four steps, and I’ll cover the other eight steps in future blog postings.  Here goes:

Step 1

Determine your purpose
Write down or speak out loud the conclusion of these sentences:

• I want to ___________________.
• I want my audience to be able to _______________.

Commit to these two completed sentences as you collect data and information, and as you shape your material and select persuasive examples, stories, and statistics.   Be flexible enough to change when circumstances and audiences change.

Step 2

Brainstorm possible ideas, strategies, and selections.

Step 3
Come up with lots of ideas but don’t judge them.  Just write them down (preferably on flip charts that you stick on the wall), or use any other brainstorming formats that suit you and your thinking style.

Step 4
Clump ideas/material into manageable groups.   Triads work best to begin with when you start to put the ideas and material into groups.   Be realistic about your time constraints, audience endurance, and persuasive power.  Refine and label the main points of your presentation, and refine and label the secondary points

I’ll talk about steps #5 through #8 in my next blog.   In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a little food for thought about composing speeches, from William Gladstone, Prime Minister of the UnitedKingdon four times in the late 1800s:  ” A speech need not be eternal to be immortal“.

One of my favorite topics is The Zone.   The Zone is made up of all the non-verbal, psychological, emotional, and physical parts of your presentation.  Your gestures, eye contact, and voice are all important parts of The Zone. When you make the mental shift from talking to presenting, you are entering The Zone.

Everybody has a different way of getting into The Zone, such as:

• Moving in slow motion.
• Focusing on direct eye contact
• Extending gestures so that they’re large
• Uncrossing arms
• Allowing oneself to smile
• Unlocking eyebrows

For every person, there is a key to The Zone. It often involves looking at the hobbies or professional skills in which you are most comfortable and happy, and mimicking those feelings of confidence and control. For example:

• A fisherman who needs to get into The Zone can think of it like the act of fishing: Be patient, watch the water, change the bait when necessary, and be flexible. He remembers he can’t force a fish onto a hook – he has to coax, wait, and strategize.
• A nurse compares getting into The Zone to talking with the family of a critically ill patient. She positions herself before she walks into the room, plans her message carefully, opens and closes with a positive message, and nurtures with strength all the way through the conversation.
• A golf pro can get into The Zone through solid golf techniques: balanced stance, soft knees, focusing on the ball, extending as she hits the ball, allowing the golf club to lead her.

In summarizing The Zone, here are some of the known facts:

• You can’t be in a “pure” Zone until you care more about your audience and your message than you do about yourself.
• Before you can get into The Zone, you have to be prepared on your speech, bullet points, topic, and presentation with a rock-solid foundation.You, like an actor, must always know why you’re on stage, where you are on that stage, and the goals and purpose of your performance.
• We never apologize to an audience for a mistake. We correct it, but do not draw attention to it.
• The material you will present to your audience must be practiced and rehearsed for weeks until the material is second nature to you.

“Four times and you own it.”  This is the rule of thumb I give my clients when they ask me:  “How can I own my material?  How can know I will be able to remember my central points?  How will I achieve CONTROL over my material?”

Simple:  Four times and you own it. 

First, what does “ownership” mean?  It is a “feeling” of being at one with the message, of feeling comfortable with the FLOW of the message, of knowing you can recover if you get off message, because you have neuropathically grooved the message in your brain.

There is something “magical” about using your brain, your vocal mechanism–teeth, jaw, tongue, throat–your gestures, and your words–all together–in order to create a complete package of CONTROL.

So what practice is not:  it is not whispering the presentation while driving, mouthing it while showering, thinking it right before you go to bed.  It is SPEAKING it, as you will be doing in front of your audience.  You do not whisper your message in front of your audience members; therefore, you will not practice in a way that you will not use in the actual circumstance of your presentation….or meeting…or project update…or high stakes conversation with your boss.

That is the “practice” part of your preparation.  Saying the message aloud and gaining “ownership” of the intricacies of using all your tools:  voice, verbal message, and nonverbal message.

The “rehearsal” part is different in that here you try to find a similar “space”–or stage–as the actual environment you will be speaking in.  If you are lucky, you can actually rehearse in the “real” space of your presentation–to test the sound level, to see the space you will be delivering in, to “own” the environment of your presentation and to visualize for our brain what you will be “facing.”  Create as few surprises for your eyes, ears, and brain as possible.

In “rehearsal” you do not stop for for mistakes.  If possible, bring someone with you to take notes as you present, with a feedback/analysis briefing afterwards.  If this is not possible, remind yourself as you go along and then try again.  Four times and you own it.

When practicing, you may start and stop, self correct, and continue.  In rehearsal, wear the clothes you will be wearing for the presentation to see if you are comfortable, to feel if the shoes are the right height, to catch the movement of the clothing as you make your expansive gestures.

In rehearsal, go through from start to finish without dropping out of your “Zone” (see previous blog entries).  Do not react to mistakes:  press on (an old theatre term.  If the audience doesn’t notice it, it didn’t happen.) 

Most presenters do not take the time (not “have the time” but “take the time”) to rehearse.  In fact, most presenters do not take the time to “practice.”  They throw their Power Points together and then read them–the ultimate insult to an audience.

So I suggest you have the self discipline and commitment to do both practice and rehearse.  You will feel more confident, and your audience will be able to tell the difference!

Do you remember the part in Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll in which Alice asked the king: “Where shall I begin, please, your majesty?” “Begin at the beginning,” the king said very gravely, “and go on ‘til you come to the end and then stop.”

This is good advice for Alice and for you as a public speaker.

Speech fright is a natural reaction. Some say that 75% of the population suffers with a fear of public speaking. The ultimate antidote for this natural fear is to prepare and practice.

When we talk about getting into The Zone, one of the things we emphasize is that we need to give our brain and body a cue to be calm and in control.

Here are a few tips and cues to help you overcome some of the nervous symptoms associated with the dread of presenting:

• Don’t drink any caffeine on the day of your presentation. Caffeine promotes anxiety and gives you a dry mouth.
• Avoid milk and milk products on the big day. Dairy products will coat your vocal chords and will create a lot of nervous throat clearing.
• Drink lots of water to cut down on “dry mouth syndrome.”
• If you find that you have “cotton mouth,” press your tongue firmly against the roof of mouth for a few seconds, which triggers a saliva release. Or think of a lemon and gently bite your tongue.
• Breathe deeply and calmly, hours before the presentation begins.
• Exercise vigorously the day of your presentation to burn up adrenaline.
• Accept and acknowledge speech fright. Then work with it, not against it. Harness it and use it to give your presentation an “edge”.
• Use visual aids in your presentation; then you know you will always have a “script” and can’t lose your way.

One of the ways of reducing fear is to consider yourself part of the audience rather than above them or disconnected from them. You are part of the human family first, then the company, then the presenter.

Audiences don’t expect perfection – they do expect you to be engaging, passionate and interactive. No audience has ever sat down and said to themselves, “By golly, the speaker better be perfect or I will reject them.” They have one need: not to be bored.

We feel we must play the role of the perfect presenter. The audience doesn’t put that role on us – we do. They want to be engaged and be given material that is interesting and important. We say, “We must be perfect”…. and those two goals are at odds.

The reality is …. You lose fear when you “own” your material. Most people in business don’t give themselves enough practice and rehearsal time to own their material. They rely too much on their PowerPoint slides, even “hiding” behind them, or deciding, as a defense mechanism against failure, to “shoot from the hip”, assuming a good presentation will happen spontaneously. But it won’t.

When you make the mental shift from talking to presenting, you are entering The Zone.  The Zone, one of my favorite topics, is made up of all the non-verbal, psychological, emotional, and physical parts of your presentation.  Your gestures, eye contact, and voice are all important parts of The Zone.

Gestures

Gestures are an outside expression of internal attitude.  They create the first visual imprint for the listener and will elicit the first instinctive response:  positive, negative, or indifferent.  With gestures, the four most important attributes are:  calm, open, balanced, and definitive.

Your gestures should be comfortable, natural, deliberate, open, extended, emphatic, and meaningful.

When you use gestures, keep your hands and gestures open:  no finger pointing, crossed arms, or clenched fists.  Always remember this succinct little rule:  movement matches meaning.  Think of hands as relaxed mittens, not gloves.  Do not separate out your fingers, which is a subconscious indication of tension.   Make sure your hand gestures are not “below the belt” so that the listeners’ eyes are not drawn downward, reducing visual distractions.

Eye contact and connection

Eye contact is a non-verbal signal that creates a connection, or bond, with a listener.   (Again, we are building rapport through connecting with the audience.)

Look people in the eye.  Forget the old speech class adage to look at people’s hair or above their heads, or to visualize them naked (if you visualize your audience naked, it makes it even harder to look them in the eyes!).  Do not look at the foreheads of your audience members.   (Have you ever seen an actor portray a blind person?   They do so by looking at their acting partner’s forehead.)

Make a connection with the individuals in the audience with your eyes.  When you do that, you will feel an electric zap…a click.  ­Arrive at a natural breaking point in your thoughts, feel the click, and move to another audience member. 

Voice

A voice can subconsciously repel or attract an audience.  The most important suggestion for the use of voice as a persuasive tool is to be your conversational self when you present. Be prepared, organized, and a rehearsed– but be yourself.   Present with energy, emphasis, and variety, and you will control an audience’s attention.

Projection 

 Your breath is the source of a well-projected voice.   What is “projection?”  First of all, it is not synonymous with ­volume (“loud or soft.”)  It is the force with which we speak, which affects the FORCE of our message.  To help you project your voice, picture a large red circle on the back wall.  Your goal is to send your voice on a wave of air to hit that circle, and then bounce your voice off the walls!   Energy will then fill the room . . . and people will listen and be engaged.  

Enunciation

If you want to have a crisp, professional, and articulate speaking voice, here’s a trick:  make sure that you pronounce your consonants clearly.  This is referred to as clear enunciation.  To improve enunciation, read aloud from the newspaper five minutes a night for two weeks, emphasizing precise pronunciation of consonants.  Force lazy lips and a lazy tongue to work at sounding all the letters in a word, not just the vowels. Emphasize the last consonant of each sentence.   Consonants carry the force and structure of a message; vowels carry the emotion.

Speed 

Am I racing and spilling one word into another?  Do I need to slow down, because, as a Southerner once said about a northern friend, “He talks faster than I can listen”? Conversely, am I talking too slowly, lumbering along and sapping my energy – and my audience’s energy — with too many lengthy pauses?

Pitch and tone

Is my voice too high, like a cartoon character’s voice, or is it too dull, low and monotonous? Is it too high or a cavernous drone?   When I speak, do I send my air though my nose rather than my mouth? Do I sound breathy, like Marilyn Monroe singing Happy Birthday Mr. President, or do I sound strong, forceful, and confident?

In sum, your gestures, eye contact, and voice will indicate your energy level, preparedness, stress level, and confidence – or lack of it. 

Because I started talking about the Zone in my last blog, I have a secret to share with you.  It’s my favorite topic, and my secret weapon.

When you walk into the spotlight as a presenter, what do you do?  You move into what I call your “Zone.”  

When you make the mental and physical shift from talking to presenting, you are entering your Zone.  Your eye contact, stance, posture, gesture, and vocal projection are some of the most important facets of your Zone. 

Your presentation really begins the moment you get out of your car in the parking lot:  you are “on” … and you are in your Zone. Think of your Zone as your suit of armor.  No matter how you feel, no matter how fast your heart is racing, or how much sweat has dripped into your socks, your Zone will protect you.  

Stance

Your steadying force in your Zone is your stance.  Position your feet so they are aligned with your shoulders.  Move your feet only when there is a reason to do so.  Don’t pace or jangle your coins, bracelets, or earrings.  Don’t rock, shift, or wander aimlessly around.  Know exactly where you are, and why you are there.

Posture

In order to be perceived as a balanced and credible speaker, you must present an image of certainty and strength.  Make a conscious decision to have your weight evenly distributed over both feet (50% over one foot, and 50% over the other foot).  Visualize your spine as a stack of coins, stacked straight and strong through the center of your body.  Relax your shoulders down, away from your ears, move them back, and then stack those coins.

Doing all this will allow you to be perceived as comfortable and solid.  When YOU look comfortable, you will make your audience feel comfortable.  Your audience will then be ready to focus on your message.

Barriers

Speakers distance themselves from their audience because their delivery is boring and their presentation is unrehearsed.  Another culprit is the lectern that is placed between the speaker and the audience.  Many speakers use a lectern as a security blanket to crouch behind, or lean on, or ­nervously shift our weight behind.    

Don’t let a lectern lure you into thinking that you have a security blanket. The lectern diminishes the conversational feel you want in a presentation.  

Like talk show hosts Jay Leno and David Letterman, get out from behind the barrier and stand tall.  Do what Leno and Letterman do:  move close to your audience.  Avoid the lectern except for such situations as formal acceptance speeches and commencement addresses.

We must face two realities about presentations:  We need to create chemistry, and we need to be a broadcaster. 

Webster’s Dictionary defines chemistry as, “the way two individuals relate to each other.”  Many times, the choice a consumer makes (whether it is someone choosing a person, a product, idea, or a service) is based on chemistry, and not on expertise.  “Chemistry” between you and your audience, gut instinct, and an indefinable feel for you as a presenter (and you as a person) is very influential when you are asking your audience to make a decision or a choice.  Chemistry is definitely a factor that will inspire your audience.  

The other challenge facing you when you’re a presenter is that you need to act like a television broadcaster.  

Television, particularly TV news shows, has subconsciously changed what people expect from a presentation.  Viewers expect a polished, virtually seamless (but not slick) delivery. The same applies to an audience listening to a speaker.  The audience might sit through a disorganized, rambling, incoherent presentation, but they will not respond positively to it.  When presenting, you have to think of yourself as broadcaster who is being rated by your viewers. Those viewers have an internal remote control with which they will change your channel very quickly if you do not engage them intellectually and emotionally. 

What can you do to make yourself a comfortable, natural, ­conversational, and professional presenter?  What can you do to give yourself the persuasive edge that produces the “YES!” response or even a standing ovation?   The answer is simple:  connect with your audience, and be natural.   

Your persuasion abilities are based on how connected you are with your message and your audience, and how close you are to your natural, or conversational, speaking style.  The non-verbal, psychological, emotional, and physical part of your presentation is what I call your “Zone”. When you make the mental and physical shift from talking to presenting, you are entering your Zone.